A SLEEPY PRINCE.

Evening Post, Volume L, Issue 36, 10 August 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

A SLEEPY PRINCE.

The Afghan Prince is giviuer his leader, General Sir John McNeill, a great deal of trouble, says a London correspondent. Sir John, as the holder of a high Court appointment, naturally fosters a deep reverence for the convenience of Royalty. The idea of keeping a British Prince waiting is alone enough to upset the gallant General. But as the dragoman of our guest he finds himself daily indirectly assisting at some such "slight" upon the Royal Family. One Sunday the Prince of "Wales called by appointment at Dorchester House, only to be informed that his Afghan Highness still lay in bed. It seems that the young Prince's habits are marked, some of them, by great simplicity. Ho likes to go to bed several times a day. After Mr. Fowler's btate dinner, at which he arrived forty minutes late, he insisted upon a nap, although due at the reception at Lady Twoedmouth's almost immediately. But the funniest episode of all was the extraordinary influence exercised over Nasrullah Khan's imagination by a "Punch and Judy " show which happened to lie in his way to the dinner of the Secretaryof State. His brougham had to be stopped in order that the Prince might revel in the delight of our oldest British " tragedy." It was thus that he kept Mr. Fowler's guests waiting forty minutes for the dinner. It has transpired that the cause of his delay on reaching the function in the Horse Guards quadrangle on Saturday was that he had overslept himself, and it is a breach of etiquette to awaken an Afghan Prince. On Tuesday — says another correspondent — he was to have seen the sights of Eotten Bow in the early morning on horseback, and many hundreds turned out to see him gallop down the tan. These were disappointed, for the Prince would not get out of bed, saying he had important matters to transact in his mind. A change, however, came over him when he learned that Lord Eoberts was coming to see him, and he hastened to prepare for the visit of one whom he both loved and feared in Afghanistan.