Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1883-09-27
About Titles.

abolished. The mOntenegr1nS were al
ways a democratic race. But they have
three orders of knighthood and such
FREQUENT changes of ministers and other
great functionaries that nearly every in
dividual is a ritter or cheyalier, and
fully half the male population are entitled
to the designation 'excelleney." A Mon
teneorin ''eXcellency" Is almost as
cheap as a Liberian honorable, "
and is regarded with about as much re-
spect as was accorded to Haytian dukes
during the reign of Soulque, or Missis-
sippi major generals before the civil war.
Henceforth, however, even VeyevOdes
must rest content with plain monsieur,
and brigadiers bear as best they can the
absence of the customary 'eXcellency'
before their official grade. After all,
the little principality of Nicholas Petro-
witch will be nothing the worse, and, in
deed, all the better, for the reformation,
in so far that it will be saved something
in time and clerk hire. Titles, as re-
wards for services rendered the State,
need not be here discussed, for, though
the kingdom of Norway has abolished
and the republic of France does not of
fciaIly recognize them, we have still to
learn that any NOrseman declines the
badge of the Polar Star, while only re-
Gently President Grevy, finding the
Legion of Honor insufficient for the pur-
pose of good government, has been
compelled to found a second grade of
chivalry in order to sOOthe the vanity Of
the rural Republicans. Even those ex-
pOnents of human rights who are con-
sidered too humble for either baldrOn
would be offended were they not styled
monsieur and madam, T" the ''citO-
yen'' and ''citoyenne" Of earlier days
being now reserved by irreconcilables
for public occasions only.
''MOnsieur" and madam" are, we
imagine, never likely to be entirely
abandoned, for only two years ago the
French walters and chambermaids is
sued an edict that in future they should
be addressed not as Pierre, " or cal
phonse,' or ''garcon,' or Marie, -" but
as monsieur and ''mademoiselle;"
and perhaps some day the laundress
will decline to wash a shirt unless she
is entitled mime. Ia Blanchisseuse, -
and that if the coachman is addressed
under any other title than I'M. lie
C0cher" he will feel himself under arti-
cles to avenge the wrongs of his order.
Nor is this unreasonable. Time was
when monsieur" was q title which in
France possessed something of the dig
nifty which it still possesses among the
Norman population of the channel
islands, and even in England the wife of
a knight or baronet, who is by cOur-
tesy ''my lady," is in reality and le-
gally only una dame" But for the
last half-century at least monsieur has
ceased to be any more distinctive than
esquire" in England, ''senor" or
''don'' in Spain, ''signor'' in Italy, ''sen-
hOr' in Portugal, ''herr'' in Germany,
or, we might add, than colonel or
Judge in the Western States of Amer
lea. In England, even within the mem
DRY of men still living, the old distinc-
tons of mister and esquire were to
some degree preserved. A gentleman
entitled to ''bear arms''-an ''armiger"
had alone the right to the latter desig-
nation, though by courtesy it was ex-
tended to every land owner and Justice
of the peace, and in New England the
latter functiOnary is to this day styled
an esquire" or esquire" though the
Americans have dropped the redundant
worship still claimed by our munich
pal magistrates. Then esquire was ex-
tended to every professional man,
though legally it is in this country con-
fined to the sons of the younger sons of
dukes and marquesses and their eldest
sons, to the eldest sons of baronets and
knights, to all the untitled sons of no
blemen, to justices of the peace, officers
of the army and navy, barristers, and
doctors of law and medicine. 1t is not
the right of surgeons or attorneys, and,
curiously enough, does not necessarily
belong to landed proprietors. In some
old books the distinction is carefully
kept up in the predatory list of sub
scribers, the misterS and esquires being
divided into separate categories. Even
in the body of the text the ''armiger" is
always mentioned under his title; while
until recently it was not regarded as a
clumsy pleOnasm to address letter to
ellis Worship the Honorable Algernon
Deuceace, Esq, j. p just as a for
eigner who prides himself on his knowl-
edge of English etiquette always insists
on appending Esq. to every Briton' s
name, no matter what may be its imme-
date antecedents.
Mister, or master, has lost all its
original meaning. 1t no longer ex-
presses power or possession, and even
as conventional superfuity has sunk
so low that it is almost entirely reserved
for familiar conversation or for referring
to a person in writing, almost every one
above the trade Of a labOrer or petty
tradesman regarding it as little better
than. an insult to be addressed on the
back of letter by the title of plain
''Mr." In Germany it is the same.
Herr" is no longer ''lord, " and to be
acceptable must usually be qualified by
''well born, - or even ''high well born. .
In like manner frau" and fraulein, -
''frue' and ''froken,' which in the
North were the titles of ''people OF
quality" are now the ordinary designa-
tons of those who fifty years ago would
have been content with his trade as q
''handle to his name" while his wife
and daughter would never have expect
ed any other designation except that by
which they were baptised, or at best
madam or ''jomfrue." In Spain
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