The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-20
WEEKLY ITEMS FROM
THE FRENCH CAPITAL
LADY of Banbury Cross
Sets Fashions
MILITARY BALLOONING
Bathing Dresses Shorter, Lighter and
More Filmsy Than Ever This Sea-
son-Anthony Drexel En-
tertains Lavishly
BY PAUL vILLIERs

BY PAUL yILLIERS
Paris, April 1s.--(Special)-The celebrat-
ed Lady. of Banbury Cross has APP
parently set the fashion for some Of the
ornaments of the present season in Paris.
Bells for use on the feet have not yet
been adopted, but the CLOCK on the
stocking is being superseded by jeweled
devices from which hang tassels of pearls
and similar ornaments which swing with
the movement Of the wearer, and there
seems no reason why golden bells should
not be introduced.
In consequence a distinctive shoe is
looked upon as being necessary, partic-
tering is also being affected by some
smart Parisiennes. Pale pink, blue and
gold evening shoes are decorated with
paste buckles and have streamers of
broad black velvet ribbon. studded with
brilliants, attached, which are crossed
over the instep and wound around the
leg of the wearer, forming a lattice pat
|Jern on a pale groundwork of silk
M. Lafon, the French naval lieutenant
who has devoted himself for years TO
the problem of military ballooning, it is
said, has invented a naval steerable bal
loon which is armoured and entirely in
vulnerable, and can be used for offensive
attack. He calls it an aerial dread
naught. Unfortunately, he does not give
us details of the construction of this
dreadnaught, which he intends to keep
as a naval secret, but we are told that
the characteristics of this aerial cruiser
or battleship are that 1t can enter and
leave port as easily as a ship.
The balloon is protected by steel ar
NOR plates of light construction, but suf-
ficient to afford the necessary protection
It is to be supplied with a wireless ap-
paratus and the object of this aerial
cruiser will be chiefly to cross the Med
iterranean and secure communications
between the south of France and AL
geria. Also, it might cross the Rhine;
but the Germani-phobe germ is taking
a week off just now.
Come with me to the coast and see
the lovely bathing dresses. They are
shorter, lighter. more filmy than ever.
The sailor collar effects are notably con-
spicuous by their absence, and those who
must wear corsets must suffice with light
bones" set into the tight fitting bodices.
Deep Tvs" back and front distinguish
the busts. Light and bright colors pre-
dominate; indeed, on the golden sands
the marine maids look like a cluster of
glorious butterflies. And why not?
While he was at Cannes Anthony Drex-
el gave some notable entertainments,
among his guests being the Grand Duke
and Grand Duchess Cyril, the Grand Duke
Boris, Mrs. Bingham, Harry Lehr and
the Earl of Portarlington. The tennis
ball this year at Cannes was the most
delightful the resort has remembered for
years.
The royalists and Bonapartists have
made up their minds to ''notice" Nine.
Poincare. Led by the Duchess Dues,
the whole train of the Fanbourg Ste Ger
| main is floc1ing to the Elysee. 1t re-
| minds one of what Senator Edmond de
Lafayette, grandson of the famous gen
| eral who helped Washington in the war
of independence once said in his great
| humorous way: "They troyalists and
| Bonapartists) are hungry, and long to
| eat of the golden oats in the state manger
| If they capture Gambetta, the republicans
who are in diplomacy may look out, and
| then the rest-those who are in the other
branches of the civil servfce--will have
| every reason to fear being surplanted." +"
| But the republic is quite safe. Even
another .man on horseback would find
| it utterly impossible to make any head
way against the deep rooted faith in
| French self government.
| According to M. Pietri, secretary to the
Empress Eugene, no Importance should
| be attached to the inventory of jewels
| once more "rediscovered. This inven-
| tory, M Pietri states, has within the last
| 40 years been found again and again
Generally in pretty much the same cir
cumstances and almost always in the vi
| cinity of the Spanish frontier. 1t is, he
| believes merely a sort or ground batting
! for the classic Spanish prisoner" swim
die No doubt, adds M. Pietri, there will
| be an issue shortly OF letters dated from
some Spanish place of compromise-for
| a. generous consideraton-to reveal the
hiding place of the imperial treasures. The
story that the empress saved from the
ruins a vast treasure in jewery and
notes was current as far back as 1872,
and gave rise to a campaign OF black1nan
| II was formally denied by M Allen, the
| tutor to the Prince Imperial, In state
ment on several later occasions. 1t would
appear. however, that the fiction dies
| hard.
| The rooms in the Salon des Independ-
ants. If rooms they can be called, are all
| in q straight line. Perhaps the best way
| is 10 walk straight to the last of them,
| loolxins neither to the right nor the left,
| and then work back again at a
mace in relation to your patience, for at
the end are cubists, futurists and hoe
ganus onne After you have, so to speak,
toLan the plunge there and come up
90 sning. your capacity of being aston
ishad is exhausted and you can face with
calm the efforts-in themselves extra
ordinary enough-of less strenuous inno-
vations.
The Cubists however. are not SO riot
ous as they were six months ago In the
salon ID Automme. Some OF them reahy
seem to be getting at something, one
could identify, for instance, without the
catalog. a cafe interior by match pox
which looks like a match box, and glass
recognizeable as such.
INST so. one fancies, would Parlsian
oofa appear to the hundred eyed Argus
~ he entered it, seeing double. towards
? a. m. - ~. eo,-
rass 20 label a canvas Universal Vision"
r,a,ra q what YOU like. The cubist joke,
r. sther stale now is not necessarily Of
rans;va Rut what one finds harder to
,ndarstand and forgive is the cult OF the
,,g1v to which most of the exhibitors,
asneciallv of the nude. seem devoted.
oIx,iousIy SlIffpring from