The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-06
LADY MARY'S GOSSIP OF
 SOCIETY IN LONDON

London, October 5.-(Special )-London is busily engaged in giving the finishing touches to its elaborate preparations for the fast approaching autumn season. There was "a time when the late season began with the re-openng of parliament but that time has gone and now we find many of the smartest hostesses in the full swing of their entertaining before the doors at Westminster are opened
 Most of the private schools are now opened. Fond. proud mothers are trot- ting their "studious'' sons to London for a day giving them goodbye dinners at the swell restaurants treating them to a box at one of the theatres, tucking away in their pockets their quarterly all lowances. and then trotting them off to Eton. Harrow, Winchester, Wellington or Marlborough for the fall term.
 At the same time the great clubs in Piccadily and Pail Mall are emerging from the hands of the decorators and renovators and within few days will be crowded with the members of the smart set returned from shooting or fishing yachting, travelling or serving with the army in the maneuvers which have just ended in a "stalemate." to apply chess term to mimic warfare.
 The manager of the Ritz, the Carlton. Claridge's and other fashionable res- taurants tell me that, judging from the number of bookings they have already recorded for the coming season, the big hostesses will depend more than ever upon the hotels for their entertaining. The Ritz. especially. will be busy. for it is by far the most popular with those American hostesses who not only intro- duced the custom of hotel entertaining in London but who today seldom use their own houses when they can engage a hotel restaurant.
 One of the Anglo-American hostesses who never indulges in hotel entertaining has just been having her town house done over She is Mrs Lulu Harcourt. niece of J. Pierpont Morgan. and her home in Berkeley Square is said to be a al cam of soft rose tints by all those who have been fortunate enough to see it since the decorators have turned it over to the owner. Mrs. Harcourt kept the whole thing a secret, because. as she said the other day, it is impossible to guard in any other way against the many society women who seem to do not; ing else but copy the ideas of their friends. And already, understand several of these rich women have been to the dec orators who carried out Mrs. Harcourts Ideas and offered them almost anything within reason if they would duplicate the job. Fortunately for the American woman the decorators were men of honor and declared that Mrs. Harcourt's ideas were her own property and could no more be stolen than her purse.
 The Harcourt house has been done from basement to garret in rose and white and it's owner has already sent out invitations for 9 dinner at which the guests have been asked to present themselves Sn col ors to match--the women in rose dresses and the men with rose silk sashes. Should it bea success-and who can believe that Mrs. Iiarcourt would make a failure of anything as a hostess?-the affair is al- most sure to introduce a craze for mems sashes which. taken in conjunction with the already fiourishing rage for mid-cen- tury side beards'' will certainly bring us back to the days of our grandfatLers.
 Of course there are all kinds of ru-. mors in the air about the future move, ments of the Prince of Wales. It even