THE "OLD ORIGINAL SHAH."

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2701, 2 November 1889, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE "OLD ORIGINAL SHAH."

The Vienna correspondent of the Times sends an amusing telegram regarding the visit of the Shah to the Austrian capital, in which he says:—" Before the Shah started on hi? present tour unwelcomed atories were circulated about his having Europeaniscd himself, and become nothing more than a Sovereign of the common type—calm, courteous, cautious, and buttoned up to the chin. How disappointing it would have been had this proved true. But no ; Vienna has seen its old original Shah in his old form, and his return has provoked the same outburst of merriment as always greets the appearance of certain popular characters in a harlequinade. Everything that hh Majesty has done has been so done as to get talked about. Of another such man one might say that he had nn astonishing faculty for doing the wrong thiug, but wo know that a king can do no wrong. At a Court dinner the Shah omits to give bis arm to an Archduchess, who is acting as his hostess, and sbe has to run after" him. At another Court function, where the Bmperor was waiting for him, he arrives, without concern, more than a quarter of an hour lute. At the Zoological gardens he borrows a stick to goard tho animals and make them savage. At some public baths he and his valet play pranks with the water-cocks and flood the bath-room. In another place, havinc wotted h's hands, his Majesty wipes them on the coat tails of the nearest gentleman present. Tho Shah goes to buy a pair of spectacles, but cannot trouble himself to enter the shop, and orders that the goods shall be brought out to his carriage. It never occurs to him that the street traffic ia instantly blocked by the crowd which assembles to see him try on the glasses ; and so, yesterday ovening, again, when he went to sup with the Persian Minister, Neriman Khan, it never entered . his mind that he ought to take notice of the guests who had been invited to meet him. He and little Aziz, his favourite, supped alone together in a small boudoir, am! when they had eaten enough they went away. How simple and truly Royal this was, and how grateful some of us ought to be to the Shah for giving ua a glimpse of Royalty as it possibly disported itself in Europe in the good old times !"