Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-25

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ID 20 voice of God is a question
liz 81 which some persons may dis
ID Rn pute with the classic proyerb,
ks70Egs but no English politician will
dispute the fact that THE Voice" in the
audience is a voice to be respected. The
British people have no sense of deco
rum in politics. Much as the English
man may deplore the average Amer
leans lack of manners in handling
knives, forks and spoons at dinner
table, the latter can put it all over his
British cousin when it comes to behaV-
ing at a public speaking. The Bflton
doesn't want to behave, and his I'M
written constitution protects him in
certain inalienable rights of mlsbe-
haviour to which the speakers must
tamely submit.
When the sovereign American voter
goes into politics as an auditor at a
political speaking he is permitted, by
that stern code of etiquette obtaining
in nearly all parts of the United Sttaes,
to do but three things. He may keep
silent, he may cheer or he may hiss.
The kissing is considered ill-bred, it is
true, but it is sometimes permitted to
pass without causing a riot among the
supporters of the code of political po-
likeness.
No such pent-up Utica cribs, cabins
or confines the British elector, although
he is not sovereign" in theory. When
he goes to g political meeting ne mas.
under the constitution, a perfect right
to do any or all of the seven follow
ing things, to wit: Cheer, hiss, groan,
sing, yell, boo and heckle.
Now, the greatest of these is repre-
scented in the verb ITO heckle," for I'M
der that head the British elector at
political speaking may, can and does
do anything he jolly well pleases from
making a speech to the speaker to
using a peers monocle as the bulls eye
in target practice with rotten eggs as
ammunition. The egg business is re-
garded as ill-bred, and none but very
rude hecl6ler will descend to such
methods. 1t is about on the plane with
kissing in the United Sttaes. But it is
not a crime, and the heckler is pro-
tected by the constitution and by Brit
ish etiquette.
Sir William Bull, Tory member of
parliament, is a shining example of
the few politicians who have dared to
take unconstitutional steps with re-
spect to the hecSlers in this compaign.
A British eleetor, a perfectly polite
one without any undated eggs about
his person, stood near the motor van
platform from which Sir William was
explaining why the people should sup
port the peers and not tax the land.
This eleetor punctuated the address by
remarking in a boiler factory voice at
the end of every one of Sir Williams
chaste periods: You are lying law
YER and you make your living by TAX
ing money to tell lies, and you know
it and you know we know it, repeate
ad lib, with variations. After about
the seventh heckle Sir Williams choler
got the best of his politeness and of
the constitution, and he intimated that
he was able, physically, to punch the
head of a certain heckler. The heckler
invited Sir William to a joust and
they went to it. A brace of faultless
"bobbies" broke up the fight, but no
arrests were made, as the police
couldn't determine whether to arrest
the heckler for starting row or to
take Sir William into custody for
breach of the constitution.
A favorite form of heckling is the
interruption of the speaker by remarks
more or less personal and uncompli-
mentary or by asking questions which
are pertinent or impertinent as one
is a Radical or a Tory, or by making
audible comments on the past political
record of the speaker when it is in
contrast with his present political pro-
marks, the individuality of hecklers
being lost in the crowd, are collec-
lively known as 1.-THE Voice" And in
every speech made during the cam
paign 1.-The Voice. had something to
say. 1.-THE Voice. is not always in OPP
position. Indeed, a friendly heckler
with a good pair of lungs is often of
great value in helping q halting
speaker to make his opinions known
to the voters.
Sometimes the British electors do
not consider a speaker sent to address
them to be worthy of heckling. In
such cases the electors exercise an
other inalienable right of the free
born and perfectly polite Bnglishman.
They boo the speaker. That is, they
boo the man-who- would be-speaker.
They attend the meeting and very
ouietly hear the address of the chair
man. The speaker is introduced and
makes his bow. And then the cleo
tors boo him. That is to say about
'steen hundred of them with one ac-
cord pronounce the word Boo loudly
and lingeringly. And when they are
through pronouncing it they do it all
over again. And so on until the man
who-would- speaker gets tired and
leaves Sometimes the short boo is
introduced in the middle of a speech,
but then it is only part of the
heckling.
The earl of Denbigh, Tory lord,
went down to Hopewell, where he owns
a, large estate, to speak to his neigh
bors about the issues of the day. The
neighbors booed him. He tried for
rowness and straight surface. The
Of 40 T.