Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-04-30
ARlsTocRATIc PRIDE.
What II Is to BE Lord In Great Britain
BYron,s Title.

ARISTOCRATIC PRIDE.
What II Is to BE . Lord In Great Britain
Byron's Title.
1t is difficult for an American citizen
to realize what it is in England to be q
lord Common people In Great Britain
can hardly stand upright or command
their organs of speech in the presence
of a man who has the legal right to
place that little word 'slord'' before his
name Perhaps one reason is that there
are only four or five hundred lords in
the whole British empire, SO that many
people never have a chance to see that
a lord is, after all, only man An
other reason is that English lords are
almost always exceedingly rich, live in
enormous castles or splendid mansions
and ride about in elegant carriages.
Then. too, most of them have names
and titles which are met with in history
and in Shakespeare. and ignorant peo-
pie suppose that when they see the
Duke of Buckingham they are looking
upon descendant of my lord of Buck
ingham' whose head was cut off by
Richard LII. at Salisbury. In addition
to this, a lord sits in the house of lords
and holds a rank in the commonwealth
W tAdt O1 ScndIOI III the On1lGQ
States.
OF course, the adulation which lords
receive, even from their childhood, has
an effect upon themselves-since they
are but men, no better and no worse
than others It is apt to make them
think that they are composed of a SUI
mon people are formed. All the foolish
~ Of fInr f,,1 1o1i
fer from ordinary mortals as fine porce-
lain differs from the red material of
Hower-pots-
Byron, with all his genius. was infat-
uated with this ridiculous notion, and
the more because the title came to him
suddenly, when he was just old enough
to be spoiled by it. He was a school
boy, ten years old at the time, living in
Scotland with his mother, who had an
income of one hundred and thirty-five
pounds year, equal to about twenty
five dollars week in our present cur
rency. ALI at once the news that Lord
Byron, the granduncle of the boy, was
dead, leaving no heirs to his title and
estates except this poor widows son.
Imagine the effect upon forward, sem
sitive, bashful, imaginative boy-pain-
fully ashamed because he had a lame
foot. It seems that he was puzzled at
first with his new 1ordship. The day
after the news arrived he ran up to his
mother and said:
Mother, do you see any difference
in me since I became a lord? I see
none.''
The next morning, when the roll was
called at school, the teacher, instead of
calling out his name, George Gordon
Byron, as he had always done before,
gave it with the title in Latin, thus:
George Gordon, Dominus de Byron. NJ
The boy could not utter the usual re-
sponse, "Adsum" q am presently, so
paralyzed was he by his emotions.
Pale and speeches. he stood, with the
eyes of the whole school upon him. uE-
til he found relief in a gush of tears.
The time never came when he could
take a rational view of this imaginary
honor. His friend and biographer,
Thomas Moore, tells us that, in the
height of his celebrity, he was more
proud of his descent from the Byrons
who came over from Normandy with
William the Conqueror than of being
the most admired poet of his time. Yet
his ancestors were not people to be
proud of.
All this is inconceivable to a true
hearted American; although some OF
! our citizens seem to be strongly infect.
ed with the degrading spirit of turnkey.
iSm.-N. Y. Ledger.