Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, visits Chicago and Mayor "Long John" Wentworth introduced the Prince in his usual arrogant style.

In 1860, Queen Victoria sent her eighteen-year-old son, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne, on a goodwill mission to Canada and the United States.

Albert Edward, Prince of Wales

Prince Edward's trip, however, almost did not occur because of the adamant opposition of his mother, Queen Victoria. The idea for a royal trip to North America originated a few years before when a Canadian regiment fought for Britain in the Crimean War (1854-1856). Canadian officials requested of the grateful British government that the queen pay them a visit, but she let it be known in no uncertain terms that she would not undertake the ocean voyage. The Canadians then asked for one of her sons to represent the monarchy. Victoria insisted they were too young but vaguely acquiesced to send Edward, the eldest when he reached maturity. 

The queen might not have fulfilled the promise had not her husband, Prince Albert, and the British Colonial Secretary, Henry Pelham Clinton (the Duke of Newcastle), worn down her resistance by persistently pleading that it would bolster imperial bonds between Britain and her Canadian colonists. Although Canada was bad enough, she was even more repulsed by the suggestion of adding the United States to the itinerary. Prince Albert and the foreign secretary, 

Lord John Russell finally convinced her that it would help improve relations between the two countries. The deciding factor in her approval of the North American tour may have been her displeasure with Edward, whom she increasingly considered a ne'er-do-well (lazy and irresponsible). By early 1860, Victoria wanted the boy out of her sight.

Prince Edward was on tour in Canada when Chicago Mayor "Long John" Wentworth met him in Montreal with an invitation to come to Chicago. The Prince liked the idea. He said he would come, but only unofficially, as "Baron Renfrew." Nobody was fooled by that dodge. When the Prince's train chugged into the city on September 21, 1860, he was greeted by a crowd of nearly 5,000, many of them wearing special medallions or waving banners. 

Chicago Mayor, "Long John" Wentworth

Prince Edward became the first Royal to visit Chicago. The royal party stayed at the Richmond House at Michigan Boulevard and South Water Street, just west of the Michigan Central Railroad depot.

Rising late the following day, the Prince received formal greetings from Wentworth and a committee of distinguished Chicagoans. Then he was taken on a tour of the city. Though the Prince wanted to keep his visit low-key, his itinerary had gotten into the papers, and over 50,000 people lined the streets to watch him pass. That was about half the population of the city.

During his three-day stay, the Prince saw one entire house transported along the street, visited the Chicago Historical Society, and a large theatre-like building called "The Wigwam." At this political venue, conventions are held. He saw the Courthouse and all the other points of interest that might have been found in an 1860 guidebook. The party made a special detour so the Prince could inspect one of the grain elevators on the outskirts of town. The royal visitor appeared suitably impressed and made appropriate comments.

One evening, Mayor John Wentworth took Prince Edward to one of his favorite saloons. It was crowded as usual, and Wentworth announced: "Boys, this here is the Prince!" he shouted. "Prince, these are the boys!" That is the legend. It may or may not be fact. But it's the kind of thing that Long John would have said. 

There was no formal ball. Chicago society matrons, who had hoped to parade their marriageable daughters before the bachelor prince, were deeply disappointed.

When the stress of the trip caused Prince Edward to suffer from headaches, it was arranged for him to spend a few days hunting at a rural lodge in nearby Dwight, Illinois. After a luncheon on September 24, the Prince left for the Prairies of Illinois and traveled eighty miles by rail to a country estate in Dwight. Then on to Springfield, Alton, and on to St. Louis, Missouri.

A reporter asked Wentworth how it felt to sit next to a future king. "I didn't sit next to the prince," Long John said. "The prince sat next to me."

The Prince of Wales became King Edward VII of Great Britain in 1901. Long John was dead by then, but he would have taken the news in stride.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Mr. Gombien Jean, a Chicago Leland Hotel Employee, Dies from the Oddest Cause in 1892.

CHICAGO, January 4, 1892 — Here is the case of a man who died from eating too much Ice-cream. It froze up his stomach.

His name was Gombien Jean, and he came recently to Chicago from an interior province of France. Jean was about 21 years old and found work last Wednesday at the Leland Hotel as a "yard man." 

While helping in the Leland pantry on the first day of his employment Jean discovered the ice-cream box and some handsome and fine flavored cake. Jean had never tasted ice-cream before. He liked the sample, and in a mild way enjoyed the cake. But the ice-cream touched the spot.

He ate very heartily of it. The cooks and other employees of the house say that at morning, noon, and night when they went to look for him he would be found in the ice-cream box sampling the cream. The holiday season was on and the finest cream was made and stored there. 

The pantry where Jean worked was hot, and the ice-cream partaken of between acts of cleaning tinware perhaps acted as an antidote. Yesterday noon Jean was taken violently sick. The pantryman suddenly grew tired and was discovered unconscious.

One physician was called, then two others were brought in. They said the man was dying; that he should be taken quickly to a hospital. He was hurried away in a patrol wagon to the County Hospital, where two hours later he died in terrible agony. He had no friends in Chicago.

The police officers in the patrol wagon say that the employees in the hotel told them that the man had simply eaten so much ice-cream that his stomach was frozen; that he had never tasted ice-cream before and that he liked it so well that he could not quit eating it. The quantity of ice-cream eaten is said to be enormous.

Lewis Leland of the Leland Hotel said: "This man came to us five days ago. He was employed as a sort of helper. I never heard of anyone eating enough ice-cream to freeze up his stomach. i know nothing of that. It was the statement given out by the servants, however. One of them ran in here and told me an employee was very sick. I could not find the house physician, so I sent for Dr. Henderson of the Hotel Richelieur. The doctor had the man taken away to the hospital. Go and see Dr. Henderson."

Dr. Henderson said: "I was called into the Leland, but a man who said he was the sick man's brother had sent for another physician, and as he was coming in I dropped out. I did not examine the sick man. He was fast approaching death when I saw him. A physician was caring for him when I came into the room."

Doctors at the County Hospital said: "The man was so near death when he reached us that nothing but a post-mortem examination can reveal the cause of death."

NOTE: My guess is that Gombien Jean was a diabetic. In 1892, no case of recovery from a diabetic coma is known.

Edited by Neil Gale, Ph.D.