The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1901-10-26
The Bother of Being King.

The recent battery committed
upon the sacred check of the German
emperor and the reports of plots
against the life of the car show, as
SO many assassinations and attempt
ed assassinations of sovereigns have
shown. what an undesirable business
and how bad risk it is to be sov-
ereign. There is little fun in kings
life, for privacy is virtually denied
to him and the most absolute ruler
is slave to immemorial restrictions
and laws and Intangible rules of
court etiquette; and as to money.
there are plenty of private men who
could buy out the most forehanded
of sceptre-bearing kings. A king or
emperor is to be pitied but it is
mistake, we are inclined to think,
to suppose as so many persons DO,
that the profession is on the decline.
1t is in bad way. but it is much
better off than it was at the start
Nihilists and anarchists, lunatics and
cranks, take pot" shot at a sover.
eign every now and then. In the
good old days, which were such bad
old days, the king was killed at the
end of the first year of his reign.
Such at least is the hypothesis of
some learned students of old customs
| and OF those still extant savage Gus.
toms which throw so much light
upon the civilized usages ami their
origin. Originally the king-pries or
priest-klng was sacrificed at the end
of year either as a goldman or
man-gOd whose decaying godhood
must be freshcned by new incarna-
tion or as tha sacricer who had smit-
ten the first blow at the sacred ami
NAL, the totem of the tribe and TAX
en- the first draught of the victim S
blood, the common life of tie ribe
and its link with the god Of gods
The sacred king was thus blood gull.
IS and must die when the blood Gov.
enant of the tribe was renewed.
The king of Babylon had to die at
he cn3 Of year but finally Grim
inal was substituted. allowed to
reign for a few days, and then put to
death. The old Prussian ruler called
Coils Mouth" was allowed to bum
: himself to death at a sacred oak.
Kings were put out of the way for
mere bodily blemishes. The early
r sacred kings must have had hard
5 tine.
e by and by, they got better terms
5 for tltl mseivcs. They lived. and the
: eldest son or some 0 her representa-
a I'VE died. Thus the king Of Qul;i.
uHr in india didn't have to kill ,,;m
@alf till he had reigned for 10 years.
FINALLY kings came to rule for life
that t., so long as they could keer
;heir anoin5oi heads on their Shout
: ders. Fiyity of tenure like tenure
$ during good behavior has scarcel,
boon secured by kings even now.
3 In Mr., J. G. Frazer's Golden
d Roush." ahook that Montague would
have loved, will be found much con
/, ISOLATION for many European sover
d 81 MS. There, fer instance, is thei
Il brother King Kukula of Sharl
4 Point in Lower Guinea Kukula ma,
!. enjoy himself but if So ne has
queer way of doing it. He live
4 lone in wood He can't leave hi
- house. He can't even leave hi
- chair In that he must sit night an,
day. In that he must sleep. If h
lay down the Wind would lie dowr
too. and there would be no goin
down to the sea i'll ships. A sti
more unfortunate potentate us tn
King Of Fernando Pc. He lives /
an extinct crater around which ar
the huts and yam fields of Riabb;
'e his capital. His peore are the Bo,
Ia hics and he must keep their goo
he Old aboriginal customs. 1t woul
n kill him. the Boobies think, to Sc
the sea. He has never seen an
never will see white man. He wi
never set foot upon the beach. II
-, is covered with old silver coins, it
said, His harem includes forty men
=. bors, Boobe beauties or horrors n,
duskicr than the gloomy hut in whic
he must stay all his life, wit
- shackles on his legs. He NAV n,
use salt or rum or tobacco.
- Such is the plight and such the We
OF thepoor Old King of Fernando Pc,
>, The kings of Egypt, great builde
and swells. gods worshipped in the
ut i