The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-29
DEBTS OF ROYALTY.
Tradesmen Wait Patiently and Present
No Bills to Kings.


There are many persons who will envy
the privilege which royalty enjoys of never
being dunned for tradesmen's bills. The
great Partisan dressmakers in particular
make a point of never sending in any
account to their royal and imperial Gus
toners unless specially requested to do So
AT the same time all sorts of clever arti-
fees and devices are adopted to remind
customers OF this exalted rank-without
appearing to do so-that money is due
and payments desirable, says the Chicago
Record.
Some of the scions of royalty are very
punctilious and exact about their pay
ments, especially the Princess of Wales,
who has from the English crown an indie
pendent allowance OF $50 900 per annum
which is supposed to be entirely spent in
dress-not so difficult matter when it is
borne in mind that throughout the Lon
don season the Princess, the observed of
all observers, never appears second time
in the same toilet, that the toilets are
changed several times a day, and that
many of them, especially those for evening
and court wear, cost $1,000 and $500 EACH
Very different from the Princess of Wales
is the Dowager Queen of Portugal, who is
perennially hard up in spite of the large
allowances she receives from the Portu-
guese and Italian civil lists. Her trades
men at Paris, whence she gets all her
clothes, have to wait years for their money,
which they get only when some of those
Portuguese loans happen to be floated or
when the Queen is able to get her brother
King Humbert of Italy, TO come to her
rescue and fill her depleted purse.
The members of the Russian court are
very exact and unquestioning in their pay
ments, and so, too, is Queen Marguerite of
Italy, the punctiliousness in this respect
III, 4 - II,
who. still suffering from the disastrous eff
fects of the insane extravaganza of his
father, Victor Emmanuel, is careful to run
as few bills as possible, and, so far as he
can, to pay as he goes.
This immunity from duns does not ey-
tend to royal personages whose families
have been deprived of their thrones or who
are compelled to prefix an lex" to their
title. Thus, ex-King Milan of Servia is
constantly being dunned and sued, while
old ex-Queen Isabella of Spain every now
and again gets into such a terrible snarl
with her Partisan tradesmen that her
daughter-in-law, the Queen Regent. is
compelled to send members of her own
household from Madrid to straighten mat
tiers out and to assume charge of the old
lady's liabilities
There is a popular impression abroad
that the Prince of Wales is frequently
dunned by tradesmen. But this is not the
case. l don't suppose he ever received a
tailor's bill in his life, and his pressing
needs for money, which drive him into such
extraordinary and promiscuous friendships
and associations, are attributable to loans
coming due and to gambling and racing
debts. Perhaps the most unpunctual and
least satisfactory of royal personages with
whom to run a bill is the present Emperor
of Germany, reigning sovereign who
comes about as near being dunned like an
ordinary mortal as any one could find. the
tradesmen who are unable to get their
money taking out their annoyance in dis
agreeable remarks that bring them danger
ously near Indictment for the crime of lese-
majestic