The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1897-01-07
IN ROYALTY's PRESENCE
A Peculiar Custom That Has Long
Been Observed,


.
| III Mr.. Labouchere continues with his
average assiduity to search for the ori-
gin ofcustoms that have come down to
these days from prehistoric times, his
successors in that interesting line of
inquiry will have nothing to do but
70 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
noteristic energy, We donotznow that
the prosperity or happiness of mankind
or the advancement of civilization is In
yolved 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 hnpe done
in the past and not caring a 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 time when
all royalties shall have walked or been
walked off 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 monarchieal institu-
tions, But, inasmuch as Truth eonsd-
ers this query worthy of considera-
tion, we must conclude that it possesses
someimportance, some claim to human
interest, even though that claim is not
within our visual range.
One Of Truths correspondents grave
ly suggested not long ago that the Gus
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-
cowed the earliest specimens of the
human race with power 10 walk, and
il must have given them that veneration
'or superiors which prompted them to
amble 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
iature causes great many Americans
to make fools of themselves and bur-
lesque their own democratic govern
nent 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, l.
writing from the far east, where he is I
to have seen much of savage
LIE, makes o philosophical suggestion
hat seems to us to throw great flood
If light on this question. His notion
Is that the custom Of always turning
he face toward royalty originated in
he stern necessities of rude and poor
leople who had little skill in tailor
ng. He says the first kings were rulers
u savage tribes, whose clothing was
sxtremely limited, and rarely consisted
# more than scanty garment mod
led on the primitive tig leaf, He re
pectfully submits that when a subject
hus appareled had to present himself
'efore royalty, courtesy, not to say
lecency, would suggest that he should
resent to the sovereign only that por-
ion of his anatomy which was con {
called by clothing. He therefore kept
lis back averted in approaching and
etiring.
This explanation is highly creditable
the rough and simple people from
;hom modern notions have descended.
hat necessity long since ceased to ex- 4
II, but the custom of walking back 4
ard survives because etiquette now i
what decency called for when
nc world was younger Washington
ost.