The Washington herald., 1913-07-06
Court Gossip of Interesting
Events on THO Continents

The British Derby has been de-
scribed by famous men. including
Thackeray and oliver Wendell Holmes.
But the most vivid picture of all will
be found in the opening chapters of
"Sybil.' where Disraeli gives a stirring
description of the victory OF Phosphor-
us in 1887. Unhappily. the entire mar
rative is a peculiarly impudent piece
of plagiarism. 1t is copied, word for
word, from an old number of the Sport
ing Magazine.
The man who went to the EPSON
races toward the end of the eighteenth
century ran the gauntlet of the swim
ding fraternity. He was not safe. in
fact. until he reached his own door
step again. Thus. for instance. i find
this recorded in 1885: There was
much private business done in the
swindling way at the last EPSON races.
One black legged fellow cleared nearly
G1.Oo0 by the old trick of an E. O..
table. Another had faro table, and
was detected with palmed card One
man was robbed of a gold watch and
purse of 80 guineas- Many other
persons shared a similar fate. Up
ward of thirty coaches were robbed
coming from the races.
1t would be difficult to imagine Mr..
Asquith moving the adjournment of
the House in order to give members
a chance of seeing the Derby, yet this
is what Mr.. Gladstone did in 1872. He
did mora, he defended the adjourn
ment against the arguments of Mr.
Thomas Hughes, who pointed out that
as the House had decided to sit. as
usual. on Ascension Day, it would be
absurd to sacrifice a whole day to
the festival of the turf. Mr. Glad
stone agreed that gambling was
great evil. but that. nevertheless. he
saw in the Derby "a noble. manly, dis
tinSuished. and. he might almost say,
historically national sport" For the
first time in thirty-six years the
House sat on Derby Day in 1882. but
1t was an Irish coercion bill that de-
tanned them. and it was agreed that
the reGrettable incident should not
be taken as a precedent. But now
adays Parliamentary time has risen
in value.
The portrait of the King of, England
as carrying his stick in the left hand
are the fault of the negative. But with
out disrespect of monarchy and right
handedness. ! may venture TO bet that
King George. in common with most of
his subjects. is more or less left-handed.
At least l hope he is. For We all have
two hands at a proper birth. and IL is
only by absurd custom that We do not
use both equally.
II You look into your own habits you
will probably md that you are uncon-
sciously left-handed in this or that mat
ter. I knew man who dealt cards with
the left hand He admitted that he could
not deal them with the right But there
was nothing else in which he was left
handed. until he remembered that he al
ways buttoned his clothes with the left
hand. And then an observant man re-
marked that this is the main difference
between men and women. For women
button their clothes with the right hand.
and the clothes are cut accordingly. Men
with the left. Is there a moral con-
cealed here?
A prominent young Partisan clubman
was visited recently by a handsome
woman. who represented herself as
Princess Salam.'' and presenting a let
ter of introduction purporting to be sign
ed by Monseigneur Journe. Canon OF
Caracas. whom the clubman had met in
a society drawing-room. The visitor re-
lated that she belonged to the Salam-
Ryndurg family. Princess of the Holy
Empire. She had married. she said. a
nobleman connected with the Imperial
family. who had left her an immense
fortune. while in addition her private for
tune amounted to sle.0o00oo. She now
wished TO reside permanently in
France.
The clubman offered to do all he could
to be useful to the princess" They met
frequently. and at last the clubman pro-
posed marriage and was accepted. and he
placed on the princess finger an en-
gagement ring that had cost 5000 francs.
A few DAYS later the princess" departed
for Madrid ostensibly to settle private
matters and 10 have an interview with