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Show Spending Money Like Princes AyHJLE traveling with the Empress Catherine Cath-erine in Crimea, Prince Potemkin startled star-tled European royalty by serving as the last course of a banquet which he gave in honor of the empress a dishful of what appeared to be small yellow aud white plums. Each guest, as the dish was handed about, helped himself with a spoon of large size. The plums were then discovered to be pearls. The, Comte d'Artois made himself famous by expending 12,000.000 francs in entertaining entertain-ing the queen for a single week in his chateau cha-teau of Bagutellc. More than half of this immense sura was spent in refitting the apartments which were assigned to the queen and her suite. That wonderful spendthrift, the Prince de Soubise, throughout his whole career insisted consistently that so vulgar a thing as money should never be mentioned in his presence. He engaged in the quarrel of his life with one of his most intimate friends for disregarding disre-garding his wishes in this respect. Yet he once lavished no less than 6,000,000 francs on a single fete, and at another time laid out 2,000,000 fxajTLCS-nterLainins Louis XV one day and over night in His country uuu near Versailles. It appears that on this latter occasion it was the king himself who was the offender. "I hear," said his majesty to his host, who owed millions, "that you are in debt." It is related that the prince frowned, yawned ostentatiously, aud after a lapse of several seconds deigned to reply: "I shall inquire of my steward aud inform your majesty." At another fete, given about the same time by the pleasure-loving Prince de Conti, a woman won a ring in a danse des dames. Knowing her host's evil reputation aud fearful of raising a whisper of scandal against her fair name, she stipulated that it should be jeweled. The prince promised, but. while keeping to the letter of his pledge, be broke it in spirit, for he caused to be mounted in the ring a miniature portrait of himself, over which, iu place of ordinary glass, was a large diamond grouud thin. This the lady promptly rrturjerl ; whereupon the prince had it ground to powder, which he used to dry the ink of the uote he wrote her on the subject. |