The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-03-23

While the men wore what IS to most Of
them the most becoming attire. afrock"
/ dress-knee breeches and silk stockings
All the available royalties were present
including the Prince Of Wales. who came
up from oxford for the purpose, and who
hear, "baulked1 considerably at the list
OF partners presented to him with whom
he was expected to gyrate You see,
there were about 400 people there. so it
was for him to dance with them all
Again, to dance with whom he liked was
to offend half Mayfair. SO his partners
names We're written down in order of
precedence, and he worked his way stead
lily through that Who would be a royal
princelet?
You don't need to be told that nothing
in the way of bunny hugs or turkey trots
made their appearance on the ballroom
floor at Buckingham palace. The pro-
ceedings opened with that most boring
of all terpsichorean exercises, the quad
rifle, in which all the royalties took
hand" After that the elder ones retired
and waltzes and poll<as and two "lancers
were steadily gone through in turn by all
the guests, many of the younger ones
finding it nightly dull after the more
exciting American hops" that have APP
ball finished up soon after midnight with
a galop, the iveliest dance permitted i'll
the decorous royal palace.
Going to a royal ball, too, means that
you must do what is expected of you. l. e..
dance. Young men are not allowed 90
stand about, or lean in doorways watch
ing the proceedings. They have been
asked for the purpose of dancing, and
dance they must to the bitter end. Fur
ther, the PALACE officials have to keep their
eyes lifted 10 see that no one commits
the simply henious offense of daring to
sit down while her majesty takes the
fure." This is about the most awful
crime that can be perpetrated, and IL you
do it, ever so unwttingly vigilant pail
ace gentleman in waiting will quickly
hoist you to your feet however far you
may be from the royal dias. So you see
an invitation to buckingham palace is
not an unalloyed delight.
There was a good deal of betting among
their majesties' guests as to whether
Queen Alexandra would turn up or not,
and most people were surprised when she
did put in an appearance for short time.
She did not mix with the general COM
pany, of course, as her mourning has not
reeeded as far as the evening frock line,
but she went into one of the galleries
overlooking the ballroom and watched the
scene for about an hour, and her par
ticular friends among the company were
invited to have chat with her in turn
before she departed.
No German ambassadress has ever
made her mark in English society so
quickly as has Princess Lichnowsky. 1T
is, of course, a long time since we have
had such a smart representative of the
Fatherand in our midst, and then, too,
the princess is far less stolidly Teuton
than her predecessors, being in fact of
Polish descent like her husband
Her distinguished appearance and her
originality earmarked her at once, and
before she had been here very long an
admittanee to No. 8 Carlton House Ter
race gave a cachet in society to those
lucky enough to get it. Besides her
comely looks and her wonderfully good
style of dress, she is extremely clever
and brilliant conversationalist. She be-
longs already to the artistic and intel
lectual set in London society--by far the
most exclusive and difficult set to get
into. She has the prettiest and most
simple manners in the world, and yet is
possessed of q dignity which enables her
TO fill her high position to perfection.
The guests invited to meet King George
and Queen Mary by the Prince and Prin-
cess Lichnowsky We're immensely pleased
by the beauty of the rooms and the orig
inal scheme of decoration carried out by
her highiness since her arrival. The
prince and princess brought with them
some most beautiful tapestries and pic