New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-05-18
SIR KNIGHT.

Brooklyn is to have a tournament Bots
Guilbert, and Front de BGuf, and Ivanhoe
himself will ride again the tented field. To
be sure, on ordinary occasions they may be
known as Smith or Jones their laDces are but
wood, and the tents upon the field will he
for the sale of ginger cakes rather than royal
paviions. But if Smith and Jones choose to
take little wholesome exercise on horseback
and bring a crowd of people out into the fresh
air to look at them, tournament is as COM
mendable an affair as a game of cricket or
baseball "Scveral knights we are told,
care expected from Maryland, Virginia, and
the District of Columbia, to take part in this
revival of old chivalric usages The tOurna-
"ment, unknown in the North, has long been
"popular in the South. The Sir Knights will
"make their headquarters at the New-lork
"Hotelr
We are very glad of any occasion which
brings our Southern friends among us as our
guests, and helps, no matter in how trifling a
degree, to reGstablsh cordial and pleasant re-
latiOns between the late enemies. But there is
no reason why an occasion pleasant in itself,
and not more foolish than any other outdoor
game, should be made food for ridicule for all
sensible people tits the nature of the free-born
American to sigh for sdignities and title.
Knowing himself to be a shopkeeper, and the
son of a shopkeeper, he has as keen a relish
for liveries and armOrial bearings as any How
ard of them all. The hodge-podge of our
society disgusts him; he cannot rid himself of
tailors and tladcsmen, go where he will, even
into the White House; he cannot rid his own
Al, ha1n
mechanic of a grandfather is the damned
"spot that will not Out' with most Of us, and
haunts our nights with his guilty ghost. We
all do the best we can to hide him out of
sight. The old expedient to rise above
the common herd, especially in the
South, used to be to dub ourselves
Colonies or Majors. But the war cheapened
such distinction. Artemus Wards regiment Of
Brigader- Generals counted in every third man
South or North. The ordinary method, if we
cannot take the stain Of work off our own
hands, is to put livery on our servants and
steal the crest of some obscure foreign family
for our carriage. The outside Of the cup and
platter at least is clean. But what remains for
us who have no carriages but yexation of
spirit, and no chance for yanityY A crest
and livery in this country have really come to
mean something. Not, of course, honorable
birth; but that degree of success in dry goods,
or teas, or sugars that would warrant such ex-
pcnsive vanity, and therefore a probable
ability and shrewdness. We are content that
Smith should pay himself for his long life Of
hard work by dressing his cOachman in green
and gold, and so take the pas of us in the
social scale. But when young Smith and his
friends in New-York or Virginia leave their
shops or Offices to gallop on hired hacks around
a meadow, and poke long poles through a
ring, shall they therefore become "Sir Knights"
and cause the iron to enter into our souls
Liyeres and crests are shams through which
everybody sees; husks out of which the orig
inal intention died long ago. But in Knight
hood there was meaning altogether great
and pure. 1t remains for us one of the en-
nobling traditions bequeathed to us from the
days of old romance. 1t costs us, we confess,
a qualm to see it degraded.
The young doctors, and merchants, and gro
GERS who are to amuse themselves at Brooklyn
are no doubt, clever, healthy young fellows
who show their good sense by going out of
doors for their sport But let them trot or
gallOp around their course and jerk off their
toy-rng if they can, without browning them
selves with straws and with schoolgirl senti-
mentalism clubbing each other Lancelot and
Galahad. 1t is but trlfle, but one of the
trifles which make us contemplate in the eyes
of nations to whom such things were verities
Let us at least show that we are able to
Join in a simple game without making our
selves ridiculous.