FRENCH WEST AFRICA: Cinderella

Two months ago grizzled blackamoor Prince Batoula, 44-year-old scion of a once potent Senegalese dynasty, came to the U. S. His father, Sheik Mamadou. is the “ruling notable” of nearly 2,000,000 Senegalese of French West Africa, although the French Governor General’s word in that section of the world is generally considered final. The Prince, Heir Apparent to the “throne,” wore flowing blue robes, the green and gold skull cap of the Senegalese sovereigns. He also carried a ram’s horn suspended from his neck, ten World War decorations and a fountain pen across his chest. He hoped Impresario Grover Whalen would permit him to spread the word of the French West African Negro at the New York World’s Fair. Mr. Whalen was not impressed. New York’s Harlem was.

Miss Harriette Mercer, 26, a strapping, dusky laundress, was presented to His Highness at a Harlem reception. It was love at first sight; and the fact that the Prince had some four wives—the limit under Mohammedan law—back in Africa seemed unimportant. Before the Prince returned to Paris, where he is correspondent for Le Senegal, West African weekly, they were engaged to be married. Said the Princess-to-be last week before she sailed to join her fiance: “Every girl dreams of meeting a Prince and marrying him, and it looks like my dream will come true. . . . I really consider him a bachelor. After all, those wives are in Africa and we’ll be in Paris.”

Next day it appeared that Miss Mercer also had previous entanglements. Pullman Porter Carson Clarence Rollins Jr. popped up and casually informed newsmen that he had married her in Stroudsburg, Pa. in 1931.* But he was indulgent about it, observing: “Imagine my surprise on learning that my wife was about to become a Princess!”

*Stroudsburg officials, however, could find no record of the marriage.