DRY SENSE OF HUMOR

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18584, 19 December 1934, Page 9

DRY SENSE OF HUMOR

“Getting Too Old.” Tennis is a game of which His Royal: Highness is extremely foilcT, although ho is not as, proficient at it as he would' like. He is, however, a vastly improved, player since his Cambridge days. The Queen likes .to .-watch the Duke at play, and recently when he made rather a slow recovery on the court she gently chided him. “I am afraid I am getting too old,” solemnly replied tile Duke, and' iter Majesty was not. altogether pleased at the answer. Hike all mothers the :Queen regards her- four sons as mere' boys. He Mean t What He Said. Prince Edward was at the wicket, and Prince Henry was umpiring. Tlie first time the elder hoy failed to hit the ball Prince Henry cried.“ Out!” “But the ball didn’t touch the wicket,” protested the Prince of Wales. “I said ‘Out,’ ” replied Prince Henry, “And the umpire’s word is final. Not even Edward the Eighth can dispute that. ’’ "Call Me Henry.” Prince Henry was very popular at Eton. Ho worked and' lived under the same conditions as the other boys, .and ns a junior had t,o do his share of fagging. He disliked being treated any differently from any of the others, and when addressed as “Prince,” he used to get annoyed. “Call me Henry*” he would say; “I like it much better. That is what 1 am called at home.” His Shilling a Week. The Duke is fond of relating that lie was allowed only a shilling a week pocket money ns a boy, while his two eider brothers each received' 2s. “To make matters worse,” the Duke ,onee , laughingly told a gathering of friends, “my brothers and sister used to ask me to lend them money every Mon- . day! Prince Henry from tlie age of live Was the proud possessor of a moneybox shaped and colored like a postoffice pillar-box, and every week lie uised to put fid. in out if his weekly shilling. It is a tradition among old Royal .servants that tlie ono tight, between Prince Albert, now the Duke of York, and Prince Henry took place in a secluded spot on tlie Sandringham ostale in about 1912, arid was caused by the mysterious I ‘'‘borrowing'” of some of the sixpences in Prince Henry’s “safe.” A Boyish Escapade. As a small boy at Sandringham, Prince Henry entered into a friendly competition with his brothers in cultivating a garden plot. One .Tune dfcty Queen Mary announced that she was coming, to see how the youthful gardeners had progressed. Priuco Henry evidently decided that no plot’ should outshine Ms, f.or when his ,Royal' mother came upon' her tour of inspection she found Ms plot a mass of roses, but all were growing about din. from the ground. Prince Henry bad ‘raided the wonderful rose garden of Sandringham and stuck the stems of the r.oses into his plot. A Municipal Siamese Twin. When he was made a Freeman of the. City of Edinburgh in 1925, the Duke’s dry humor made its appearance in iiis speech. Ho said lie doubted whether tho citizens of Edinburgh realised tho awkwardness of his position, for he was also a Freeman of Glasgow, and was, therefore, “a kind of Scottish municipal Siamese twin.” “li feel, a bit anxious about the perilous possibilities of the situation,” he sai'd. ‘‘T understand that there is a certain degree'of rivalry between the two cities, and I hope the rivalry Will not develop in my direction. ' Tlie possibility s'cems fraught' with danger, and I like a calnt and tranquil life.” i A Doubting Driver. Al 1 o’clock in tho. morning the Duke hailed a. London taxi-cab and asked to be drived to HitCk'irighnin Palace. He had boon oponing a boys’ club in tho East End. and after Wards had loured the neighborhood. “Von want to see the King.” 1 mppdsd?’ 1 ’ said the tn'Xi-mnn, looking rather suspiciously at. his’ fare. “I’m afraid I’ll lid too Into tonight,” blandly replied the Duke. A •passing police sergeant reassured the 'doubting driver.