The Washington times., 1936-01-28
BY JAMES FRANCIS
Copyright, 1885. by International News
Service

~NASSSAAAsN4J
xeticence, said nothing of Edward
Of Wales activities on the front
and it was characteristic that all
we have for the records are the
official French dispatches, deal
ing with the fact that he spent
July to October Of 1917 with his
unit at BoesinghecS Langemarck.
The dispatches cited that the
Prince:
did duty for q time in the
trenches with his battalion"
(The 14th British Army COrps).
There is no doubt, either, that
he did, for we have the record
that he was standing in q trench
one day, not more than 80 yards
from the German front line, talk
ing to a Tommy. The latter sud
denly slumped to the ground and
died In the Princes arms. He had
been shot through the lungs by q
German Sniper.
The latter'S eye was excellent,
but his judgement execrable. For
purposes Of poSterity and the fate
Of great empires, he had shot the
wrong man.
In keeping with this age Of the
glittering generality, it may be said
that we're a people who live strict
" on the gallop and do our think
ing with tag lines. SO it isn't sur
prising, with so much that was
spurious in the postwar reactions
Of q distract and bewildered world,
that the then Edward of Wales
came to be known by a few titles
which, while neither ultra-flatter-
ing nor wholly irTeverent, never
theleSs found no place upon the
pages of Burkes peerage.
The "Playboy Prince" was one;
Bachelor Prince" and Empire
Salesman" a few more and, in the
interests Of strict accuracy, one
may concede that these were not
altogether inappropriate.
Hot Spots Knew Him Well
The fact that he is the first
King Of England to come to the
throne unmarried in more than
500 years has been duly or unduly
dwelt. upon, as the case may be,
and there was the time not so long
ago.when the night clubs of Broad
way, the Montmartre and Picarilly
knew him often and sometimes
well. But, after all, if boyhood
Is arrested by the exigencieS Of
state, who can quarrel if, like
many another, he sometimes tried
to recapture the illusion, if not the
substance?
Besides, these we're moments Of
relaxation away from a confirming,
exciting job. To use a colloquial-
ism, If he played, he did it on his
''own time"
The craftsmanship was real, If
consciously ambiguous. OF all the
goodwill visits to the nations OF
the world, only one could be said
to have been influenced by per
sonal considerations. The summer
he spent at his PIG" ranch in
Canada, it is limited, may have
been prompted by a desire to
escape a royal princess who was
understood to have set her matr1-
monial cap for him.
u. S. Lost Trade
The other tours were sheer pro
motion for his dominion and, If
this seems implausible, American
business can tell another story OF
the valuable South American con-
tracts it lost to England soon after
the princes tour of the continent.
Indirect SaleSmanship' only, Of
course. They had met Edward
p" and they were his
There wa, in fact, a funda-
mental vein of gravity and serious
ness about this royal young man,
as he clearly indicated during the
war with his campaigns to aid
the wounded and, after it, with
his solicitude for the unemployed.
Moreover, it was about this time
that his natural bent took a course
that was certain to make for in
creased popularity. He became
something of Joiner" being in
Quoted as a freeman to this vii
lage and that and, finally, as an
honorary member of the bar in
London.
FiShmOngers Sponsor Him!
When the time came for the
prince to accept, in a public cere-
mony, the freemanship of the city
of London, the lord mayor went
through the formality of asking
who his sponsor was.
1t turned out to be the Fishmon-
gers Association!
Always, too, there was his tai.
ent for saying and doing the ap-
propriate thing-the word that
pleased the ear, the gesture that
somehow fired the imagination.
There was the occasion of his
first arrival in New York in 1919
and the wild scenes that ensued
during the parade through the
streets, with young girls pelting
him from behind police lines with
rose petals.
This" said he-and the re-
mark was duly recOrded-"thiS
is The first time 1 ever knew
what it was to feel like a BRIDE"
Not bad, that. In fact, just
about the head of the class for
utterances in country that dearly
loves it's wise crack"
He did pretty good, too, when
he came back five years later for
the International Polo at Meadow
brook, few nights on Broadway
and few weeks with the Long