The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-05-10
OUR AMERICAN NOBILITY
A GOOD MANY FOREIGNERS IN THIS
COUNTRY WITH RIGHT To TITLES.
For the sIost Part They Are Satisfied
with. the Plain United States
.Mister."
New Workman and Express.


this city %as killed in an automobile race
f. interesting locally much more for reasons
connected with the victims personality than
for the evident moral to be drawn against
that dangerous form Of sport. 1t is interest
ing IN part because a man who had once
been well known here as Elliott Zabriskie'
bearing a name Of old inheritance in this
part of TIE world, should appear in the re-
ports as Count Zborowski Evidently the
assumption Of that name and title were rat
ined by social consent in Europe. whether
or not il had received the formal sanction
of the Hes-alds' College or any other tribu-
nal Of the sort.
The ZSbriskies, whose original Polish
name was doubtless Zborowski, but whose
nobility had been allowed TO run to waste
through .he blood OF several generations
who were born and brought up in the neigh
borhood CT Haekensack, N. j., were fortu-
nate. when they became rich and fashiona-
bic and wished to revert to European aris-
tocratic connections. in having Polish in
stead Of Sn English origin. In England no
Bile inheritance 1apses with titles persist
ent disuss with the hopeless corruption
OF a patrbnymic. Hardys Darbyville, once
DUrberyilIe, is not fancy picture.
Nor dos either the law of the land or
social usage justify In Britain the easy
has mercy fallen into allegiance. The inner
itance must be direct and unqualified. So
far as / am aware, there is but one Amerl-
can whose right TO bear British ute Is
fully recognized, and that is John Contee
Fairfax, M. d., eleventh Baron Fairfax or
Cameron. who Is content to call himselI
simply '1Dr. Fairfax when he Is at home in
New YORK or Maryland, but whose family
have meter quite allowed their inherited
Scottish ite to lapse But DR.; F bsinf
Scotch aid not an English peer, and not be-
ing one If the sixteen men who have been
them at Westminster. He sensibly prefers
TO be and abide an American
WHATs ASTOR MIGHT HAVE DONE.
1t is possible that some one of the Balti-
more Ca.verts might establish claim to
the barofiy of Baltimore, but very much
doubt that. OF course, there Is one eminent
American who has right as we look at
the matter, to bear the title OF prince;
mean M Charles ]. Bonaparte. of Balti-
more. Eut this right is not recognized by
the European Bonapartes nor claimed In
any senss by Mr.. Bonaparte himself. He
is not understood TO be particularly proud
OF his Ntpoleonic inheritance; mis- blood be-
ing really quite as good on the Patterson
side as Il Is on the Bonaparte side. and the
existing sBonaparteS being monsrel and
ineffective lot of princelings OF half dozen
nationalsties.
The Z2 OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES, as SAID, were
fortunate in having originally come from
Poland. That unhappy country has pro-
digious lumber or noble families. mostly
oecayed. and il has no court of its own,
and probably no heralds college to keep the
list clear or unwarranted interlopers. All
one has TO do to get Polish title is to lay
violent Lands on Ii and carry 1t OH. 1t is
not ever necessary 70 pay money for it,
as the Count OF Monte Cristo did for his
title. ana as sundry other Americans have
done In Rome. where nobility has long been
for sale; And in France, and in certain
Circles N. England. society is very indulgent
about foreign titles. Ii one has money and
bears thu title in graceful and pleasing
manner. no questions are asked.
Undoubtedly IL Mr.; Astor had been in
clined to pass brief period In Warsaw or
Cracow. land return TO London and Cliveden
with cards bearing a coronet and the name
WaldortSky, he might have been recog-
nized a. count long ere this. And in
Paris though they viii not let you wear a
French title that does not belong TO you,
they make no objection to your use of
more Z9briskies a. Hackensack who do not
care To assume the name Of Zborowsh. they
have Only TO go TO Paris and blossom OUT
be counted among the counts.
MANY GERMAN NOBLEMEN.
Though English noblemen are extremely
scarce emong Americans of English blood,
there are, of course, plenty of noblemen in
this country going about under the title OF
"Mr." Many of these are German. 1 sup
pose ths Germans in New York who are
fairly eatitled to bear a title would number
hundreds. One I know is a music teacher.
not overprosperOus. Generally they are
poor-if they were not they would not be
here. They have come here TO make their
way In new country. 1t Is credAtable to
them that they have In every left the
title behind them-though there is a good
deal OF necessity about that, too. Save in
rf-rtT II 49, 81 NfeI.
bility ere not recognized by Americans.
They are unrecognized, not because the peO-
pie have any prejudice against them, but
because they have no understanding OF
them. When Paul Boynton. the diver, was
presented TO the English princesses, daugh-
tiers of the Queen or of the Prince of Wales.
at the Isle Of Wight he called them all
Miss The incident was typical. He
wanted to be very polite TO them
A Belgian baron OF ancient race is mod
eler in "a large decorating establishment in
this city, and l know OF a Swedish baron,
not in this city, who Is gymnasium in
structoy. He married an American girl not
had heL cards engraved Baroness Lars So
and-Sos She has persuaded few OF her
more snobbish acquaintance to call her
baroness. but the butcher and the baker
and the tanitor OF the fiat house in which
she lives always cali her Mrs. So-and-So.
II VIII never be otherwise
The only birth distinction which Ameri-
cans ate likely 10 be able to cultivate sue
eessfuny are those connected with the
descended in direct line from revolutionary
ancestry. Is something no doubt TO those
who care for that sort OF thing. But MEM
oersnlp IN these societies is cheapened by
opening them 10 those whose descent Is In
the female line only This process will LET
IN all Ellis island, eventually, OF course.
There are two or three societies in which
membership runs in the male line only and
these may some time acquire an arfstocratic
value. One has already acquired 1.-THE So
ciety If the Cincinnati. Membership In
that runs not only by 1ineaI Inheritance
from C,ficers OF the revolutionary army but
In the. order OF primogeniture Ii is true
that. falling direct male descent. descend
ants through intervening female descend
ants may be admitted. but this has rarely
resulted in the DETECTION OF the descent
from the male line.
And Of the Cincinnati there are only s52
In the United States. Nor are all OF these
by any means all ''aristocrats'' in the or
binary sense Some of them are very humble
persons indeed. | could name one who he
gan life as a compositor the case and who
Is nov the foreman OF a newspaper COM
posinet room. i believe three or four arc
taken care OF in the soldiers homes Rut
the oisier. for all that, is essentially aris-
tocratfc.
l believe the late Count Elliott Thor
owskf did not go in for revolutionary So
cieties But the men who go I'm for those
DO no care very much for Polish titles OF
nobility.