Omaha daily bee., 1899-07-02
SALE OF SOME RARE GEMS
Present Duke of Marlborough B fuses to Buy
the Family Treasures
CONSIDERS IT A USELESS EXPENDITURE
some Future Duke Would simply
suunndcr Them Ia GrntiT, ExtrnN-
nganceS-AstOrs the Talk of
the social world.

LONDON, luly 1,-(Ncw York World ca.
blegram-Special Telegram. The artist,
event OF the week was the auction of the
Marlborough gems, which drew all of the
greatest dealers and connoisseurs tt
| Christies. These gems were sold enblot
by the present duke of Marlborough
grandfather to wealthy collector, Mi
I Bromiaw, for $4,000, and their sale thi:
| week separately realized only Sl,17O less
The present duke was strongly pressed to
| repurchase the collection, which was the
finest of the kind in Europe. But he very
shrewdly replied: Where is the use OF
my buying them back? The duke Of the
next generation or generation after would
almost certainly sell them again to satisfy
some costly whims." The biggest prices
| realized at the auction were $40 900 for a
| cameo CT the hymeneal procession of Eros
| and Psyche, cut in sardonyX and exquisitely
| mounted in gold frame; a Medusa's head
| in high relief cut In chalcedony, s9250; a
| magnificent cameo of deified Augustus,
| $l1,750; cameo of Claudius Caesar, $lS,2j0.
and several other canoes at prices ranging
| from 500 to $4,000.
| Mrs. William Astor Is no. staying for the
| big concert of her daughter, Mrs. Haig.
| formerly Mrs Coleman Drayton, to be given
on the 10Th OF July at her house on Brook
street. MIS-. Astor sails for New York to-
day on the Lucania and Or. Reginald Ward,
the copper king, will be on the same boat.
accompanied by Earl Donoughmore. Ward
does not return until the middle of August,
as he will make flying trip to Mexico to
inspect the Avino copper mines
Some confusion was occasioned about Mrs.
Haig's identity she being formerly known
as Mrs. George Haig, whil9 now she an
nounced the forthcoming concert under the
| name of Mrs. Ogilvie Haig, leading many
people to believe these were two people,
and the giving of this party naturally
something of a risk, as divorced people are
looked upon very codly in London, though
IL is different in the case of Americans or
foreigners whose antecedents are not so
generally known. Mrs. Ronalds is send
ing out Mrs. Haig's invitations and arrang
ing all the details of the concert for her.
The concert will be preceded by dinner
and she had dinner, too, Friday night,
when a great many people were invited
specially to meet Mrs. Astor.
Astor Very Obstinate.
Mr.. Waldorf Astor's entertainments are
still the talk of fashionable London. He
spends royalty, but somehow never in quite
the right way and although so much money
is thrown about in floral decorations and in
engaging lne DeSl opera SINGERS, tue MUSE
always looks. comparatively speaking, COM
fortress and bare and the concerts more like
public ones than private. He is very OBJ
stinate and never listens to any ones ad-
vice. His social advisers freely predicted
he would not have sufficient men at his
ball last week and begged him to take some
names from some big hostess list but this
he declined to do. He even refused to al
low a lady to bring a man friend on the
ground that he would never again have any
one in his house he did not know, which,
however, is not strictly true, as the last
two seasons some amusement was caused
more than once by people receiving invi-
tations from him direct without even know
ing him by sight. One prominent public
man who is rather an invalid was invited
last week to his dinner as well as TO his
dance. He wrote accepting for the dinner,
but no we'll enough to stay for the
ball He received curt reply to the effect
that the invitation must be entirely accepted
or refused altogether. This ball must have
gone wrong, for report says that about 2
o'clock, something having ruffied his temper,
Mr.. Astor deserted his guests and went to
bed.
His party Tuesday was as usual lavishly
done Paderewski played and Ancona Bon
nard and Plancon sang, as well as Melba,
while the entertainment alone must have
been enormous, $4,000 for Melba, $1,000 is
Paderewski's price, Ancona and Bonnard
would each charge from $500 to 81 900 each,
while Sarah Bernhard cost $1,000. Almost
the only people there who had not been
to his previous party were Mrs. Goelet who
was in half mourning, black and white,
wore black and white pearls, with Miss Goe-
let in white and Mrs. Mackay, who was
beautifully dressed, in black,
Movements of Americans.
Mr.. Clarence Mackay is coming TO stay
with Mrs. Mackay at Carlton House terrace
some time early next month. He has taken |
a place in Scotland for a few weeks and /!
Mrs, Mackay will accompany him there. Mr. |
and Mrs Perry Belmont are staying at
Savoy hotel this week Mr.. Belmont looks |
well, but Mrs. Belmont seems thin, peaky |
and apparently out of sorts, though their |
mutual devotion is idyllic.
Ambassador Choate paid his first visit to
the House of Lords Monday evening. accom- |
panied by Senators Hanna and Lodge, their |
wives and Secretary White. They heard
very interesting discussion on the election
OF women to the London municipal corpora +
tion counail, a proposal which was finafly |
defeated in face OF the support of Lord Sails
bury. The ambassador and the two senators
were deeply interested in the proceedings,
studying especially the personality of Sails
bury with marked attention Senator Hanna
looked yellow and sickly, but he subse-
quently spent some time in the distinguished |
strangers gallery of the House of Commons.
He was easily recognized from caricatures
in American papers.
While Ambassador Choate was sitting in
the gallery of the House of Lords his re-
resemblance to Sir Robert Peel |
was the topic of general observation by min
listers who remembered that statesman, the
famous free trade reformer. The similarity
of facial outline is perfect and so is the
shape of the head but Peel was much taller
than Choate and Peel was OF cold, austere,
reserved manners, the very antithesis of
Americas genial representative. On this
subject a correspondent has written TO the
press here stating that Choate has a con-
temporary doppelganger. well known
London solicitor Is Choate's veritabfe double
which is so pronounced that so soon as the
AMBASSADORS portraits were circulated in the
Illustrated papers his alter ego was promptly
dubbed by his professional brethren the
Honorable Joseph" and by that cognomen
has ever since been distinguished Having
ioubles may be advantageous or otherwise
Mrs. Craigie' intends to offer herself for