Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-02-14


BELL-A CURIOUS CEREMONY IN TIE cATHE-
ORAL IN SEVILLE
Prom the New York Evening Post.
Shrove Tuesday originally was supposed to
be specially dedicated TO the penitential con-
fcssion Of sins and due preparation for the
holy Lenten season Of fasting and prayer. Up
20 the period Of the reformation self-respecting
Catholics were still wont to seek priestly alb
solution on this day. But even long before
that Shrovetide had come to be popularity con-
sidered ss the occasion for extraordinary sport
and feasting. 1t ccrresponded in fact, to the
eliminating point of the continental carnival.
which lasted for a week or ten days before Ash
Wednesday. In France, for instance, high
carnival ensued for six days and a presiding
officer was annually elected under the title of
Prince dAmoureu1; when Ash Wednesday ar
rived the peasantry would bear q curious efigy
from house to house and collect money for the
funeral of good living" In England it was
the chosen holiday for the apprentices and
working classes generally, and unbounded Ii
cense prevailed.
An old tract of 1923 entitled "vox Graculi"
contains this quaint comment: Here must
enter that wadling, stradling, bursten-gutted
carnifex of all christendom, vulgarly entitled
Shrove Tuesday. but more pertinently Sole
Monarch OF the Mouth, High Steward TO the
stomach Chief Ganimede 10 the Cuts, Prime
Peere Of the Pullets, First Founder Of the
Iritters, &c, and according TO old Ms.
OF the century: Men ate and drank
and abandoned themselves to every kind
OF sportive foolery, if resolved to have
their I'll of pleasure before they were to die"
The underlying instinct of brutality in the
AnGlo-Saxon seems to have found free vent at
this time, too. for the inhuman sports OF cock
nghtlng and throwing at cocks were well-nigh-
universal. SchooiDoys were allowed to bring
cocks 10 school with them. and masters and
scholars alike forgot the rod and books and
became eager spectators of the cruel sport.
Geek fighting was countenanced in many OF
the schools of Scotland as late as the begin
ming OF this century, and the teachers en-
ioyed the ines.imable privilege of claiming the
runaway cocks, called fugees, their per-
quisites.
Hutchinson. in his history Of Cumberland,
alludes TO an ancient school custom in the parish
of Bromiield, known "a barring cut"
GLIDING tine master from school for three days.
commencing with SATURDAY.. The doors and
windows we're closely barricaIed while the boys
entreached themselves within armed with pop
guns and similar deadly weapons. If the mas
ter succeeded IN effecting entrance before
the allotted time he was allowed TO take un-
limited revenge on the besieged party. but such
a contingency was almost too remote for con-
sidersticn. Capitulation took place On the
embodied in an old Latin formula and duly
signed by both sides. Cock fighting and games
then followed. Prominent among the latter
foot ball, which was PLAYED with great zest
everywhere. The goals were often two or three
miles apart.
But among the masses no ,other diversion
could vie with the subtle allurements of throw
ing NJ cocks. Fortunately this barbarous pas
time was never INDUCED in at any other time
OF the year. and finally was suppressed alto
Sether IN the last century. Some say that the
custom took its rise from st. Peters memoir
able experience when he denied the Savior.
Sir Charles Sedley, in Monthly Miscellany for
January. 1892, has this couplet:
'May'St thou be punished for st. Peters crime
And ON Snroye Tuesday perish in thy prime"
Others assert that il mus. have originated at
the time OF Henry the Fifth's victories over the
French. the cocks being symbolical OF the con-
auered Gauls- In Blenheim Castle there is
CURIOUS carving III stone over one of the portals
representing lion tearing a cock TO pieces.
However. an explanation given in the British
Apollo for l10S seems the most rational OF all,
particularly cock throwing is known to have
been practiced both in England and France
long before the battle OF Agincourt. This
authority says that when the Danes ruled over
England the citizens of one of the cities,
cnshng under slavery, formed conspiracy
TO overthrow the alien power; but when en-
deayoring to take the Danes by surprise at
Ing OF the cocks discovered the plans of the
luckless conspiratOrs to their enemies and
they were Immediately captured and severely
punished. This Is considered good and suff-
cie,it reason why the unfortunate pOsterity Of
these too yociieroUs ''heralds of the morn
should long have been condemned to a
yearly maltreatment- Hogarth gives graphic
picture o. cock throwing IN his -Four Stages
Cf Cruelty. The animals were carefully
trained 10 their owners for weeks beforehand,
sticks. &c., being thrown at them untiringly
until they acquired skill in lodging the mis-
slles. In the game the cocks we're tied to a
stake in an open space, the tnrowers standing
about twenty-five yards distant; twopence
procured the privilege o: three SHES and who
ever knocked the cock down and caught him
before recovery won the bird prize. The
feat being difficult 10 accomplish the owners
sometimes made great deal of money.
satirical old song of 1879 thus tells the story
OF the '-Shroye tide Martyr
''Gock-a-dO2dls- dee. It's thu bravest game.
Take cock from his dame
Haw he -truts. how he throwe..
How ne swasxers. how lie Groves.
ASH the day newly brake.
How his mistress cackles
ILn- o mud him in .hackles.
AM tied 70 IaeLe-thread garter.
Oh On: r. e.: 6~a .,:,,a and the bulls
10 the valiant shroye tide Martyr
In Wales all hens that failed to Law eggs be-
fore Shroye tide were soundly thrashed with
fails.
At this season Of carnival or farewell to the
flesh and good eating in general 1t was emf
nenty fitting that the inner man should be
generously treated in order to reconcile HIM to
n forty-days fast lnordinate feast;ag and
tipping followed close upon the heels Of the
mornings diversions. In Barnaby Googe's
translation Of Navgeorgius occur these lines:
''Now when at length the pleasant time Of shrove-
tide comes ~ place,
And CrUeii fasting days at hand approach with
solemn grace.
Then Olfe and Young are both as mad "a sheStes
OF E-cChGs least.
AE4 tog-e days long they tippls. square. and
f- de Aot never Tezs..
Pancakes BY the tens OF thousands wore con-
samed by high and low, though why it is that
they have always been so inseparably connected
with the proper celebration OF Shrove Tuesday
has never been determined. The Pancake
sIg-.al- innaar,nrial cr,st1,na tL..