The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-05

Derided in speech and in print on ac-
count of his appalling vulgarity, which has
been condemned as even still more Of
fensive and intolerable than that of those
other multi-millionaires, the late Barney
Barnato and COL North, the Nitrate
King" Mr.. Hooley, whose most lavish
offerings to the cause of charity have eX-
cited 1othing but ridicule and contempt,
has at length received the hall mark of
mis- future King, has been the guest at
Sandringham. and has broken bread not
only with the Prince of Wales, but like
wise with the Princess and her daughters,
says a writer in the Washington Post.
1t is probable that the Prince has never
up to this moment done anything that is
calculated TO irritate the vast majority of
his future subjects more than this invi-
tatiOn of MIR. Hooley, whose unpopularity
among all classes of the population is
simply phenomenal. And what adds to the
universal condemnation of the action of
the Prince is the knowledge that his sole
object in asking Mr.. Hooley to Sandring-
ham was for the purpose OF inducing him
70 pay big prices for horse flesh, bred on
the Princes estates.
For years past the Prince has been
breeding hackneys, thoroughbreds, and
shire horses. For a long time the enter
prise was of a most costly and unremuner-
ative character, and il is only during the
last three or four years that it has begun
to pay. And if it has become profitable il
is entirely due to the practice inaugurated
by the Prince of inviting multi-milhon-
aire parvenus and vulgarians to stay at
Sandringham as guests of the Princess of
Wales and himself on the tacit under
standing chat they are to bid largely at
the annual spring auction of horse flesh
held on the estate har
Inc bidding is preceded by luncheon in
tent, adjoining that in which the auction
IS heid, and as the hospitality of the Prince
is generous the champagne flows in guam
Titles, the buyers are naturally impelled
to extravaganza, any tendency which they
might entertain to economy being re-
pressed by the knowledge that the Prin-
cess and her daughters are present, care
fully watching the prices offered, and keen
so at any rate the parvenu believes-to
take note of any tendency on his part to
maggie or to drive bargain.
This plan has proved immensely sue
cessful from financial point of view. In
fact, the average prices which the Prince
mas obtained during the last three years
for his horses Is double, and almost treble,
that which he received in the early nineties
| before he had lnaugurated the scheme of
| inviting new fedged millionaires
to bid under his own eyes and those of the
| Princess, that is to say, under the eyes of
those who have it in their power above ev-
cry one else in the United Kingdom to mar
| or make the social position of a person,
no matter what the birth, source of wealth
manners, or antecedents of the individual,
male or female, may happen to be-
The year before last the Nitrate
| King North, a man who dropped his
his" and who drank like a fish, was the
| richest of the guests invited Na+le tba
| millionaire retail cheap furniture dealer Of
Tottenham Court Road, in London, coming
in second line. Last year the millionaires
invited by the Prince for the horse sale
| comprised Robinson, the South African
| Croesus, and William Waldorf Astor. who
| had never up to that time been honored
with an invitation to Sandringham. This
| year it is Mr.. Hooley who responded noblv
to the expectations of the Prince not only
bidding very heavily himself, but likewise
running up the prices to phenomenal alti-
| tudes in cases where he did not remain the
ultimate purchaser.
From this it will be seen that tba host