Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1902-12-26
CH0WFA'S LOVE NOTES
Siamese Princes Wooing Of
an American Actress.
SENT HER MANY WARM VERSES.


to the United States Is said ~
Have Written to Miss MabeIIe Gill
man While He Was mt College In
England.
The passionate press agent for Ma
belle Gilman has broken into that ac-
tress' writing desk and stolen there
from a packet of letters. and the other
day he gave TO the world the love let
tiers of the Prince of Siam. says the
New York Tribune. Miss Gilman, who
Is called Tcherno Okaya by her Sia-
mese swain, was sorry-quite grieved,
In fact-that the letters had got out.
She could not understand how the
press agent dared TO take them with
out her permission.
The prince. by the bye, has left the
country and is well on his way TO
Siam. The wise heads may take this
fact for what II is worth.
The Prince of Siam first met Miss
Gilman In London, when she was there
with The Belle of New York" al ~
dangerous rival of Edna May in the al
fections Of royalty" the phrase is
bubble from the lips of her press agent.
Their friendship seems TO have in
spired the crown prince TO pour forth
verse that If quantity counted should
have won for him the Newdigate prize.
Letters from him to her in 1901 bear
the seal of Christ college, oxford, and
In all of them are inclosed verses,
sometimes two or three separate
poems. On the backs of the photo
graphs he sent her he was more mod
crate, contenting himself with quoting
from the poems of other men. If the
letters themselves did not furnish proof
OF the genuineness of the story, the
fact that these quotations are from
Lovelace, Carew, $. T. Coleridge and
Omar the Tentmaker would at once
put them beyond the invention of Miss
Gilman's press agent.
The first Of the letters made public
is dated from the Siamese legation,
London. I'm December. 1900, and begins
"My Dear Miss Gilman"
oht luttl, NilNlHS llplll cAtOIht
he opens as follows:
My ''Tcherno Okaya"-I hope you know
what this means by now for you should
have got the book l sent you the other
day. But in case of accidents | had best
explain that "Tcherno Okaya" is Russian
and. being translated. means sparkling
eyes" Who deserves the name better
than you?
This he signs "BiJou."
In this letter the verse begins 1t Is
funny how oxford affects people as
Sue used to remark TO Jude The poem
inclosed Is called THE Princes Rev
erie" and consists of five quatrains
modelled on the Rubalyat and prefaced
by the famous quatraln beginning All,
love, could you and with him CON
splre," which the prince misquotes,
though Mabelle probably didn't know
1t. His problem seems to be some
thing like that which faces the hero Of
"Alt Heidelberg" for he sings, after
three predatory and ardent stanZas:
All, love. II only thou vert born princess
Or else myself were only something less
Than that which / am now-of rank so
Oh. then we two might know such happi-
ness
The best hours of my life away have
flown.
But am SO thankful that have known
The best and sweetest Joy upon this
earth
And that once l did call thee, love, my
own.
NV.
Writing from Washington in October
Of the present year he again reverts to
verse for consolation, the shadow OF
coming parting cast across the paper.
The poem is of four stanZas, wherein
he goes LOvelace, who furnishes the
model. one better. The poem closes as
follows:
All. would I go, were 1t not such
As Lovelace sang of yore-
"I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved not honor more?'
At the Bijou theater the other night
Miss Gilman said she might some day
visit Slam, but, on the whole, she con-
sidered America good enough for her.
In reply to the question put to her by
an unabashed reporter whether or not
the prince proposed, she replied, What
would you have done"
This seemed to admit of but one an
swer, and she was allowed to make
her entrance on the stage, where she
could be heard singing, "Oh, listen to
the mocking bird"