Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-24
GAY LONDON FETES
Round Of Social Gayeties for
May and June.
JAPS IMPRESS EUROPE
MANY CONVENTIONS MAKE 1T
LIVELY ON THE STRAND.
Earls Court in It's Summer Fancy
Dress-Sporting Exhibition-Art
and Dramatic Notes.
zee Of The Evening Star.

LONDON, May IL, 1904.
A short but brilliant season Is apparently
In store for the debutantes and others con-
cerned In the gayeties of the fashionable
London world of the present year of grace.
Public balls and functions, which more
and more are oustng private entertain
ments from the program of London sea-
son, will follow each other in bewilde.ing
succession during the last days of May and
in June.
At the Albert Hall there will be some
balls on the lines of those which were
the events of last season, one "mask and
domino ball, another a fancy head-dress
ball. OF charity fetes the chief will be
that at the Albert Hall, which the queen
has promised to open on June q, with all
the well-known society women taking part
in 1t, and the living bridge tournament to
take place at Hengler's skating rink on
May 81
The round of society gayeties has been
quickened by the return Of the royal family
from Ireland. There Is no word of any
state ball or concert at the palace, but two
extra courts will be ordered for June, in
place of the two that had to be abandoned
in March. consequent on the death of the
Duke of Cambridge. The king will proba-
bly, give some large dinner parties on Sat-
urdays. and there will be large dance in
the Waterloo chamber at Windsor Castle
during Ascot week.
Hostesses presenting young daughters
will give dances in their honor. and should
| the weather fulfill the promise of April
there will be a succession of garden and
river parties before Goodwood and Cowes
ring down the curtain on the season of
1904.
Since the king and queen have taken
up their residence at Buckingham Palace
the gardens have become much less formal
and far more attractive than of yore.. In
secluded nook, among the trees, Queen
Alexandra has had a wild garden" form
ed after her own heart, and this Is now at
it's best, with thousands of daffodils, prim-
roses, cowslips, wild violets. hepaticas and
anemones blooming in charming clumps in
the banks under the trees. Her majesty
has a similar pleasaunce at Sandringham,
and finds more enjoyment there among
the lovely but lowly flowers than among
the gorgeous beds and parterres. A feature
of this style of gardening is its informality,
where all the year round there Is life or
blossom of some sort to be found, and
where the plants, once set, are allowed to
grow with as close resemblance to nature
as is possible in the cultivated garden.
Lively on the Strand.
The May meetings are in full swing, and
the clerical congregation that blocks the
pavement about Exeter Hall. combined
with the disturbance in the roadway, ow-
ing to the building of the extended Savoy
Hotel, makes the Strand maelstrom of
confusion at this point.
The meetings are of the most varied ana
cosmopolitan order, running through the
whole catalogue of Christian work, ana
ranging from the Society for the CONVEX
sion of the Jews. with specimen converts on
view down to lectures on the millennium,
which a pamphlet given at the door informs
us is to commence either on May 2, 1923, or
April o. 1931-the prophet thus combining
precision and uncertainty.
The types of clergy and other visitors
vi cd hp
ings There are to be seen colonial bishops
whose broad-brimmed and struggled mats
and neatly gathered legs, inspire dinerent
emotions in passers-by, according to the
degree of their reverence. Well-nourished,
portly Wears, with their comely and COM
fortable-looking wives; curates of all ages
and types, including the ascetc Hlgh
Church West-enders, who have snatched
an hour between mathis and evensong.
The palely anxious low churchman Is
there; broad-shouldered, athletic. lighting
parsons missionaries with sunburnt faces,
generally accompanied by ladies of spare
habit and freckled compilations; numerous
fac-similes of the Rev. Robt. Spalding OF the
i'Private Secretary" and few gray-haired
colored gentlemen. who, with their wives,
are oddly reminiscent of Uncle Tom
Cabin" All these are to be seen streaming
into the Strand and overlooking into tea
shops for
The eggs and the ham, and the raspberry jam.
The gay Sally Lunn and the roiiicking DUN
described by Mr.. Gilbert.
Thus refreshed, they sally forth to con-
uuer the pleasures of London as represented
by Madame Tussand's, the Zoo, and the
Egyptian Hall. Musical comedy, however,
is not entirely disdained, and a few broad
err latitudinarians leave their prejudices
behind them when they enter the "Syndl-
cate" halls whose stars include George
Robey, Marie Lloyd and the White-eyed
Kaffir.
Japanese Successes in War.
Japan's successes have profoundly i'm