The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-10
BY CARL wALDrsfAR.

| his country men to return to the sim I pie life" the Berlin social season. for | which great preparations have been made, promises to rival In gaiety and splendor the most brilliant of its pre-
 decessors. Berlin's season is short put punctuaiity the third week in January | with the sumptuous "Defilier Cour" at the Berlin Schioss--a Drawing Room," at which court. diplomatic. and private l society pay formal respects to the Em- peror and Empress and foreigners are presented--and 1t continues its giddy pace until the February midnight
 which. with traditional pancakes and Burgundy punch, ushers in Lent.
 l Into this interim of six weeks are crowded an unceasing procession of court balls, diplomatic dinners. soirees, gala opera performances, and musicales at which their majesties Are hosts, .
 series of hardly less brilliant enter tainments at the palace of the Crown Prince and Princess, and countless din-
 ners and dances at the town houses or
 hotels of the .aristocracy. which focks | to the capital from, estates in Silesia
 and Rhineiand, usually with bevy of
 debutantes in its train. When this l round of festivities is over, the Impe- rial Princes. who dance enthusiastically and well. and their brother officers in the guards have fairly waltzed them | selves into semi -exha austion. That may
 be one of the reasons why Berlin's
 season" Is short, sharp. and decisive, by too many mornings after," when
 subaiterns turn up fer drill with hag- gard eye and tired gait.
 Germany PlutocratHe.
 i During the last dozen years Germany has grown plutocratic. She has million aires by the. dozen now where one was counted before. Her fashionable set. wherein ennobied captains of finance and industry mingie with the bluest- blooded Junker stock. has abandoned the traditions of Prussian "Einfach- keit' and practices luxury in their stead. Each recurring season, as it's fashion and feasts outrivai all prede- cessors in gorgeousness and gaiety. reflects the spirit of this "new-rioh'' Germany. Hotels de luxe, with mar ble dining s-rooms> and i've o'clock tea palm. courts of Partisan and London elaborateness. are filled with. extrava- gantly dressed throngs. who scorn the l beer of their fathers and imbibe iiber- ally French champagne. Princesses no longer promenade Unter den Linden in cotton gloves. as an old-time Berlin Ambassador relates was the case in his day, for one of the very marked indi- cations of German social evolution is the striking improvement in feminine dress. The Berlin society woman of 1909 Is astonishingiy well garbed. She l displays at Court and af the opera blaze of hnery which would grace Buckingham Palace or New York's diamond horseshoe"
 Berlin society, apart from the court. may be said to be dominated by non. Germans. With one or two exceptions, the great hostesses are of foreign birth. The first political hostess of the realm, Princess Bueiow, Is c born Italian Princess -Camporeaie. brilliantly ciev. CT woman with a strong strain of Britt fish blood in her veins through descent from the historic Anglo-Itaiian house of Acton.
 Chaneellers' Eveafngs.
 The Imperial Chanceilor's "parlia- nenfary eyenings'' and. dipiomatic din. ners are gracefully presided over by his accomplished wife. The Princess Henc- i<el won DonneTsmaFclx, wifs,of the mui- tl-msili0nairo Gflesian mining ma gnate famous for her jewels ana court robes is q Russian. The beautiful and viva cious Princess of Pless is an English woman. sister of the Duchess of West minister. and, like the latter. married to the greatest landowner of his country. The Duchess of Ratibor, a piQuant bru. nette and general favorite, is also Eng fish. sister of Mrs. John whitehead, of Vienna. The Princess gu Fursten- berg, the Emperor's hostess at Donaues- chingen during the dark days of the November "Kaiser crisis" is a Bohe- milan countess. The Princess Max zu Thurn und Taxis, famed for her danc- ing parties. is Viennese, 1.-the and graceful. There is stiN another non- Prussian society leader-the Princess gu .Wied, daughter of the King of Wuertemberg. and America has charming representative in the Coun- tess Johannes Sierstorpff. who was a Miss Knowlton, of New York.
 Impertant HOstenses.
 The list of important hostesses in- cludes, of course. some German wo- men,. First among them Is the Count ess von Tiele- Winckler. wife of the im- mensely wealthy Silesian mine owner. with vast estates and Q palace In Ber- lin. where society regularly foregath- CTS. Countess Gunther von der Groe- ben, whose mother was an English woman. Mrs. Heathcote, gives balls which are a favorite resort for the younger set of which the tremendous. ly popular Crown Prince and Princess are the leaders. Frau Ely von Sio- mems Is an indefatigable and accomp- lished entertainer and charity leader, the moving spirit in last winters
 
 Sullivan's Patience" in which she and other talented amateurs participated, Frau von Schwabach, wife of the Brit lsh Consul General is a prominent hostess, as are also the wives of two other great business magnates, Herr Fritz Von Friedlander-Fuld, the Ger man coal king, and Herr Ernst von Mendelssohn- -Bartholdy. head of the Mendelssohn banking house, Russia's financier. The Baroness von Rheinba- bon, whose husband is Prusian Finance Minister, and Frau pr. voa Bothmann- Hollweg, wife of the Imperial Home Secretary, maintain in their homes a distlnctlvely political atmosphere.
 It Is at the palatial town houses of such people as these. situated mostly in the Tiergarten quarter, the Mayfair of Berlin, or around the Wilhelm strasse, near the Government offices, that society holds It's real sway at pretentious fancy-costume balls, dln- ners or theatricals. and provides what Berlin calls it's season."
 In deciding to dispose of some half dozen of his castles, the Kaiser is but initiating. on a larger scale. the ex- ample of his uncle, King Edward, who on succeeding to the throne hastened enough to keep up without Osborne, which he accordingly bequeathed to the nation. But the difference between him and his imperial nephew Is this that the latter is offering his super fluous castles for sale--to the great disgust of the people in the adjacent parts. Stolzenfels. on the Rhine, in particular, was the favorite abode of old iOueen Augusta while if was at