New Britain herald., 1919-07-18
WAR BUT MEMORY IN
 GAY SOCIETY LIFE
England Is Quick to Change From
 One to the Other

London, June 20, Correspondence of The Associated Press. )-The first summer of the after-the-war era is passing as a mere ghost of the old . London social season which former ly for three months after Easter transformed Belgravia and Mayfair into a spectacle by day and night.
 In other years, before the war wrought it's changes, the early weeks of summer saw the great London houses thrown open for entertaining on a scale which no other European capital knew. Their blazing windows at night told of receptions and dances on a grand scale. Court was held at Buckingham palace with an array of uniforms and jewels an unsurpassable show. By day the entire west end was packed with cars and carriages taking the women of society about for their calls and shopping.
 There have been four blank years from 1915 to 1918. and now most of the establishments of the ducal and old landed families who were the pill lars of the declining regime are closed, or their lives are ordered to a quiet and subdued tone. Not few, bear the sign For Sale" or ITO Let"
 
 fortunes through war taxation or the retirement of families in mourning.
 Nearly all of the social fixtures are missing this year. No courts are 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 en- closure at the Ascot races has been almost the only semi officially gath ering of society, and pressure upon the Lord Chamberlain office for ad- mission consequently has been more fierce then heretofore.
 To the stranger London may seem lively and even gay but it is d res taurant and theater-goin liveliness like the customary life of New York and Paris. The war producers are spending recklessly in their way, but among old-fashioned people there is d general sentiment that display is not in harmony with the times, and for many it would be impossible if they desired 1t.
 Even the restaurant life is much curtailed. Suppers have been elim-
  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 buy ing coffee and sandwiches at a side walk coffee stall elbow to elbow with d crowd of soldiers, cabmen and mis- cellaneouS night wanderers, d picture understandable for the old London. Still, with it's life war-shorn of much that was almost sacred to it's ancient aristOcracy, England could never be otherwise than picturesque and fascinating. The Derby came into it's own again as the greatest popular sporting event of the world, as Ascot is the most patrcian in it's atmosphere. The Guards regiment l performed the historic ceremony of 1 trooping the Colors in Hyde park on 1 the kings birthday, although in dull
 khaki instead of the old array of ] scarlet and blue. The coach with the 1 sleek fourth hand starts from Picca
 dilly for Richmond with the stirring 1 flourish of the horn although there 1 has been none on the Brighton road l since Alfred Vanderbilt drove that 1 course.
 Boating, cricket. tennis and golf | have burst forth with renewed en- i thusiasm after four years of sports 1 famine. The Thames from London 1 to Oxford and beyond is a long winding pageant of pleasure craft l with white f1annelled young boatmen l and rain bow tinted dresses every- l where.
 l The hundreds of young Am ericans 1 at Oxford and Cambridge are learn 1 ing a university life new to them, | where students come to do everything