The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-05
LONDON SOCIETY LETTER
ny LADY MARY MANwARING

King and was afterwards a conspicu-
 ous figure at the court. She wore a
 robe made in one piece. In the veil
 over her head and face are two eye holes. She spent the night after the
 court at London hotel. where she
 was waited on al meals by the maids,
 as 1t is her custom never to appear before a man unveiled. Walters were, therefore banished from her presence. The ruler of Bhopal is always 8 1 woman. The husbands of the Begums
 have usually been more than high officers of state, and have never had
 anything like the position of Prince
 in g European country. This feminine
 eminence Is the more strange Because
 Bhopal is a strictly Mohamedan state, and if is not generally supposed that
 the prophet ever contemplated the pos
 sibility of a female ruler.
 It has been stated in the press lately
 that in Queen Victorias reign divorced persons" were not permitted to appear a. Court. This rule was enforced un-
 til about the middle. of the seventies.
 Queen Victoria then decided (after con- sultation with the late Lord Hertford
 who was Lord Chamberlain, and the
 late Lord Sydney) that ladies who had
 divorced their husbands, their own con
 uucl HdFlHS Deeil DIdHleleSS, sloulu
 be allowed to come to drawing rooms after making special application for
 permission to attend.
 Whenever lady in this portion de-
 sired to appear at Court she was re- quired to send in a report of the pro- |ceedings in her case, which was sub
 miIted to Queen Victoria herself, and it was by no means a matter of course for the application to be granted.
 The wife of very distin gufshed man,
 who had divorced her first husband.
 her own conduct having been unim- peachable. had her application refused,
 to her intense and lasting disappoint-
 ment.
 The fact was that Queen Victoria
 had no sympathy with sufferers from
 matrimonial troubles, and In dealin 6
 with these cases her decision mainly depended in reality upon the family
 connections of the applicant.
 MT. J. H. Barrie, who celebrated his fifty-first birthday the other day is one
 of tho many Scotsmen who has conquer ed not only his own country but also Ar erica. He was born in Kirriemeur a place which he has immortalized as Thrums. When he was about sixteen years of age he entered a newspaper office, where among the multifarious
 duties he had to perform, he naively re- | marked that not the least important of them consisted of reviewing profound bo ,ss. Today he is surely one of the
 most successful dramatic celebrities and he Is also the most retiring. Probably the public idea is accurate of him-that he is a grown man, kind and lovabe. with a child's heart that will never grow up. It is est- mated that "The Little Minister,'in Its dramatic form alone brought him in f,f |. safely computed that tife evergreen Peter Pan" has aequaled it.
 lie works with amazing rapidity. 4 friend who called upon him one even
 inr found that MT Barrie was not at home, and was ushered into the stud,
 to await the novelist's return. Within half an hour he made his appearance 1 Hardly had he greeted his guest be- fore he silenced him with the remark T want to tell you the plot of a plal I have just thought of The idea
 came to me as I was opening the front
 door with my latch key, and developed as l was coming upstairs" And there and then he six etched out in full detail
 the story of '"rhe Admirable Crichton r for all practical purposes as it was subsequently, performed on the stage MT Barrie is a direct contradiction to the absurd theory that Scotsmen are lhtinorless. Once the leading actor who was playing In one or ms plays fell i'll The occurrence meant a chance for his understudy, who, not being particularly gifted with the sense of modesty sent a few dozen telegrams to dramatic crit ics and others so1emnly informing them that he would be taking the star" part that evening. One telegram went to MT Barrie. In the course of a day he met several men who had received similar messages. They had all taken m uatice of if But MT arrie did He sent this answer ''Thanks for your warning" @' Is MT. Barrie has one passion more than another it is for tobacco. If I had to choose between being a smoker and a playwright;' he once remarked, T would drop playwright without a murlnur."