The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-05-02
BOTHER OF BEING KING
ASSASSINATION NOT THE ONLY
RISK OF THE TRADE.

the sacred cheek of the German En-
peror and the reports of plots against
the life OF the Gar show, as so many
assassinations and attempted assass-
nations of sovereigns have shown,
what an undesirable business and how
bad n risk it is to be sovereign,
facetiously observes an editorial writ
er in the New York Sun. There is lit
tie fun in a 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 fore
handed of sceptre-bearlng kings. A
king or emperor is TO be pitied, but
it is a mistake, we are inclined to
think, to suppose as so many persons
do, that the profession is on the de-
cline. 1t is in a bad way, but it is
much better off than 1t was at the
start. Nihilists and Anarchists, luna
ties and cranks, take Il pot" shot at
sovereign 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 custom
and of those still extant savage Gus
toms which throw so much light upon
civilized usages and their origin. Or
iginally the king-priest or priest-king
was sacrificed at the end of year
either as n man-god or goldman whose
decaying godhood must be freshened
by new incarnation or as the sacri-
ficer who had smitten the first blow
at the sacred animal, the totem of
the tribe, and taken the first draught
of the victims blood, the common life
of the tribe was renewed. The King
of Babylon had to die at the end of
year, but finally a criminal was sub
stituted, allowed to reign for a few
days, and then put to death. The old
Prussian ruler called Gods Mouth"
was allowed to burn himself to death
at a sacred oak. Kings were put out
of the way for mere bodily blemishes
The early sacred kings must have had
a hard time of it.
BY and by, they got better terms
for themselves. They lived, and the
eldest son or some other representa-
tive died. The time was extended
Thus the King of Quilicane in India
didn't have to kill himself till he had
reigned ten years. Finally kings came
to reign for life, that is, so long as
they could keep their anointed heads
on their shoulders. Elxity of tenure
like tenure during good behavior has
scarcely been secured by kings even
now.
In Mr.. j. G. Frazer's Golden
Bough," book that Montaigne would
have loved, will be found much con-
ISOLATION for many European soyer-
eigns. There, FOR instance, is their
brother, King Kukula, of Shark Point,
In Lower Guinea. Kukula may enjoy
himself, but If so. he has a queer way
of doing it. He lives alone in wood
He can't leave his house. He can't
even leave his chair In that he must
sit night and day. In that he must
sleep. If he lay down, the wind would
lie down, too, and there would be no
going down to the sea in ships. A still
more unfortunate potentate is the King
OF Fernando Po. He lives in the
depths of an extinct crater around
which are the huts and yam fields of
Riabba, his capital His people are the
Boobies and he must keep their good
old aboriginal customs. 1t would kill
him, the Boobies think, to see the sea.
He has never seen and never will see
white man. He will never set foot
upon the beach. He is covered with
old silver coins, 1t Is said. His harem
includes forty members, Boobie beau
ties or horrors not duskier than the
gloomy hut In which he must stay all
his life, with shackles on his legs. He
may not use salt, or rum or tobacco:
Such is the plight and such the woe
Vi the poor old King of Fernando Pol"
The kings Of Egypt, great builders
and swells, gods worshped in their
lives at splendid temples, bore an aw-
full weight of etiquette or of taboo,
which is the beginning of etiquette.
They could drink just so much wine.
They could eat no flesh but veal and
goose. Their hours of walking and
bathing, their most intimate domestic
arrangements were prescribed. Poor
devils! They lived according to time
table.
A couple of centuries ago the Mlkado
OF Japan was much too sacred and
awful to be comfortable. His hair
and nails couldn't be cut except when
he was sleeping. The pots and dishes
in which his meals were cooked and
served had to be broken and buried
after he had used them once. Any
meaner person using them would have
swollen up and been intamed In the
throat. For king Is Accusing and
injecting as well as sacred. The
Mikado had to sit in his chair of state
with the imperial crown on his head
for several hours every morning, look.
Ing straight ahead. If he turned his
head the least bit. there would be
tempest and failure of crops. and the
devil to pay generally. Eventually the
Mikado escaped this sitting, the crown
taking his place as regulator Of the
equilibrium OF the world, and the
Mikado ran away from boredom by
abdicating on the birth of q son.
Kings that make rain and give good
crops. good fishing and so on, get into
trouble when they don't do what they