The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-05-17
WALES HOLDS A LEvEE.
The Manner in Which the Heir
Apparent Greets His Future
Subjects.
So Much Handshaking Gives Him
a Pain For Three
Days.
He Has Fellow Feeling For an Amcri-
lean President-scheme to Cement
the Empire.

lean President-scheme to Cement
the Empire.
| Especial Correspondence of THE INDEPENDENT. !
LONDON, May 2.-If you want to see Lon
don really look like continental city,
wander round the neighborhood of st.
James palace on one of the days when his
royal highness the prince of Wales ia hold
ing levee. He really is holding drawing
room for men only, on behalf of the queen
and the Court Circular, when announcing
the fact. carefully mentions that ''preaenta-
tions to Fl. II. H., are to be regarded as
equivalent to presentations to he: ma ajesty."
The prince abhors levees; he says that he
always has pain in his back for three
days afterwards, thanks to the continuous
Misunderstanding. He is credited with telling
Mr.. Schenck, when that poker accomplished
gentleman was minister at the court of st.
James, that he considered a president of
the United States one Of the most hardly
used men in existence, because he had to
shake hands SO often.
Levee usually begin about two O'Clock in
the afternoon. The prince travels few
yards from the garden entrance of Mari
| borough house to the garden entrance of
st. James palace, in coach and fout, with
fat coachmen and three funkeys hanging
on behind, surrounded by field marshaps
escort of six-foot-high life guards He takes
| up position in the front of the throne in
the Presence" chamber of the palace,
with all the great officers of state in at
tendance, just as though he were the ac-
tual sovereign instead of the deputy. and
then waits results. 1.-THE results'' usually
consist Of from three to four hundred Off
GERS of all ranks in tho service, fifty or
| sixty peers. who have at some time or other
| enjoyed, Or still enjoy, a more or leas inti-
mate acquaintance with the prince, and the
| three or four dozen other gentlemen who
happen to be desirous for some reason or
other of being permitted for once to say
"How dye do?" to royalty.
All the avenues round the palace are
meanwhile swarIning with men in gorgeous
raiment, for the levee dress of the British
army Is something even more dazzling
than the Polish Hussars of an opera bouffe.
The proverbial poverty of the army man is
we'll illustrated by the numbef of officers
who arrive at the palace on foot, and are
carefully brushed down and polished up by
lackeys in the ante chamber. Every now
and then there is. an amusing contretemps
en- route. A man. not of the military caste,
gets entangled with his sword when alight-
ing from his cab and the roll in the dust
60 distigures his court dress. that he has to
forego presentation. greatly to the joy of
the crowd who witness his chagrin. Some
times an aide-de- camp. who is mass of
gold embroidery, gets splashed by
passing cab, and you see him solicit
ing the good offices of a policeman, or
friendly spectator, to polish him up with a
piece of cloth, which is the best thing for
furnishing gold lace Then, again, you see
little procession of admiring women with
plumed dragoon in their midst, escorting
him in wrapt admiration to the palace, and
waiting an hour or more for his return with
the hand that pressed the royal palm care
fully ungloved to be reverently touched
and probably lin privacy kissed by sisters
aunts and cousins.
In the palace itself the scene is splendid,
and general air of affability rei2ns
throughout. The prince of Wales, with
his fat little body and bald head, does not
look imposing in the brilliant scarlet uni
form Of a Britannia field-marshal; in fact,
at times, he looks even ridiculous when
looking up at some tall guardsman
who bends down to shake hands
with him: Nor does the accent
of his royal highness strikes one as Eng
lish. Indeed, of all the queen's sons, the
prince of Wales hns the most pronounced
German accent. But he does his best to
make everybody feel comfortable, and
shakes hands as heartily with the newest
recruit of a militia regiment as he does with
one of the captains of his own pet CORPS
the Tenth Hussars.
An incident which usually evokes enthu-
siasm is when the colonel of regiment. re-
turning or departing from or to distant
station, approaches the prince at the head |
of all the officers of the regiment. The
grizzled old veteran i'll command always
receives compliment and Il word or two of
f, 1g0N Ill,
Then each officer is presented, and |
the whole lot for moment stand in Il |
group for royal inspection. be- |
fore minpling again with the general
assemblage. Some years ago, when what
was left of the Iwenty-fourth regiment OF
sight to see the genuine emotion with
which the prince of Wales greeted the half
dozen officers who survived the Zulu mas
sacre. But n few years previously they had |
marched past him twenty eight strong.
After the first two hundred or 80 have |
shaken hands with the prince his weariness |
begins. Beads of perspiration chase them
selves down his forehead, and more than |
once his highness has retired for Il minute
into an ante-cha mher, where it Is alleged |
that he revives himself with a soda and |
brandy.
AT the lovee the other day the prince in
vited dozen of the senior oolonels to |
smoke with him III the room Of the palace
which used to be the favourite of George |
III. His highness somehow got to talking
about the great question that English poll
tioians have SO constantly advocated, the
of colonial loyalty. Tho prin
very seldom gives expression to anything
approaching politics, but there is no doubt
that he has been thinking greatly about the
troubles in New Foundland and India. So |
also has he been in the recent |
debates OH Australian federation that he
has had excerpts on the subject taken from
upwards of u hundred Australian papers
pasted into scrap book for his perusal.
Chatting with the officers the other af-
ternoon, the prince said he believed that
the only way to keep the colonies and dis
tant portions of the empire In thorough |
union with the mother country was to treat |
them just the same rs though they were
part and portion of the British isles, and |
all their Inhabitants born Englishmen. He |
thinks that the princes of the English royal |
house should include in their titles desip-
nations representative of India, Australia,
and Canada. For instance prince of Wales
should be described as 'prince imperial"
of India. Other sons of the mon-
arch should be made dukes of
Madras. or Bombay, of Melbourne.
and princesses should be described by the
colleges as "of the British en-
pre- and not as of Great Britain only.
The prince also warmly advocates colonial
in both houses of the Eng
lish parliament. He thinks that the reign
ing native princes of lndia should be created