The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1915-08-07
MANY PAR|S|ANS
VISITING LONDON

LONDON, July 90. = One of the
paradoxes of the wal is the visiting
of Parisians to London for a bit of
excitement and gaiety. Paris is
nothing like it's old self, for its thea
tiers 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 little of
it's old life. Hotels are full, tea
rooms and restaurants as crowded as
ever, theaters, especially the music
halls and revues, we'll attended. and
the Hyde Park and upper Thames
have the usual crowds of holiday
makers.
But this does not mean that Lon
don does not feel the war. The no.
tel guests are mainly purchasing
agents for the allied powers, visiting
attaches on official business and
agents for American factories look
ing for supply contracts. Compare
lively few Of the younger men seen
in the fashionable tea places and
restaurants wear civilian clothes.
Khaki is also the prevailing color
among the men at the revues. The
"Piccadilly knut," as the young
men who set the fashion are called,
has largely disappeared from his old
haunts.
London's gaiety Is in one
largely kept up by the war. Men
living the hard routine of duty at the
training camps or a life CT con
slant danger at the front seem to
find a complete change and rest of
mind in a frivolous show as in moth
ing else. The first idea of a
wounded man on getting out of the
hospital is a round of restaurants
and variety halls. Officers and en-
listed men with arms in sings and
on crutches are sights toe common
to attract than passing notice.
Curiously enough, the new dramas
based on the war, except a few spy
plays, have had no support at all
and were 500 taken off. Yet a
French company is giving a series
of short plays nightly and has met
a great success because Of it's thrill
ers = tales of concentrated horror.
Comedies of the lighter society
kind have failed to attract, while
those with real humor and we'll
drawn characters have enjoyed I'M
interrupted runs. A season of Rus
sian and French opera came to an
early and disastrous close, and the
popular priced evening orchestral
"proms" in Albert hall were discon-
tinued for lack of support. Concerts
on the whole do not seem, how
ever, to have suffered greatly from
the war.
Fashionable life has merely trans
formed its activities. Instead of
!, private affairs. society gives bene-
fits, ranging from the gala theatrical
| performances which royalty present
to garden fetes. 1t is quite cosmo-
politan. for it's object is the raising
of funds not only for British chart
ties, but for Belgian, French, Rus
sian, Serbian and Italian relief.
While London has lost it's German
and Austrian colony, it is so filled
with Belgians that Flemish and
French signs can be seen in shop
windows all over the city. Many
French families have come over also.
There was a long season of French
Belgian comedy, played by a COM
pany from Brussels with the best
talent of the country. Nine. Rejane
and a Partisan company had a sue
cessful run in repertory and another
French company now has a theater.
The tea-roOms of the fashionable
hotels were never better attended,
largely by officers off duty. But
the mass of London takes it's pleas
ures more cheaply. The band stand
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 wait
err and smaller clerk class. Hun
dreds, and on Sunday nights thou
sands, of young Germans used to be
out. These times the Germans, Aus
trian, French and Italian young men
are otherwise employed. but there is
a 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 pleas
ures. 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 ferries. But
instead Of white flannels and strip