The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-12-10
Take Your OWn Sugar
 To London Tea Parties
War Brings Curious Custom Go Out With Small Bags of the Sweet Su-Hostesses Do Not Lose By the Custom What Isn't Used is Left Behind By Parting Guests
 Sugar Scarcity Great Household Problem
By LADY MARY.

By LAl
 London. November 25.-1 received an invitation to tea the other day. 1t was quite an informal letter, but the postscript that accompanied it struck mo as unusual:
 Please bring your own sugar with you
 The request was so quaint that It urged me definitely toward acceptance of the invitation and armed with half & pound of loaf sugar on the appoint ed afternoon I hied me to the gather ing. It was quite an ordinary tea party-about ? or II people being the total number of guests
 Those that took sugar in their tea had obeyed the hostess request and brought the necessary sweet stuff with them. The mo sugar" people had no necessity to be burdened with any, thing of the sort.
 PROFITABLE TO HOSTESS
 I fancy, somehow, my hostess must have scored profit, on that after noon,s entertainment for I noticed that most of the sugar that had been brought by her, guests was left in her keeping, so that possibly her own breakfast and tea table for the next few days was plentifully supplied with what Is rapidly becoming in London war time luxury. I don't think for an instant that she had this ulterior ohJect in view when she wrote the in ; vtation, but 1t is just one of those quaint "humoresques" of the times that appeals to ones sense of satire to taIr pound of sugar with you in order to sweeten your own tea is quite an absurd overestimate of the amount re- quired, but then to arrive with say, four or five Jumps in a paper bag looks perfectly parsimonious and the habit of extravaganza dies hard, even in these sugarless times!
 In fact, sugar, or rather the scarcity of 1t, seems one of the domestic prob 1ems of the hour, and have heard of Families who have been positively broken up owing to the subject of sugar shortage. Men who are quite reasonable human beings when apply ing their brain to business questions that do not affect the interior econ ony of their own households, become querulous and quite unreasonable when faced at home with the hardships of having to sweeten their tea with brown sugar, or being limited to a certain quantity of loaf sugar at breakfast.
 MOST DIFFICULT TASK
 They don't seem to realize that one OF the most difficult tasks of the London housekeeper at the present moment is to satisfy the sweet tooth of her assembled family The Sugar parties" are, however quite "the thing" just now, and know a woman ha ste ot-fa sugar bag" which is lovely affair Of beaded embroidery with a silver clasp lined with some peculiar quality Of silk. In this she carries her small quantity of sugar that she can use when having tea at a friends house. T think 1t so unfair to expect people to supply you with sugar nowadays" she said, in explanation of this amaz- ing fad, "so I always carry my own with me. Occasionally I am given few Jumps to add to my store and can afford to be generous in my turn.
 Tt is really great fun saving sugar You feel as if you were doing some sort of war work. And 1t is almost question of national importance, now, isn't it~
 doubt if the economic principle applied to this individual effort is of very much national value. although probably the habit carried to excess might serve some specified purpose At any rate. I have learned the fact that to be really smart nowadays in certain clique in London you must take vour own sugar with you.
 WOMEN'S CLUBS PROSPEROUS
 It Is an i'll wind that does not blow someone certain amount of good and although there is dire dismay and general lack of funds in most of the mems clubs in London, I am told that the women's clubs have never before had such an epoch of prosperity as that through which they are at pres ent passing. I suppose this is largely due to the factsthat an enormous num- Der of women from all over England and from the colonies and dominions ~are constantly pouring into London, and as the majority of them are with out husbands, sons or masculine rel stives they naturally turn to clubs as being the most agreeable places in which to take lonely meals or spend lonely weeks or weex-ends.
 l was lunching one day this week st the Ladies' Army and Navy club. for, instance, which is one of the old est established institutions of it's kind in London. About four years ago the finances of the club were in such a crippled and pEecarious condition that 1t was seriously thought necessary to either close it's doors altogether or else move to less expensive duarters Short ly after the war commenced, however, its members increased in such num- bers that few months ago, out of sheer necessity, the entrance fee and ------------------------------