The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-15
DUCHESS DOCTOR
 MAKES HER QUIT Worn Out in Connection With War Relief Work ESSEX PLAYS FAIRY American Peeress' Week Without SIeep-Society Hears Rumor That
 Hamel, Once Adored Flying
 Man. Is With Germans
ESSEX PLAYS FAIRY
By LADY MARY

By LADY MARY
 London, September 19.-(Special Corres- pondence.) )-AmericanN women are arrang- ing several festivities in the cause of
 philanthropy mostly in their own houses. hear the Duchess of Marlborough, who
 was bundled out of London the other
 morning by her doctor at a moments mo-
 tice, is going to give an entertainment
 very popular, the proceeds of which will
 go to the funds for refugees. In getting
 up this affair she has the double object
 of helping artists who. like everyone
 else, are suffering extremely from the effects of the existing state of things. In mentioning this event I am premature inasmuch as the duchess does not wish 1t spoken about until things are more ad- vanced and moreover her doctor will not
 give her permission to proceed with her scheme until she is less tired
 Lady Cunard is arranging dance among her friends in the same interests. I hear Miss Nancy Cunard has been act ing as recruiting sergeant with extraor- dinary success. To every man who an swered her call she presented cigarette case. Lady Randolph Churchill, who is away at the seaside with Mrs. Winston Churchill, means to organize something later, but she, too, is feeling tired, and | looks it. twill be really very nice if
 Americans do something to make things a little less gloomy and now that there is better news from the front there won't be any qualms of conscience in daring to put on pretty dress. Despite the fact that many women have said that they won't wear mourning for relatives who have given their lives in the war there Is good deal of the "trappings of woe about
 The only article of attire that remains as beautiful as ever, indeed more beau | tiful, is the shoe. It does not appear to be in the least mira dig to wear dec | orative shoes, while to don a chic hat would be deadly crime against the fit ness of things. By the way it is con sidered an unforgiveable sin to wear an aigrette which reminds me to say l hope I the American custom house people will | be on the watch for a very wealthy New Yorker who is leaving this country one | of these days for the United States with | $500 worth of osprey sewn in her petit coat. Most of her friends pray she will | be trapped. Now, doesn't she deserve I to be?
 l Among refugees who recently arrived l in London was little Belgian girl who l had lost all her relations and was de- | pending the charity of other poor | refugees. Lady Essex. who happened to ! be arriving In town from a country visit, | saw the little girl md was struck by | her wonderful eyes and forthwith made l inquiries concerning the little damsel On l learning her story she asked to be aI- | lowed to play fairy godmother for the l time being, now the child is having | the time of her life. She has had pretty | frocks and is being trotted about and l made much of. Although her clothes were in rags when she arrived they were of I beautiful quality so it is surmised the child belongs to people of good stand I ing.
 l Mrs Astor has offered to take in some | refugees at Clveden and has been told | by the people who see risk behind every l kind action that she may be letting her people in for diphtheria or some equally | terrible scourge-indeed among scare mongers there has been q lot said about 1 this very question of disease as some | of the poor dear refugees have not seen | soap and water for weeks and their con | dition is altogether tragic.
 iSN Ohc iitdHS UT diOtueT d nunlDef of society women have managed to get mixed up with the Prince of Wales fund | for the relief of sufferers through the war and they have introduced pals" oi their own to take up the posts of sec retaries and the rest. Some of these are utterly incompetent women knowing | nothing about organization or proper dis tribution but with no end of 'side" and audacity. They treat many of the dis tinguished prelates of the various de- nominations who have to call on them on behalf of their starving parishioners as grains of dirt and then in a lofty way say. "We shall about it. Days go by and nothing is done and the poor people are kept alive by charity from other quarters while over $1O0C0,00 00O ex- pressly subscribed for that purpose is tied up with red tape. It is admitted on all sides that never in the annals of history was a fund so dsgracefully ad- ministered. It is the talk of London so- ciety, but nobody has the courage to srumble openly except one distinguished Catholic priest who was one of those who suffered at the hands of the high and naughty danes who received him when he asked for help for starving wives of soldiers in his parish.
 For one solid week, l hear, Lady AL astair Innes-Ker (Miss Anna Breese that waS never got wink of sleep after her husband went to the front with his regiment. Strong draughts were given
 her, she took midnight drives and re- sorted to a variety of kinds of physical
 exercises, but without the least effect.
 The doctors said if she did not sleep
 she could not live. Some friends of hers
 heard that the tones of bass violin
 will in extreme cases often produce sleep
 and this was tried and with excellent ef-
 feet. Until the arrival of the Duchess of
 Roxburgh's son Lord Alastair Innes- Ker
 was heir to his brother. His wife, how ever, never had the slightest desire to
 step into the shoes of her great friend, the present duchess. They are devoted and spnd lot of time together.
 There is an amusing story being told Of an American woman, the wife of a