This Order of the Annunciation is the principal order of Italy, and may be said to rank with the English Order of the Garter, and with the Austrian and the Spanish Order of the Golden Fleece. There is only one grade of this order, which was created in 1360 by Amadeus VI. of Savoy, in order to commemorate the exploits of his predecessor, Amadeus V., at Rhodes. It is owing to this that its emblem bears the curious motto "Fert"-the initial letters of the Latin words "Fortitudo ejus Rhodum tenuit." The knights of the Order of the Annunciation rank immediately next to the royal family. The decoration is a badge worn around the neck by a gold chain, and adorned with a representation in gold and enamel of the Angel Gabriel announcing to the Blessed Virgin that she is destined to become the mother of Christ.

Russia's two most notable orders are those of St. Andrew and of St. George. The former corresponds to the English Order of the Garter, and is conferred with the same degree of chariness as the Order of the Annunciation. Indeed, there are to-day no more than eight non-imperial Russian knights of St. Andrew all told. order was originally created by the Empress Catherine I., and there are but two ladies upon whom it has ever been conferred, the present Czarina and the widowed empress, each having received it on the occasion of her coronation.

The

The possession of the Order of St. Andrew carries with it all the other Russian decorations with the exception of the St. George, which is conferred exclusively for exceptional bravery. To possess the grand cross of the Order of St. George, it is necessary to have commanded a victorious army in the field. At the present moment there is but one knight grand cross of St. George, namely, the Grand Duke Michael, grand uncle of the Czar, who commanded the Russian troops in Asia Minor during the war of 1877. The strictness of the order's rules and regulations may be gathered from the fact that since its foundation, more than one hundred and fifty years ago, there have been but four members of the imperial family who have had the grand cross. Even more highly prized than the Russian Order of St. George is the Austrian Order of Maria Theresa. In order to obtain the grand

*Munsey's Magazine.

cross, it is necessary to have commanded, not merely a victorious army, but an army which has won the day in conflict with superior forces of the enemy; while the two minor grades are only granted for altogether exceptional and extraordinary bravery on the field of battle. There are nearly two hundred knights of the Russian Order of St. George, but there are not more than twenty living possessors of the Cross of Maria Theresa. The sovereign is ex officio the grand master, but throughout his entire reign of more than fifty years the Emperor Francis Joseph has only made four appointments to the order, the award of the other crosses having been determined by means of ballot on the part of its chapter. Since the year 1815 only fifty-six knights have been admitted to the order.

The most important of the other orders of Austria is the Golden Fleece, which is likewise the principal order of the Spanish crown. Founded by Philip, Duke of Burgundy, in 1429, its grand mastership remained in the possession of his house until, on the death of Duke Charles the Bold without male issue, it passed to his son-in-law, the Emperor Maximilian of Germany. From that time on its headship has belonged to the imperial house of Hapsburg, which until the year 1700 occupied the throne of Spain. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, when the death of the last Hapsburg ruler of Spain re sulted in the succession of a member of the French house of Bourbon, a violent quarrel ensued on the subject of the Golden Fleece. The new king insisted that it was a Spanish order, while the German emperor claimed that it belonged exclusively to his house, and that from the moment that the latter ceased to occupy the throne of Spain the connection of the order with the Spanish crown terminated "ipso facto." To this day no person who received the Fleece from the crown of Spain is permitted to wear it at the court of Vienna.

On ordinary occasions the jeweled insignia, consisting of the golden fleece of a ram, are worn round the neck by a broad crimson moire ribbon, which on grand occasions is replaced by a golden and jeweled chain. The insignia are returned to the chapter on the death of the knight by his surviving relative and heirs, and each Golden Fleece now in existence has figured on the breasts of famous men in bygone centuries. Thus, that

now used by Don Carlos was worn by Duke Philip of Burgundy, the founder of the order, while the fleece in the possession of the late Prince Bismarck was formerly suspended from the neck of the Duke of Alva, the despot of the Netherlands. The knights have precedence over everybody else at court functions, alike at Vienna and Madrid; are all "cousins" of the sovereign by courtesy, are exempt from the jurisdiction of ordinary tribunals, and can claim trial by the chapter of the order, no matter with what crime they are charged.

The English counterpart of the Golden Fleece is, of course, the Order of the Garter, of which Lord Palmerston used to say with so much gusto and satisfaction that there was "no damned nonsense about merit in it." That is to say, it is restricted to English and foreign royal and imperial personages, and to British peers of the realm whose political influence it is desired to recognize or to secure. The Duke of Portland, for instance, received the Garter the other day, not because he had rendered any special service, but because, as one of the biggest landlords of the metropolis, and a great territorial magnate in the shires, he has a certain influence upon the votes of several thousands of electors who are his tenants. It was for the same reason that the late Duke of Westminster had the Garter conferred upon him. The late Lord Palmerston, who, being an Irish peer, was able to sit in the House of Commons, was the only member of that chamber who, during the nineteenth century, could boast of being a Knight of the Garter. A hundred years or so earlier the broad blue ribbon and star of the order were worn by Sir Robert Walpole, the only commoner on its roster in nearly three hundred years. The first Duke of Wellington and Lord Roberts are the only two soldiers, in modern times, who have received the Garter as a reward for military services. Even Lord Nelson, in spite of his glorious naval victories, had to be content with the Order of the Bath, though he might have received the Garter had he survived Trafalgar.

The principal and most distinctive feature of the insignia of the Order of the Garter is the garter itself, which is made of dark blue velvet, edged with gold, bearing the motto of "Honi soit qui mal y pense" in golden letters, with buckles and pendant of gold, richly chased. Men wear it on the left leg, below the knee, with knee breeches and silk stockings. The late Queen Victoria used to put it on her left arm in the guise of a bracelet, above the elbow. The jewel of the order-that is, the badge attached to the collar or chain-is known as "the George," and consists of a gold

and enameled figure of St. George on horseback, encountering the dragon.

The Order of the Bath, just mentioned, owes its peculiar name, which has been the subject of so much fun and speculation not only in foreign countries, but even in England, to the fact that in olden times the taking of a bath constituted a very important feature of the investiture of the knights. According to the "Chronicles" of Froissart, the court barber prepared a bath, and the candidate for membership in the order, having been undressed by his esquires, was thereupon placed in the bath, his clothes and collar being the perquisites of the barber. He was then removed from the water with the words, "May this be an honorable bath to you," and was placed wet and naked in a plain bed, without curtains, to dry. As soon as he was quite dry, he was removed from the bed, dressed in new and rich apparel, and conducted by his sponsors to the chapel, where he offered a taper to the honor of God and a penny piece to the honor of the king. Then he went to the monarch, and, kneeling before him, he received from the royal sword a tap on the shoulder, the king exclaiming, "Arise, Sir John," or "Sir James," as the case might be, and then embracing him and saying, "Be thou a good knight and true."

Another British order about which relatively little is known is that of the Thistle of Scotland, which is given exclusively to Scottish nobles, although the late Sir John Stirling Maxwell, in spite of his not being a peer, was likewise a member. It is supposed to have been founded by King James II. of England in 1687, in honor of St. Andrew, and some of the insignia of the order figure upon the coins of that date. The collar consists of gold and enameled thistles, intermingled with sprigs of rue, and it is conferred like the Garter, as a means of securing the political influence of great territorial magnates. The consequence is that some of its knights are far from brilliant, and the late Lord Beaconsfield on one memorable occasion expressed grave apprehensions lest a peer for whom he had secured the coveted emblem should eat it.

The Order of St. Patrick is to Ireland what the Thistle is to Scotland, its membership including about twenty of the leading Irish peers. The Garter, the Thistle, and St. Patrick stand first in rank of precedence among the British orders; all three are small in numbers and highly exclusive. They are purely aristocratic affairs, and have little relation to public service. Lord Roberts earned his Garter, of course, and Lord Wolseley his "K. P." (Knight of St. Patrick), but such cases are the rare exceptions.

The Bath, on the other hand, is given as a reward for all sorts of services, military, naval and civil; it has several classes of knighthood, including three or four hundred members, and there is a still longer list, numbering about a thousand, of men who have the right to call themselves "C. B."-Companion of the Bath. Then there is the Order of St. Michael and St. George, which is specially identified with Canada. Australia, and the other British colonies. India has two orders, that of the Star of India and that of the Indian Empire, whose members are native

magnates and men who have won distinction in the Indian service. All of these are large orders, their lists of knights and companions running into the hundreds.

Some of the royal princes belong to practically all the British orders, and the sovereign, as the fountain of honors and titles, heads the roll of every one of them-with a single distinguished exception. No royal person wears, or has ever worn, the most coveted decoration of all, the Victoria Cross, the symbol of the grand democracy of valor.

Presentation at Court...........Joanna E. Wood............ Criterion

The débutante's name must be sent in to the Lord Chamberlain's office-the sooner the better, after the drawing-room is announced, for the list is limited to two hundred. If the invitation (or rather "command to be present") is happily received, the débutante gets two cards, of which she must be most careful, as she requires them at the drawing-room. Upon these cards, in certain spaces indicated, must be the débutante's name and that of the lady presenting her. On the obverse of each card the débutante's address is written, and this should be done with particularity, as in the flattering event of the Lord Chamberlain being "directed by the Queen" to invite the débutante to any court function, the débutante's card will be referred to for her address.

These prosaic preliminaries being successfully accomplished, the débutante devotes herself to her white gown-her "presentation frock"-which in the imagination of the young English girl outranks the visionary "wedding-gown" in interest. There are certain stringent rules and regulations about these frocks-so that individuality must be shown in detail rather than in the ensemble. There must be a court train (mantle it was once called) depending from one or both shoulders. The train of a court gown is its very special feature, for it gives the gown its "cachet." It must he specially arranged with regard to the fact that, after the actual presentation is over, upon retiring from the throne room, the train is carried over the left arm; thus the left corner of the train should be specially adorned with a large and elaborate display of artificial flowers, bunch of feathers, or other effective decoration. Formerly, trains were made exclusively of heavy silk, brocade, or gold and silver damascene, but

last year, at the last drawing-rooms held by the late Queen Victoria, there were a number of exquisite trains worn contrived of tulle, chiffon, and other gauzy and perishable materials.

The hair is dressed with three white feathers and a graceful white veil. Formerly, real lace lappets were worn, but these are now the very rare exception.

White shoes, gloves and stockings are absolutely "en règle," even for those who, having been presented previously, are wearing colored dresses.

The débutante's bouquet is an important accessory of her toilet. It is as elaborate, as simple, as artistic as possible, and the great effort is to achieve distinction. The "shower" bouquets are much the most effective, their long sprays falling into graceful garlands when the "curtsies" are made, lending a poetic grace unattainable by those carrying the "flower-pot" style of bouquet. Flowers form quite a feature in drawing-room preparations. Smart people see that their coachman wears a nosegay of white flowers about five inches long by three broad, and that the footman's left lapel is similarly adorned.

In the Palace there is now luckily a room where one may leave her cloak-then comes the hall. From the hall a few steps lead to a long gallery; upon entering the débutante gives one of her two precious cards to an official. She then finds herself in the hall-room and (if among the first) proceeds at once through a little anteroom and a second drawing-room, in each of which there are chairs arranged as if for a concert. One must keep in view the desirability of getting as near the door as possible, so as to get through the barrier as soon as may be and thus avoid the perhaps disastrous effect of crushing upon one's gown.

From the second drawing-room the ladies go in

single file, the débutante following her chaperon, through a room where there are no chairs. Here the trains, which have hitherto been carried, are put down and arranged by two attendants.

The débutante now runs the preliminary gauntlet of passing along the roped-off end of the picture gallery, in the body of which the "entrée" people and those who have already passed through the throne-room, stand, observing the newcomers.

At the door of the throne-room the débutante presents her other card to an attendant, who hands it to the Lord Chamberlain, who announces the name in a loud voice, together with the name of the lady by whom she is presented.

If the Queen is present the débutante will by this time have removed her right-hand glove; this, because when at last before the Queen, she must put her ungloved hand (back uppermost) under Her Majesty's outstretched hand, which she gently touches with her lips.

The Queen only is seated; the Princesses and Princes receiving stand in a row according to their order of precedence.

They all have curtsies accorded to them. After saluting His and Her Majesty you pass to the right. An attendant at the door of the throneroom will have told you how many curtsies are to be made; these you will accomplish, taking care. in curtsying not to recede from the line of royalties, for immediately facing them are the ambassadors and gentlemen of the Corps Diplomatique in a semi-circle.

When the obligatory curtsies are made the débutante must back as gracefully as she may out of the throne-room. An attendant, equipped with a rod, lifts her train and puts it over her left arm; the débutante should keep her wits about her, and have her left arm ready to receive the train, as unwary and unfortunate débutantes have before now literally received their trains over their beplumed heads.

To American girls presentation at the Court of St. James is the accolade of social distinction in Britain; to a British-born girl it is the official recognition of the beginning of her social career -and to the latter it is something more. When one's mother teaches us lovingly the "nuances" of the curtsy, in which she is to express for the first time her loyalty to her sovereign; when upon her virginal bosom the pearls rise and fall which were stirred by the beating of her mother's heart upon such an occasion; when one stands and bends before the man or woman who represents the flag for which one's nearest and dearest through a long line of pure, unsullied blood have bled and died, then there enters into the formal homage a sense of passionate fealty.

The average French shooting-party resembles nothing more nearly than a comic opera or burlesque. Every Frenchman is a sportsman—or thinks he is. He dresses himself up like a Corsican bandit, arms himself to the teeth with guns and hunting-knives, and, with three or four fierce dogs-often bloodhounds-tugging at him, makes for the suburbs. At night he returns triumphant and in the seventh heaven, with a string of two unfortunate sparrows. He is the hero of the neighborhood for a week. Every community has its "chasse communale," a limited area reserved for public shooting. In these commons, the population of sportsmen and sparrows is as two to one. The Parisian "sportsman" has no great distance to go for his game. There is plenty

near the big towns in the great forests. Besides Compiègne, there are within easy distance of the capital, Fontainebleau, Rambouillet, St. Germain, St. Cloud, Vaucresson, Marly, etc., all what may be called hunting-grounds of the state. Ten thousand Parisians take out shooting licenses every year. The season is now only two weeks old, and already seven thousand residents of the capital have sworn to have the blood of some doomed sparrow. They register these oaths at the license bureau, where the right to blaze away in any part of France for a whole year costs only about five dollars. Sunday is the great shooting day. Soon after daybreak you can see at the Paris railway stations groups of men dressed as if for a lion hunt. They wear large picture hats like Fra Diavolo, and fierce, merciless scowls. They talk of the dangers of the chase as if they were nothing at all. They swagger up and down, almost bursting with excitement, elbowing out of their way mere men in ordinary attire. They are objects of great and admiring solicitude on the part of the young women. "There is the brave Alphonse! My heaven, regard him! Regard his face! He has no fear whatever as to the danger. Ah! the hero who goes to shoot the desperate sparrow in the lair of him!" The Parisian sportsman, before aiming at a bird, aims at the picturesque. He must look the part. It is a question of posing. The hat is the thing. It must be of the Tyrolean or sombrero type, recklessly turned up at the side in a devil-may-care, Three-Musketeers kind of way. There must be a feather in it, too, and a big one. The true hunter will not sell the game which falls before his gun, although the market price of a partridge is forty cents, of a pheasant eighty-five cents, and of a hare one dollar. The middle-class sportsman distributes his sparrows and larks among his friends, imitating the sportsmen of noble blood.

And dishes and plates,

Cowl and cope, and rochet and pall!

Mitre and crosier! he hopped upon all.
With a saucy air

He perched on the chair,

Where, in state, the great Lord Cardinal sat, In the great Lord Cardinal's great red hat; And he peered in the face

Of his Lordship's Grace

With a satisfied look, as if he would say, "We Two are the greatest folks here to-day." And the priests with awe,

As such freaks they saw,

Said, "The devil must be in the little Jackdaw!"
The feast was over, the board was cleared,

The flawns and the custards had all disappeared.
And six little singing-boys-dear little souls,
In nice clean faces and nice white stoles-
Came, in order due,

And the Abbot declared that when

twigged it

nobody