The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-11-10
BEAUX AND BEAUTIES.
FTRST GENTLEMAN OF EUROPE
 AS 4 DANDY.

hAs 1rOuDles - beau BrummePs
 BlacIxing Made of Champagne-Dress
 of Men of Fashion-story of Lady
 HertfOrd.
 The career of the First Gentleman of Europe" gives one cause to wonder what was the accepted canon of a gentleman hundred years ago.
 If the Prince Regent was such con- scienceless lioertine as Lewis Melville makes out in his new book, what were the morals and manners of the smaller fry among gentlemen in those days it IS better not to consider too closely.
 From early youth the Regents life says the London Daily Mail, would seem entirely vicious Those were the days when men drank and deep, but the Prince drank so much longer and deeper that on several occasions he nearly ended his inglorious career In the Georgian era the gallantry of the Middle Ages still survived, though all its romance had vanished and there re- mained only its brutality. The history of the Regents love affains and his treatment of Queen Caroline-what- ever her errors-are distinguished by a coarseness that display no exalted no- ton of chivalty in the First Gentleman of Europe.
 It would appear that the Regent won his title through certain grace of manner he possessed and above all for his eminence among the dandies.
 'NThese exqmsites," writes MT. Mel vile, "were disinclined to yield the palm even to an heir apparent with limitless resources. The Prince of Wales, however, contrived to hold his own.
 "At his first appearance in society he created a sensation; he wore new ahoe-buckle!
 This was his own invention, and differed from a previous article of the same kind, insomuch as it was an inch Gong and five inches broad, reaching al- most to the ground on either side of the foot. This was an excellent in- troduction to the polite world but 1t was mot untti he attended his first court ball that he did himself full jus tioe. Then his magnifcence was such that the arbiters of fashion were com pelled reluctant to admit that a powerful rival had come upon the scene.
 "A contemporary was so powerfully impressed by the splendor of the Princes costume that he placed on re- cord description: His coat was pink silk, with white cuffs; his waistcoat white silk, embroidered with various colored foil and adorned with a profus- ion of French paste; and his hat was ornamented with two rows of steedl beads, five thousand in number, with a button and loop of the same metal, and cooked in new military styles
 Of the dandies that gathered in the Pavilion at Brighton in the Princes early days, one eccentric of that fa- nous society was Lord Dudley and Ward, who eventually lost his reason and had to be placed under restraint.
 His absence of mind was notorius, and he had habit of talking aloud that frequently landed him in trouble. Dining at the house of gourmet un- der the impression he was at home he Rpologized for the badness of the en- trees, and begged the company to ex- cuse them on account of illness of his cook
 Similarly, when he was paying a visit he imagined himself to be the entertainer, and when his hostess had exhausted her hints concerning the duration of his call, he murmured: A very pretty woman! But she stays a d | long time! I wish she'd gon Still more amusing were his remarks in the l carriage of brother peer who had volunteered to drive him from the House of Lords to Dudley House: "A l deuce of a bore! This tiresome man has taken me home, and will expect me | to ask him bo dinner. I suppose I | must do so, but 1t is horrid nuisance | This was too much for his good natur- ed companion, who, as if to himself, | droned in the same monotous tones: | What bore! This good natured fel- low Dudley will think himself obliged to invite me to dinner, and l shall be forced to go. I hope he won't ask me. for he gives d. bad dinners" "
 These stories recall another related of the absent minded Duke of Cam bridge, who, when during the service the parson proposed prayer for rain, said in a voice audible throughout the | church: Yes, let us pray by all means but 1t won't do any good. We shan't get rain till the moon changes"
 The fame of dandy was evanescent, and Alvanley said Brummel was the only dande-lion that f1ourished in the hotbed of the fashionable world he had taken root. Brummel was a per ennial. he said, but lions were gener- ally annual All the world watched Brummel to initiate him.
 Backing was an article to which the dandies devoted much attention. Lord Petersham spent a great deal of time in making a particular kind of black ing which he believed would eventually supercede all others, and Brummel de- declared, My backing ruins me; it is made with the finest champagne" But Brummel must not be taken too seriously. He was a master poseur. and many of his critics have fallen in- to the error of taking him literally. h Thus it had apparently never occurred to his biographers to think he was jok- ing when, in reply to lady who in- quired what allowance she should FNas1l lra l,A, s