Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-04-19
PUPPIES AND BLUES
0rgie of Colors in London
During Eastertide.
THE ERRATIC WEATHER
BERNHARDTs AUTOBIOGRAPHY
PRovoKEs ENGLISH COMMENT.
Artist Abbey Completes His Great Pic
ture Of the Coronation Service
Latest Theatrical Gossip.
THE ERRATIC WEATHER
Special Correspondents of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
LONDON, April 8. 1904.
There is one thing which above all others
makes London Easter bank holiday
charming to the onlooker, that is the color
tints of the dresses of the ladies OF Cock
aigne A Philistine saying truly, for the
orgie of puppies and blues sends an average
artist to the oculist and the brain specialist.
Nowhere out of London will you see any
thing like it. But after winter of dreary
drab tints anything in colortng is accepta-
BILE to the ordinary man
The lady of puppies ard blues is capable
of attracting all eyes within q half-mile
radius, just as you cannot ignore the noise
OF a 1O0-ton gun when in it's neighborhood.
II. both cases it is the loudness which does
it. The lady of puppies and blues is as
happy in her holiday as she is loud in her
colors. For high spirits and capacity to
extract the most fun out Of the least prom
Using circumstances commend me to the
London factory girl.
London's Easter Monday really began on
Sunday. Late Sunday night in the uncan-
onical hours which only policemen, Journal
lists and burglars are supposed to keep, one
met whole enthusiastically respectable
families, too-making toward Hamstead
Heath, Epping Forest and the other delec-
tuDic SpOlS VI Uduh LOliOdy tluic. 4No oNOi
crowded trains, no uncertain buses for
them. They were the early birds who claim
ed the early vermiculac reward Alas! in
this case the reward seemed to be a share
of rain larger than fell to or upon the less
energetic.
Like all other things mixed, the weather
in the neighborhood of London was not to
commended One moment the sun shone
brightly, the next 1t rained, and in both 1t
blew strong gales. Nevertheless, in certain
circumstances high spirits are as good as
q macintosh.
Get Good Deal for Money.
The streets however. had bright look
for an hour or two in the afternoon when
the Hampton Court four-in-hand char-a-
bancs and omnibuses made their first ap-
pearance Of the season. The early passen-
gers in these brave vehicles have a good
deal for their money. When they stand ir-
resolutely on the pavement the coachman
makes his horses prance and curvet and
show their eagerncss TO be off,
The guard tells them that he is going right
away and straight away. They climb in,
and thus cease to be fish and become bait
The horses caper further along the Strand;
the guard and eoachman cry that now they
are just going off. More passengers are
hooked, and the guard points them out to
possible passengers.
Cant wait all day." he cries. Jump in,
and off we go. We're fair old party any.
starting, the leaders are put about, and
back they go along the Strand again.
The passengers appeal, but their tauntS
are lost in the cries of the guard and COACH
man who shout earnestly, Straight away.
and have now come to believe in it. At last
the horses, who don't like the Strand, set
tie the question by cantering off, and per-
haps get their passengers to Hampton
Court before sunset.
The numberless loving couples who walk
ed the streets or rode on orhnibuses In at
titudes of fond endearment were conspicu-
Gus advertisements of the fact that the
young cockney's (male and female) fancies
still revert in spring to amorous musings
But whether the adversities of others have
counseled caution or Easter appeals to MS
matrimonial sense with less forcibleness, 1t
is certain that the Easter holidays are no
longer to be regarded as the period par ex-
cellence for the DOMINIC Of the hymenal
harness.
Few Coster Marriages,
In past years Easter Sunday and Monday
brought arduous hours to the East End and
South London clergy, but this year the cou-
pies of costerdom have been as shy of the
altar as the Thibetian Lamas Of the princi-
pies of free trade.
In Shoreditch Church last Easter there
were forty weddings, and there have been
on occasions as many seventy, the cou-
Piles being knocked off, in patches. This
year only fifteen couples greatly daring,
mony, and in ten minutes thirty happy
hearts beat in more or less unison.
The same sad falling off occurred in those
other churches favored by the fashion of
Bethnal Green and the Borough, and the
lamentations of the unemployed clergy rose
like smoke to heaven as they walled over
the decadence brought to light by this ap-
parent aversion to wedlock.
Amazed About Bernhardt.
Madame Sara Bernhardt's "Autobiogra-
ply in the Strand Magazine Is an amazing
document; chiefly amazing for the manner
in which 1t corrects the statements In the
French biogra phical works of reference.
The charming artist tells US Of M. Bern
hardt in China, and Of his young wife.
who had a mania for continental travel.
But according to the French who's Who"
Bernhard Cor rather BernardD was the
maiden name Of her mother, Jewess from
Berlin, according to others from Amster-
dam (established as a milliner in the Latin
quarter Of Paris; while her own baptismal
name Is not Sara, but Rosine owing, now
ever to an unfortunate accident, neither
the place nor the date Of her birth can be
definitely ascertained.
She has written in the "Gaulois" that she
was born in 1874, in the sixth arrondisse-
ment of Paris; but all the records OF that
arrondissement were destroyed during the
turmoil Of the commune Most OF the rec
ords then lost were subsequently recon
stituted" by the evidence OF the Iamiiies IS
|
Madame Bernhardt's sisters birth was thus
reconstructed, but her own was not Nor Is
there any such record as might have been
looked for in the archives of the conserva-
toire at which she was trained for the
stage. -
Hence the mystery which enwraps her
| origin and has enabled many countries to
claim her as their own. Even Germany has
nut forward pretensions. A German paper
lately claimed that she was the daughter
of one Feihel Bernhardt, groom OF
Frankfort on the-Oder, but that is not
probable story.
Commotion Over Lost Designs.
There is great commotion in the German
navy department, I am informed by an
English official on leave from Berlin. In
consequence of the loss Of a packet of de-
signs for new German warships. The
packet has now been missing for nearly
fortnight, and the greater Importance II
attached to it's loss because. although dupli-
| Gates of course. exist, the designs which
| have disappeared are those which were
| submitted to the kaiser and bear various
notes and suggestions made by his majesty
| for the consideration of the navy officials.
Naturally. therefore. the authorities are In
| considerable anxiety lest the packet should
have been stolen or otherwise have fallen
-. a. -9 E1r trwn