The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-09-20
NEWPORT SOCIETY NEWS
September More Brilliant Than August
 Dinners and Dances-Notables Coming.
BY DIEDRlcH kNIcKEReocKER.

Newport, September 1.-The Astors are once more in the lead. Mrs William Astor began the month with a brilliant series of dnners We all expected to hear the engagement of the granddaugh- ter Miss May Van Alen, to Ralph Ran let, but we were doomed to disappoint- ment. Nevertheless, we know it is com ing. Speaking of the Astors reminds me of Mrs. Orme Wilson and her new house in town which has just been built. Mrs. Wilson has been in and out of town all summer, arranging her new home. Her boys are almost men now and she will do a great deal of entertaining for them. Mrs. Wilson Is the youngest of Mrs. As tors children, and she has been with her mother a great deal-in fact. more than were any of her sisters. Mrs. Van Allen died after a few years of marriage; Mrs. Roosevelt never cared for society and led the quietest of lives, and after the rup- ture between MT. and Mrs Coleman Drayton, Mrs. Drayton went abroad, where she married George Ogolvie Haig. She has a beautiful house in London and she entertains great deal, but her mother has only a chance to see her once year.
 Mir and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt are now in search of a suitable winter resi- dence. The house they bought last sea- son, on Fifth avenue, opposite Mrs. Van derbilt's parents, will be extensively al- tered before they take possession. Mrs. Vanderbilt will be the matron of honor for her niece. Miss May Goelet, at her wedding with the Duke of Roxburghe. Cornelius Vanderbilt will be one of the latters attendants, as will Robert Goe- let, the brides brother, and Robert w. Goelet. her cousin.
 
 Miss Leila Paget, who has been staying with Miss Leary since she arrived from England will make a couple of brief vis- it's before the arrival here of her mother and aunt. Mrs Arthur Paget and Miss Fanny Reed two or three weeks hence. She will be the guest this week of MT. and Mrs. Alfred G. Vanderbilt at their camp in the Adirondacks, and then of Lord and Lady Minto of Ottawa
 Mir and Mrs. James A Burden, who %<<%%>%~-<-%-%-~~-< standpoint, on what can be gained from the bogs.
 Because a good quality of coke can be made from ordinary slimy mud 1t does not necessarily follow that the coke can
 
 its financial value, MT. Atkinson thinks. is one that it would pay the American people to have solved. At the very least it would stand us all in good stead to know how much or how Title dependence can be placed on the bogs and mudholes of the country to furnish a quick emer- gency fuel next time-if there is a next time--a coal famine occurs.
 But quite outside the province of the great industries which might be sup piled with coke or gas from mud there is believed to be a good field for its domes- tic use, particularly in farm houses. Mud air-dried, in parcels of considerable bulk and used in open fireplaces, has been found to give out a clean flame with lit- tie smoke and to make a hot fire from which an extremely pleasant odor ema- nates This fuel, If 1t does not contain silt from outside, will be discovered to carry from 10 to Il per cent of ash mostly a very fine dust of sllca that is derived probably from the silica of the grass stems. The heating value of this dry mud will ordinarily vary from two- thirds to three-fourths the fuel value of New River btuminoQs coal; and indeed,