The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-11-01
usELxss ROYALTY.


 ply scatteyed. It would be strange, in- deed, if 1t were not. It has grown to such huge proportions that what with the children, grandchildren, great-grand- children and nephevs and nieces of the queen, who are all of them princes and princesses, together with the numerous German poverty-stricken grand dukes who by right of their cousinship with the queen kabitually live on her subjects. there would be no one spot large enough Co hold them, were all the royal palaces and castles rolled into one. Strictly speaking, the royal family means only the immediate members of the reigninR house, but in these days a wider latitude seems to be given to the expression, and every highness is included in the roy alties."
 Of course, the queens movements are of the most importance; but beyond the ssereotyped journeys between Osborne and BalmoraI every summer in her ice covered railway carriage, her existence is . very monotonous-not to say pokey- one. The John Brown stories gave a piquancy to her surroundings that has quite faded nov. It is the doings of the prince of Wales that attract the most notice, and it is therefore net to be won- dered at that not only is every little trivial event of his daily private life chronicled to the world vith great flourish and read even with greater avidity. but in many instances invention takes the place of fact, and his royal highness is credited with the doing of things he never heard n c rF 0f s.~.h s~ thus told of him has a decidedly nice and naughty" tint, it is not surprising that he should have achieved the reputa- ton of fast ways which seems to be world wide. don't for a moment mean to say that the princes reputation in this respect is in the very least exaggerated There are enough truths of discredita- ble character to be laid at his door to dis grace the names of dozen other men i; so that few more manufactured yarns about him here and there can do him DO harm. The "tidbits" one reads in the scandal columns of the gossipy weekly papers during the season are generally the brain product of the Marlborough house servants. These pass current with the common run of readers OF .he out skirts of society, who dote upon such reading. and who suppose they are being led into the inmost secret workings of the royal heart. But people in the swim the inner swim-ot London society treat the vulgar, prying personalities as unworthy of a moments thought, except to laugh at their absurdities. Whatever is really worth hearing within their own circle they know already, and do not reed to have their own or their neighbor's servants tell them of it in the peculiarly inflated style and vulgar diction in which the hearts of servants and society penny a-hners seem so especially to delight when expatiating upon the doings of roy ally and the "hupper suckles." Nor could they possibly care to be informed that "the prince of Wales takes his morning tub at forty-fve degrees Fahren- heit ;; that "the princess wears red silk stockings in bed," or that Lady Wini- fred Herbert's uuderclothes are trimmed with the cheapest kind of Hamburg edg- ing" Such intelligence seems to be rel ished only by people who have no entree among the circles spoken about. Of what value, for instance, would a letter from New York be that described the doings of the swellest society there if it were written by a man who had been once inside the Union or Knickerbocker clubs, and then only by the merest chance? It is puzzle to me that Amer. jeans don't see what 1 mean and resent this sort of English high life commenta- Ties. penned fer their edi6catiot by a class of London newspaper correspond- ents whose sphere" ought never, by rights, to have a wider range than theatricals- If these pen driving eentle- men who call themselves l" Journalists l" would only content themselves with de- tailing the personal peculiarities of actors and actresses and describing the habits and customs of the London Bo- hemia.' they would furnish the readers of the papers that employ them with something of value to read, instead of what is quite useless to anybody of sense. or what earthly interest, for example, can 1t be to any one-and, of all people, to Americans-to know that the prince of Wales smokes a cigarette in the garden atter breakfast every morning; that he gets up at 10 o'clock, or at what hour he plays billiards at his club?
 The duke of Edinburgh attracts the least interest of all the "royaltieS.n He is cold, selfish and miserly, and be 6lls but small portion of the British heart. Nor does his wife add to his popularity. or, rather, mend his lack of it. She is proud, arrogant and domineerine. and to assert her pre.eminence as the em- peror of Russia's daughter appears to be desire on her part which overrides all others. The duke does deuced little for his country in return for his admiral's pay, which he draws without in the least needing it; and he gets the best app point. menss in the navy, to the detriment of older and better, though less royal " oficers. He is said to be good officer. But what of thatf Why shouldn' he be People who can't see anything but good in the royal family seem to lay great stress on the fact that Edinbureh knows his profession. It would be simply dis graceful if he didn't know it. And nov t l. published out that Prince George of Wales has passed nearly . perfect