Unconscious Jest

Intimates of the Prince of Wales lay back weakly in easy chairs and gasped that another jest like that from which they had just recovered would be the death of them.

"Midwife!" They husked and found strength to roar again. "Licensed Honorary Midwife, Medic and Surgeon! Oh Edward, Edward! The great-grandson of Victoria a midwife!" Scandalized, such servitors as were present blushed a fitting and dignified reproof at these immoderate words.

Edward of Wales, however, had foreborne to blush on the occasion when the jest was unconsciously perpetrated. Facetious despatches opined that he may have gained fortitude from a consciousness of his right to the motto which encircles his left calf whenever he dons the famed insignia/- of the Order of The Garter: "Honi soit qui mal y pense." At any rate he stood at ease, with royal dignity, as those approached who were to confer upon him "the legal right to practice medicine, midwifery and surgery."

These persons were the Master and Wardens of the Ancient and Honorable Society of Apothecaries, to which no less an "apothecary" than famed poet John Keats once belonged. Gravely they sought out the Prince at York House, and created him the first honorary member of their society. Gravely they placed in his hands a handsome shagreen* and silver case, containing the diploma which confers upon him the right to minister to his father's subjects throughout the entire course of their lives. Gravely the apothecaries departed and were succeeded by the gods of awful mirth.

As Edward of Wales and his brother Albert of York cantered ahunting near Melton Mowbray last week, a horse escaped from one of the grooms and bolted in their direction. Tossing the reins of his own mount to his brother, Edward dismounted and attempted to seize the bridle of the escaped horse. The horse escaped still farther--over a fence. Undaunted, the Prince climbed carefully over a locked gate and seized the bridle of the now apparently docile runaway. By that time the disgruntled groom who had let it get away from him in the first place had ridden up. Edward climbed back over the gate, climbed back upon his own horse and trotted briskly off with his brother, who had watched the proceedings with an amiable and indulgent smile.

Despatches reported last week that the Prince of Wales allowed his finger prints to be taken on the occasion of his visit to Scotland Yard. Sir William Horwood, the Commissioner, was quoted: "If I may say so, the lines upon your Royal Highness' thumbs present a quite unusual formation."

As the week drew to a close Miss Veronica Purviance of Montevideo, Uruguay, formerly of Kansas City, Mo., despatched to H. R. H. Edward of Wales an invitation to attend her impending wedding to one Leo Dewey Welch of Buenos Aires. Friends of Miss Purviance exulted: "The Prince of Wales gave Veronica a heavy rush last year in Montevideo, but she never forgot good old Leo Welch!"

/- This consists of two parts: 1) "The Garter," made of purple cloth worked with gold, which is buckled about the calf like a man's belt, and the free end tucked under and over once and allowed to hang down: 2) "The Collar and George," an elaborate gold chain from which hangs a pendant representing St. George on a white horse slaying a green dragon.

* A term derived from the Turkish caghri, meaning the rump of a beast of burden. It denotes a kind of untanned leather prepared in the East from the skins of horses, asses or camels by pressing small seeds into the hair side of the skin when moist and then scraping off the seeds when dry. When again moistened the grain of the leather swells into a beautiful mottled relief.