RUMANIA: Splendid Shilling

Happy the man, who, void of cares and strife,

In silken or in leathern purse retains

A splendid shilling.

John Philips (1676-1708)

An unknown frugal Yorkshireman remembered Poet Philips' splendid shilling fortnight ago, and the Miltonic disasters that, according to ensuing stanzas, the lack of it entailed. Further he remembered that tousle-headed eight-year-old King Mihai of Rumania had just been given his first pair of long trousers (TIME, Oct. 28). To a Birmingham newspaper he sent a shiny new shilling piece and a note, addressed to the...

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