The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1883-08-02
HOW TO GET ON AT COURT.
The Oddities Of Etiquette at Madrid,
Berlin and St. Petersburg.

Berlin. and St. Petersburg.
An old custom of the Spanish court re-
quires that when baby is born in the
royal family it shall be officially an
nounced that a rigorous" infant has
come into the world. The queen ofSpain
having become the mother ola sickly
child, which lived only two hours, the
court journal cbronicled the birth and
death in the usual way: "Her majesty
was delivered at o'clock of a vigorous
infant, who died at s." The Epoca of
Madrid lately reported that the town
council of Seville, having had an inter-
view with Alfonso XII, "kissed the
feet.of his Majesty and withdrew" It is
not to be supposed that the councillors
actually went down on all tours and
kissed the kings boots as If he we're the
pope; but etiquette demanded that they
should lie said to have done so, because
town council does not stand on the
same level of dignity as the Cortes,
whose members are supposed to kiss
hands when they take leave. The three
letters B. S. P. (beso sns pies), which
mean, ~ kiss your feet" are still used
by gentlemen in Spain when signing let
tiers addressed to ladies, and by subjects
sue manosj, which are used by by mel mel:
writing to men, and by ladies to ladies,
would seem too cavalier from a gentle
man to a lady and downright i'm
pertinence from a subject to his SOW
ereign.
One of the chief reasons of the duke
d'Acosta's unpopularity during the
brief reign which he closed with vol
untary addiction, was that he would
take no pains to study the complicated
etiquette Of the escurial, but sought to
introduce simple manners in country
where even beggars drape themselves
proudly in their tattered nantes and
address one another as "Senor Cabal-
lero." He one day told muleteer,
with whom he stopped to talk on a
country road under broiling sun, to
put on his bat; forgetting that by the
fact of ordering subject to cover him.
self in royal presence, he created him
grandee. Marshal Prim, who was
standing by, hastily knocked the mule.
teer's headdress out Of his hand, and set
his foot upon it, at the same time Offer
teer, who was MORALLY offended,
spurned the money and few days later
when Prim was assassinated, rumOr
was circulated that the mortified indi-
vidual who had narrowly missed being
a grandee was an accessory to the crime.
On another occasion King Amadeo in
considerably addressed a groom of his
in the second person singular as tn.
Happily the man was an Italian; for, as
court chamb 3rlain represented to his
majesty, Spaniard spoken to with this
familiarity might have claimed that the
monarch had dubbed him cousin-that
is. had enobled him. Another thing
that the much worried Italian prince
had to learn was that Spanish king
with any friendly or complimentary
formula, but simply write 70 ell Rey C'1
the King.")
Etiquette is the code ofrules by which
great people keep lesser ones In proper
respect: Prince Bismarck, when boy,
was rebnked by his father for speaking
reverently of His Majesty" said the old
Squire Of Varzln, land you will grow &C.
customed TO think of him with venera.
ton" Young Bismarck laid the advice
to heart, and to this day the great Chan.
cellor always lowers his tone and as
sumes 9 grave, worshipful look when he
alludes to the Kaiser. If q message ie
brought to him from the Emperor BY
words Of mouth or in writing, he stands
up to. receive it. Whena wedding takes
place at the Prussian court, it 10 the
practice for the ptate dignitaries to form
j candle procession hat is 70 say, that
Ministers. Chsmb rlains. HiRh Stewards