The herald., 1896-06-07

fore. a gross income of half a million
dollars or more. and yet, with all the
machinery for tightening his current
expenses which experience and neces-
sity have perfected, he gets more and
more into debt | have seen with my
own eyes a letter written not long ago
by his principal man of business to an
old established firm of wine merchants,
to whom the prince had owed about
$4,000 for five years or more. Tney mad
asked very respectfully for settlement,
and this. in substance, was the answer.
which, as has been said, ! personally
saw: His Royal HighnesS is extremely
annoyed al your communication, and in
structs me to say that if he gets any more
such letters his patronage of your estab-
lishment will be at once and permanently
withdrawn. l inclose $3.50 on account,
which is the most that can be done at
present"
1t is easy to think harshly of the sit
uation disclosed by such a document as
this, but somehow to me the pathos or
it comes uppermost. If ever man was
thrust by fortune into false position,
and then remorselessly held there. as in
a vice by forces entirely beyond his con-
troll. it is this unhappy Prince of Wales.
1t is not open to him TO go through bank
ruptcy He cannot cut down his cur
rent outlay to any such economical point
as would yield savings large enough 10
affect the ever-mounting prmclpal OF MS
debts. He has to go on in the weary
treadmill using the money that comes
in TO eXtinguish here and there ancient
claims which double themselves at US
urious rates, meanwhile contracting new
obligations to rise up and coniouhd MN
later on No doubt these lonS years
have brough with them a good deal
of Indifference, rot to say callousness,
on the subject of being in debt one can
we'll ina gine that the prince is no longer
keenly sensitive about the matter, ana
has learned not to blush at sight OF the
signs of tradesmen whose blils remain
unpaid But that the buroen OF tne
MI Weighs on him, grinds and gals
and depresseS him, is none the less pain
enough.
If there were no other signs OF thls
the social humiliations to Wnlch the
prince has surrendered hl1nSelI uuIllS
the past dozen years, solely Tor the sake
of the money they would yleld, Wouid
furnish ample evidence. nave spoken
often before of the peculiar significance
of Reuben Sassoun's presence at the
notorious Tranbv Croft baccarat party.
The repellent old creature dld not play
at the game. but he had an important
connection with it all the samoa con
nection which alone accounted lor MS
having been admitted to the house at
ALL His function was 10 SIT pehiHG
the prince, and put on the taole out Oh
his own pocket the necessary counters
whenever the prince lost. All the chips
that the prince won were net gain to his
royal highness.
4 plain man might be forgiven for
thinking that it was not worth while to
be a royal highness on such terms as
these. But, practically, all the sporting
princes of Europe have gone down to the
level, and are not ashamed to be seen
there. The Prince of Wales suffers from
the double misfortune of being much
harder up and of living in a vastly
brighter blaze of publicity than the
others. that is all. OF course there are
princes of great position, like the Ger
man emperor and his brother who do
not play cards. and who hate the whole
debased atmosphere of gambling and
so-called sport in which so much of
modern royalty is plunged. But they
are rare exceptions. and, through the