The Maharaja of Baroda, 41, was short of cash. Up for sale went his plane: a silver-painted, twin-engined Dakota with a day cabin, night cabin, cocktail bar and cream-colored kitchen. The Maharaja's friends said that he had been watching his budget ever since his 8,164-square-mile state pensioned him at $532,000 a year eight months ago when it joined Bombay. There were also "For Sale" signs on all three of his houses in England.

A lot of letters marked "Postage Due" were showing up in Washington, D.C. Old cronies of John Nance Garner, 81, said that the former Vice President had taken to scribbling long-winded communications in pencil from his ranch in Uvalde, Texas, but refused to put more than a 3-c- stamp on any letter, no matter how much it weighed. In the interest of history and old acquaintance, the recipients were happy to pay the extra postage.

Rumors that John L. Lewis' United Mine Workers had bought control of a bank were still unconfirmed, but there was strong circumstantial evidence. The National Bank of Washington announced the election of two new officers: Denny Lewis, brother of John L., and Welly Hopkins, U.M.W. general counsel.

Rumania's ex-King Carol II, living in exile near Lisbon, cleared up a mystery that has baffled philatelists for 13 years: Where was that rarest European postage stamp, a Swedish 1855 error-variety worth something like $30,000? Carol revealed himself as the owner when he gave his stamp 'to a Manhattan auctioneer with instructions to sell it.

The Veterans Administration got around to thanking James C. ("Little Caesar") Petrillo, boss of the American Federation of Musicians, whose union has been supplying free performers for the last four years to the VA radio show, Here's to Veterans. After considerable thought, VA officials presented Petrillo with a certificate of appreciation--and the innards of a heavy-duty battle helmet (see cut).

For the first time in the 42 years of his reign, Sweden's King Gustaf V, 91, was too ill to make his annual speech at the opening of Parliament. The speech was read by his son, bespectacled Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf.

Newly elected President Elpidio Quirino of the Philippines flew to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for a kidney stone operation, there met retired Admiral William ("Bull") Halsey, recuperating from a cataract operation on his right eye.

Mrs. Alben W. Barkley was busier than most brides. On a typical day she visited Capitol Hill to preside over a morning meeting of the Senate Ladies' Luncheon Club, lunched briefly with Mrs. Millard Tydings, wife of the Senator from Maryland, then dashed over to the Mayflower to meet Bess Truman at the launching of an annual money drive for the National Symphony Orchestra. It was the first public meeting between Mrs. Truman and Mrs. Barkley. Both smiled expertly for cameramen (see cut).

Hearth & Home

In Turin, an Italian Court of Assizes confirmed the annulment of the marriage of Film Director Roberto (Open City) Rossellini to Marcella de Marchis, mother of his eight-year-old son. Rossellini was thus free to marry Cinemactress Ingrid (Joan of Arc) Bergman, who was pressing hard for a divorce from her Hollywood surgeon-husband, Dr. Peter Lindstrom.

The rumor was that Ingrid had agreed to give Dr. Lindstrom the custody of their eleven-year-old daughter, Pia, and most of their joint property in exchange for a quick Mexican divorce. The other rumor persisted: that Miss Bergman was expecting a baby in March or early April.

In Hollywood, Opera Star Dorothy Kirsten trilled that she was "deeply in love" with a Texas doctor, and would marry him as soon as she divorced her husband, Radio Executive Edward MacKay Oates. Declining to name the doctor, Soprano Kirsten explained: "His wife doesn't know about us and he hasn't arranged for his divorce yet."

Television Actress Faye Emerson returned to Manhattan from Mexico City with the news that her quickie divorce from Elliott Roosevelt was "just a matter of time." In Los Angeles, Bandleader Xavier Cugat's wife, Lorraine Allen Cugat, sued for divorce. Radio Songstress Kay St. Germaine said that she would divorce Comedian Jack Carson.

Margaret Truman, 25, announced in Manhattan that she definitely would not marry this year. And when the right man does come along, said Margaret, "he'll have to see my father in the traditional manner. I certainly would want my family's consent and I doubt if I'd marry anyone they'd disapprove of. But if my father did say no I'm not sure of what I'd do. It depends on how I'd feel at the time."

The Heart of the Matter

"It's just become something people think they've got to see," said South Pacific's co-author & co-producer Oscar Hammerstein II, when he learned that the advance sale had reached $700,000. "The show couldn't possibly be that good."

Wrote Ohio's Senator Robert A. Taft (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS) to a meeting of retail coal dealers who wanted the Taft-Hartley Law invoked in the coal crisis:

"I'm afraid that my influence with the President is not considerable."

British Director Carol (Night Train) Reed, 43, whose new movie, The Fallen Idol, is playing to standing room in Manhattan, gave the New York Times his formula for success in pictures: "I never know what the public wants, and I don't think the public does. I can only give them what I like, and hope for the best. If what I liked was consistently rejected by the public, I would get out of the business."

Comedian Bob Hope, whose shoulder was dislocated when his car skidded and hit a tree after leaving Palm Springs,

Calif., was ordered to cancel some $1,000,-ooo worth of personal appearances.

Humorist James Thurber was asked by the editors of the University of Michigan Daily what could be expected in the next 50 years. The Thurber view of the next half-century: "Women, of course, will be stronger and more numerous, and there will not be many men around. The dog appears to be holding his own."

G. B. Shaw, 93, decided to deal firmly with Sir Cedric Hardwicke, whose acting suffered from laryngitis during the first weeks of the current Broadway revival of Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. "My dear Cedric," wrote Shaw (whose royalties, now that the play is successfully launched, average $2,500 weekly), "every night when you are going to bed, fill a tumbler with warm water and drop in a pinch of salt; just enough to be tasted. Dip your nose into this and snuff up half a mouthful or so through your nostrils and spit it out. Do this three times. Then gargle twice. And if you smoke, give it up for the run. This is what the BBC announcers do. I do it myself and never have laryngitis."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.