The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-04
COMPLETE COURSE
 IN GOOD TASTE Ladies Study Under Royal
 Auspices LUXURY IS THE KEY NOTE Woman Adopts Queer Method of Com hitting Suicide in Teplitz-Youns Man Fails in Several Att
 tempts to Suicide.
LUXURY IS THE KEY NOTE
BY MALCOLM CLARKE.

BY MALCOLM CLARKE.
 Berlin. April S-The ladies of Berlin have just completed, under royal aus pices, a course in good taste" For their benefit there has been held in "Ho- henzollern House." the Berlin headquar- ters of the Kaisers Cadlnen pottery works. an elabo. .te exhibition, which has enjoyed the patronage of the Elm press. the Crown Princess and the wives of Prince Eitel Friedrich and Prince Au- gust Wilhelm.
 Thousands of women desirous of in- struction in what constitutes good form" have throngeC the exhibitions for six weeks. The promoters believe it is destined to be a landmark in German women's struggle for emancipation from the status of more frugal hausfrauen.
 Luxury, however was the keyhote of the exhibition. In oruer to give object lessons in the proper adornment of the home and person, the Kaiserin, the Prin eesses and scores of social leaders con- tributed liberally from their own draw ing rooms, boudoirs and wardrobes. Or naments, furniture, jewels, gowns, hats, shoes, furs and linen were shown in be- wildering profusion.
 The Crown Princess, to whom is given the chief credit for the renaissance of fashion among German women, sent a number of Parisian costumes. One of her ernine opera cloaks, marked Value s500o," attracted special attention. Frau von Bleichroeder exhibited diadem of
 
 s250,O Model boudoirs and bedcham- bers were transplanted from fashionable homes.
 One we'll known lady permitted de- tailed reproduction of her black and white marble Roman bathroom, with mirrored walls and soft electric lights. Another showed her dogs wardrobe, silver buclSled rubber boots and embroidered kerchiefs being part of the canine equipment.
 The court bootmaker exhibited dancing shoes with diamond, pearl and emerald garnitures on the ankle or instep. Paris and Vienna costumiers were among the exhibitors, but the German styles predom- mated. Unconscious tributes to the latter fell from the lips of many who mistook them for foreign importations.
 The exhibitions are said to have proved that German women no longer need go abroad for style or costliness. Male vis- itors came to the conclusion that good form in Berlin is not only matter of taste, but of money.
 A suicide of a singular kind has taken place in the little town of Teplitz. Dur ing the morning service in the church a young woman left her seat sobbing. She climbed the steeple until she reached a skylight.
 The young woman jumped from this opening, her body bounding on a gallery, 1 afterward crashing on the ground just as the worshipers werese leaving the | church. She was picked up with her legs and spinal column smashed. queer case of a man who could not kill himself, though he made several at tempts, has come to light in Mohren- strasse. The man, Herr Luttke, house porter, suffered from asthma, and resolved to take his life. He first shot himself in the ear, but the bullet, not proving fatal, he seized his razor and cut his throat
 Though blood gushed from two horrible wounds, he did not die. Making a super human effort, Luttke recharged his reyol- yer, filling the barrel with water in order to cause an explosion.
 Placing the barrel in his mouth he fired, the shot smashing his jaw. He was taken to the hospital in a terrible condi- tion. But he will not die, for the doctors declare that they can save him.
 The Kaiser has resolved to enlist to a greater extent than formerly the help of the newspapers in informing him of the general trend of public opinion on politi- cal questions of the day. The Kaiser has always been a great reader of news papers, and large numbers of newspaper cuttings have been submitted to him from day to day by the German foreign office. These clippings have been primarily se- lected from the newspapers whose opin- ions are regarded as correct" from the official point of view, so that the informa- ton they have supplied on public affairs has frequently been extremely one sided.
 The Emperor has now ordered that henceforth clippings from all kinds of newspapers, representing all shades of po- litical opinion, shall be regularly laid be- fore him, even including extracts from so- cialstic organs, which hitherto have been vigorously excluded from his notice.
 The work of collecting newspaper cut tings has not been entrusted to one single department, but to six departments, so that it will not be possible for any one
 
 the Emperor by submitting to him news paper clippings reflecting their own polit- ical tastes.
 The fact that half dozen different de- partments are engaged in the work of preparing a selection of clippings for the monarch will result in checking one an- other. It is expected that his majestys systematic study of newspaper opinions of all parties will do more to break down the barriers between the sovereign and the nation than any other conceivable method.
 Fraulein Annie Tharaus, a popular mu- scal comedy actress, is lying at the point of death at Breslau as the result of an assault committed by an actor named Hofer, whose suit she had rejected. The assailant, afterwards, attempted suicide and his condition, too, Is precarious
 Yesterday Hofer called at the lady's home in Breslau. She opened the door to him herself, and a moment later the housekeeper, hearing cries for help found the actress leaning against the wall and bleeding from half a dozen wounds on the face and neck.
 Meanwhile, the actor hurried to his apartments, where he tried to kill himself. The police, however, finding him before he had bled to death, had the woun1