THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1955.
Would your watch have kept
time on the sea-bed?
+
WEARING & Rolex Oyster Perpeturi, a, profesor of Milan University went for a swim off Capri, Bat the step-buckle was loose, and his watch broke from his wrist, and sank to the bottom. Without much hope, the professor asked some divers, working nearby, to keep an eye open for his watch. Surprisingly, seven days later, they actually found it, and it coas still kieping perfect time.
It is not really so incredible. For this superb watch, completely protected from water and sand by the famous Oyster waterproof case, is automatically wound by the Perpetual “rator" mechanis another Rolex invention.
It is in their ability to stay accurate under such incredible tests of endurance that Rolex watches prove their immunity from the more normal ills that beset an ordinarje watch.
MONTE CARLO RALLE
"We MIGHT he in Regent's Park; he MIGHT have escaped from
map one day, mightn't you, dear?”
circus; and you MIGHT learn to read
London Express Bervios
THE LACK OF £5 ON APRIL FOOL'S DAY, 1817, LED TO ONE OF THE BIGGEST IMPOSTURES OF ALL TIME
The Princess Who Wasn't
T
By CHRIS BAKER-CARR
HERE
have
Irreli
11
Thousands of impos tors who have left behind them
heartbreak. pitiful trait of
But fraud and crime.
few can have been so strange and harmless, so honest and Jovable as Princess Caraboo
of Javasu.
Many acknowledgest called there to see this enigma of a girl, only to retreat haffted auct embarrassedi by deftat, while newspapers up and down the country published columns of print about the mysterious foreigner. One man. however, secined more of an expert than the others. He said
had he
the travelled several times to East Indies, that he knew mosl languages there and The story begins-appro- of the priately enough on April claimed he was an authority on
Не customs and rituais.
A
the Ceoilar ko
וויha
letters of
The alphabet. numbers had fascinating
Bud
those from one
f Leti were: **Exc Duce. Tan. Trup,
Sen- Zennce. dee. Tam Nunta, Berteen and Tustiman
But she could
count
only up:
even
Every
to 15!
ed all her own
food, preferring
Fool's Day, 1817. A pretty, boasted that he knew plump girl with roina creek and harbour in that vast face, dark, merry eyes, black area. hair, and a laughing mouth walked along the quay Fat Bristol looking for the cap tains of three ships then in harbour.
She wanted, she said, a pass-
America ago to
Two turned her down, but the third said he
22 15 sailing
daya and
Caraboo cook-
This mum spent a great deal of line claseied with Carnboo and loved ex deciphering
her
language--In
the process straming his imagin- ation to its uumost, nut
Acara! Whether
AL
mention honestly
believed she was genuine we shall never know. Quite possibly he tumbled once to such a delightful hoax and played along with Curaboo, would take her for £5. Five geillag us much enjoyment from
I as she did herself
Was
pounds ow Wils that vast sum?
Her
she tu raise
sense of fun, never, very for wway. spucer! her on to Lic starl of the magnificent Jaje. It took only moment to remove her bon- net and wind a showi round her head like a turban. Sho de- cided to play the part of destitute foreigner and beg for money,
She rearranged ner clothes to give them on Eastern air, drap- ing a red and black shawl loosely
over the shoulders of her black dress and
little its muslin collar. Then this almost illiterate girl of 25 began win- dering from vilinge to village. knocked At Almondsbury she at the parson's door.
Unintelligible
Discovery
ht
However, be announced Uscovery that Curaboo was the daughter of a Congee
that her man) of rank, and mother was a Maudin (Mulay). He extracted the life story of this Princess of Javasu- for so the enger-believer "expert" per- sunded her shu must be.
rice to bread, tremely
curry.
On
Tuesdays sbe
fasted religi- où siy
and
ilmbod to the
roof of Knole to pruy
God, Allah Taliah.
She wound a shawl round her hoad.... and became a Princeau.
to her
A jocular parson called OBC afternoon. Caraboo was a fraud, he wald, and he would unmask
her.
"You are the most beautiful creature ever beheld," he told But her. "You are an angel." not a blush came to her checks; THI athy face muscle moved. The parzon went home defeated. But dospite the success of her imposture, her worr
were Soon the men growing dally.
India House would be But the panel of Oxford Dons down from London naking nwk-
her wtw studad
vocabulary ward questions, and sho WIS words declared of about 100
frightened of being recognised on roundly that it was completely
The servants at Knola one of the many trips to Bristol bogus.
Caraboo
Mirs Worrali, often thought
might be made with
Brun
give herself away by talking in The strain became too great; on her sleep, and said 50 once Saturday, Jum 0, she took to she deliberately gave tongue in her heels onde mano.
within her hearing. That night
ber Jayasu Jurgon.
Mrs Worrall supposed aho bad princess
Vialtors crowded the elegant drawing-room, with Caraboo the
altraction-one centre of
Mrs Worrall demanded the true story of her life as well as her real identity.
So the miserable girl talked: sho was Mary Willcocks, A Witheridge Devon. native of
in
and known la later years Mrs Molly Baker. She had run away from home at the age of 10 and gone into service Exeter. From there she drifted from job to job, and ended up In London, still working as n housemaid.
short "She stayed for a very time in the Magdalen in Black- friars Road. She left hurriedly on discovering it was, in fact, a home for "fallon" women. She tpok, to the rond met more, Lila time disguised as a page- boy for the journey to her Devon home. With Q fresh supply of clothing she returned from Devon to London,
ĮRAN
Disappointed
tho
Where she found a "husband" is not certain: 4ome people say it was in a Billingsgate book- girl shop; others in a seid by was kneeling at her feet, an- River Thames. Her lover was other holding her hand and thought to have been a foreigner third bagging a kiss from the royal lips. Caraboo said later she found this the hardest test of all and had to do her utmost to stop herself from laughing.
Caraboo felt the end had come when Mrs Worrall walked
and the person responsible for her wide knowledge of Eastern customs. She taught herself to read and write in a rudimentary way during her eight years of wandering along the south coast of England.
At any rate, the man deserted in. The girl prostrated herself her and went to France. Their on the carpet and then hugged child died, only a few months her hostess before flying from old in 1 London foundling the room Downstairs aho con hospital. Disappointed and
Aded that it was only to see her lonely, she took 1 coach to father once again that she had Devon, saw her family and set
off for Bristor and the impersonation.
run away.
Recognised
grand
When Caraboo Anished her confession Mrs Worrall pro- miss to
pay
to her fare America,
But the princesa was about
A marquess, da earl and to abdicate. Her former many linguists, physiognomista, landlady had seen, ane of the cruntologists arid gipales come to many newspaper. 'stories about sen her off. the dark stranger. Mrs Nente immediately recognised her one. Molly Baker, the one-time But her memory must have offended her darling
Javasu, been phenomenal to enablo and driven her away. Hearing time lodger end produced such Princess Caraboo of The overseer of the parish
been heading unshakable evidence of identity made one final (and her only her to use each Javasu word that Carabon hind by poor, mystined
could solemn) promise: "I will return the
poor Mrs Worrall girl's
correctly every time-while her for Bath this time, Mrs. Worrell doubt no longer,
from America and ride through language and her
Bristol in my own carriage and intriguing appearance, took her acting ability was beyond recalled. for her
arrived in the city the following Princesa Caraboo isid aside sour horses." up to the big house, Knole Park. proach.
afternoon. She found her Cara- her bogus "crown" in a food of 7.
almost Chinese style able houses.
send hair to guol. In return of again. ;
strange
This was
#
carriage and
that
'
mattor for Mr Numerals she wrote in aboo in one of the most fashion- bears and beamed them not to She was never seen or heard
Worrall, a country straneg,
Samuel magistrate.
Mrs Worrall tried talking to the girl, asking who she WIR and where she came from. I was useless. Her replies were n torrent of strange, unintelligible words. Mrs Worrall went so far
2
tho
St Paul's Was Financed From Coal!
another
as to accuse her of being trand
and offered to keep
TUST two hundred and He regarded it as an enemy. After a full fifty years service, There is no doubt that all- secret, give her money and
** of all architests bessuse of the clothes it she
madne monument to fixing which now powera nome, would
eighty confess.
years ago, This too, had no effect. The Christopher Wren laid the smoke's injurious effects on coal that has become a familiar 80 percent of the world's me
masonry. And he campaigned Thomies landmark is to discurile marielus mach hig girl
just kept repeating the first stone of London's pre- for the prohibition of cool ares appear. word "Caraboo" while pointing
poets vastly clearre places, Th near. the City ..... or This is the coal hulle Artemis, clouds of cool, dust that at con to herself; That much, at least, sent St Paul's Cathedral anywhere
de- at me time the Great Eastern, tima billowed pym major bun- was clear her name
only. would the Hallway, paddle-steamer, Lady, leering depois made, že un- Carabeo.
ing been burned down in the pristine cleanliness of the Tyler, which for half a century, pleskmat : for, residopta- of' the Cathedral's masonry be sullled, has been moored off Gravesend neighbourhood, especially when A guest of somewhat dubious Great Fire of 1666. honour at dost (her name for The work took 35 years, and but the smoke would actually as a coaling depot for local tuas strong wind was blowing, dinner) that night, she refused the last stone was let into the attack the stone and harten its
was the previous structure hav-clared, not
London Otherwise, ho des
to eat meat and drank nothing demo in 1710 when Wron was decay.
nearly eighty years of age.
takon Cort or Uils superb cathedral
Until comparatively recently, there were many similar hulks dotted along the Thamer GREY often the remnants of once
stronger than ana (water). The following day she was before the Lord Mayor of Bristol and several of the city wortalm end to no effect and from there to St. Peter's Hospital for However, the greater pariton vagrants and poor people. Dury was provided from levy \ing" her} two-day stay Tres ranging from €4d to 21. fd, per lou
fused ei tov nat pangining. Mrn charna: (30 bulbulayakan war Worrall felt more, and more imposed and son borror & ORL away From: (dien fan helyed tributing her sport
was £850,000-a huge sum in Wrens failed to gain his point, fine ships with international Tom those days. Part of It was though he was only uttering, for putations reduced by, aga to raised by public subscriptions in scrvance the plea for Jamoksignominious role of howling
now frequently aculties for chuing
ever, lugs today; files stoing ships thay per Peony
*
The Rolex Oyster Perpetual is similar to the one in the story. Permanently waterproof in it. Öyster Case, it is given parftet accuracy by the Perpétant elfinding "retor" The Rolex Red Stat identifies every Rola chronometer.
Rilex
After sivin days baneath the sea, Oyster Perpetual, brought up by divers, cons found to be will showing the right time! (The original letter of Profiner Carolo can be inspected at the Rolex officer, 18 rue du Marche, Genson.)
ROLEX
་་
A landmark in the bistory of Time measurement
BOLEX Chronometer Official Timepiece of Panegra Airlines
AX-19
His only
rival
Johnnie Walker
FINE OLD SCOTCH WHISKY
BORN 1820
STILL GOING
STRONG
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