nearest brush to royalty was two years ago when in the New York
suffrage campaign his oratory had brought him the homage of some of
the rich and the great. Kings really weren't so much of a treat to
Medill, who had taken his fill of them in childhood when his father
was minister to England. But nevertheless they lorded it over me
when they saw me because the king wasn't on my calling list. But
they couldn't keep from me the sad fact that they had started out
to make the royal call without gloves--hoping probably to catch
the king with their bare hands--and had been turned back by the
Italian colonel who had them in charge. Henry once sang in the
cantata of "Queen Esther," and Medill insists that all the way
up to the royal cottage Henry kept carolling under his breath the
song: "Then go thou merrily, then go thou merrily, unto the king!"
and also: "Haman, Haman, long live Haman, he is the favoured one
in all the king's dominions!" just to show that finical colonel
who took them back to Udine for gloves that Wichita was no stranger
to the inside politics of the court. However, gloves seemed to be
the only ceremonial frill required, and they went to the king's
business office as informally as they would go to the private room
of a soap-maker in Cincinnati. They found the king a soft-spoken
little man. Henry said he looked very much like the mayor of
Kansas City, and was equally unassuming and considerate. He asked
his guests what had become of the Progressive party, and they
pointed to themselves as the "captain and crew of the Nancy brig."
Then they talked on for a time about many things--such as would
interest the Walrus and the Carpenter. Then the accounts of the
visit changed. This is Henry's: "Well, finally after Medill began
cracking his knuckles and the king began crossing and recrossing
his legs, I saw it was time to go. I knew how the king felt. Every
busy man has to meet a lot of bores. I sit hours with bores who