Prince Michael Whom no Country Seems to Want

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 35, 11 February 1933, Page 16

Prince Michael Whom no Country Seems to Want

'Seven cities claimed Homer, and almost that many nations are, earnestly repudiating little Harry JF. Gerguson, or; Gaygussen, alias "His Imperial Highness Prince Michael Alexandroyitch Dmitry Obolensky Eomanoff." All Eurorie seems, in effect, to chorus across the Atlantic: "Take him away, Uncle Samuel! He's your baby on your door-step, the polished product of your orphan asylums, the ornament of your' speak-easies. If you try to send himback to us, he's liable to spend the rest. of his negligible days shooting back and forth over the ocean like a bewitched international football."

:Meanwhile "Prince Mike," inured to.the ups and downs of a career of masquerade, . has been ■ making the best of n'is.eaptivity on Ellis Island, while the immigration officials wrestle with the conundrum of whether he returned to the TT.S.A. last time as a stowaway on the_German liner Eurppa, as ho boasted on his arrival, or came by train from Canada, as he declared later.

'A'whiff of Arabian Nights quaintnpsa comes into the story with the incident^ of-the "Prince" having" been "trapped by his taste for costly tobacco."' The immigration authorities, on? ; reading newspaper reports of '.'Mike's" sudden reappearance in the speak-easies of his beloved "Bagdad on: the Subway," as O. Henry dubbed New York, recalled- his princely penchant for an imported pipe mixture that sells at, 10 dollars a pound, and tooksteps to bag him at'the importer's shop when he went to renew his supply. When captured and taken to Ellis Island, little Mr. Gerguson was decked: out in a costume suggestive of winter sports, and possibly designed to sup: portihis second-thought story of arrival by. way-of Canada. According to the "New York Herald-Tribune," the prisoner was wearing corduroy trousers of shining brown, neat brown shoes, and a tan pullover sweater. Tied about his aeckin Ascot fashion was a scarf of green, red, and purple. A slightly faded tiger orchid was pinned to the shoulder of the sweater, and Mike described the flower as a gift from an admirer. . ■ !

Worn officials it was learned that the present charge against Mike is entering the country illegally and evading inspection on arrival. If the Labour Department's arrangements for deportation are not followed up, however, it is possible that he .may be indicted for illegal re-entry within, a year of deportation.

J As ■usually happens when Mike is ■out of luck, many well-wishers have ;eome forward to help him. His faculty for'making staunch friends; even among his victims, has been remarked .by able chroniclers..

; fHe has convinced a.fairly large pub.lie that.a good impostor is preferable 'to the average prince," wrote Alva "Johnston in the first of a series of ,*f.Prince Mike" articles in the "New Yoikqr." "We quote other choice bits of "this charitable history:— _; Hei is respected for his noble bearing in -melodramatic unmasking scenes. Again and again these crises have ende"d with Prince Michael cool, amused, triumphant; his exposers crushed, ridiculous, speechless. ". iKks' never' looks so much like a true ■princel as when he is being exposed as ; ifalse, one. . - ;

; ~llis freedom from small virtues is r another source of his popularity. He has-no thrift, no prudence, no thought of-the future. The revenues from his ■frauds are .'scattered with an imperial .hand. "■' .' -v

. In the intervals between streaks of prosperity, he has slept in doorways and «a. park benches. No man starves more gracefully than the prince.

In his rise from problem child to prince, we are told, he "overcame great handicaps." As Mr. Johnston sees Mike:

The soul of a grand seignior' had found lodgment in a regrettable exterior. Undersized and ill-favoured, he often makes an unfortunate first impression. He has, however, a rare power of attracting attention and sympathy, a power strongly manifested in his childhood, when, under his real name of Harry Gerguson, he was the celebrated bad boy of the six New York orphan homes to which ho was successively committed.

Thirty years ago, visitors at asylums were fascinated by the wicked Gerguson boy. Frequently, when a charitable lady decided to brighten up the life of an orphan, she decided to brighten up the life of the little Gerguson monster. Even -when he was the terror of public institutions, Mike was week-ending in stately residences and country places. His whole life became a struggle to parade in handsome settings and mingle with distinguished personages. The orphan's talent for touching deep chords of sympathy, for establishing a sudden and strong bond between himself and another human being, was improved by constant practice. .

Scotland Yard described the Prince as a "rogue of uncertain nationality." The United States immigration authorities describe him as a Eussian, insisting that Miie was born in Vilna in 1890 and that at the age of six years he went to the United States with his parents. Prince Michael insists that' he is an American citizen, born'in New York City. ■ ' ■ -■■•■

Of his mosfc' recent bobbing up in New York, six days prior to the tobacco incident and his arrest, the "HeraldTribune. tells us:—

Nobody knows how lie'got by the immigration authorities. Ho was dry when he turned tip at a night club on East Sixty-first, street, however, and it was judged that he aid not swim ashore, as he did .once while under detention at Ellis Island.

To the astonishment and inexpressible pain of Mr. Gerguson, he was not welcomed .with the old warmth of East Sixty-first street. He left there under compulsion.

His next stopping-place was on West Fifty-second street, and there he had better luck. There was a distinguished member of the Bar there whom Mr. Gerguson never had met, so he introduced himself, exerted his charm, and conversed and imbibed for the better part of an hour. The attorney said the "Prince".was a delightful chap and* exceptionally droll.

Mr; Gerguson was ■wearing a clean white shirt and a newly-pressed dark suit with flaring lapels on the coat. The current inquiry at Ellis Island has revealed his earliest New York name as Gaygussen. His parents seem to have died early, and the immigration authorities say that if there were any evidence of parental naturalisation they -would gladly accord "Prince Mike " the privilege of American citizenship. As it is, they are quoted unofficially as saying that, to them, he is just "a pain in the neck." Some samples of his record are given by the "Herald-Tribune" thus:—

He peddled newspapers on the East Side, was found sleeping at no one's expense in the lQunge of the Educational Alliance, and became embroiled over the theft : of a sweater. Sidney Livingston, now a police captain attached to General Sessions, said that he remembered bringing the charge against Mike. He also recalled Mike's custom of sleeping on the pool-table of the Democratic Club.