Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-06


A prince is not to US what he is to Eu-
ropean, of course We have not been
| taught to regard him as god. and so one
good look at him is likely to so nearly ap-
pease our curiosity as to make him an OBJ
Ject of no great interest next time. We
want fresh one. But it is not SO with the
European, am quite sure of it. The same
old one will answer; lie never stales.
Eighteen years ago was in London, and I
| called at an Englishman's house ON bleak
| and foggy and dismal December afternoon
| to visit his wife and married daughter, by
appointment I waited half an hour, and
then they arrived, frozen. They explained
that they had been delayed by an unlocked
| for circumstance; while passing in the
neighborhood of Marlborough House they
saw crowd gathering, and were told that
the Prince of Wales was about to drive out,
so they stopped to get sight of him. They
had waited half hour on the sidewalk,
freezing with the crowd, but were disap-
pointed at last-the Prince had changed his
mind said, with good deal of surprise:
'Is it possible that you two have lived in
London all your lives and have never seen
the Prince of Wales?"
Apparently it. was their turn to be sur
prised, for they exclaimed:
"What an ideal Why, we have seen
him hundreds of times"
They had seen him hundreds of times, yet
they had waited half an hour in the gloom
and the bitter cold, in the midst of a jam of
patients from the same asylum on the
chance of seeing him again. 1t was stupe-
tying statement, but one is obliged to be-
Heve the English, even when they say a
thing like that I fumbled around for
remark, and got out this one:
81 can't understand it at all If ! had
never seen General Grant doubt if would
do that even to get sight Of him, ," with
slight emphasis on the last word.
Comparing Grant and Tummy.
Their blank faces showed that they won
dered where the parallel came in. Then
they said blandly:
''Of course not. He is only Presi-
dent"
1t is doubtless fact that a prince is
permanent interest, an interest not subject
to deterioration. The General who was
never defeated, the General who never held
q council of war, the only General who ever
commanded connected battle front l 200
miles long, the smith who welded together
the broken parts of great Republic, and
re-established it where it is quite likely to
outlast all the monarchies present and to
come, was really person of no serious con-
sequence to these people. To them, with
their training, my General was only man
after all, while their prince was clearly
much more than that, being of wholly
unsimilar construction and constitution, a
being Of no more blood and kindship with
men than are the serene eternal lights of
the armament with the poor dull tallow
candles of commerce that sputter and die
and leave nothing behind but pinch of
ashes and a stink.
1 saw the last act of "Tannhauser" I
sat in the gloom and deep stiffness, waiting
one minute, two minutes. do not know
exactly how long-then the soft music of
the hidden orchestra began to breathe its
rich, long sighs out from under the distant
stage. and by and by the drop curtain
parted in the middle and was drawn slowly
aside, disclosing twllighted woods and
wayside shrine, with white-robed girl
praying and a man standing near Present.
ly that noble chorus of mems voices was
heard approaching, and from that moment
until the closing of the curtain it was