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Show irx thee Modem Day 4 1. The photograph shows Albert Thompson, . fck.'--',Mwf J By ELMO SCOTT WATSON who has succeeded his father in carrying on a 1 VAS Tennyson, the English poet, three-hundred-year-old business at Meriden, ( mramOT who penned the line about "the old England, where for five generations his family yamuvm order chnngeth, Rivinp; place to the has dai,y manufactured bows and arrows. His 4-S new," but there are still with us in work now forms the on,y direct Engish sur. ysf 0 these modern days enough survivals viva, of this ancient craft Mr. Thompson hav- 1V -VV of the past to demonstrate once jng been under his fatheKs direction since he ' ' JX4' " more that other saying about the was a chMd Exactly the same methods are '" M exception proving the rule. employed as in the days when a form of con- " " W If you want to find an interesting soription required every English youth to put . example of this fact, go into a room in two hours of shooting practice with bow and , , , U!m' Jk W in the Capitol at Washington which arrows of his own production. The business ! Vi from 1815 to 1859 was the meeting place of the necessitates the rearing of turkeys in order to J4- Mi , ,J United States senate, but which is now the room obtain twelve special feathers from each bird ?TflTrftP teJpiL ' where sits the "most august tribunal in Amer- 2,000 of which are needed each year so that Mr. IShliMMA ' $ L& lea," the United States Supreme court. Look Thompson may feather the arrows he makes. I W i Jr- " 'V s upon the desks which front the long bench be- He is shown at his workbench( whie his assist. I fMJ TL. f X h ' J hind which sit the nine justices and what instru- ant tends to the turkeys Ymf S&.'W -" ments for writing will you find? Typewriters? 2. If any attorney appearing before the United VL4 " 7 Heavens, no! Penicls? Not one! Fountain pens? states Supreme court is sti old-fashioned W3 " ' iL'V No, Indeed! What then? Why quill pens! enough to want to use a quil, pen he wm find tX Dignity and tradition those are the two out- a supply of them, freshly sharpened, ready on WtA ' rV "C standing characteristics of the highest judicial the counsels' desks in the chambers of that au- body in the United States. There is dignity in gust body. It's a century-old custom that is still wvt" VT" "AVTS!"'K the appearance of that room, with its red cur- observed, even though few lawyers use them ( iS LX&, 'xJs tains, its marble columns and its general air of and souvenir hunters persist in carrying them jsas . being thousands of miles away from the busy away. The picture shows Miss Lorine Staley is " 4 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON WAS Tennyson, the English poet, who penned the line about "the old order changeth, giving place to the new," but there are still with us in these modern days enough survivals of the past to demonstrate once more that other saying about the exception proving the rule. If you want to find an interesting example of this fact, go into a room in the Capitol at Washington which from 1815 to 1859 was the meeting place of the United States senate, but which is now the room where sits the "most august tribunal in America," Amer-ica," the United States Supreme court. Look upon the desks which front the long bench behind be-hind which sit the nine justices and what instruments instru-ments for writing will you find? Typewriters? Heavens, no! Penicls? Not one! Fountain pens? No, indeed! What then? Why quill pens! Dignity and tradition those are the two outstanding out-standing characteristics of the highest judicial body in the United States. There is dignity in the appearance of that room, with its red curtains, cur-tains, its marble columns and its general air of being thousands of miles away from the busy modern life which ebbs and flows through the streets around the Capitol. And the traditions! There's the traditional cry of the announcer: "O Yez, O Yez, O Yrez!" as the nine black-robed Justices, led by the Chief Justice of the United States, the Hon. Charles Evans Hughes, the through the door and take their places behind the long bench on the raised platform which overlooks the chamber. There is the tradition that the Supreme court meets precisely on the dot of noon and that it will rise at two o'clock sharp for lunch and the tradition that on "Decision "Deci-sion Mondays," the stiff, sharp bow of the court attaches wearing their punctilious cutaway coats will be made to the advancing line of Justices with the same exact military precision. And then there is the tradition that there shall always be on the counsels' desks a supply of freshly-sharpened quill pens in case they want to use them. The Supreme , court, you know, has its own bar, or group of lawyers, admitted to practice before it. To be eligible for this, a lawyer must have been a member of the bar of the highest court in his own state for not less than three years and, more than that, he cannot be admitted ad-mitted to the bar of the Supreme court unless he is sponsored by another member. For the court is very careful to whom It gives its privileges, priv-ileges, and that includes the matter of dress, too. Several years ago an attorney appeared before be-fore the Supreme court one hot summer day without with-out a vest. He was immediately informed that Jie could not plead in such a garb as that. He retired from the chambers and did not come back. Away back in the early days of the Supreme court it was the custom to provide quill pens for the attorneys appearing before it. The duty of providing them was assigned to the marshal of the court. Fashions in writing utensils changed but not in the Supreme court of the United States! The marshal kept right on supplying sup-plying quill pens and Frank K. Green, who has been marshal since 1915, still does it. Each lawyer's desk gets two pens. They are placed In the center of a writing pad, which must bg large and white and one pen is placed over the other, in the shape of an X. Above is a tray for steel pens (a concession to new-fangled ways !) and to the right is placed a small blue blotter (It must always be blue). There is no telling what might happen If any change were made In that arrangement, for it would be upsetting a tradition in the United States Supreme court and traditions are NEVER upset, there. Once one came very near being npset and a national scandal was barely averted. It concerned con-cerned those quill pens. Genuine quill pens are not made in the United States. A Washington department store imports them from England and Marshal Green gets them from this store. One day he discovered that his supply was exhausted ex-hausted and the store had none. Here was a crisis indeed ! But the marshal was equal to the occasion. He secured some turkey feathers and fashioned them to resemble real quill pens and these tided him over until a fresh supply iwas received from England. What would have happened if he hadn't is unknown. Probably nothing, for none of the lawyers who appear before the Supreme court ever use the quill pens, anyway. The last one who ever did was a New Y'ork lawyer and that was more than a quarter of a century ago. But the important fact is that the quill pens must be on hand in case they ever do want to use them. That is a Supreme court tradition, than which there is nothing more sacred. Cross over the Potomac river from Washington Washing-ton into Virginia, go to Richmond and In that city you will find another ancient survival that 1. The photograph shows Albert Thompson, I who has succeeded his father in carrying on a I three-hundred-year-old business at Meriden, England, where for five generations his family has daily manufactured bows and arrows. His work now forms the only direct English survival sur-vival of this ancient craft, Mr. Thompson having hav-ing been under his fathers direction since he was a child. Exactly the same methods are employed as in the days when a form of con-soription con-soription required every English youth to put in two hours of shooting practice with bow and arrows of his own production. The business necessitates the rearing of turkeys in order to obtain twelve special feathers from each bird 2,000 of which are needed each year so that Mr. Thompson may feather the arrows he makes. He is shown at his workbench, while his assistant assist-ant tends to the turkeys. 2. If any attorney appearing before the United States Supreme court is still old-fashioned enough to want to use a quill pen, he will find a supply of them, freshly sharpened, ready on the counsels' desks in the chambers of that august au-gust body. It's a century-old custom that is still observed, even though few lawyers use them -and souvenir hunters persist in carrying them -away. The picture shows Miss Lorine Staley with several of these relics of a by-gone day. 3. George Pendrell of Srooklyn, N. Y.p who receives an annuity of $400 from the estate of King Charles II because his ancestor saved the king from the soldiers of Oliver Cromwell. $ $ is, if you happen to be there at the beginning of a hunting season. For you may be treated to the sight of a group of Indians, dressed in native na-tive costume, making their way to the Executive Mansion and bearing. with them the carcass of a deer or some other wild game. Away back in 1620 the Indians of Virginia started the custom of presenting to the white governor of that colony col-ony the first game killed during the hunting season and that custom has been observed for more than 300 years. Or go to Brooklyn, N. Y., seek out a seventy-seven-year-old resident of that city named George Pendrell and ask him about the annuity which he receives from the estate of King Charles n of England. The story which he would tell you goes back to 1651 when Charles Stuart, who had been proclaimed King Charles n of Great Britain by the Scots, even though Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate was in power in England, Eng-land, was fleeing from Cromwell's Roundheads after the defeat of the king's forces at the battle of Worcester. On September 6 of that year the fugitive king came to Boscobel, near Wolverhampton, and there was taken into the home of a yeoman family fam-ily named Pendrell. Cromwell's soldiers were hot on his track and if they captured him it was quite likely that he would suffer the fate f his father, Charles I, who had been beheaded. It was certain that they would search the honse so Elizabeth, the daughter of the family, hit upon the idea of hiding the monarch in a great oak tree which stood in their garden. So up the tree went King Charles n and there he remained all day while Cromwell's soldiers searched the house and premises in vain. When night came Elizabeth Pendrell and her brothers told him how to reach the coast safely and he escaped to France. Years later when the Res-' toration brought Charles II to the throne of England he had a chance to repay those who had saved his life and, although he was notorious notori-ous for nnkept pledges, the fact remains that Charles Stuart did repay this debt. In July, 1675, he issued a royal charter establishing a pension for the Pendrells to be paid annually out of rents to be collected from Roundheads in a dozen English counties. The charter designated as beneficiaries George, John, Humphrey, Mary and William Pendrell and Elizabeth Tendrell Yates. For the girl, who suggested the hiding place, had married a man named Yates and when she lived out her time her pension passed to her eldest son, named Yates. Down through the Yates family the pension ran for many years, then through a succeeding family named Dyson and another named Walker. The Tendrell pension is one of the few perpetual per-petual pensions on record. Another is paid by the Belgian government, for, although more than a century has passed since the duke of Wellington, aided by German, Belgian and Dutch troops, defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, for this feat of arms the Belgians must pny a perpetual annuity to the duke's heir amounting to approximately $20,000. After Waterloo the duke of Wellington re-cceived re-cceived the Belgian title of prince of Waterloo together with revenue from the property situated sit-uated in the famous battlefield. The present beneficiary is Arthur Charles Wellesley, fourth prince of Waterloo. Today a total of 38 persons receive annuities under the terms of King Charles' charter to the Pendrells, for, although there are only 12 direct beneficiaries, the fund has been subdivided. subdi-vided. The direct pensioners are scattered far and wide throughout the world. Most of them are in England, some in Ireland, some in India and two in North America. The only pensioners who bear the original name are Miss Florence Pendrell, who lives in New Zealand, and George Pendrell of Brooklyn, N. Y. The other North American beneficiary is Dr. Francis E. Walker, a professor of English In the University of British Brit-ish Columbia, a direct descendant of Elizabeth Pendrell. The trust fund which King Charles established estab-lished Is administered by T. A. W. Gifford, hereditary trustee appointed by the king. The original Pendrell charter is stored in the strong room of Messrs. Fowler, Langley and Wright of AVolverhampton, solicitors to the trust. At the left-hand top corner of the parchment is a finely engraved medallion with the head and shoulders of King Charles. The great seal of England with its dangling ribbons has crumbled and broken during the centuries so that it has to be held together in a leather bag. The writing is nearly as clear and bright in black and red as on the day it was first penned in a fine clerkly hand. The text, in legal Latin, sets forth all. the properties on which payments are to be made to the trust, and states that the pensions shall be 100 to Mary Pendrell, 100 to William Pendrell, Pen-drell, 100 marks to John Pendrell, 100 marks to Humfrey Pendrell, 100 marks to George Pendrell Pen-drell and 50 to Elizabeth Yates, and to heirs of their bodies. The amounts received by the various pensioners pension-ers varies from 10 sterling to 40 sterling, paid semiannually. The Brooklyn heir receives the largest amount. Twice a year he receives a letter from the solicitors to the trust, inquiring if 4he is still alive. Upon his replying in the affirmative he receives a check for 40, about $200, which is paid by the British government. Years ago that government realized that its treasury was badly cluttered up with pensions of all kinds. Some of these it quit paying and others it bought off by paying a lump sum to the pensioners. The Pendrell annuity was one of those cut off, but when these heirs made .representations .rep-resentations to the court the permanency of a grant made in perpetuity by a king of England was recognized and payments were resumed. For the English, even more than the United States Supreme court, has a great reverence for tradition and there is no better example of the survival of ancient customs in these modern days than is found in certain feudal rights which the king of England still retains. In fact, if King George V were to enforce all the "quit-rents" to which he is legally entitled he would possess a unique collection of odds and ends. A "quit-rent" is a contribution in kind made to Britain's reigning sovereign by holders of eountry estates granted to them by English kings in ancient 'times. The duke of Atholl holds his lands on condition condi-tion that he present a white rose to the king whenever honored with a royal visit at his residence, resi-dence, Blair Atholl. The Munros of Foulis, In similar circumstances, are under the much more difficult obligation to present a snowball When his majesty passes through the town of Crendon in Buckinghamshire, the owner of the land on which it is situated has to tender red roses. Should the king visit the village of Amesbury, Wiltshire, the owner of the land on which it is situated is called upon to furnish straff for the royal bed. The holder of the Cor-ber Cor-ber estates in Shropshire is obliged to supply the king's table with bacon when England is at war. ( by Western Newspaper Union.) |