" Anglomaniac " Dead

James J. Van Alen, "American Prince of Wales," noted Rhode Islander and prominent New Yorker, died at the age of 77 in a hospital near London, following a two months' illness. He left the United States permanently after the declaration of prohibition.

Born to great wealth and high social position, Mr. Van Alen created many sensations in his long, hectic career. He was educated at Oxford; married Emily, daughter of William Astor, who died six years after the marriage; was made U. S. Ambassador to Italy by President Cleveland in 1893, but was soon forced to resign when it was discovered that he had contributed $50,000 to Cleveland's campaign.

Always a great lover of England, Mr. Van Alen equipped a Red Cross ambulance for the British Army during the Boer War and served in it himself. He was made a Knight of the British Division of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. His passion for things English earned him many an accusation of Anglomania in his own country.

His irascible temperament obtained for him the sobriquet of " the American Prince of Wales." He said that "America is no place for a lady or gentleman to live in." Asked if he had ever been West, he remarked, "Yes, as far as Sixth Avenue." An African hunt in a steam automobile; a lawsuit for alienating the affections of another man's wife; an escapade during the War; landing in the U. S. with 50 trunks which took him three hours and $1,400 to get by the Customs Officials; a passport seizure by the American Consul in Paris; the importation from Egypt of an awning valued at $50,000, the result of three years' work, which he spread over the veranda of his Newport villa--all these are chapters in his variegated career.