Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-01-14

What needed to know more? A life
that was dear to me had gone out. | had
seen it in its fight!
TATTOOED THE PRINCE.
"A Laughable story of the Heir to the Brit.
ish Crown.
| have made the acquaip lance of such q
quaint, clever old retired sea CAPTAIN. with
great white eyes and snow white hair and
mustache. He had been the world over
several times, and there seemed to be moth.
ing nor nobody which and whom he has
not seen or heard.
Just now we are so NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
per intimate-wltn the prince of Wales
and his doings, perhaps an anecdote
which the captain told me of George,
the princes second son, may be anus.
ing.
he captain, some years ago, was in San
Francisco with his ship 1t was charter
ed by big manufacturing company to 90
to New South Wales, where the captain
was to buy 1000 tons of a certain celebra-
ted bltuminous coal, says the New York
journal, for which the company contract
ed to pay IS a ton, delivered in San
francisco.
He arrived safely and put up at the flu
est hotel In Sidney. At this hotel were
staying the duke of Edinburgh, With his
nephew. a son of the prince of Wales, and
young Gladstone, nephew of the great
statesman. They were then taking a trip
around the world, the boys in the care Of
the duke of Edinburgh, who commanded
the ship.
My sea captain made their acquaintance
and dlned with them the first day of his ar
rival. He told the boys some of his iolliest
stories and they took to each Other i'm
mensely, but strange to tell, he did not
catch vestige of them for the next two
weeks.
One day they appeared again suddenly,
seized the captain by the hand and insisted
upon his going i'm mediately to join them
In glass of champagne in homo. OF the
meeting.
"W here on earth have you been hid
'ng?' asked the captain.
''ln bed, answered the prince, with a
sound, half groan; half chuckle, land it's
all the fault of that long legged beast,
Tom Nolan"
Then young Gladstone put in a naughty
word and wrapped out:
YES; the beggar declared we would
heal up In one day. I'd lke to thrash
him, but his back is yard across, and |
could not knock him down, you know, il
| tried"
what the dickens did he do to you?"
"Why, see here" said the prince, and
the captain, putting on his spectacles, dis.
covered that the princes under lip had
been tattooed with the royal broad ar
row. while young Gadstone's lip was
similarly decorated with an anchor, two
L. ,cI Ill. L.
would last all their lives.
Choking with suppressed laughter the
captain said:
THE Old salt has done his work well,
but this need not have kept you in bed two
weeks. -
''Oh, bless you. no. said the prince,
dolphins and mermaids, and notices,
pretty much all over us, and oh it's
abominable, you know, for we were soon
with pain. 1t don't matter, now it all
over" added the prince, rather ruefully,
''out, by George! I'll never be caught
In such a trumpetry scrape again"
Nor |, chimed In young Gladstone,
with an emphatic bang of his list On the
table; but the worst of it is, you know,
that we shall be dancing and flirting at
balls and praying In church with all these
ridiculous mermaids and idiotic what-a-
callems prancing around with us all along
the line. George has made a royal jackass
of himself, and | am -"
"a radical jackass," laughed the cap
tain.
And The signs of it will last forever.
1on will have to dance and pray and offer
yourselves to your sweethearts, mcrmaids
and ALL for better, for worse"
Then he made a solemn ordnance at
then, and they all burst out laughing
and the boys invited him to inspect the
splendid ship, in which they were steam
ing over the world, and while there the
captain put the youngsters up to playing
some high jinks upon the old sailor who
had persuaded them to be tattooed, by
way of an awful retribution.
A day or two after the great ship steam
ed away, and the captain. ehaving loaded
the ship with the coal he was to get, set
sail for California.
He tod me with an irresistible wink
that he bought the coal for two dollars a
ton. Two dollars more covered every ex-
pense to the door of the great manufacto-
ry, so that the result wac tidy little for
tune for the captain.
Some years afterward he was in Yoko-
hama, and left it at night by getting On
board a ship bound for California 10 the
morning he rose early to watch the last
receding shores of Japan. A tall, hand
some young man came out of his stateroom
at the same moment, in his dressing
robe
Hello" he cried, "why, if here amt
my dear old captain! How are you? SO
glad to meet you again"
The puzzled captain looked at the young
man in vain hope to recognize him, when
the other, lifting splendid mustache,
disclosed tattooed anchor on his lip.
"Oh, now know you You are Glad
stone. What big, good lsoking fellow
you are, to be sure"
''All you see of me, laughed the other.
MY friends, the mermaids and notices,
still cling closer than brother, and under
ny clothes In show for your circus
rlend Barr UNI. But come with me and
rink a good-by champagne cup to
Japan"
And then they went over the New South
Wales adventure and had most enj9ya-
Die, jolly chat together.-San Francisco
Examiner.
About Navy Flags.