The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1921-09-18
By C. K. EIESTERTON---
Famous English Wit and Satiris Who Recently Toured Amer
lea Giving Lectures In Washington and Other Big Ciies)
"Why Does Everyone Believe Primitive Man
Knocked Women on the Head with "a Club?
IL Is Difficult TO Believe Primitive Women
We're So Reluctant to Marry. New Women
Now? Don't Believe There Are Any.e'

despoticallY and gradually develop
cd civilization under autocratic rule
from which democracy was evolved.
n An enormous number OF people
have grasped the idea and know It
10 80. Yet It 10 all mass OF lie. II
IL not at all probable, In the be-
ginning. that man was evolved by
natural selection from the anthro-
poid apes. It was q great blow to
me when I discovered that I was
not evolved from an anthropoid ape.
, Tor can see in myseif more resem-
biance to one than lean to the
curious little animal like a iemur.
from which am authoritatively told
now am descended.
But II IL all quite absurd to talk
about the history OF prehistoric
man. for nobody knows anything
about It. The very term Is a contra
diction. Yet Mr.. Wells produced q
very curious history Of a tribe Of
prehistoric men who were ruled by
an individual whom he called 1.-THE
Old Man." whose spear no one was
permitted to touch, and all that.
God forbid that I should object to
80 great a romancer writing q ro-
nance, but I can't understand by
what curious mixing Of his manu-
script he tried to evolve a history
OF. the world in thatfashion! Why
should I not write one, and instead
OF 1.-THE Old Man" have a tribe ruled
by "The Young Woman" a lovely
young lady. the hem OF whose gar
ment no one was allowed to touch
and on whose unveiled face only the
men who had been faithful to their
wives for the period Of at least q
year should be permitted to gaze?
Nor can understand why every
one believes that primitive man was
a being who knocked women on the
head with a club and took them to
his cabin. It Is difficult for me to
believe that primitive women were
30 reluctant to DO married.
Almost every one knows that the
republican government Of our own
time was evolved from the old auto
cratic governments based on heredi-
'tary privileges. Yet It Is not SO.
Most hereditary aristocracy was a
degeneration. coming after a repub-
lican government. .s.-..
ROMAN EMPIRE HAD
"A VAST OFFICIALDOM. -
In the Roman Empire there was
vast officiaidom, Of which many
of the members did not hold office
by hereditary rights and many Of
them were subject to recall through
popular demand. After the decline
Of the Roman Empire the center Of
government grew nore slack. men
stuck to their jobs. paid no atten-
ton to the recall. handed their Of
fees to their sons. and gradually
government became operative
through a hereditary aristocracy.
The very word Duke" originally
meant q military leader. F..
So It Is even possible. though I
hope the possibility never becomes
a reality, that this great republic Of
yours may undergo some such tran
sition, and at some time In the re-
mote future an American colonel
or his son may be dragging out a
debased existence as the Duke Of
Maine or the Marquis Of Michigan.
This might come to pass II the
ideals OF the American Republic
failed as the Ideals of the Roman
Empire failed. s%r' <. - >
We all know what nation is.
Some men are unable to define tho
word. but many men are ready to
die for It. Yet you will notice q
pestiient and prigsish tendency to
substitute for the common geograph-
ical name Of a nation somo para
phrase, high-sounding and pedantic.
Shakespeare has been criticised
for saying that Bohemia had a sea-