The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-04

To De an air or confidence and hope everywhere that is extremely reasslr- 1 ing to anyone who believes in signs and portents." I was talking recently to an officer belonging to an English regiment stationed In Ireland He has been on duty in the "Emerald Isle" ever since the dark days of the rebel 1 lion. nearly IS months ago, and to him London seemed like paradise. He told me that in Dublin, and throughout
 most of the big Irish towns, there was an air of repression that Is only oc- Icasionally broken by those mad out 1 bursts that seem to suggest the pres ence of volcanic force somewhere,
 English people call the Irish irre-
 sponsible" he said. "but coming back as do after long and unbroken ex- perience in Dublin, can only say that
 to me London appears care-free, The
 streets are so gay, the people so full
 of life. Tn Dublin we have had various l run1ors concerning the condition of lTondon--its gloom and it's suggestion of impending disaster. Therefore. my surprise has been all the greater be- cause I find the streets full of cheery faces, the theatres crowded with pleas-
 nre-seekere and everywhere the accent
 of an uplifting hope"
 An arrangement announced this week lin London has appealed to me as be- ling a curiously interesting record Of the advance In English democracy
 through many generations. Miss Anne
 Pollock is shortly to be married to
 Cant Cyril Asquith. son of the eX
 nrime minister Miss Pollock IS the Idaurh+er of Adrian Pollock, and the
 history of the Pollocks Is strangely lromantic reading nowadays. Miss Pol- flock Is the daughter of granddaugh- ter of Speaker Gully, who presided
 over the House Of Commons from lsso
 to 19o5 MT. Gully was created Viscount
 Sethv m his retirement from the sneakers chair, 1t being customary to raise this important official of the
 House to the peerage at the close or his official career. Speaker Gully grandfather was a butcher and prize- dghter of the same name, who, py ! some amazing manfpulatlon, iI,aha Su /, to secure an election to ParHment III the reign of King George ".
 On her fathers side, Miss Anne Poi-
 Iocl, has also an illustrious relationship. About the time that Mir. Gully (prize-
 fighter) was elected to Parliament, 4 Mr., Pollock owned saddler's shop In tho
 Strand near Charing Cross. He nau
 three sturdy sons or whom freoerioA,
 the eldest, became lord chief baron or
 tbe court of exchequer, and was cre- ated a baronet; his brother. David, was T made chief Justice of Bombay, and was
 created a knight; while their brother, George. became field marshal, Knight
 of the Bath and a baronet. The laster
 is the great grandfather of Miss Anne
 Pollock, Captain Cyri ~Asquieh pe-
 trothed.
 In England the fayntly of Pollock Is
 largely and eminently represented in Il every branch of the law. Of the seven
 sons of the chief baron Frederick
 Lord Pollock. one was raised to the
 bench of judges, another achieved the
 rank of general, and two others were !, knighted The present Sir Frederick
 Pollock is a famous jurist and former professor at Oxford university. He IS the uncle of Miss Anne Pollock, and Is
 a privy councillor and one of the finest
 swordsplen in England. He is quite an old man now, but is still an adept with , the fous It is curious in country like England, that brides itself upon it's two families whose origins were both hrrlble and honest, should, have achieved pride of place and title.
 ] August is the month that, as rule, proclaims the dead season" in London Houses are shut up, hotels are deserted
 clubs are being turned out of win dows" and a general air of supreme desolation settles over the West End, fol everybody" has gone shooting or fish, ing or summing himself by the sea, or generally indulging in that holiday-mak- } ing which good many of us repent be- fore we have finished with it.
 But n these times most things are abnormal, and London is really more abnormal during these dark days thar
 ever she has been before. Dinners al , l restaurants and private dances at biz ! houses theatre parties river parties, tea ! parties in the park, and various othei ! more or less al fresco amusements are being indulged in everywhere. Of course the lon leave" soldier or sailor Is the excuse for all the dissipations, Int
 moors of Scotland are deserted except . i by a few guns who are trying to keer the birds in order while out-of-towI
 odd week end here and there, or per
 haps, a few days spent in taking brine
 baths and "cures'' somewhere in thu
 direction of Droitwich or Harrogate A any rate, London does not seem to hav' T lost any of the usual West End contin 5 gent, and if anything, has apparentl, r. gained in it's transient population.
 | It Is strange to suddenly be confronted ! in the lounge of fashionable hotel witt
 a sturdy specimen of manhood that yo, : 1 certainly thought of as being in tn, U trenches somewhere in France. "Jus 2 over for a few days leave, and joll, q glad to get it' is usually the greeting N Making the most of my time you car e bet before going back again to finfsf d up poor old Fritz, who seems fairly sorry for himself nowadays" There is alway. .