New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-08-14
TIE OUEENS PROMOTION

There is an old set of nonsense verses in
which somebody is spoken of as "church-
warden to a troop of horse" but nothing has
happened of equal incongruity prior to Emperor
Williams bcStOwal upon his grandmother of
the cOlonelcy of dtagoon regiment. Never
theleSS, the guilelesS and unsophisticated reader
must not suppose that the acceptance of this
promotion will require the venerable Empress
Queen to parade with the Berlin Dragon
Guards in full regmentaS, or to take part in
the autumn manOeuvreS. The fact is, more
over that however grotesQue such an incident
as the proffer of a military title to an old lady
may appear, it is really not an innovation, but
a survival. Royalty is necessarily the most
conservative of institutions. 1t clingS to archaic
ideas, customs and methods which all the rest
of the world has outgrown and relinquShed
A hundred and fifty years ago, when military
commissions were bought, sold, and given by
Ministers of State as rewards for political and
other services much as postoffices are to-day in
this country some very curious practices were
invented by place-hunterS in England and upon
the Continent, with view to getting the most
that was possible out Of that dOcile and prolific
miIch-coW, called the State.
1t is related by divers historians that at the
time referred to there lived certain secret and
crafty persons who, when the arrows in their
domestic quivers were daughters, laid an anchor
out to Nindward by giving the children mas
culne names The object of this practice may
not be Immediately apparent but when the
girls began to grow up, and not seldom while
they were still in the nursery and bread-and-
butter stage of evolution, the matter explained
itself. Every such bOy-named Olive-banch
was a potential candidate for military honors,
and many feminine Frank or Tom or Charley
appeared on the Iegimental roster as ensign,
.cornet, lieutenant or captain the happy father
con>cientously drawing and appropriating the
pay Of the position, while the real service was
performed by subOrdinateS. SO far was this
carried that ut one time well-knOwn lady OF
rank was said to hold a commission as post
captain in the English navy. OF course, the
piactice grew out of widespread corruption
and general degradation of public morals. In
the time of the StuartS and in that of Louis
the Fourteenth. however, such arrangements
were thought nothing of. The one object was
to get hold Of the SpoilS, and nobody dreamed
Of rendering any services in return for them.
Uapriy. those reckless, evil times have
passed away Kings, however, cling long to
antiquated customs. and in the exchange of
compliments and titles sex is made no account
of with them. In this free and enlightened
country women have OccaSiOnally-but usually
only in the wild and distant West-been elected
or appointed to positions not indeed of mil
itary character distinctivcly, but Of kind which
might easily bring them in contact with sharp
fighting Thus in Calfornia's pioneer times
buxom young lady was chosen member of
San Francisco fire company, and for several
years accompanied the boys" in their runs
with Z" the maSheen." Instances of this sort
are Of course more apparent than real parallel
isms, but they possess interest for the students
Of sociology as indicating the survival of ten
denotes capable of being traced back to con-
siderable antiquity.