The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-06
NEWS OF THE DAY IN SOCIETY WORLD Personalities Here and Else
 where LENTEN FITTINGS
Where Prominent People Are Passing the Lenten Period-What We'll known-People Are Doing-ln-
 formal Events of the Day
Fly MYRTLE MILES

Fly M 1hfLE MILES
 A radiant personality, and one which is especially interesting to women at the present time, is that of Mrs. Asquith, the wife of England's prime minister, about which so much has been written re- gently. A sketch which described her in telling fashion was sent from London by that clever journalist, Ralph Bumen- field.
 She Is a yYaeious, energetic woman of the world, he writes restless, active, brimming over with social enterprise. She carries the mind back to the days of MT. Benson's remarkable book "Dodo, in which she was portrayed as a heroine. In those days she was Miss Dorothy Tenant, the daughter of an enormously rich Scotch ironmaster (since a peerage has been pitchforked into the Tennant family). In those days, too, the name of Dorothy Ten nant figured constantly in the society columns of the newspapers. She was the most daring horsewoman in London, and it will be remembered of her that sine was the heroine of Hyde park romance in which the Emperor of Germany played chivalrous part. l believe 1t was in 1891. on the occasion of the Kaiser's visit to his grandmother, Queen Victoria. Miss Tepnant, a daily frequenter of the Row, rode restiye horse which few people cared to manage. At 9 o'clock in the morning she appeared in the park, rode up and down a little while and then, to the astonishment of the hundreds of equestrians brought there by the pres ence of the Kaiser, who was riding, her horse bolted furiously through the crowd. The Emperor sent an equerry to help her, but she had subdued the animal before his arrival. and presently the Emperor himself rode up to the dashing horse- woman and congratulated her upon her skill That was Scene I. The lady col lected a bet a few minutes later which was to the effect that she would make the was a further bet also that his imperial majesty would speak to her that evening at the court ball at Buckingham palace, which he did There was no suggestion in those days, of course, that she would one day be the mistress of No. 10 Downing street, the official home of the prime min ister. MT. Asquith was then a success full pleader at the bar, member of par lament with what is called "cabinet rank," but with hardly the slightest hope of ever reaching the Olympian heights of the premiership.
 Since her occupation of 10 Downing street, Mrs. Asquith has held a difficult position in London society. She surrounds herself with intellectuals and pays little tribute to the conventions. Being the wife of free trade prime minister, she does not feel herself trameled by the necessity to wear English clothes and consequently sets the pace for all those to whom Paris is the only possible fount of fashion. She is member of that much talked of, much envied and little understood coterie called The Souls," at whose gatherings poetry and prose in the original are read and discussed by cabinet ministers, poetasters, journalists, some with oyerhowng bank accounts and some with just enough to buy food at cheap eating houses. A coronet for Mrs Asauith will be a fitting cap to a dashing career, and she will probably be much more adapted to the new surroundings than to the rather dour, unbending, unimaginative circle of pro- fessional politicians and their wives who cluster around the flesh pots of liberalism.