The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-09
NEW YORK TOPICS.
xoRK PREPARING TO OUTDO
HERSELF IN ENTERTAINING
PRINCE HENRY.

.,Iiarities of Mr.. Thomas Hitch
.oc. V7ho Refuses to Give Up His
- nj the Opera for the Prince.
,,a.ct of the "standing Room"
probibition on the Theaters-Sari-
of Life Near the Big Tunnel.
MI. penalty of Riches Is PubIic-
ity.
>-oc York, Feb. 1T will be ex-
.dinplv warm in the ancient, city. to
,,o,,rov a Filipino rendering of a song
..o,,lar with our army, when Prince
41aor1, lands upon Manhattan Island.
II is considerable time now since we
,,a,e entertained royalty or anyone
nssr TO royalty. Grand Duke Michael
80 russia was our last visitor of that
~, if memory serves me, and before
him was Ii Hung Chang, who, with
,is bland smile and his rapid-fire ques-
zion apparatus occupied a. consider
ohle space in the public mind and
aoaused crowd to collect in violation
Of the ordinance duly made and pro-
vided" whenever he took the air.
.boigh he never got himself arrested
hr it. Then there was the Infanta
Il rnlalie and the Duke of Veragua and
ho other High Mightinesses who
n helped us celebrate the discovery Of
4 the new world by Columbus. We treat
Al them all courteously-even enthus-
q sstically. But all that will be as
nothing to the splurge when the Kali
ser's brother comes. This time we are
4 rpally going to fall all over ourselves.
4 Prince Henry will be honored and en-
tertained in English and in German
bv singing societies and eating socie-
tes and official circles OF various cir
Il conference; he will meet our kings
z of commerce and our captains of in
dustry and our bosses of politics-such
as have sufficient pull-the opera house
and theater will give special perform
ances in his honor. with special prices
for the public. Meantime we are all
clearing our throats and learning to
say "Hoch der Princel" 1t can be
done simultaneously with little prac
tice
Of course, there is a rift within the
lutte. There always is on such an oc-
cssion. This one is furnished by Mr..
Thomas Hitchcock who holds one of
the opera house boxes which is wanted
for the Princes suite. Mr.. Hitchcock
says that he has entertained German
noblemen at his house and he knows
what's what, and the Germans them
selves laugh at the sight of a demoe-
racy bowling down in the dust before
one of their royal family; that it's all
funkery and he won't give up his box.
Thereby Mr.. Hitchcock, although he is
not among the invited to meet she
Prince, is getting great deal more
public notice out of the occasion than
anybody else in the city. The man
ayers of the festal affair are not a lit
tie troubled, though they now an
nounce that they have another box
offered to them that is "juss as good"
That they can prevail upon Mr.. Hitch
cock to do anything that he doesn't
wish TO do is highly improbable. He
is a very determined old gentleman;
likewise a very amusing one, one. of
the few picturesque figures left In New
York society. Like Commodore Kerry,
he wears a fur hat, though to do him
justice, it is much better hat than
the Commodore's and has never
achieved so much notoriety, and with
this on his head his feet enclosed in
huge artics, and his coat tails flap
ping in the wind as he wanders along
with rather shambling gait, he looks
more like a kindly old Presbyterian
minister on a visit to the city, than
p prominent figure in the older set of
the Four Hundred. For the rest he
has scathing tongue, wields pen
no less scathing when he feels like 1t,
possesses a great deal of money and
is very glad of it, and takes excellent
care that none of it shall get away
Il from him without adequate return.
Perhaps this feeling accounts in part