The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1890-11-06

Who Should be Addressed as Esquires
We are Really Misrers-A Legal Test.

Who Should be Addressed as Esquires:
We are Really Misrers-A Legal Test.
From the London Telegraph
What is an esquire nowadays? We
all know the derivation Of the word
and the significance attached to it in
the old chivalric times, when the
''ecuyer," a youth of gentle birth and e
candidate for the spurs and cham of
knighthood, was attached to the per-
sonal service of dubbed knight,
whose colors he wore, whose shield he
bore, whose charger, arms, and accou-
trements were his peculiar care. To
attain knightly rank it was not only
necessary to be 'born" in the German
sense, but to have been carefully
trained in all warlike and social eNer-
cises, and to have passed through two
preparatory stages of chivalrlc ln-
struction-that is to say, pagehood and
squirehood. By the time his term of
novitiate had been completed he was
qualified, at the age Of 19 or 20, to fiji
up any vacancy that death or promo
tion to knigbthood might create among
his masters esquires, in which capacl-
ty it was customary that he should
serve for several years-indeed, until
some conspicuous feat of valor of his
own, or special recommendation on
the part of his chief, brought him I'M
mediately under the notice of royal
prince.
The advancement of a young gen.
tleman to the rank of esquire in the
household of great nobleman or
wealthy territorial magnate was not
infreqoently accompanied by a grant
of land, whence probably, in later
times, the squirearchy came to be iden-
tilted in common pariance and in the
popular mind with the landowning in-
terest of this country. Still later, when
existing tables of precedence were
Formulated, the title of esquire was
recognized as the birthright of men
ia certain stations of life, and as a
sEtaining to large number
seslSs asns professional positions
rivers auirabie by persons of
trade: aose talents and in
The armSsaronzS nzSshem to surmount
ther very larsN Ccnarating them
list, I-,, 'nerSe'sa 9srse sIcv, aSS,4n The term
very .a 7heir salary ..iaEnent" came
into usas;c 49, ~, all c.y' rank amplied by
that term earrleu with it the courtesy
title Of "Esquire y; as for instance, in
the case of members of the HSoase of
Commons, barristers, attorneys-assl
@ivil servants of a certain standifsg.
1lders Of university degrees, pfysi-
ms, and Others too numerous to
>icularize in this place.
Nle more than half a century ago
,,Er;,,e of esquire still had distinct
and Importance of its own,
t>re clearly understood by the
Editosf Englishmen, simple as
iss The Tea'ntle. It's conventional as
Ns Ne"oe[l:; na:; conventional as its true
sign purp has all but fallen into OBJ
livionNs nizat g the present reign, which
has witnessed a greater development
and wider generalization of democratic
sentiment than any other historical
= period of like duration chronicled in
the annals of this country. Nowadays
the annex Of "esquire," appended to a
mans name on the back of a letter or
in a printed subscription list, is freely
conceded to "nobodies' and is, there
fore, no longer distinctive of "some-
bodiesn It is the custom, in writing
to a wealthy tradesman, whether he
have retired from business or not, to
an actor or public singer, playwright
or novelist, shipbroker or vestryman,
to address him as esquire. The title is
applied without the least discrimina-
ton to all sorts and conditions of men,
50 long as they are tolerably we'll OF:
AS far as its application is concerned at
the present day, in ninety-nine cases out
Of hundred, it is an auachronism, or,
more properly speaking, an anomaly.
It may be described as a relic Of the
age of chivalry, grotesquely out of
keeping with modern institutions and
tendencies, and preserved no one ex-
actly can tell why.
Oddly enough there is no equivalent
for it among the titular distinctions
that obtain currency In any and every
other European country. "Esquire"
is a purely English 'absurdity, neither
perpetrated nor comprehended by any
Continental people. In France every
person of the male sex, from Presi-
dent to peasant. from duke to dust
man, is "Monsieur," the French syn
onym Of our British Mr.. In the way
of titles of gentility our vivacious
neighbors do not 60 below "Chevalie:'"
knight. as We should call it, for lack
of q word expressing the titular dignity
conferred with a foreign decoration
and even that predicate must be pic
ceded by the inevitable "Monsieur.
Thus literally translated into our YER
.acular, the proper way to address a
member of the Legion Of Honor is
is "Mr. the Knight" whereas letter
directed, let US say, to ..'Jacques Bon
homme, Ecuyer," would probably
never reach its addressee, however,
correctly the name of the street and
number Of the house in which he re-
sided might he given. Mr.. the Mar
Quis" and Mr.. the Police Agent" are