The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-05-05
AMERICANS EXPERIENCE
AT THEKING'S LEVEE

large room filled to Overlooking with ad-
mirals generals. diplomats, peers, cham-
pertains. soldiers and sailors of all degrees
of commissioned rank and a great host
of men attlred like himself in levee dress.
One by one they We're singled out and
ushered into the royal presence in the
adjoining room, where stood the king sur
rounded by his suite.
The work of presentation was so rapid
that the American found himself out and
in another room before he knew what
had happened. His overcoat was on his
back in the same rapid, mysterious fash
ion, and the next thing he knew ne was
outside in the court yard. But he was
actually presented" and is now forever
Hof fahig, eligible FOR presentation at
any court in the world, provided he be-
HAYES himself. Also he no " has the priv
ilege of being invited to a garden party
at Buckingham palace one of these days.
All this was preliminary to the pre-
sentation of the mans wife and daughter
at the drawing room. Men are presented
at the Kings levees and the women un-
dergo the same ordeal at the courts or
drawing rooms, which are by far the
more imposing functions. 1t is probably
no exaggeration TO say that every time
a drawing room is held 100000 is spent
by the people who go to court.
None but a very old habitue of the
CORTLAND then she is never below the
rank of a countess-would dream of APP
pearing at court in a costume that she
had worn there before. The item of
flowers alone is one of vast Importance.
If 1t were not for the drawing rooms
the large florists could not exist.
Every woman who is presented goes
armed with a bouquet whose value is at
least a pound, and some of them are
worth ten times that sum. Then there
are the bootmakers and the hosiers and
the milliners to consider. to say nothing
of the people who lend carriages.
Suppose there are at low estimate 800
people on the presentation list. OF these
every moti4er'5 daughter has herself pho
tographed in her court costume, and Lon
don court photoSI aphers are notorious for
their stiff prices.
ST.. James Park on the night of draw
ing room is filled with Londoners who
wander up and down the double line Of
carriages stalled in the Mall, peering into
the windows and criticising the costumes
of the matrons and their debutante
daughters. 1t is a legitimate privilege of
the populace to consider those waiting
for presentation as objects of interest.
and there the latter have to sit some of
them over an hour. subjected to the gaze
of Londons citizens. You see half
dozen shop girls hattening their noses
against the window of a motor brougham
and carrying on n rapid fire conversation
about the dress of milady and her daugh-
ter inside.
"Ain't she beootiful, Mary ANN" or
''Wot do you think of this un? OF don't
| Ike 'er gown at ALL
All this has to ne borne with Spartan
| forttude so long there is no rowdy
| ism; but strange tosay, there never is.
| The young men who roam the streets at
night consider it beneath their dignity to
look at the presentees; in fact. they do
not even go into the park. so that all the
staring is done by women who are intest-
ed in what their more fortunate sisters
IRE wearing.
A good many people starve themselves
for months so that they and their Off
spring may have the money to enable
them TO go to court There are many
half-pay colonies who live in the coun-
try. whose one object is to come up for
a drawing reom.