The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-07-29
THE sNoBBERY OF ROYALTY.

ROYALTY is an effete and pernicious
| institution. 1t makes a nation of snobs
and sycophants out of nation that
otherwise would be sturdy and self-re-
spectful.
Every honest American citizen ought
to thank his stars that just one nun
dred and twenty years ago our fore
fathers repudiated allegiance to Eu-
ropean monarch. But instead OF en-
loving his free condition, there are
some persons in the United States with
so little brains and common sense as
to look upon the survival OF monarchy
in Europe with easy tolerance ri not
| with respect and approval. 1t seems
TO have come to be the fashion OF late
years for American tourists in Europe
to fawn over, TO ape and to tag around
after royalty, the mere existence or
which our sturdy republican ancestors
viewed with adherence, disapproyal
and disgust
Instead of being admired, revered. en-
We'd and followed after. royal people
need the heartfelt sympathy of every
one. for they are much to be pitied.
They have no sincere friends. no one Is
true to them; they are surrounded by
selfish persons whose only desire in
striving to please is to reap profit to
themselves. They can never enjoy
solitude or quiet, for even during sleep
ing hours, the stare of curious watch
ing eyes and the strained ears of caves
troopers are not to be escaped. They
doubtless ever get genuine answer
to any question which they may put
They cannot even travel around in
cognito. no matter how disguised, for
photography has preceded them every
where and their features and contours
are perfectly familiar to all.
In a recent number of the Forum Is
an article entitled ego, ct Rex Mems:
A Study Of Royalty" by that brilliant
English writer "Ouida," whose true
name is Louise de Ia Rance. This
article is considered by critics to be the
most caustic and at the same time the
most convincing arraignment of roy
atty as pernicious institution that has
ever been written. 1t is packed full Of
truth, and of incidents and circum-
stances which illustrate the truth. Our
author declares: royalty In its adj
versity may arouse great qualities in
its adherents, but in its prosperity its
moral influence is entirely mischievous
on all who come under its influence.
1t generates subserviency, hypocrisy,
and egotism; and it suffers itself from
the contrecOup Of these creatures OF its
loins. And so in a minor degree does
every courtier, statesmen who ought
not to be courtiers become so perforce
to the injury of their character. That
a Chatham should have to bow in
silence before a guelph is an unjust
penalty attached to office. That a Bis
marck. should have to thank Hohen-
zollern for his favors is a degradation
to humanity in its highest intellectual
form.
"Given their consanquinity IN mar
rage, their hereditary nervous mala-
dies, their imprisonment in a narrow
circle, their illimitable opportunity of
self-indulgence, the monotony, the in
quisitiveness, the publicity which lie
like curses on their lives, the madden
ing interference and investigation of
their physicians.-we must give them
honor that they remain as entirely sane
as some of them do and retain tastes
as natural and impulses as good as
many of them show"