The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-26
MADAME DE THEbES
 MAKES PROPHECY Tells What Will Happen In The
 Year 1910 THE SQUIRE OF DANES Has Not Paid His Annual Visit to France and the Ladies Refuse to Be Comforted-Seine May Be
 Deepened to Paris.
By MARQUIS DE cAsTELLANE.


 shall become a nation of water drinkers, losing at the same time some of our nat ural and spiritual gaiety.
 "In America there will be catastrophe on land and sataclysm on sea- Volcanic eruptions will burst forth In unexpected quarters. England will have to grapple with the question of money distributed without equity. A revolutionary outburst will follow. Prussia and Spain will have internal troubles The maps of Russia and Belgium will be redrawn. Unheeded grumblings will be heard from the Bal kan states and preparations for the final conflict will go on.''
 What about our beloved Paris?" I asked the soothsayer.
 French fashions will swing backwards. Small discreet hats will replace the edi- fees that make our women look like mushrooms. The hair will be dressed in the form of a diadem. Ruffles will adorn dresses. and the sheath costume will only be seen in the windows of old clothes shops. Lackeys will be be-wigged and the styles of the old regime will once more be revived"
 AS was about to bring the seance to a close Madame. de Thebes told me that the lucky stone for 1910 will be burnt topaz. Above all she warns ladies against wearing opals. She claims the opal invariably brings bad luck
 The most fortunate color for. the new year is amber and gold. Madame de The pes may, like the soothsayer of ancient Rome, wink when she meets one of her fellows in the street, but here in Paris we have great faith in her, and in her fore- casts
 King George of Greece, known among our fair ladies as "The Squire of Dames.'- for the first time in a quarter of century has not paid us his annual visit. No wonder the ladies refuse to be comforted. The spirit of unrest Is abroad. in his own country and King George has had to stop at home to keep his crumblfng throne from toppling over entirely. For many years past at about the same date and almost the same hour the following little an- nouncement has appeared in our news papers:
 On next Wednesday, the 18th in stant. his majesty the King of Greece, will arrive direct from Athens at Ak les Bain. The municipality of our beautiful resort is preparing specia, fetes in his honor"
 On the day following the publication of this discreet notice, one reads in t,le society columns of our daily papers O long list as follows:
 Mile Albertine has left for Aix-Ies Bains. Madame le Comtesse de Genris has gone to Aix-les Rains. And so on down the list, which is made up of titled and untitled society women; some young. some pretty. majority witty if not wise, and one and all magnifcently gowned.
 Among this galaxy of beauties one not frequently finds one or two Ameri- cans, attracted by. the curiosity of meeting and knowing royalty. Every one of these fashionables yearn for royal recognition, even if 1t only comes in the form of nod or smile.
 This year the fair danes bemoan their absent Squire" Aix-les Rains is also mourning. Even the presence of for the absence of the spendthrift King.
 Another marriage, which will shortly take place, Is again put down to the credit of the ex Empress Eugenfe. This venerable lady is an inveterate match maker It was she who married off the young King of Spain to the English Princess Ena. Now she is said to have brought about the engagement of Mile Solange de Lesseps with the Duke de Tanames.
 The bride-elect is the daughter of the celebrated engineer Ferdinand de Lessops and is popularly known among her friends as La Belle Solange." The Spanish grandee, whom she will wed. has an an- cestry which goes back into the very twi- light of history. He Is also a nephew of Eugente. or Gene" as Napoleon called her
 The ex-Empress never misses chance to advance the cause of the Bonapartists and it seems she has already won over the duke. On the other hand. the young people are said to be very much in love with each other. and we may, therefore, reasonably suppose they will live happily together. From all points of view the union is very brilliant and Eugenie is to be congratulated
 J. Piedpont Morgan, I hear, means to bequeath to this country a. museum not second to the Louvre. Such is the gossip among antiquaries in Paris, London and Rome. Napoleon I plundered Europe for art treasures to make the Louvre Why should not Pierpont Morgan do likewise The Seligmans of Paris. the Agnews of London and the Imberts of Rome hold that he can and will Those experts arc already securing Europe for art treasures for the American financier.
 There are still objects of great price and beauty to be secured. Italy is rich in treasures of art and there are always ways and means of getting them out of one country into another. Only few days ago Imbert of Rome secured for Mir Morgan book of hours of the twelfth century This manuscript is most val uable. showing as 1t does an exact pie ture of the life of that epoch.
 An American girl not yet 12 years of age has just headed a musical pro- gramme at concert given by the we'll known Club of the Rue de volney She is a Miss Van Barentzen of Boston and has already carried off several prizes of the Conservatoire. This famous young old child has inaugurated a series of nu- sical fetes for the winter season The object is to present to the Parisians win ners of prizes in all departments-vocal and instrumental--of the Conservatoire before they make their debuts in the reg ular theaters
 First upon the list of the famous series appears Miss Aline von Barentzen her self She played Variations from Beethoven. and so perfect was her tech nique that the whole audience burnt
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