The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-07-02
THE PRINCE OF WALES DEBTS.
Huriiiiations to Which He Is Subjected
| Because of Lack of Money,

Probably nobody alive could answer the
question, even approximately, offhand.
For 30 years at least his books have
SHOWN a balance on the wrong side, and
despite the large sums annually passing
into his&strong box, the deficit is be-
feSed8 to have increased every year
with gloomy regularity. In 1854 ne
was said to be getting, from all sources
combined, about 100000 year. What
his gross income is now it would puzzle
anybody to find out. Mr. Gladstone,
in 1SP9, with that knightly Difference
to the dynastic principle which has al
ways. Abeen so marked a characteristic
in him land which has been constantly
repaH by the most spiteful ingrati-
tude from at least the head of the
dynasty, passed through the house of
commons measure to consolidate, re-
arrange and otherwise reform the
whole business of royal grants, with
particular reference to the prince of
Wales and his family. Mr.. Gladstone
vouched for the bill in a speech of great
earnestness and eloquence, and it went
through all right, but have never met
anyone who felt sure that he under
stood the exact effect of its provisions.
i assumed, however, that it GER
left the prince no worse off than
he was before, and it did, in one re
spect, definitely increase his specified
income by creating a new grant OF
$lS0,00O year to him for his children
this to be in lieu of further grant
to them as individuals during his life
time. Since then his elder son has died
and his elder daughter has married a
banker-peer, who is also an intimate
friend of the prince, and who, we may
be sure, has relieved him from the
necessity of accounting for that par.
ticular fourth of the grant. Another
daughter, Princess Maud, is to wed
a cousin of the Danish family, who will
be handsomely provided for from a
financial point of view, and it may be
taken for granted that here, too, no
heavy outlay is to be dreaded by the
prince, her father.
The prince of Wales still has. there
fore, gross income of $500 900 or more,
and yet, with all the machinery for
Tightening his current expenses, which
experience and necessity have perfect
ed, he gets more and more into debt.
l have seen with my own eyes 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. They had asked very
respectfully for a settlement, and this,
in substance, was the answer, which,
as has been said, personally saw: His
royal highness is extremely annoyed
at your communication, and inStructs
me to say that if he gets any more such
letters his patronage of your establish
ment will be at once and permanently
withdrawn. | inclose $3.50 on account,
which is the most that can be done at
presMt.' ...
1t easy to think harshly of the stu
atieA disclosed by such a document as
this, but somehow to me the pathos of it
comes uppermost. If ever man was
q.
and then remorselessly held there, as in
avise, by forces entirely beyond his con-
troll, it is this unhappy prince of Wales.
1t is not open to him to go through the
bankruptcy court. He cannot cut down
his current outlay to any such econom-
ical point as would yield savings large
enough TO affect the ryer-mounting
principal of his debts. He has to 90 on
in the weary treadmill, using the money
that comes in TO eXtinguish here and
there ancient claims which double
themselves at usurious rates, mean
while contracting new obligations tic
rise up and confound him later on.
If there were no other signs of this.
the social humiliasons to which the
prince has surrendered himself during
the past dozen years, solely for the sake
of the money they would yield, would
furnish ample evidence. | have spoken
often before of the peculiar significance
of Reuben Sassoun's presence at that
notorious Tranby Croft baccarat party.
The repellent old creature did not play
at the game, but he had an important
connection with it all the samoa con-
nection which alone accounted for his
having been admitted to the house at
all. His function was to sit behind the
prince and to put on the table out of his
pocket the necessary counters when
ever the prince lost. All the chips that
the prince won were net gain to his
royal highness.
A plain man might he 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 on
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 vast
ly brighter blaze of publicity than the
others. That is all. OF course there
are princes of great position, like the
German emperor and his brother, who
do not play cards, and who hate the
whole debased atmosphere of gambling
and so7called '"sport" in which so much
of modern royalty is plunged. But
they are rare exceptions, and through
the others, the great majority, this he "
and sinister figure OF the court favorite,
called indifferently Hirsch. or Sassoun,
ar RleiChrnflar ar I nIpalyoS L,c Ioa,,