Much the Same

Flashed o'er the "wires the fateful message came,

He is no better; he is much the same.

Thus in 1871 did Poet Alfred Austin report for the British people the illness of their Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. The Kingdom of Jordan boasts no such newsy poet as Britain's Laureate Austin, but last week Jordan's King Talal took to the wires to make his own attempt to chronicle the state of his health. In Beirut, Talal's younger brother Naif received three telegrams. The first read: "Expect you in our legation in Rome as soon as possible. Talal." The second read: "Meet at once at the Beau-Rivage Hotel, Lausanne. Talal." The third read: "Forget my telegrams, no need to come." They all added up to the fact that poor, schizoid King Talal was not much better; he was much the same.

Talal still refused to see a doctor. When not sending telegrams, he spent his time in Lausanne pedaling moodily over the lake on a water bicycle, or setting detectives in search of his adored wife, Queen Zaine. He gave up the search when he learned that Zaine, who had fled in fear of his recent sudden spurts of violence, had put herself under the protection of Swiss police in the Palace Hotel at Montreux. Meanwhile, his 17-year-old son and heir Hussein, whom Talal had chased in frenzy from a bedroom in Paris two weeks ago, had returned to Britain and his Harrow schoolroom, to go back to his studies and to await the time when he himself might be called to Jordan's throne.

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