Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1907-08-30
PRESENTED At COURT.
Experience of an American at
an English Royal Levee.
A RAPID TRANSIT FUNCTION.
He Was In and Through and Out Be-
fore He Really Realized What Had
Happened-The Way His Difficulty
About a Costume Was Overcome.

fore He Really Realized What Had
Happened-The Way His Difficulty
About a Costume Was Overcome.
A six foot American who had Sc
cured command to one of the Eng
lish royal levees recently found him
self in pretty predicament.
On his notification paper was the
hint that levee dress was indispensa
BILE. In the guileless innocence of his
democratic soul the American took this |
to mean that frock coat and shiny |
shoes would be called for.
He was in the act of looking over his |
best outfit of that nature when a more |
experienced friend called and caught |
him in the act. The friend made haste |
to inform the misguided Yankee that |
levee dress involved silk stockings,
ruftled sleeves, black sword and other
| items.
CONSERVATION ensued 1t continued
to ensue when owing to his height and
girth no borrowable suit was discov-
cred and no tailor could be found who
would make one before the next after
noon. At last stage levee dress was
rented from His Majesty's theater,
where It had done duty in THE Last
of the Dandies."
After the levee was over the Ameri-
can confessed that he hardly knew
what had happened. When he reached
the palace he was first surrounded by
the yeomen of the guard, who started
him upstairs with great dispatch. In
| III, tive fhn
yeomen disappeared, and he found
himself in lane of tin plated life
guardsmen.
Again the scene changed, says Town
and Country, and there was lane OF
royal footmen and next a large room
filed to overlooking with admirals,
generals, diplomats, peers, chamber
lains, soldiers and sailors of all de-
grees Of commissioned rank and a
great host of men attired like himself
in levee dress. One by one they were
singled out ndUshered into the royal
presence in the adjoining room, where
stood the king surrounded by his suit.
The work of presentation was $50
rapid that the American found himself
out and in another room before he
knew what had happened. His over
coat was on his back in the same
rapid, mysterious fashion, and the
, next thing he knew he was outside in
; the courtyard. But he was actually
"presented" and Is now forever Hof
fahig or eligible for presentation at
any court in the world provided he be-
HAYES himself
All this was preliminary to the pres
entation of the mans wife and daugh-
ter at the drawing room. Men are pre-
1 scented at the kings levees, and the
women undergo the same ordeal at the
r courts or drawing rooms, which are
1 by far the more imposing functions 1T
| is probably no exaggeration to say that
every time q drawing room Is held
100000 is spent by the people who go
to court
' None but very old habitue OF the
CORTLAND then she is never below the
: rank of countess-would dream OF
e appearing at court in a costume that
she had worn there before. The item
of flowers alone is one of vast impor-
lance If it were not for the drawing
rooms the large florists could not exist.
t Every woman who is presented goes
. armed with a bouquet, whose value is
, at least pound, and some of them are
8 worth ten times that sum. Then there
i are the bookmakers and the hosiers and
i the milliners to consider to say nothing
n of the people who lend carriages.
n Suppose there are at low estimate
l. 900 people on the presentation list. OF
l. these every mothers daughter has her
= self photographed in her court cos
f tune, and London court photographers
t are notorious for their stiff prices.
st. James park on the night of @
drawing room is filled with London
ers who wander up and down the dou
bile line of carriages stalled in the mall
I peering into the windows and CRITICS
ing the costumes of the nations ant
their debutante daughters. 1t Is {
, legitimate privilege of the populace t
= consider those waiting for presentation
as objects of interest, and there thu
latter have to sit, some of them owe
an hour, subjected to the gaze Of Lon
don's citizens You see half a dozeI
shopgrls fiattening their noses agains
the window of a motor brougham an'
carrying on a rapid fire conversation
about the dress of milady and he
daughter inside.
"Ain't she beootiful, Mary ANN o
"Wot do you think Of this un? OF don
like 'er gown at all"
All this has TO be borne with Spar
tan fortitude SO long as there lisa
rowdyism; but, strange to say, Their
never is.
A good many people starve then
selves for months so that they an