28 x PROFILéS x x x x THE EDUCA TION OF A PR.INCE-II <,:':"':',:.-':.., ' ....\.:_--:; .:...- -.:".- / , . -, ,.' ,....(p-.,:... ,$.". ., .-.--_:--.-, -,'- ,.', -'. "Jk , . . ; " . , "'\,: . Ron-zanoff E ARLY in 1923, Prince Michael Romanoff saw reason to leave New York. In Pittsburgh he visited the family of the late James McCrea, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. A few days later, young Jim Mc- Crea, one of Mike's Paris friends, received a letter from home reproaching him for neglecting to tell the family about his friend- ship with the charm- ing Prince. A week later, young McCrea, who was then in Tulsa, Okla., received another letter from home, saying that the Prince had left for the oil fields, after accidentally writing a check for one hundred dollars on the wrong bank. A few days later, McCrea, Jr., received a telephone call from the Prince. A hotel man in a small oil town had demanded that Romanoff pay his bill in cash. The Prince wanted to take the outrage up with the State Depart- ment. McCrea settled the matter quiet- ly, but the Prince abandoned the oil fields in a huff. He proceeded to St. Paul, Minn., where he was welcomed by some of the leading families, includ- ing the empire-building Hills and the great lumber house of Weyerhaeuser. The Prince had a vision of uniting the Romanoffs and Hills in a matrimonial alliance, but he was unexpectedly ex- posed as an impostor. This did not w holly spoil St. Paul for him. One of the Weyerhaeusers, discerning the spark of genius in Mike, offered to edu- cate him for a profession, if Mike would turn straight. Hence there appeared on the Har- vard campus in March, 1923, a sawed- off youth wearing a monocle, top hat, morning coat, and sponge-bag trousers. He was temporarily put up at the Har- vard Union in a bed in which Presi- dent Roosevelt once had slept. Later he stopped for a time at the Phoenix Club. Specialists in the Prince's Har- vard career say that he brushed aside the matter of entrance requirements by describing to President Lowell, in a personal interview, how his papers had been destroyed when the Reds burned the Win- ter Palace. Mike was enrolled as a student of engineering in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. One of his intimates at Harvard was Henri de Castel- lane. Mike had intro- duced himself. "Old man," he said, "I find we are cousins." Mike gained many other in- teresting friends, some of whom are still his friends, but he was not entirely popular. Some of the students complain- ed tha t his face had a Near-Eastern cast. Cases of cham- pagne and buckets of caviar, which Mike opened when funds arrived from the Northwest, won over many from the anti-Romanoff faction. The news spread with magical rapidity tHrough the ancient seat of learning that a new and important "green pea," or inex- haustible spender, had been discovered. The greatest of Mike's parties at the Copley-Plaza was attended by repre- sentatives of many feudal houses of Boston. The Prince put a sudden stop to his grandiose hospiÚllity in order to punish the hotel for presenting a bill. "This is most presumptuous," said Mike. "My people are accustomed to receive annual statements only. I shall never patronize your hostelry again." Mike quit the hotel. In November, 1 923, he quit Harvard. He had been summoned to the University office, where many documents were laid be- fore him. These indicated that he was not a Romanoff, that his current name was unknown at Eton or Oxford, and that he had bilked many students, professors, and tradespeople. "Gentle- men," replied Mike, "I must decline to discuss the matter." M IKE headed for the midlands-the Interior, as he usually called it. The newspapers of Wichita, Kan., soon announced that Wichita was harboring royalty. An imperial Russian, exiled and impoverished, had been discovered working as a floorwalker in a Wichita department store. Mike left Wichita after inviting everybody to look him up in New York at the Racquet & Ten- nis Club. He circulated swiftly through other Middle-Western cities, while clerks back in New York were wearing out their "No funds" stamps on Mike's checks. He was annoyed by the police in Kansas City. He found himself obliged to request an amende honor- able from the city authorities because a police official had hailed him coarsely, saying: "Hello, Prince. Where are the crown jewels?" Mike's career in the midlands, however, was cut short in January, 1924, when Harry Leslie, an agent of the Department of Justice, seized him for having escaped from Ellis Island. Under questioning at Ellis Island, Mike said that he had escaped from the Island thirteen months before by swim- ming to the Battery, holding between his teeth a walking-stick to which was attached an oilskin bag containing his most precious belongings. Lily-painters added later that the Prince wore a top hat when he made the swim, but this does not appear in the transcript of his testimony. Arriving exhausted at the Battery, the Prince said, he had been helped over the sea wall by a policeman. "Too many cocktails," Mike explained. The policeman made an entry in his notebook. and walked off. Mike's swim from Ellis Island grew into a legend, like Casanova's escape from the Leads. Years afterward, at the opening of Rockwell Kent's outdoor swimming pool at Ausable Forks, sensational aquatic feats were expected of the Prince. The guests grew impatient when he did nothing but parade up and down in his bathing suit. Somebody shoved him in. He sank to the bottom like a rock. He was hauled out half-drowned. "Too many cocktails" was the explanation. Mike could, in fact, swim a little when sober, but he did not escape from Ellis Island by swimming. The investiga- tion by H. H. Curran, Immigration Commissioner at the time, indicated that Mike had made his escape by stow- ing away on a ferryboat. At the Ellis Island hearing, Mike could not prove that he was born in this country, but . the immigration authorities could not prove their claim that he was born in Russia. He could not be deported to Russia anyway, because the United States has no diplomatic relations with Russia; so the Prince was liberated Like most others who came in contact with Mike, Commissioner Curran took a friendly interest in him. Later he met Mike at a social gathering. Mike