$1,200,000 Babe

Bleak and barren Jaipur, a Rajput realm on one of India's high plateaus, rejoiced in frenzied thanksgiving last week at what seemed to superstitious Rajputs a miracle.

For 100 years no Maharaja of Jaipur had begotten a male heir. Yet lo and behold! last week a squawling man child was born, the prayerfully begotten son of His Highness the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Bahadur, age 20, salute 17 guns.

So happy was His Highness that he instantly decreed remission of all fines and rents from the Crown Lands for the past five years--a gesture which cost $1,200,000 as Jaipur Treasury officials quickly estimated with glad dismay.

Younger Britons know the son-blessed young Maharaja as a keen sportsman. Elder Britons recall how his foster father the late Maharaja of Jaipur came to King-Emperor Edward VII's coronation in London "without leaving Jaipur soil." This he smartly did by taking with him a large boxful of the said soil, upon which he squatted in London when he ate his meals, quaffed Jaipur water.

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