The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1919-07-16
FORMER GAYETY OF
LONDON LIFE MISSING
(By Associated Press.)

Wy 1sCSStetSA AASs~t
London, July 16.-The first sum-
mer Of the after-the-war era is pass
ing as q mere ghost of the old London
social season which formerly for
three months after Easter transform
ed Belgravia and Mayfair into a
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 entertaining
on q scale which no other European
capital knew. Their blazing windows
at night told Of receptions and dane
es on a grand scale. Court was held
at Buckingham palace with an array
of uniforms and jewels making an
indispensable show. BY day the en-
tire West End was packed with cars
and carriages taking the women Of
society about for their calls and their
shopping.
There have have been four blank
years from 1915 to 1918, and now
most Of the establishments OF the
old landed families who were the
pillars of the declining regime are
closed, or their lives are ordered to
a quiet and subdued tone. Not few,
bear the sign "F'or SALE" or ITO Let"
testifying to the devastation Of old
fortunes through war taxation or the
retirement of families in mourning.
Nearly all of the social fixtures are
missing this year. No courts ere be-
ing held at the palace for that pre-
sentation. to royalty Of debutantes 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 semi official gathering
Of society, and pressure upon the Lord
Chamberlain's Office for admission
consequently has been more fierce
than heretofore.
To the stranger London may seem
lively and even gay, but it is res
taurant and theater-going liveliness
like the customary life Of New York
and Paris. The war profteers are
spending recklessly in their way, but
among old 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.
Even the restaurant life is much
curtailed. Suppers have been clint
mated and there are hardly a dozen
places in this largest metropolis of
the world found open later than ten
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 crowd of soldiers, cabmen and
miscellaneous night wanderers, a
picture understandable for the old Lon
don.
Still, with its life war-shorn Of
much that was almost sacred to its
ancient aristocracy, England could
never be otherwise than picturesque
and fascinating. The Derby came
into its own again as the greatest
popular sporting event Of the world.
as Ascot is the most patrician in its
atmosphere. The Guards regiment
performed the historic ceremony OF
trooping the colors in Hyde Park on
the kings birthday, although in dull
khaki instead of the old array Of
scarlet and blue. The coach with the
sleek four-in-hand starts from picca-
dilly for Richmond with the stirring
flourish Of the horn although there
has been none on the Brighton road
since Alfred Vanderbilt drove that
course.
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 a long wind
ing pageant Of pleasure craft with
white iannelled young boatmen and
rainbow-tinted dresses everywhere.
The hundreds Of young Americans
at Oxford and Cambridge are learning