Westward with the Prince of WalesNewton, W. Douglas (Wilfrid Douglas)
History
Westward with the Prince of Wales
Newton, W. Douglas (Wilfrid Douglas)
Canada -- Description and travel; Windsor, Edward, Duke of, 1894-1972
After taking tea with Mrs. Wilson, His Royal Highness went up to the
room of the President on the second floor, and Mr. Wilson, propped up
in bed, received him. The friendship that had begun in England was
quickly renewed, and soon both were laughing over the Prince's
experiences on his tour and "swopping" impressions.
Mr. Wilson's instinctive vein of humour came back to him under the
pleasure of the reunion, and he pointed out to the Prince that if he
was ill in bed, he had taken the trouble to be ill in a bed of some
celebrity. It was a bed that made sickness auspicious. King Edward
had used it when he had stayed at the White House as "Baron Renfrew,"
and President Lincoln had also slept on it during his term of office,
which perhaps accounted for its massive and rugged utility.
The visit was certainly a most attractive one for the President, and
had an excellent effect; his physician reported the next morning that
Mr. Wilson's spirits had risen greatly, and that as a result of the
enjoyable twenty minutes he had spent with the Prince. On Friday,
November 15th, the Prince went to the United States Naval College at
Annapolis, a place set amid delightful surroundings. He inspected the
whole of the Academy, and was immensely impressed by the smartness of
the students, who, themselves, marked the occasion by treating him to
authentic college yells on his departure.
The week-end was spent quietly at the beautiful holiday centre of
Sulphur Springs. It was a visit devoted to privacy and golf.
IV
During our stay in Washington the air was thick with politics, for it
was the week in which the Senate were dealing with Clause Ten of the
Peace Treaty. The whole of Washington, and, in fact, the whole of
America, was tingling with politics, and we could not help being
affected by the current emotion.
I am not going to attempt to discuss American politics, but I will say
that it seemed to me that politics enter more personally into the life
of Americans than with the British, and that they feel them more
intensely. At the same time I had a definite impression that American
politics have a different construction to ours. The Americans speak of
"The Political Game," and I had the feeling that it was a game played
with a virtuosity of tactics and with a metallic intensity, and the
principle of the game was to beat the other fellows. So much so that
the aim and end of politics were obscured, and that the battle was
fought not about measures but on the advantages one party would gain
over another by victory.
That is, the "Political Game" is a game of the "Ins" and "Outs" played
for parliamentary success with the habitual keenness and zest of the
American.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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