Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1881 — A Prince as a Swimmer. [ARTICLE]

A Prince as a Swimmer.

The Grown Prince of Germany is said to be one of the strongest and most expert smimmers of the German army, and during the summer months he is accustomed to take exercise early every morning in the vast swimming school specially devoted to the use of the garrison at Potsdam. He is a man of jovial temperament, by no means adverse to a harmless practical jest, and has not infrequently amused himself, when the school has been full of huge guardsmen undergoing their aquatic drill, by swimming rapidly up to some clumsy Anak, seizing him by the neck and ducking his head under water until he gasped again. But Frederick William can take as well as play a joke, and one morning, having succeeded in submerging several of the giant grenadiers belonging to the celebrated First Regiment, in which he himself had served his military apprenticeship, he called out aloud: “Now you may try it on with me if you can!” He had hardly spoken these words when his neck was grasped from behind, as in a vice, and he found himself compelled to perform several involuntary dives, so prolonged that he presently fell short of breath, and swallowed a considerable quantity of water. As soon as he could get his mouth above water he cried out that “he had more than enough,” and his colossal immerser let him go. The Crown Prince, when'he had recovered his breath,, turned to the grenadier, still in the water, and asked his name. Two days later the tall grenadier discovered a fortnight’s leave had been granted him to visit his fainfly, and he was generously provided with money for traveling expenses by the Prince. A voung lady who had ordered home % pair of unusually high-heeled boots was flushed by the announcement by Bridget, fresh from answering the doorbell, “ If ye plaize, miss, there is a man in the hall below wid a pair of shtilts for yez.”— Home Circle,