Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-07-30
Hotels Are Full, While Tea
rooms, Restaurants and Mu-
sic Halls Are Crowded.
PLAYS BASED ON WAR
ARE GIVEN NO SUPPORT
Band Concerts in Hyde Park as
Popular as Ever. But Different
Crowd Attends.

Correspondence Of the Associated Press
LONDON, July 15.-One of the para
doxes of the war Is the visiting of
Parisians to London for a bit of excite
ment and gayety. Paris is nothing
like its old self, for its theaters are
closed motor buses at the front. most
of it's taxis laid up and a large number
OF its hotels closed. But London has
sacrificed but little of its old life. Ho-
tells are full, tearooms and restaurants
as crowded as ever: theaters especially
the music halls and revues, we'll at
tended, and the Hyde Park and upper
Thames have their usual crowds of
1 holiday makers.
But this does not mean that London
does not feel the war. The hotel guests
are mainly purchasing agents for the
allied powers. visiting attaches on OIL
fetal business and agents for American
factories looking for supply contracts.
Comparatively few of the younger men
seen in the fashionable tea places and
restaurants wear civilian clothes
among the men at the revues. The
''Piccadilly knut." as the young men
who set the fashions are called, has
largely disappeared from his ola
hauntS.
Londons gayety is in one sense
largely kept up by the war. Men Hv-
ing the hard routine OF duty at the
training camps or life OF constant
danger at the front seem to flnu COM
plete change and rest of mind IN
frivolous show as in nothing else. Inc
first idea of wounded man on get
ting out of the hospital is round OF
restaurants and variety halls. Omcers
and enlisted men with arms in sings
and on clutches are sights too common
there to attract more than passing
notice.
War Dramas Not Popular.
Curiously enough. the new dramas
based on the war. except a few spy
plays, have had no support at all and
were soon taken Off Yet French COM
pany giving a series of short plays
nightly has met a great success be-
cause of it's thrillers..tales OF con ,ten,
trated horror. Comedies of the ngnt
society kind have failed to attract,
while those with real humor and well
drawn characters have enjoyed unin-
terrupted runs. A season OF RUSSIAN
and French opera came to an early ana
disastrous close, and the popular prlced
evening orchestral prom in ALBERT
Hall were discontinued for lack OF sup
port. Concerts on the whole DO not
SEEM however, to have sunereu sred'iS
from the war.
Fashiona BILE life has merely trans
formed it's activities. Instead OF prl-
vate affairs. society gives oenents'
ranging from gala theatrical perform
ances with royalty present to garden
fetes. They are quite cosmopolitan, Tor
their object is the raising OF 1unos not
only for British charities. but for Bel.
xian. French, Russian, Serbian and
Italian relief funds.
While London has lost its German
and Austrian colony, it is so hlled with
Belgians that Flemish and French
signs can be seen in shop windows all
oity
have come over also. There was long
season of French-Belgian comedy.
played by company from Brussels
with the best talent of the country.
Nine Rejane and a Partisan company
had a successful run in repertory and
another French company now has
theater.
Different Crowd at Hyde Park.
The tearooms of the fashiona BILE
hotels were never better attended.
largely by officers off duty. But the
mass of London takes it's pleasures
more cheaply. The bandstand in Hyde
Park has lost none of it's popularity
of evenings, but the character of the
crowd has changed. Before the war
the band Enclosure was the rendezvous
of the foreign element. the men mostly
of the waiter and small clerk class.
Hundreds, and Sunday nights thou
sands, of young Germans used to be
out These times the German, Aus
trian, French and Italian young men
are otherwise employed, but there is
foreign element from Belgium.
France and neutral countries. Most of
the men seen are British soldiers in
training, with a sprinkling of Belgian
soldiers.
Boating on the upper Thames is one
of London's main summer pleasures. Tea
gardens. cottages and house boats line
the banks. and every bright Saturday
and Sunday afternoon still finds the
river full of punts, canoes and wher-
ries. But instead of white flannels and
striped jerseys, most of the men wear
khaki.
War scenes still feature the numer-
Gus moving picture theaters of Lon
don, but most of the film plays are of
American production.
II is true that London is darkened
of nights, but it is no darker than
the average provincial city. Its bright
spots with their electric signs and
shop windows are no more. and hotel
blinds must be lowered. But off the
main thoroughfares the Londoner is
not conscious of the lighting restric-
tions.