The Washington herald., 1911-06-27

well. These have their gold and jeweled
howdahs, one Of which Is the Rift OF
Queen Victoria. Another for the little
princes is borne by silver Ieopards, which
have spots of chrysoprase and aqua
marine. There are great forehead
chains of pure gold inlaid with every
gem. And for those who wish to clint
up into the howdah there are ladders Of
solid silver.
The stables contain other treasures.
There Is a victoria made of gold and a
litter for the use of the Maharani (his
wifel. also made Of gold, with curtains
of cloth of gold and handles set with
rubies. And then there is the wonderful
silver bullock wagon, with beautiful en-
bEoidered hangings of gold tissue. And
last of all, there is a cannon of solid sill
yer which former ruler of Baroda had
made, and another of solid gold which q
successor, not to be outdone, had cast.
But, fortunately for his people, the
Gaekwsr's training under European in
fiuences has led him to see that where
the Oriental fails in his contact with the
Occident is In the matter of education.
His four sons have had the benefit of an
English public school and university ed
ucation, having studied at Eton and Ok
ford. The Maharaja Kumar-the Baroda
crown prfnce-is quite European in his
tastes. He was allowed TO choose his
own bride, and to see her face before
marriage
1t was remarked at the accession of the
late King Edward that he was the first
bearded British King for nearly three
hundred years. The Inflated Charles I
was his immediate predecessor in this
respect. He assembled the throne in
1925. while Edward VII succeeded his
mother In 1901. Charles was the last of
the kings for very long time to repre-
sent the ElIzabethan or Shakespearean
fashion of the pointed beard and to wear
only his own hair on his head.
Cromwell, the uncrowned King Of Eng
land, wore no wig, as did the long line
OF kings before him, but he certainly
wore his own hair pretty long. Charles
II wore tremendous wig. curled into a
hundred ringlets. but the only hair on
his face was a slight mustache. None
OF his successors, until the day Of Ed
ward VII, boasted even that much. Both
boards and mustaches went clear out of
fashion. James II, William III. all the
Georges, and William ~ were Just as
clean shaven as their masculine sub
Jects. There was a time when a beard
was not seen in all England within
living memory.
In wearing a beard Charles I followed
the example OF his father James, who
was Scottish king before he was an
English sovereign. He most probably
followed the customs Of his predecessors
in his northern kingdom. In England he
had been preceded by two queens and a
boy king, and with respect to boards
had no precedent to follow. even had he
desired to do so. Henry VIII, nearly a
hundred years before the time OF James,
had been as much an innovater in re-
spect to whiskers as Edward VII, was
later on, for, like the late King, that
much-married monarch could look back
upon several barefaced predecessors
without a break as none of the kings
from Henry v to Henry VII wore any
hair upon their faces.
Prior to the time of Henry v, however,
boards might be said to have been al
most the rule. Indeed, from William I,
In 1866, to the death of Henry ", IN
1913, no King sat on the English throne
who was clean shaven. The ConQueror
and his two sons and SUCCESSORS were
content with mustaches only, as were
Henry II and Richard II. But Richard
Occur de Lion, It would seem, made the
beard fashionable, for his brother John.
Henry II and Richard II. But Richard
gave the razor the go-by.
Though George v is the first of his
name to sport beard, Edward VII only
was following the example Of his most
famous predecessors. Thus out of thirty
three kings that have ruled in England
the beard wearers and the clean shaven
almost provide a tie. There were thir-
teen Of the former and fourteen OF the
taches. FJANEUR.