THE PRINCE AS A HUMOURIST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18459, 18 April 1922, Page 9

THE PRINCE AS A HUMOURIST

HIS FAVOURITE STORIES AND WITTY REMARKS. He is a shy and sensitive boy,” a well-known personage once said of the Prince of Wales, but although he says little he thinks a lot, and has a keen brain and keen sense of humour.” It is this latter train in his character which has won for the Prince a reputation as a story-teller. The Prince, indeed, sees the funny side of everything. Once, in Australia, while taking an early morning gallop, the Prince had some difficulties with his saddle. An Australian boundary rider arrived and, noticing the English accent, asked politely, if he were an emigrant? “I’m the Prince of Wales,” H.R.H. said.

“Oh, are you,” replied the Aussie. “Well, I’m his father.” A QUICK RETORT. . Next day at a reception the Prince saw the same man and, pushing his way through the crowd, seized him by the hand and exclaimed, “Halloa, dad I ” The Prince’s stories are straightforward in their appeal. Here is a characteristic one, a produce of the Highland season: An old lady from the remote Highlands of Scotland was taken to Edinburgh, where she heard modern singing in a church for the first time. Asked by her lady companion what she thought of it, the old woman replied: “It’s verra, verra bonnie; but oh, my leddy, it’s an awfu’ way o’ spending the Sawbeth.”

The Prince delights in relating an incident which occurred once in London. He had been "hung up” in his car, while dashing from one public meeting to another. A man, not recognising the occupant of the car, nudged his mate, remarking, “One of the idle rich.” \ “Rich, perhaps,” the Prince retorted: “but hang it all, not idle!” Even in his younger days the Heir to the Throne enjoyed a good joke. A rather inquisitive man once asked him if he was not worried over the responsibilities involved in being the King’s eldest son. "Well, to tell you the truth, I’ve never looked at it quite in that light,” he replied. “But I think it is rather good luck to be an eldest son, for then one does not have to wear one's brothir’s old clothes.” Perhaps the best of all the Prince’s jokes is that concerning the lady who had been reading about some bridges having been swept away by a flood. She turned to a male friend and remarked, "These bridge disasters are terrible.” “I should say so,” the man replied. “My wife lost all her year’s pin-money at it last night.” "BORED TO TEARS.” The Prince is fond of legal stories. Here is one he once related to an eminent judge: A plaintiff told the Court that he had found the debtor eating roast chicken and yet, while he owed five pounds, he was offering only half a crown a week to pay it off. There was a senastion in court. “Your worship,” the harassed debtor broke out, it is true. I could not afford to keep the bird!” During his visit to America, the Prince was at the White House. The President took the Royal guest over to one-of the windows. ' “It was from that window,” the President' said, that your grandfather, bored to tears by the unceasing round of public entertainments, escaped one night down a rope ladder.” “I wish I had a rope ladder in my luggage,” the Prince remarked, as he gazed out of the window.