The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-10-21
THE RULE OF PRECEDENCE
An AWFUL SYSTEM THAT LONDON
SOCIETY WOMEN MUST OBSERVE.

An WFUL THAT LONDON
SOCIETY HOMEN MUST OBSERVE.
Blood, Not Money, C~ounts-Paris' Pretty
Actresses-Hairdressing for Women
and Birds for Their Hats.
One of the subjects which, as the
saying goes, is all Greek to average
Americans, is the order of precedence
in England. 1t is a matter of amuse-
ment to us that there is an absolute,
established, unalterable rule and regu-
lation about this which not to have at
ones fingers ends is to acknowledge
ignorance and lack of worldly up
bringing.
The rules are as inviolable in n
private life of society as in public cere-
monials. Fancy being unable to n
terrain a few friends at dinner even n
ones own house without bowling to
these empty forms, but which are by
no means regarded empty over there,
and the slightest mistake in the send
ing inn of guests will cause the whole
affair to go wrong, and the fact, recog-
nized in an i'll moment by the hostess,
VIII SCIQ COlu SlllfGIS dOW1A z
and despair to her heart. For i n this
sending inn at dinners, banquets,
wedding breakfasts and the like it is
not only who shall precede whom, but
who shall take in whom, is the ques-
ton.
In the case of sisters, the daughters
of a duke, while they are unmarried
they have precedence by their father,
and come Immediately after royalty,
archbishops and the peers in office IN
her Majesty the Queens household;
but let one daughter marry a baron
and another a commoner, and there is
a long difference in the order OF their
going-not, however, in the manner
it would be natural to concludes; on
the contrary, she who marries the
noble is degraded (as they say to
the rank OF baroness, while she who
marries the commoner retains her W
rank and title-as Lady Blank, the
daughter of q duke-and daughters of
dukes have place in this scale OF pre-
cedence about ten above the bar
onesSes
1t seems as though mistakes would
be the everyday occurrence, but, in
stead, they are the rarest thing under
the sun. The women in the social
world and the officials who manage
great affairs seem TO imbibe this code
with the air they breathe and rattle 1T
off like the alphabet.
Yet, how natural it would seem to
us to send in an elder sister, Baroness
Somebody, before a younger one,
Lady This, wife of Mr.. That. Age,
| riches, lands, scientific, professional,
intellectual or official standing weigh
not a feather-weight. Dear old Mrs.
Blank, with her white hair and tot
tering tread, ends the procession,
while her grandchild, the Lady Ara
bella, aged fifteen years, daughter OF
a peer, is the honored guest.
If a grand dinner is given for a cele-
brated authoress or the wife of a great
man the host may not lead her to a
place of honor by his side at his right,
but his arm must be given to the
Marchioness of c., and on his left
must sit the Countess of w. because,
perforce, they, of all guests present,
take the highest rank. To make the
| slightest deviation would not only
| give offence, but present a painful ex-
hibition of bad breeding or unpardon-
able eccentricity.
Another amusing feature is that
while by marriage a oma partakes
of the dignities of her husband, none
of hers pass by marriage to him. Thus
when Mr.. and Lady Louise Blank are
announced it is at once remembered
that while she must need be nea the
head of the procession he may very
we'll be left to fetch up the end. I'm
doubtedly there are many cases
where his high and mightiness holds
a pretty high hand in his w de-
mesne that his chief vassal, the wife
| of his bosom, secretly ~rejoices to see
| him take a place below her in the
world.
Money has nothing to do with the
| ease of precedence; the poorest noble
of them all ranks above the richest
| commoner. Not even will ducats en-
| title a man to the lowest position of
| all on the scale; no property is
| sufficiently large to entitle its owner
per Sc to take the rank of esquire.
While In this free country we bestow
the word or title at random without
rhyme or reason, and don't think
much of it anyhow, in England it is a
royal accolade, signifying a gentleman
by birth, one whose father was a
gentleman.
Conduct has nothing to do with the
case. Perhaps h o gentlemanly
person / ever met was a London
tailor, yet he himself was the first to
declare that he had no right-no legal
right-to the good old name of the
gentleman, for his father and his
grandfather before him were tailors.
This was a veritable proof of the So
called English belief that it takes
seven generations to make a gentle
man, yet the Queen. if she chooses,
can make a peer tomorrow from the
humblest laborer.
1t is a favorite episode in romances
for the raconteur of English society to
ring his changes upon the dilemma it
occasions when some hostess declares
her ignorance of in what order she is
expected to send in her guests. Yet
what ignorance on the part Of the
writer himself this shows, for every
Englishwoman of any breeding has
gotten this social scale by heart long
before she has learned the multiplied
ton table. Their Specification of well
bred does not end with manners, CON
versation and conduct; an intimate
acquaintance with the rules and
usages, unalterable, of society is also
pacpSSary.