The Washington herald., 1906-12-09

/ present, arrayed in full canonicals as a
/ bishop, with lawn sleeves. rOchet, hood,
/ &c, every one Of the temporal peers
kneel, some Of them on the floor of the
| house. others on the benches, presenting
/ much the aspect OF a lot of bald-headed
/ and gray-bearded children performing
| their evening benson. Curiously enough,
| it is only the spiritual lords, that is TO
| say. the archbishops and the bishops, who
/ do not think it worth while to kneel to
/ the Almighty Their graces of Canter-
/ bury and of York, as well as their right
reverend colleagues attired in their &c
| clesiastcal vesrments, without which they
may not cross the threshold of the
/ House, remain seated, and content them
! selves with merely inclining their heads
/ and looking very solemn. The public
never has a glimpse of this. IL is ex-
/ cIuded from the gallery Of the House
until the last amen has been pronounced,
and it was merely by a piece of over
/ sight and official negligence that an op-
portunity was afforded me of witnessing
! this well-nigh unique spectacle.
/ Even kings. queens. and emperors kneei
and that not purely TO the Almighty, but
/ to human beings. Thus. on Maundy
] Thursday of each year the venerable
| Emperor Of Austria, in memory Of Christ's
washing the feet of His apostles, per
4 forms ut the Imperial Palace of Vienna
/ the ceremony of washing the feet OF
| twelve old men, assembled for the pur-
/ pose kneeling before each OF them IN
/ turn, pouring perfumed water on their
| feet and drying the latter with towels
handed TO him by arChdulles and prelates.
/ King Alfonso goes through the same per
| fOrmance at Madrid. and next year hts
/ young English-born consort will be called
upon to wash the feet of twelve old
women, kneeling before them. Until 1870
! the Pope was wont on his knees to wash
/ the feet of twelve men in the Church of
| the Lateran. But since then this duty
| has been delegated TO the cardinal vicar
of Rome.
Genuflexion naturally plays an i'm
pOTtant role in the ritual and ceremonial
of the various churches. In the estao-
lished Church Of England there have
been during the last fifty years bitter
controversies as to the right of the clergy
| TO bend the knee at certain portions OF
the divine service Numerous genu-
nexions are required Of the priests Of the
Roman Catholic denomination. especially
wnen celebrating mass and it is likewise
customary 10 bend the knee before the
highest digniJaries Of the church. Indeed,
/ at the public audiences granted by the
/ Pope, all present-men, women, and chill
dren. irrespective Of their creed-are re-
/ quired TO kneel.
! Nowhere. however. does kneeling play
| so important a part as In the Orient,
particularly in China. where the obel-
| sances OF this kind are divided into hVe
/ different classes. Thus. there IS the Ia
/ tsien. which is the bending Of the knee, as
] rE
/ kwei, or actual kneeling. Then there IS
/ the kow-tow, which consists in kneeling
| and striking the head on the ground once.
/ Then there is the kneehng on the ground
/ and knocking the head thrice. Ihls IS
called the sun-kaO- After that comes
the luh-kao, which consists in kneellnS,
/ knocking the head thrice upon the
ground. then standing upright, and again
kneeling and knocking the head three
| times more. The climax is the sun-kWel-
| kui-kao, or thrice kneeling and nine
/ times knocking the head The Emperor
is entitled 10 this aforementioned form Of
saIutation. And it is difficult to believe
nowadays that in former times European
/ euvovs readily accorded this amazing act
Of subserVienCy to the monarchs OF China
[ II is 10 the American government ana 70
its envoy at Pekin that the foreign pow
/ ers are indebted more particularly for the
abandonment by the Chinese court OF this
/ form of obeisance on the part or the
/ foreign ministers accredited 10 the Celes-
/ tial empire. Mr.. Low declaring, on behalf
| of himself and OF his colleagues, that un-
der no circumstances would they kneel
before the Emperor, OF perform any other
! ceremony derogatory to their own dignity
or to that Of their nAtiOnalities.
! There is one spectacle in which kneel-
ing was an essential feature which will
/ always remain Impressed upon my memo
~. It was the guilIotining of a convict
at Noumea, the capital of New Gale
donia. used by the French government as
the most important Of its penal colonies.
! The condemned prisoner was ruftian,
/ deserving Of no sympathy. But Il was
difficult not TO feel for the unfortunate
4 convicts. many Of them in chains, who
| had been assembled TO the number OF
/ several hundreds to witftss the eNecu-
ton As soon as the little procession,
/ consisting Of the man about 70 die, the
executoneTs. the priest. and few of the
/ prison attendants appeared. the COM
/ mand rang out: "Convicts, on your knees
/ Dof YOUR hatsr' At the same moment
the warders drew and cooked their re-
| vOlvers. while the troops present leveled
! their rifles at the cOnvicts 10 shoot in the
| event Of any man rising to mis- feet be
! fore receiving permission TO do So The
/ condemned man asked leave TO say a
few words to his fellow-prisoners, and
talked. and talked. and talked. for the
! sake OF prolonging his life even for a few
minutes, until the deputy governor. who
was directing the operations. signaled for
the drums to beat, drowning his voice. At
/ the same moment he was seized, strapped
down to the guillotine board, and the
| knife came down, after which the execu-
TONER brandished aloft for a moment the
head holding it by one of its ears, be,
fore throwing it into the basket contain
| ing the body. ThereupOn the command
rang out: "COnVicts, to your feet! and
/ then they were marched off to their va
| rious occupations, to the tune, not Of
| music but Of the rattling of their chains.
The convicts on that occasion were re-
euired to kneel in order to prevent any
outbreak excited by the sight of blood,
the prisoners largely outnumbering the
troops and warders. But, in spite Of this,
L has always seemed to me that the
lowest depths of humiliation were poT-
trayed in that spectacle of those shaven-
headed and kneeling convicts. cowed by
the leveled rifles and cooked revolvers
while they were forced TO gaze upon the
execution Of one OF their comrades
EX-ATTACHE.
A PATRIOTS PRAYER.
Tho We must die let me not die
In gB0miniOus STRIFE
With fate iuviDcibla ard sigh