Savannah morning news., 1885-06-29
LONDON L9ffe1 to he Arg0na0t.

4 ONAHEos
London Letter to the Arg0Raat,
Twas much amused the other day on
reading in a San Francisco paper of the
exploits there Of young EBglishman cal
ling himself Cecil Northbrook," and
claiming to be the son of England's First
Lord OF the Admiralty. What amused
me was not the very bald and threadbare
subterfuge Of the young man, or the very
commonplace way in which he played his
game, but the almost idiOtic cOrdiallty of
the people upon whom he imposed him
self Ii this were a new thing one
wouldn't wonder so much, but it seems
as if those Americans whose AuglOmania
leads them into taking kindly to every
Englishman with title would never get
their fingers burnt enough. III such peO-
pie would only invest annually the sum
OF 81 or $40 IN a Burke's or De BretIs
"Peerage," they would never be taken
in by fictitious titles or non-eXisting noble
men.
Not only will the name of every peer in
the kingdom, with bis immediate family,
be found therein, but those OF ev ry man,
woman and child related eollaterally with
the male line Of the peer himselt When
All flkllbullHLEWib ibtl a suit "a lUN u bfftIlAs
red neck, a flannel shirt, a pair Of
gigantic-bOots, aud an eye glass comes 10
YOU and says: "Pm Lord So.and-sO, or
Viscount This-Or-Ihat, or the Honorable
Piantagenet Emptyhead,' all you will
have to DO is TO take down your "Peerage'
and look. II you can't ind him there,
make him show you.
And yet, day after day, one hears of
Americans being duped by adventurers
whose stories are as transparent as glass.
Take this man Cecil N0rtbbr0ok," for
example. A "Peerage" would have
shown In moment that Eorthbrook is but
the name Of the title, Barring being the
family name. Had this young man
been Lord NOrthbrook's son his
name would have been Cecil Bar
ing. But the "Peerage" would have
further demonstrated that the Earl Of
NOrthbTOOk has but one son, and be Is
called Lord Barring, being the eldest. There
was another son, ia the royal navy, but
he was lost at sea in the Captain when she
foundered In gale ia the Bay Of Biscay
in 1870.
cursory investigation OF the same so I
would have exhibited the traudulence Of
the youth who styled himself Lord
Abercromby in New York few months
ago, but no one seemed to have "Peer-
use il If they had. But, mind you, an
old "Peerage" won't do. 1t must always
be this years, or the impOst0rs will say
they have come into the title since II was
published. But even then their names
would be among the collateral branches.
IL, however, takes an adept 70 run these
down, 80 that nOvices at the business
must have the most recent edition they
can get.
At best the study Of England's peerage
is nauseating task. To begin with, few
books of its size contain such record OF
immortality and seduction; but it Is the
rank and hOnors showered upon nOnenti-
ties which one cOntemplates with disgust.
Altogether it is book after whose
perusal one feels n sense OF shame. One
sees the hOllOwness, the aDsurdity OF
"nobilityv as 10 has become In England,
the utter absence Of the sentiment OF
nObleSse OJiige among It's members and the
sham that underlles the whole fabric. A
corOnet is out Of place quite as much on
the brOws OF the descendant Of corrupt
kings fayOrite as IL Is on those OF Wife
abusing llbertine or a seif-made purse
prOud brewer or irOn-mOnger. It Is,
therefore, not out Of any respect or
reyerence for the volume, or those whose
history 10 Is, that recommend ite purchase
10 Americans who Ike titles, but as
shelyed watchdog 20 keep OF the heiress-
hunting and dlnner-eating adYenturers,
who, AZ English dukes, marqulses, earls,
viscounts, barOns and b0noraDles, come
and accept their hospitality and marry
their daughters.