The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1897-01-30
IN ROYALTY'S PRESENCE
A Peculiar Custom That Has LonQ
Been Observed.
In Leaving tho Royal Presence It II the
Correct Thing to Walk Backwards
Origin of the Custom IL
Still In Doubt.

II Mr.. Labouchere continues with his
average assiduity to search for the ori.
gin of customs that have come down to
these days from prehistoric times, his
successors in that interesting line OF
inquiry will have nothing to do but
to pore over the pages of his unique
publication, London Truth. Whence
came this custom of walking backward
before royalty? is one of the ques-
tions to the solution of which Truth
has recently addressed itself with char
acteristic energy. We do not know that
the prosperity or happiness of mankind
or the advancement of civilization is IN
volved in this inquiry. We could i'm
agine the nations of the earth going
on for ages to come, growing wiser and
better in the future, as they have done
in the past, and not caring continental
where or when or how that old habit
got its start. Indeed, it requires no
great stretch of the imagination Or of
the probabilities to picture a time when
al royalties shall have walked or been
walked off the stage, backward, or for
ward, never to return. Humanity has
,ut to go on as it has been going on
tor some centuries in order to arrive
at the end of the monarchical institu-
tions. But, inasmuch as Truth consid-
ers this query worthy of considera-
ton, we must conclude that it possesses
some importance, some claim to human
interest, even though that claim is not
within our visual range.
One of Truths correspondents grave
y suggested not long ago that the GUS
om of walking backward before roy
,lty was due 10 an instinct in man i'm.
,lanted by Providence. In other words,
nature is responsible for the habit. In
. certain sense this is true. Nature en-
dowed the earliest specimens of the
human race with power to walk, and
Il must have given them that veneration
for snperiors which prompted them to
alnble backward before kings and
queens. We suppose nature is, to some
extent, responsible for toadyism in all
countries. It il nature that makes the
English people dearly love lord" and
ryature causes great many Americans
to make fools of themselves and bur-
lesque their own democratic govern
ment whenever they get a chance to
pay homage to a-titled aristocrat, real
or bogus, from the old world. But it
is perverted nature, and the growing
spirit of the age is getting
the better of il.
Another correspondent of Truth,
L1 f,~ x-l~oro he iS
supposed to have seen much of savage
life, makes philosophical suggestion
that seems to us to throw great food
Of light on this question. His notion
is that the custom of always turning
the face toward royalty originated in
the stern necessities of rude and poor
people who had little skill in tailor
ing. He says the first kings were rulers
OF savage tribes, whose clothing was
extremely limited. and rarely consisted
of more than scanty garment mod
eied OH the primitive fig leaf. He re-
spectfully submits that when subject
thus appareled had to present himself
before royalty, courtesy, not to say
decency, would suggest that he should
present to the sovereign only that por-
ton of his anatomy which was con-
eealed by clothing. he therefore kept
his back averted in approaching and
retiring.
This explanation is highly creditable
to the rough and simple people from
whom modern notions have descended.
That necessity long since ceased to ex-
isl, but the custom of walking back
ward survives because etiquette now
demands what decency called for wheb
the world was younger.-Washington
Do.cf