Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1897-01-21
IN ROYALTY'S PRESENCE
A Peculiar Custom That Has Long
Been Observed
In Leaving the Royal Presence It Il the
Correct Thing to walk Backwards
Origin of the Custom Ii
Still I'm Doubt.

If MIR. Labouchere continues with his
average assiduity to search for the ORR
gin of customs that nave come down o
these days from prehistoric times, his
SUCCESSORS in that interesting line of
inquiry will have nothing to do but
to pore over b pages of his unique
publication, London Truth. Whence
came this custom of walking backward
before royalty? is n 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
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 a continental
where or when or how that old habit
got it's start. Indeed, il requires no
great stretch of h imagination or of
the probabilities to picrnre a time when
Fall royalties shall have walked or been
walked of the stage, backward, or for
ward, never to return. Humanity has
but to go on as it has been going on
for some centuries in order to arrive
at the end of the monarchical institu-
tions. But, inasmuch as Truth consid-
ers this query worthy of considers
ton, we must conclude that it possesses
some importance, some claim to human
interest, v though that claim is not
within our visual range
One of Truths correspondents grave
- - fkAA 4hA arrn
tom of walking backward before roy
atty was due to an instinct in man i'm
planted by Providence. In other words,
nature is responsible for the habit. In
a certain sense this is true. Nature en-
6owed the earliest specimens of the
human race with power TO walk. and
it must have given them that generation
for superiors which prompted them 10
alnble backward before kings and
queens. We suppose nature is, to some
extent, responsible for toadyism in all
countries. 1t is nature that makes the
English people dearly love a lord and
nature causes a great many Americans
to make fools of themselves and bur-
lesque their own democratic govern
ment whenever they get a chance to
pay uOIIldRt 10 d-llticu ICai
or bogus, from the old world. But it
is perverted nature, and the growing
democratic spirit of the age is getting
the better of il.
Another correspondent of Truth,
writing from the far east, where he is
supposed to have seen much of savage
life, makes a philosophical suggestion
tLat seems to us to throw a 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 a scanty garment mod
eled on the primitive fig leaf. He re-
specially submits that when n 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-
cealed 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 a1nce ceased to ex-
list, but the custom of walking back
ward survives because etiquette now
demands what decency called for when
the world was younger.-Washington
IIPosf.