Blinq | Much ado for a prince - in 1860
It's been 146 years since a Prince of Wales visited our fair city. The royal in question was the slight, pale, 18-year-old son of Queen Victoria, and heir to the throne of England - known as Albert Edward, and called Baron Renfrew. Decades later, he would become King Edward VII. (This would be Prince Charles' great-great-grandfather, who had an affair with Camilla's great-grandmother.)
It's been 146 years since a Prince of Wales visited our fair city. The royal in question was the slight, pale, 18-year-old son of Queen Victoria, and heir to the throne of England - known as Albert Edward, and called Baron Renfrew. Decades later, he would become King Edward VII. (This would be Prince Charles' great-great-grandfather, who had an affair with Camilla's great-grandmother.)
The Oct. 11, 1860, report ran down the left side of The Inquirer's front page with, in the style of the period, a many-decked headline that tipped busy readers to the main events:
VISIT TO A BOWLING SALOON
PRESENTATION OF AN ENGRAVING
TRIP TO GIRARD COLLEGE
THE PRINCE IN THE COUNTY PRISON
GALA DAY AT POINT BREEZE
THE GRAND OPERA
Etc. Etc. Etc.
What's amazing to this modern reader - other than the fact that his hosts would show the future king of England a bowling saloon - is just how much etc. they packed into their news back then.
A reporter trailed the prince as he toured America's second-largest city to produce a timely, atmospheric, rambling, and oddly detailed narrative of gifts received, engravings examined, dwellings admired, horse chestnuts planted, and hail fellows well-met.
In short, it reads like a 19th-century event blog.
The Inquirer article goes on for 2,972 words, and nearly the only drama is the wind lifting the heir-to-the-throne's hat and sending it into a nearby garden.
This moment is revisited near the bottom of the account, as the unnamed writer feels compelled to add more names and details and interrupt the narrative flow. (Remember that moving paragraphs around required physical labor back then.)
Throughout, facts are gathered like a well-mannered mob. This, from some time spent at the Point Breeze racetrack:
"The Prince whiled away the time [smoking] a fragrant Havana and conversing with those around him. Among those within his immediate vicinity we noticed Mayor Henry, Hon. Wm. B. Reed, John Rice, Esq., Wm. D. Leis, and other citizens, besides the entire royal suite. The ladies who were represented to the number of about two thousand, seldom cast their glances in an opposite direction to the Prince. ...
"The first race came off at half-past two P.M., between the following horses: 'Throgsneck,' entered by C.S. LLoyd (F. Morris.). 'Irona' five years old, sired by 'Register,' dam 'Black Sal,' by 'Prince George,' with 103 pounds and 'Rosa Bonheur,' three years old, weight 87 pounds. This was a handicap race of one mile. Entrance $100; forfeit $59; declaration $20. The 'Bonheur' won the race - time, 1 minute 47 3/4 seconds."
There's even a classic display of Philadelphia attytood toward the end of the visit, although the reporting gets a little loose here.
"It appears that on the arrival of the Prince at the hotel, in consequence of some slight inadvertence, he was not recognized at the door, and was stopped by the person in attendance with the remark, 'No intruders admitted' or something [to] the same effect."
So, things haven't changed that much around here, give or take a few bowling saloons.