The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-06-16
HOTEL LIFE IN EUROPE
THE DIFFICULTY OF KNOWING WHO
Is WHO IN PUBLIC PLACES.
Information About British Aristocrn-
cy Supplied by American Girls
Who Spent a Month mt Binrrftz.


the house to wear their name and title
in plain sight. 1t would save so much
trouble. AS it is, the only safe guide to
a proper recognition Of ones fellow trav-
elers is to pick out the queerest people
you see, the most badly dressed and the
least attractive. and put them down as
shining lights among the nobility. But
before you have learned this lesson you
will have had many a shock.
Three American girls came to a. PEN
sion here at Florence the other day.
They had spent a month at Biarritz and
were bubbling over with information
about the British aristocracy. They had
grown up, as girls do. with secret
readiness to love and honor a lord, at
least as he was presented by THE
Duchess" Miss Braddon and Others
and their first week at BiarritZ was full
of surprises.
Sunday we went to church., said the
first sister. land we saw the most lovely
creature. She wore a pale-green silk
with soft, splashy flowers over it and
big collar of black chiffon, and in the
middle of the service she leaned over
and spoke to the man beside her and
then they went out"
They do that every Sunday" said the
second sister. 1T shows off her gowns.
THE man with her." continued the
first sister, looked like half-witted
cowboy. He kind of hung all over him
self. and his lower jaw dropped in the
most imbecile fashion. He dumped out
after her, and we all put them down as
stunning American girl with a clod-
hopper brother whom she just couldn't
lick into shape. But, bless you, we
found that he was Lord Downshire,
with L don't know how many pounds
year. but no wits to speak of. She was
the granddaughter of an impoverished
earl, they told US, and her mother had
married her to this fellow for his money.
He is subject to fits of violence, and has
to have keeper. He generally had one
of these insane attacks at the golf
grounds, when his keeper and his wife
were called upon TO hold him in order.
He was our first lord and was a tri1e
discouraging.
There were always plenty of titles in
the pewS at church. said one of the
other sisters, "but the chief star was the
Princess Frederick of Hanover. She al
ways sat in the front seat, and it was
touching sight to see the rector look at
her with a glance of tender benevolence
as he spoke of the lambs of the flock
who were the joy of the shepherds
heart. And then when he had to speak
any words of warning and reproof he
always looked alphabetically toward the
Princess, as If to say, OF course, your
Serene eHighness is not included in
this"
DISTINGUISHED ARISTOCRATS.
THE Marquis and Marchioness OF
Ailesbury had villa al Biarritz, too"
broke in the irrepressible youngest sis
I, = taI af aa 10
and choicest collections of American
slang ever heard on foreign soil. "At
least one of them had. If the Marquis
was there the Marchioness found it con-
venient to be some place else, and vice
versa. They were like the lady and gen
tleman of The barometer. They never
appeared at the same time. 1t seems to
be one Of the signs by which you can spot
member of the English nobility. It's
a sort of long-range matrimony.
Yes" said the other one, sometimes
the range is so long that they mistake
the target and direct their affections at
somebody else entirely There were the
Millers / believe the Millers are mar
ried now, but when Mr.. Miller eloped
with his present wife. who was a dear
friend CT the lady who was then his
wife, you can see for yourself that they
couldn't have been married, no matter
how good their intentions might have
been. The Mrs. Miller Of that date,
however. was accommodating enough to
get a divorce, so the runaway couple
were married and settled down in a
charming villa at Biarritz. Then the
Queen of Servia came to Blarr1tZ, taking
a villa near that of the MillerS, of whose
private history she knew nothing. Mrs.
Miller was a shrewd woman. She has
tened to make hay, as ii were, before
the sun shone. That is, she was ex-
tremely kind TO Queen Natalie before
the latter had a chance to learn the do
nestle history of the Miller family. The
result was that when the Queen did
learn that her new acquaintance was
not exactly in good and regular stand
ing she said that she didn't care; Mrs.
Miller had been kind to her, and she
wasn't going back on a person whose
kindness she had accepted. So she
launched Mrs. NJ. into society, and she
is received TO a certain extent because,
in Biarritz, what Queen says goes.
But the most delightful thing was
the Irritation of Scott Aides daughter
with the Austrian count. Scott Adie is
a London tailor, you must know, and his
daughter married very nice man. who,
not being of the nobility, has not quite
got used to the long-range system. Per-
haps he likes TO stay near enough to see
/ his wife's clothes. She is said to spend
on her clothes, and you know man gen.
orally likes to look after his heavy in
veStmentS. At any rate, Scott Adie'a
sOn-in-law, whose name L forget, stays
right on the ground. His wife does the
best she can, however, to live up to the
canons of society, by ignoring his pres
| ence and carrying on desperate fiirta-
ton with an Austrian count. Her
brother at the same time devotes himself
| to the counts sister.
This interesting quartet had taken
| up the bicycle, and almost every day
| they went wheeling off into the country,
| where they stopped and had tea, leaving
| the poor husband, who did not ride the
| bicycle, to roam up and down the corri-
| doris and walks overhearing choice bits
| of gossip about his wife. This went on
| for some time, until finally the worm
| turned. The husband began to learn to
| ride the bicycle himself, and we used to
| meet them out on the country road, the
| two couples sailing on ahead, while some
| distance behind came the dusty and per-
| spring husband, wabblng all over the
road, falling into bitches and plunging
| into hedges, from which his teacher
would rescue him, put him on his wheel
and start him off again. The wife and
| the count and the brother and the
| countess paid no attention to him, and
were soon out of sight, but the husband
probably got to the tea house in time
to swallow a cup of tea with them, and
| he felt that he was chaperoning his wife
anyway"
| SHE NEVER HAD ANY LUCK.
II never had any luck with the no.