Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-07-13
LONDON ELITE
STILL QUIET
and WITHOUT
GAY PARTIES
Nearly All Social Fixtures
Missing This Year; Even
Restaurant Life Much
CurtaiIed.

London. July l2.--(By the AS
ISOLATED Press 1.-The first summer
of the after he-war era is passing
as mere ghost of the old London
social season which formerly for
three months after Easter trans
formed Belgravia and Mayfair into
spectacle by day and night.
In other years, before the war
wrought its changes. the early
weeks, of summer saw the great
London houses thrown open for en-
tertaining on a scale which no other
European capital knew. Their
blazing windows at night told OF
receptions and dances on grand
scale. Court was held at Backing
ham palace with an array OF uni
forms and jewels making an un-
surpassable show. By day the en-
tire west end was packed with cars
and carriages taking the women OF
society about for their calls and
shopping.
Four Blank Years Passed.
There have been four blank years
rom 1915 to 1918. and now most OF
he establishments of the ducal and
old landed families who were the
pillars of the declining regime are
closed, or their lives are ordered to
quiet and subdued tone. Not a
few bear the sign "for sale" or to
let" testifying to the devastation OF
Did fortunes through war taxation
or the retirement CT families IN
mourning.
Nearly all of the social fixtures
are missing this year. No courts
are being held at the palace for that
presentation to royalty OF debut
tantes and others which gave them
the formal seal of rank among the
socially elect. One big garden party
is to take the place of these. The
shepherding of the exclusive world
into the royal enclosure at the Ascot
races has been almost the only SENT
official gathering of society, and
pressure upon the lord chamber
iain's office for admission conse-
ouentlv has been more fierce than
heretofore.
To the stranger London may seem
lively and even gay, but it is a res
taurant and theater going liveliness
like the customary life of New York
and Paris. The war prohteers are
spending recklessly in their way, but
among d-fashioned people there is
a general sentiment that display IS
not in harmony with the times, and
for many it would be impossible, If
they desired it.
Restaurant Life Curtailed.
Even the restaurant life is much
curtailed. Suppers have been elinl-
mated and there are hardly a dozen
places in this largest metropolis OF
the world found open later than 10
o'clock. The midnight wayfarer
sees women in evening dress with
men in guards uniform or formal
black. buying coffee and sandwiches
at a sidewalk coffee stall elbow to
elbow with a crowd of soldiers, cab
men and miscellaneous night wan
derers, a picture understandable for
the old London. -.
Boating, cricket, tennis and golf
have burst forth with renewed en-
thusiasm after four years of sports
famine. The Thames from London
to Oxford and beyond is long
winding pageant of pleasure craft
with white fanneled young boat
men and rainbow-tinted dresses
everywhere.
The hundreds of young Ameri-
cans at Oxford and Cambridge are
learning a university life new to
them, where students come to do
everything but study in term time,
and save their books for vacations.