Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1893 — Making Court Fools. [ARTICLE]

Making Court Fools.

During the reiftn of Peter the First. Czar of Russia, it was thb custom of that tyrant to punish thoso nobles who offended him by an imperial order that they should become fools, from which moment the unfortunate viotim, however endowed with intellect, instantly became the laughing stock of tho whole court. He had the privilege of saying everything he chose, at the peril, however, of being kicked or horsewhipped, without daring to offer any sort of retaliation. Everything he did was ridiouled, his complaints treated as Jests, and his sarcasms sneered at and commented on as marvelous proofs of understanding in a fool. The Empress Anne surpassed this abominable cruelty, but sometimes mingled in her practices so muoh of oddity that it was impossible not to bo much entertained. Once she decreed that a certain Prince G should become a hen, to punish him for some trifling misdemeanor, and for this purpose she ordered a large basket, stuffed with straw and hollowed into a nest, with a quantity of eggs inside, to bo placed conspicuously in one of the principal rooms at court. The Prince was condemned, on pain of death, to sit upon this nest and render himself to the last degree ridiculous by Imitating the cackling of a lion.