The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21


 There's man of my acquaintance who is going to write a Comic Opera based on a story I told him." confided Nancy to mo the other day. 'T read all about it in an English newspaper"
 Tt seems to me, replied, that Comic Opera based upon plot that a man didn' { even have the ingenuity to discover for himself wouldn't be much of er-er-an-- opera
 But this particular man is different '" Nancy defended. "Ie is going about with his head in the clouds. It's going to be tremendously clever"
 What is?' l asked seriously.
 Why the opera just told you about" said Nancy.
 "Its really terribly interesting story. All about Lord or an Earl or something in London that fell in love with the third girl from the end in the front row of q Musical Comedy. He has married he- and has taken her to his ancestral home and tried to make her a Lady"
 Did he succeed?" I asked curiously
 He hasn't had time yet Nancy re- monstrated.
 "Well, how long does it take for the ex- pertinent? When were they married?" l asked
 I'm not talking about the marriage, at all,'' Nancy explained. T was speaking of the man who was going to write the opera He's just sent me some verses? How do YOU like this one la Gilbert and Sullivan?
 " He cut out the cigarettes And called off all her bets But even then-that couldn't make her \
 Lady"
 Nancy. how on earth could you en- courage any man to go on inditing sucn tommyrot to our sex?" I asked.
 "Why, I didn't suggest such stuff 10 him." said Nancy pettishly. "He had the newspaper story to go by. The second verse goes like this:
 ." sShe washed the blondine off her hair Made him promise not to swear But even that couldn't make her a
 Lady"
 "I don't care anything about the opera your friend is constructing" said I, but am really very much interested in the story as a social experiment. Did the belted Earl succeed in converting the Chorus Girl into a Lady?"
 "Of course not" said Nancy Ladies are BORN, not MADE. That's going 10 be the whole point of the opera"
 "Delicious, I cried. but are they?"
 "The unhappy bridegroom found out pretty quick" said Nancy, that washing the Grease Paint off. and persuading the Show Girl to discard all her makeup that had coarsened her behind the footlights, had precious little after all to do in help ing him hypnotze her into the wife he dreamed he could make out of her.
 "Yes." I agreed the making of Lady involves more than the removal of Grease Paint and applied Golden Hair.'
 Isn't it curious, Nancy observed, "how so many men think refinement and all that we understand a lady to be can be just picked up? Culture may be ac- auired, but refinement is INNATE, and fl isn't q Veneer or a Lacquer that can oe put on with a brush. Is it?'
 "No.' I agreed thoughtfully. "One has to start about 300 years back to build d Lady Strange how often we use the word, and yet for the very life of me | couldn't give a definition of lady. at a moments notice to save my life. Could you2'
 Its something one feels without un- derstandlng how or why. Nancy replied.
 q had an instance brought to me re- centlv of it. You know our mutual friend Mrs Goodly. who has started boarding house. Well, some of the people who have applied to her for board. two gener- atlons ago. wouldn't have dared to come inside the front gate or hef sfahulaihel F home But times have changed. She mas gone down in worldly goods wliIe theN have gone up She cant pick and choose. of course. now that she Is working Tor her living. She must take what she can get to a certain extent. But her old negro mammy-Aunt Ljza-who still lives with her. sizes tip situations at glance anu don't fail to express her opinion on the subject She Is wonder when f. comes to taking in things. She can tell just 10 look at person what their social positloh