Evening Star Newspaper, May 17, 1925, Page 79

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHIN Stories From "Way Back in the Days When the Saloonkeeper and His Daughter Were Poor But Honest—And Now They Live in Luxury. BY WALLACE IRWIN. To Editor The Star who are collecting Brass Rales among American an tlques BAREST SIR: Do you re member swoet Alice B. Bold? If forgotten, Kindly to scratch your intelligence and bring her up again. She were Sa- Joon Keeper's daughter in those has- been days when beer could be drunken without the ade of the Police. She stand like a statue in my mind, re calling times which were a different breed from nowadays. In that yore a Drunking establishment were called a Saloon. In our town, before date when Vol- sted Area began making vice dishon- ext, there resided many Saloons; and when you counted them all you was siprised to find several more. Many of those Saloons could be told apart by looking at them. Some was paint- ed bright & goddy color of a taxicab, and similar to taxicab you commence spending money all time you were riding in it. Then brillious color of vice made drunkers even more so; for Wwhen they observe angry complexion of that saloon they enrush inside so they could not see the outside. And in such a situation who knows what? Yet other Saloons was managed with more fashionable arrangement. Plate glass and completely wooden polish vas all over them to make deceptive resemblance to First National Bank. First National bankruptcy were « enly caused by that. Such saloon re red a paying teller to be barkepter, and be pretty darnly quick about it en palaces was incumplete {f they nt got over Hon. Bar a horbly artis ik oily-paint pink portrait of Mrs. \'enus the way she looked when Hon. Columbus dishcovered her. She had a hansom goldy frame around her and | nothing else. | She were regarded entirely depraved | & caress the floor with mops date before America learned how to|become manager of Hon. Funograf sin. Since that period Congress has!which I kep unwinding while he writt 18th Amendment, so we are not gqueal about Old Cantucky Home until shocked 8o easy as we was. |it make Hon. G. W. McCann weep be- Way back there before Germany got | cause he could not afford to go there. cultured and schoolteachers did mot | . even know how to smoke clgarettes | \merica were very simple life in her | behavior. All Saloons had a funograf, | and some bad. 1 could not meet with exeption of Hotels, which had « | the bad ones. When I ask saloone okestra. For 1§ persons could get|where the bad ones reside they repo; sifficiently intozzicated to go to jail | that they knew one in Cripple Cricl r life while listening to free music. |but he were shot for selling whisky O welly 1 remember one famus Irish | to miners barkepter name of Hon. Strunsky who| Hon. Strunsky were very pure va- could make his funograf play, “I Am |riety of salooner. He acknowlidge it T.ong About My Old Cantucky Home' | frequently. Hon. G. with every .05§ glass Bullwiser beer.|Hon. Strunsky have w heart like a Now days one (1) cannot get a head- | watermelon. Also he had kind word ache for less than 2§. for the entire Police. \What can be In day of youth, when I were very | more lover than that? immoral, I obtain job of employment| When the poor call to the bar of from this Hon. Strunsky, Irish sa.|Hon. Strunsky he seldom turn them looner. Soonly afterwards I were not | off with empty handshake. The safe there, but I learn how do so while I|were full of watches ns, spare was. parts of clothing, wedding rings & ete In salooning profession whiskey- | which Hon. Strunsky keep the drunk were applied for price .10§ per | poor. gobble. Ah, how those sweet days has col I were not permitted to sell it to|lapsed forevermore! (quotation.) those thirsts because not sifficlently| 10 vore when an alcocolic educated; but I could bathe glassware drunker fall down with fried esg ex Also T HERE were some good saloeners Galli-Curci, Untrained, Won Place W. McCann say ' “ALSO 1 BECOME MANAGER OF HON. FUNO | pression then upcome Hon. Promtnent | Citizen with question: “How did you get that Way?" |” But nowday do similar Hon. | when Hon. Drunker Prom. Citizen ask to now, “Where did you Get it?" My Cousin Nogi, who will join the Navy & fight all Run Rumming! Fleets, say-so that Prohibition ure g | 8t. Blessing in one (1) wa: |~ “It have murdered the Saloon,” he renig | “Where do they go dered?” T ask to know sme of them has become Beauty Parlors,” he corrode. “I notice that™ This from me. nd this are great umprovement, are not” 1t are! For what tonic are not rubbed in hair can be sipped de- lightly.” | ““You are talking garbage,” he dib. | “How darest you stand upright & say {one (1) word of praise for that head | quarters of vice & philosophy (the Sa- loon)? Can you deny something. | please? Can you deny that Home | have became brighter since Saloons | has evaporated?” “Indeedly could nc { Hon. Saloon | has became 2ce imy pulse good when mur- 1 slug. “Since was burfed Home Life | as attractlve. It do to see how happy workman rosh back to his house after work are over, never pausing to loitre by the wa. “Goodby " holla Nogi. “And why hq £0 home <o rapldly, I ask to know “He wish to draw the cork out of his Home Bruise,” T renig valuably. “Also maybe he are in a hurry to make another qrt. Gin and drink it rapidly.” * % % ““ OU are talking in circles like a bed-spring,” narrate Nogi. “In this age of purism where can sinful persons go to get a drink? “Did you ever try asking a Police I require. “If one do not know an other one will.” “Last week a Pollce in Chicago were fired off from his job because he show a Stranger how find a saloon,” say Nogl “ hear that also.” This from me. “That officer were a very new police. Through Ignorance he direct Hon. Stranger to a Saloon that were closed He neglected to tell him go around to back door. How shamelus! What are | our Bluecoats caming to if they do not know the Points of Interest in each town? There is no answer. I enjoy disgust.” “Shux!" s arred Nogl. “If all per- When Accidentally Heard by Expert BY PRESTON WRIGHT. { NE evening at a social gather- | ing in Milan, Italy, a voung | woman, Amelita Galli, sang the aro Nome" from “Rigoletto” with such ex- | quisite beauty she moved the com- | pany to enthustastic applause. The verformance was remarkable — worthy of a professional. In the company was Signor Colucel, conductor of the opera at Trani/ in the south of Italy. He con- sidered the singer and her voice with | mingled emotions He felt the delight of one who has stumbled upon a talent of the first crder, together with the pleased grate- fulness of one who has encountered | 2 person who can extricate him from | a great difficulty. The season was at hand without his having been able to obtain a Gilda or “Rigoletto.” The opera at Trani was small so that Colucel could not afford expensive principals. On the other hand his audlences would not listen to inferlor voices. Until mow lLie had found no one who seemed likely to provide him with a worth- while voice at a low price. Amid a buzz of conversation fol- lowing an encore, he made his way to Signorina Galll's side. You have a great future,” he told o voealist, who was but 20 then. “How would you like to come to Trani and sing in opera?” This is how the great soprano now inown to the world as Mme. Amelita Galli-Curci obtained her first operatic engagement. At Trani, although she was paid but 300 lire (@bout $60) for a two-mdnth engagement, she sang as ihough she were an {mportation from | \e of the leading theaters. She was | an immediate sensation. It was ap-| parent that a great new Gilda had| appeared upon the scene. The immediate result was that with the record of her success in mind, the voung star went to Signor Morichini, manager of the Costanzi Theater in Rome—one of the most important in Ttaly—and asked a,hearing. Somehow fmpressed, he granted the | request. Again her “Caro ;\'ome" en- | caged her on the spot at what seemed | e 5 S fabulous salary of 500 lre & month. | BY C. MORAN The way was opened to a career | e Asmee that has made her a world figure. | e S Strangely “engugh, Calli Curct ‘was known recently that he wanted a natiintended asa chlld to becoms & lot of information about prices vocalist. At five she showed unusual | of things in oldén times. Letters talent on the piano. Enrico Galll, her | oyowaq with uge. pakes f father, an amateur musiclan, and|;e ount books and diarles, recollections her mother encouraged her to a career as a planist. She rewarded them 1n| ..y gecretary like Autumn leave: her sixteenth year by winning the n)dl’“’;;“s ;! S ente B oo Taet 3 medal of the Conservatory of Milan. | TS aF & JeIfe € f0TCm, B ts & The Gallis had thelr “at homes” | gallon; boots with red feather tops and cach Friday evening. To these came |copper toes at $2 the pair; horses persons interested like themselves in |10 a head: handkerchiefs at 75 cents art, music and literature. And|gpjece, and cents for pulling a among these was Pletro Mascagni, the composer. | One night Mascagni sat at the| piano with Sgnorina Amellta, whose | career he had watched with interest, {mged with pleasure when she won |of one William J. Berry. Robey evi: the gold medal of the conservatory.|dently was fond of his “old rye, ‘They were discussing Bellini’s “Pu-|which appears by the gallons in the ritani,” an opera of the florld type.|list at 25 cents the gallon. He bought "fhe Score was before them and as|all the accoutrements. too, in the way ne wandered through it, playing a of decanters. tumblers, tablecloths it here and a bit there, the composer | towels and bitters. zave volce to comments and criti-| The rye purchases became more nu cisma that delighted and inspired his|merous toward the end of the list. 5 ~old_protege | which possibly accounted for the fact 10 T fter a time lgey came to the ron- | that Robey defaulted pavment of the @eau. Amelita loved this refrain. night, as Mascagni started to play <he felt an impulse to sing. “7 was seized by the mood,” “YOU HAV, with practice can double quantity.” Coming after she had just won the you had played the piano in concert, the girl found difficulty in rearrangin her ideas as to her future. But the m musty ancient records. There is the account of one John E. Robey of Charles County, Md., who owed a bill of goods purchased in 1848 it, |appear with his clerk before the local | Justice of the Peace and swear out she |an aMdavit of the debt to be posted sald afterward, “and I told myself, ‘I |on the county bulletin boards. wm_going to sing out loud.’ " “State of Maryland, Charles County, 1fer distinguished accompanist | to wit, on this 25th day of August, cpened his eyes wide as he heard her.|1851,” the document reads, ‘‘person- At the finish he turned to her with |ally appeared® William L. Berry be- an_exclamation, | fore me, the subscriber. a Justice of My dear girl,” he said. “You were the Peace, in and for the County and torn for singing. Why don't you be- | State aforesald, and made oath on the &in a vocal career?” { Holy Evangeltry of Almighty God that Amelita, her father and mother all the artickles of the within account Tere astounded. were sold and delivered, and that he “My volce seemed too small’ the hath not nor hath any other person i1 expiained. {for him either directly or indirectly “Yes," continued Mascagni, isireceived any part. parcel or satis 3 it tiall, but the quality. is fine tien for the same more than 1he cre And the | gold medal, and on several occasions | |of days agone, are fluttering in on the | | tooth, are some of the items in these | To- | bill, and it was necessary for Berry to| | ! | | { HE TOLD THE VOCALIST. voice ack it Almost immediately, however, she was confronted by difficulties. Her | father's business affairs went awry. !¥or the ensuing four years she gave of Mascagni was that of an She had no idea of disregard- in 1its given to the best of his knowledge | and belief.” There is given then the afidavit of Berry's clerk, who was Walter H. Marlow, and finally, to clinch the { deal by way of proving the authority | | of J. H. Downing as a justice of the | e there is the certification of R. H. Mitchell, “this 26th of August | Anno Domini, 1851," that, “I hereby certify that John H. Downing, before whom the above affidavit was made and whose signature is thereunto af- | fixed was at the time of so doing and | still is one of the Ktate of Maryland's | | Justices of the Peace in and for Charles County aforesald, duly com- | missioned and qualified.” EEEE PERHAPS they were the good old days of rum and ruffles when horsewomen wore their skirts to the | knees of the horse instead of to their own,” but were they when bricklayers and ‘carpenters took part of their pay {in produce at the rate of 7 cents a pound for ham, and farm labor, which | was virtually the only kind of work available, was paid less than $1 a day? Some things were cheap, but so was human labor, which made the pur-| chasing power of money small. “My father was born In Craig| County, Va..” writes one correspond: | ent, “and was considered one of the best and nicest farmers in Virginia, and a fine judge of everything. One of his first land purchases was $2,500 | for about 150 acres of land and every- | | body thought him crazy to pay so| | much. This was nearly 75 years ago. | | Some 20 years ago my uncle was of- | of ‘shoes being 50 cents | fered $9,000 for this farm. It is worth $15,000 now. “Then he bought a three-year-old | steer for $8. He could have sold the | same steer during the recent war for | about ting hewing cro iy, Va s-ties. Men from | delivered tan hark i piano lessons to assist her family. She could not afford a teacher of voice. It was then that she revealed qual- itles which certainly mark her as one of the most remarkable women of all time. She trained her own voice. As Mascagni had predicted, she doubled: its volume. TIts quality was great from the start. Years of plano study had perfected her musiclanship. By observing other singers and by reading and stuldy she developed technidque. In due time, as ordained apparently by fate, she encountered Signor Col- ucck A 3,000-Year-Old Flute. OTES of a musical instrument that are believed to have floated in the warm air of Egypt 3,000 year: ago were reproduced at the University of Pennsylvania by Prof. Jean B. Beck, who restored a small flute found n the tomb of a noble of the time of the pharouhs. The air enters through slits in the sides of the reeds instead f at the ends, as in modern instru- ments. Each note and its octave are sounded equally loud at the same time, quite unlike any present-day in- strument. Ash. THE presence of some of the rarer elements in petroleum ash ha: been demonstrated in experiments now being conducted by chemists in the Department of the Interior. The spectroscope has revealed a strong lithium lime, indicating the presence of a valuable element, whose presence was not previously suspected. Nickel is also plentiful. as is vanadium; is even thought possible that the ashes of petroleum cokes may be utilized as future sources of vanadium and nickel. Rare Elements in to Salem, Va., for $4.50 a cord—a 15 mile haul over bad roads. Shoes were made by hand in those the usual pay for making a palr If the' shoe- maker furnished the leather alsé, the charge for finding the leather and making the shoes was $1. You could buy a gallon of homemade brandy for 65 cents, but my father didn't make or sell brandy. Large extra fine frying size chickens brought 121z and 13 cents each I sold the finest wheat I ever saw during Cleveland’s administration for 50 and 60 cents a bushel, and the miller has not paid me yet. Seventy- five years ago farm hands got 25 and 50 cents a day from daylight until dark. My brother and I shipped 80 bushels of the finest Irish potatoes, ‘White Elephant varlety,’ to a com- { mission house in Lynchburg, Va., that netted us clear of freight, drayage, and commissions $8.10 for the 80 bushels. % YWWHEN I started to Roanoke Col- lege the Fall of 1884 with my brother, father paid 81 a yard for a brown.and gray check of wool goods and .mother and sister made every- thing we wore except our shoes and hats, and we were about the two best dressed boys in college. My sons pay more for socks and ties than my whole outfit cost from head to foot. “Matches cost 10 cents a box when I was 2 kid, and a box would last for years. We'd go to a neighbor and borrow fire rather match. My mother made old-time tallow candles and we had the hand- some brass candlesticks and candle snuffers to cut the wick off, after it had burned awhile. “Mother wove our jeans for our suits and the girls Lincy dresses. 00. Men got 10 cents for cut- ! There was some class to the old goods | $3 to $4 a week. in the days of sweet long ago. My father was a welliodo farmer and GTON, than waste a | D. €, MAY 1 BY RING LARDNER. O the editor: The state of New Jersey {s far from being one of the jargest States in the | union and yet they's more happens there than any other three or four states combined, and If it was not for New Jersey many is the day when big city newspapers would half to go to press without no |front page on acct. of not having | nothing to print on same. | They aint hardly a morning passes | but what you read where somebody was walking through the woods near Trenton or strolled into a silo outside of South Klizabeth and stumbled over | a obstacle which turned out to be the | deceased body of a prominent paper hanger and choir singer of this or that Jersey metropolis and for the next month or 2 all the constables and girl scouts busys themself trying to find out who done the killing so as the congratulations and reward won't be given to the wrong party. In fact murders has became so ha- bitual in what I once nicknamed the skeeter state thaf ‘some of our more important daflies has quit mentioning them unless they's something unusual | connected with the case like for inst. | the corpse delict! i found standing on | their head or dressed for a Ben Ali | Haggin tableau. | To oftset this, the Jerseyites has| |been giving birth to items of news | | designed to take the place of murder | storles and insure continued fame for |the common-wealth and amongst these |items was one a little wile ago which | T don't know If you secn it or not but it certainly struck me as the cat's sleeping garments. namel the one {about the paralytic that ain't a para {lytic no more. } It is no trick to get paral specially in New Jersey where the |news that congress passed a 1Sth. amendment ain't yet seeped through. {but the kind of paralyzed referred to {in this story is the kind that comes |by the stroke not by the quart and is a_whole lot harder to get over it ! Well, this man had been paralyzed' zed a sons was like you then Congress would | | quit & go home.” T are willing”' I throw off. & this make Nogi so inflamed that {he depart away and forget to borra { my hat he came for. Therefore I get time to think follow- | !ing Jupanese sonnet for your Printer { to write: O don't yoy remember sweet Alice B | Bold Whose father retained a Saloon? She served the beer warm, bLut her heart kep quite cold & she selldom got up before noon. | She swepp out the floor & she kicked | out the drunks | And ralned yrs. & yrs. like a bell, | But in spite of her loos she wa 1 & poor & never got on very well. In that Place of Crime they sold rum | for a dime | (Gncluding a 50c. honest | Tunch) 7, 1925—PART 5. ‘H}\ > INFI lfITEQ KNEE 1)'\7 LL()THE: LINE IN THE HOT SUN.” nd couldn't use his hands|was a nut got loose from the county and they had him in some kind (asylum and happened to drop into the f a county hospital and his case was {room where the paralytic was laving considered hopeless till one day they|ung he give the paralytic a terrible beating and when his keepers rushed |in and pulled him off his victim, the imed wasn't paralyzed no more could use his hands and ft. as d as Tom Gibbons. | Now this one item besides what in | teresting reading it makes, why it has its of |also been of great value in tipping town idoctors off on how to cure paralysis, To a vinecovered cot near a huj va-|and good many gzamgsters has cant lott earned a honest doliar in the last few Where he splunges days by hiring themselfs out to phy- nown | sicians” 10 assuult paralytics and re. Alice B. Bold rides u twin 6 C.|store same to health Dan | But the affair has had conse While she got 9 fur coats her | much more further reachin A coterie of remarkable physi- own, It have just fairly sailed since the | from all parts of the country together the radio las cian: Biziness failed ot They are now t Ly day and decided that if that kind Fone. |treatment waus a remedy for paraly Hoping you are the same similar radic Yours truly d for pretty HASHIMURA and with And her honest ¢ house w fast crunch. gent. to the poor- bent his £ ast t As s feetsteps coul Now the Old Bold, aloon are axploded, B. And owner have moved out in welth & re-| And uences She Wking orders A near all ki TOGO. a much greater than | Lardner Gets Tip From Unusual Happenings in New Jersey, Where Murders Have Become So Common That They Fail to Attract Attention. chance of success because most other diseases ain't nowheres near as fatal The undersigned has recd. from these doctors a partial list of the ais eases disgust and the treatment pre cribed for same «nd I take pleasure tn printing same here for the benefl of sickly readers and their sick! friends. Scarlet fever, measles and etc. The rash may be got rid of in ghort order by &craping it off of the body with n sharp razor or carpenter's plane. The fire dept. should be’summoned to constantly play 3 or 4 streams of | water on patient to reduce fever Angina pecto pleur! pneu monia and ete. Bare patient’s chest sprinkle same with sand and ask Fred Stone to dance on it. Admission may be charged and the patlent is libel t { more than pay’ expenses. Appendicitis, gastritis, and ete. Take up bowling. Bronchitis, laryngitis, tonsilitis and ete. Place a good stout noose around patient’s neck and tighten it till the germs rushes out into the open air seeking water. Wens, warts, boils, ganglion, car- buncles, growths of all kinds and ete. These is best got rid of by means of a axe in the hands of a modern woodman of America. Seasickness, vertigo and etc. Swingz the patient in u hammock or trapeze Water on the knee and etc. Apply | a sponge or bailing dipper. Hang the afflicted knee on a clothes line in hot sun St. Vitus church that or patronize have music Indigestion and ed food or not at Anaemia and etc. and see the world Lock-jaw. Consult Dr. 1 i peritonitts Join dancing dance und etc don't stand restaurants that etc. Eat pre-diges Join the Marines Houdini | { “PLACE A GOOD STRONG NOOSE AROUND THE PATIENT'S NECK AND TIGHTEN IT.” fWords of Royal Wisdom Are Dropped From Lips of Our Distinguished Guest BY EPHEN LEACOCK. [ N receiving our card the| prince of one of the principal | European principalities, to | our great surprise and pleas- i ure, sent down a most cor: |dial message that he would be de lighted to see us at once. This thrilled us. Take us, | we said to the elevator {boy, ‘“to the apartments of the prince.” We were pleased to see him | stagger and lean against his wheel to | get his breath back In a few moments we found our- selves crossing the threshold of the prince’s apartments. The prince, who is & charming young man of inde. terminate age, came across the floor to meet us with an extended hand | and a simple gesture of welcome. We have seldom seen any one come across | the floor more simply | The prince, who is travelling in | cognito as the Count of Flim Flam, was wearing, when we saw him, the plain morning dress of a gentleman of leisure. We learned that a little man, under the incognito of the | Bishop of Bongee: while later on he |appeared at lunch, us a delicate com | pliment to our city, in the costume of a Columbia professor of Sicillan. The prince greeted us with the greatest cordiality, seated himself. | without the sHghtest affectation, and | | motioned to us, with indescribable | | bonhomie, his permission to remain | standing. | rwell” |is2” We need hardly say that the prince. |who is a consummate master of 10| | languages, speaks English quite as |fluently as he does Chinese. Indeed | for a moment, we could scarcely teli | which he was talking. What are your impressions of the | said the prince, “what it | noticed again and again during the in- United States?” we asked as we took out our notebook. Living Costs in Some Preceding Generations jowned 2,000 acres of Virginia blue. grass land. Only the well-to-do folks had stoves and weather-board houses, and governors and Presidents only had carrlages or buggles. Some of the best families came to church in two- horse wagons, provided the wagons were new. “The young men and young ladies rode horseback—the ladies rode side- wise and had long black riding skirts. ‘One of my first sweethearts was a gay young girl from New York and she shocked the modesty of all Giles County with her blue riding skirt with pants to match. But it was a modest and decent outfit and she rode side- saddle. “Another voung girl ofvmine said she rode ‘otherwise’ across the big Walkers Creek for fear she'd fall off— ‘otherwise’ was ‘astride,’ but she was too modest to say the word ‘astride’.” The accounts of Michael Martin, Lancaster, Pa., show items for 1315 such as 50 cents for making baskets. 75 cents for hiring a laborer to bind joats, and 25 cents for half a day of {haying. A bottle of wine cost 25 cents, and the charge for making a suit of clothes for his son was § * & ok ¥ THE town of Hawley, Mass., in | ™ 1800, required the services of a| team and a laborer to work on the | local highways. A town meeting was | | called at which it was voted to pay 25 cents a day for a man, and the same | |for a team. Steers sold in Iowa in 1876 for 4 cents a pound, and wheat | | brought 54% cents a bushel. L. J.| Coombs of Red Oak, Towa, paid $15 | for a buffalo overcoat in 1877, and | | for shoeing a horse was $2.50, | mon laborers $1.256 a day, and car- $6.65 for 1,000 brick. Joiners in Chicago in 1836 got $3 a| | day, and general housework was paid | Coal was 25 cents a the same price. but bushel. The charge I bushel. potatoes oniens cost §1 a “WITH A GESTURE OF ROYAL CONDESC NSION, PUTTING THE = MONEY )y =j{eey l\_th PE(IKET“ % % answered the prince, |were in the presence not only of a with the' delichtful which is | soldier but of one of the most consum- characteristic of him, und which we | ™3] d\?“‘\i‘f“‘&("fl;‘;;_"."tfi‘:",‘,’fi‘l’,“wd. | correcting our cbvious blunder, “what f{are your impressions, Prince, of the ‘.\(l:mn‘ Ocean? |7 “Ah,” said the prince, with that | peculiar thoughtfulness which is so noticeable in him and which we ob- | served not once but several times, “the Atlantic!” Volumes could not have expressed his thought better. “Did vou,” we asked, “see any ice during your passage across?” AL aid the prince, me think.” We did sc “Ice,” repeated the prince thought- fully We realized that we were in the presence not only of a soldier, a linguist and a diplomat, but of a trained scientist accustomed to exact research. “Ice!” repeated the see any ice? No.” Nothing could have been more de- cisive, more final than the clear simple brevity of the prince’s “No." He had seen no ice. He knew he had seen no ice. He said he had seen no ice. Nothing could have been more straightforward, more direct. We felt assured from that moment that the prince had not seen any ice. The exquisite good taste with which the prince had answered our question served to put us entirely at our ease, and we presently found ourselves chatting with his Royal Highness with the greatest freedom and without the slightest gene or mauvaise honpte, or, in fact, malvoisie of any kind. We realized, indeed, that we were in the presence not only of a trained soldier, a linguist and a diplomat, but also of a conversationalist of the highest order. His highness, who has an_exquisite sense of humor—indeed, it broke out again and again during our talk with him—expressed _himself as both amused and perplexed over our Amer- ican mon “It is very difficult,” he said, “with us it is so~ simple; six and a half groner are equal to one and a third gross-groner or the quarter part of our erly, Mo., a pffir of everyday shoes or | rigsdaler. Here it is so complicated.” boots made ) order for $1.25 a pair,| We ventured to show the prince a and Sunday shoes for $3.50 a palr. | 50-cent plece and to explain its value These shoes would last a long time, |by putting two quarters beside it. and when eventually they needed re. | pairing, you could have the job done !emati at a cost of 12% cents. “two smile is terview, “that I must scarcely tell you that.” We realized immediately that we There is the diary of John Boardman, kept while erossing the plains in 1843, in which it is recorded that calico cost $1 a vard, and liquor $32 a gallon. He paid 50 cents a pound for salt, and 7 cents for beef. When he reached Walla Walla he sold his| mules for $12 a head, and his horses for $10 a head. Arriving at Oregon City November 6, 1843, Boardman found labor in good demand—com. “jce! Let prince, *did I penters $2.50 to $3 a da: The records of L. M. Brown of Woodbury County, Iowa, show that on January 15, 1855, he paid a doctor 25 cents for professional services. spent 75 cents for a handkerchief, and $3.40 for an oyster supper. Then he had a tooth pulled at a cost of 25 cents. S. A. Davis of Red Oak. Towa, used to carry eggs to Muncie, Ind., for 2 cents a dozen, and sold dressed hogs for $1.50 per 100 pounds. “His father,” writes a relative of Davls’. “bought the first lamp in that part of the country, and was afraid to light it for a year. He paid 50 cents a gallon for coal ofl to burn in fit. There was no market for chickens or geese or turkeys, as the timber was full of wild turkey. Hugh Manney, a farmer near Lake City, Minn., wrote to Willlam W. Buttolph in January, 1860, that he had sold hig%avhest at 75 cents a bushel, and corn 30 cents, and was “perfectly satisfied with the farm conditions and a fine, salubrious section of the coun- try,” and was advising two of his sons-in-law to come to Wabash County and invest. You couldft in 1847 around Mob- | ability is quite exceptional, 25-cent pieces are equal to one see,” said the prince, whose math- | 50-cent piece ber that. Mea a gesture of royal condescen: ting the money in his poc keep these as instructors:—we mur mured our thanks—*and now explain to me. please, | vour $10 eagle We felt it proper, however, to shift e subject, and asked the prince few questions in regard to his views on American politics. We soon found that his serene highness;although this is his first visit to this continent, is « keen student of our institutions and ical life. Indeed, his altitude his answers to our ques he s well informed | about our politics as we are ourselves. On being asked what he viewed as the uppermost tendency in our politi life of today, the prince replied ughtfully that he didn’t know. To our inquiry as to whether in his opinton democracy was moving for ward or backward, the prince, after a4 moment of reflection, answered that | he had no idea. Our asking which of the generals of our Civil War was regarded in Kurope as the greatest strategist, his highness answered with out hestation—"George Washington sefore closing our interview the prince, who, like his {llustrious father, is an’ enthusiastic sportsman, com- pletely turned the tables on us by inquiring eagerly about the prospects for large game in America. We told him something—as much as we could recollect—of woodchuck bunting in _our own section of the country. The prince was interested at once. His eye lighted up, and the {peculiar air of fatigue, or languor. | which we had thought to remark on | his face during our interview, passed entirely off his features. He asked us a number of questions. quickly and without pausing, with the air, in fact, of a man accustomed to command and not to listen. How was the woodchuck hunted? From horse. back or from an elephant? Or from an armored car, or turret? How many | beaters did one use to beat up the ‘woodchuck? ~What bearers was it necessary to carry with one? How great o danger must one face of hav. ing one's beaters killed? What did a bearer cost? And so on. All these questions we answered as best we could, the prince apparently seizing the gist, or essential part of our answer, before we had sald it. In concluding the discussion we | ventured to ask his highness for his | autograph. The prince, who has per- haps a more exquisite’ sense of hu mor than any other soverelgn of Europe, declared with a laugh that he had no pen. Still roaring over this inimitable drollery, we begged the prince to honor us by using our own fountain-pen. “Is there any ink in it?" asked the prince—which threw us into a re newed paroxysm of laughter. The prince took the pen and very kindly autographed for us seven pho- tographs of himself. He offered us more, but we felt that seven was about all we could use. We were still suffocated with laughter over the prince’s wit; his highness was still slgning photographs when an equerry appeared and whispered in the prince’s ear. His highness, with the consum mate tact to be learned only at a court, turned without a word and left the room. We never, in all our experience, remember seeing a prince—or a mere man, for the matter of that—leave a room with greater suavity, discretion or aplomb. It was a revelation of breeding, of race, of long slavery to caste. And yvet, with it all, it seemed to have a touch of finality about #t— a hint that the entire proceeding was deifberate, planned, not to be altered by circumstance. He did not come back. We understand that he appeared later' in the morning at a civic recep- tion in the costume of an Alpine Jaeger, and attended the matinee in the dress of a lleutenant of police. Meantime he has our pen. If he turns up in any costume that we can spot at sight, we shall ask him for ft. (Copyrizht. 1075\ remen ' he added, with cal &