The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-08-13
MRS. LESLIE FLAYS
LONDON SMART SET.
Says IA Million Is BaeateIIe In the
Matrimonial Market.
From the New York Press.

From the New York Press.
Expressing decided disapproval of
many of the features now existing in
English society, the Baroness de Ba-
Gus, better known to New Workers. as
Mrs. Frank Leslie. said in an inter-
view given to the Press yesterday
that plutocracy is the only recognized
aristocracy of England. The mar
riage game, she added. is played on
a strictly financial basis, and settle
ments are talked about long before
the betrothal of young persons for
whose benefit the alliance is planned.
American women who find it impossi
BILE to enter society in New York can
obtain)~easy access to the London
smart set If they only possess the nee
essary capital with which to lay siege
to British royalty and nobility.
Thus spoke the Baroness yesterday,
as, gowned in a beautiful costume of
lavendar silk and blazing with dia-
monds and pearls, she seated herself
in wide-armed wicker chair beside
Japanese table in her apartments in
the Chelsea in West Twenty-third
street.
The title of Baroness de Bazus,
which Mrs. Leslie says she has adopt
ed for business reasons when she did
not desire her name to appear before
the public, is an hereditary one. Baron
de Bazus was an ancestor of hers who
came to this country to avoid the
persecution of the Huguenots.
MY last trip abroad, from which
have just returned to this city, has
convinced me-" she said, american
women who are perfectly proper at
home frequently act in an utterly
shameless manner when they discover
an opportunity to sell themselves or
their daughters to some nobleman or
aristocratic Londoner. A million dol
lars is a mere bagatelle nowadays when
it comes to purchasing an eligible life
mate in the gay English capital The
more you pay the better the article.
No small bowers are accepted. You
don't have to be in the Queens set
to learn that.
THE English know how to appreciate
our money bags as well as our beau
tiful women. London and Paris are
filled to overlooking with Americans
who are very popular just now be-
cause they have been approved by
King Edward, who has always been
| an ardent admirer of American WON
en-. Mrs. Perry Belmont is accepted
| by the royal house, perhaps because
| she has the most expensive necklace
of diamonds and emeralds in the world
| She looks AS II she had millions and
| it didn't take English society long to
| learn that she has. The King has
noticed her. and that is really all that
is requisite.
At this point in her conversation the
Baroness interrupted herself to throw
a back-handed compliment at his maj
estv.
And speaking of the King, 1 must
say he has all the attributes which ]
most heartily detest in a man. He has
a most unpleasantly bald head, a
| beastly thick throat, a characterless
blonde beard and, withal, is as portly
as man very well can be without APP
pearing indecent. Yet despite all
these imperfections in face and figure
! he is every inch a King. and he can
| put you.at your ease in the most de-
| lightful way. His manner of address
| ing you never savors of condescension
but of gentlemanly gallantry, which
l have often thought is fast disappear
ing as an American attribute of man.
| hood.
England may be Americanizing
but the habits and customs of the
smart set across the Atlantic are re-
voting in the eyes of Americans OF
refinement. That disgusting travesty
on dancing, known among us as the
cake walk is danced every night by
the aristocracy of England Even
Mrs, George Keppel who is just now
the envied above all other women in