The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1911-07-06
CURIOUS CUSTOMS
Norman French Still Used In
Lawmaking In England.
RUSSIAN OFFICIAL FARCES.

tion Of Rum and the astonishing
Story Of a stoiid Sentry and an In.
nocent Grass Plot
In Europe there is perhaps nothing
more astonishing TO the American
mind than the persistency with which
certain old customs are maintained
The Romans, for instance. keep up the
saturnalia of their ancient pagan an |
cestors In a harmless way, and the
Florentines go on one morning Of the |
year to catch crickets In the grass
simply because the Etruscans did the |
same thing 1000 years ago.
John Bull has always had an affec-
ton for the old ways. So persistent |
Is be in keeping to the forms and |
traditions of the past that his French |
neighbor over the way has dubbed the |
United Kingdom a museum Of an
tiquities" among modern nations.
1t is somewhat odd that the Norman
French of Edward the Confessor
should still be the language, the le-
gal voice. of parliament, but so 1t Is
in a way Whenever a bill has passed
the commons the clerk before he
forwards it to the house of lords
writes upon It, according to the ancient
usage, "Soit baille aux selgneurs"
Uet It be sent to the lords) II 1t is
sent from the peers to the commons 1t
bears the like Endorsement, "Soit baille
aux communes" Qet 1t be- sent to the
commons).
Should a bill pass both houses 1t
needs only the royal assent to become
law. Here the Norman French ap-
pears again. The commons, summon
ed by the usher of the black rod, are
admitted to the bar of the house OF
| lords to hear the statement OF his
majesty's commissioners. When all
are assembled the lord chancellor
makes sign to his assistant, who
reads the title of the bill and then
says in loud voice. lie roi lie yeult'
(The king wills IT,. In the case Of
financial bills the form Is this: lie
roi remercie ses bons sujets, aecepte
| leur benevolence, ct ainsi le veult
| (The king thanks his good subjects.
accepts their faith and so wills iH.
| For private bills the form is, "Soit
fait CONNIE II est desire" QIet It be
done as is desired. Sometimes. If the
bill is of special Importance, the sane
ton of his majesty is given In person.
In such a case the king. seated on the
throne at one end of the chamber,
bows his assent as thesclerk reads the
title.
The in1exibility of Russian official
orders has resulted in some queer and
needless fixtures In the official sys-
TEN. Quite ludicrous discovery Of this
sort was made by the Empress Cath
crime, who was the mother Of that EN-
peror Paul who was assassinated In
1901. Catherine at one time was In
spired by some passing whim of econ
omy TO scrutinize the imperial house
keeping accounts. To her amazement,
she found among other queer items that
zone bottle of rum daily was charged
to the heir apparent nasmuch as her
son, Naslednik. then a young man. had
never evinced any signs of intemperate
habits, his mother was greatly as
tonished Going over the accounts to
ascertain how long this sort of thing
had been enduring. she found to her
still greater astonishment that the said
expenditure went back to the day of
his birth. and. indeed, far beyond It
So. it appeared, the heir to the
throne had not only been charged with
drinking over thirty dozen bottles or
fine Jamaica rum ever since he wGS
born, but for long time before that
1t is hardly necessary to add that the
empress made a thorough 'tnvestiga-
tion of this queer entry. Finally, by
the aid of an antiquarian, she at last
reached the original entry
A century or so before the imperial
physician had prescribed for the Mas
lednik of the period, ION account of a
violent toothache. a teaspoonful of
rum, to be taken with sugar." This
dose was given for several days in
succession, and the nurse In charge
had deemed 1t more fitting to the i'm
perial dignity, as we'll as more profit
able to herself, to purchase a new bot
tie OF rum each day. No one had ever
given the order to discontinue the pur-
chase, and it had gone on for CEN
tury, the rum having constituted one
Of the perquisites of the court nurse.
When Bismarck during the term of
his mission as ambassador at St
Petersburg was walking one after
noon I'm the SUMMER garden be met the
t emperor. who invited the diplomatist
9 to continue his stroll with him. Soon
Bismarck noticed a sentry stationed
iE the middle of large grass plot He
asked what the soldier was doing
there The czar did not know. The
aid-de.camp did not know. So inquiry
was made Of the sentry himself
at is ordered" was his reply.
Every official gave the same an
swer, 'Tt Is ordered" but nobody
knew by whom. A sentry had always
stood guard in the middle of that In
I. nocent grass plot. The archives were
searched. but in vain. Finally an aged
official was found who gave the ex-
PLANTATION. He had had It from his
: father that the Empress Catherine
had once seen a snowdrop ready to
bloom in that plot and had ordered a
sentry to stand guard and allow no
: one to pluck It For more than CEN
tury the watch had been maintained
because at was ordered" and because
no one had ever dreamed of disobeying
the order or questioning any one as to
the reason therefor.-New York Press