The Washington herald., 1921-11-06

Cobtnueo from Eo0e FOe.
Washington many of the great
writer's not only of this country but
of the world. Already Booth Tark-
ington is in town-he came, though,
chiefly to be at the opening of his
new play. Intimate Strangers
last Monday-and Mary Roberts
Rhinehart and the Wallace Irwins
and dozens of others, not the least
interesting, according to my way
Of thinking, being Col. Charles
Court Repington, c. NJ. O., COM
mander Of the Order of Leopold, Of
icer of the Legion of Honor, the
distinguished British military critic
author. Yes, the one and same
who IS so severely roasted" in
The Glass of Fashion" written by
The Gentleman with the Duster," /"
who aroused so much interest with
his Mirrors OF Downing Street"
The other important figure in Eng
lish life severely reprimanded by
the Duster Gentleman is Margot AS
quith. the Princess Bibesco's
mother.
A brief summary Of what the au-
thor thinks Of Col. Repington is to
be found in the first quotation at
the head of Chapter II Of The Glass
of Fashion" entitled Col. Reping-
tons Diaries" We have neither
immediate nor remote aims, and in
our soul there is a great empty
space"
The author judges the colonel,
and Mrs. Asquith by their own
writings, criticising the former
through his THE First World War"
two volumes containing his diaries
from 1914 to 1913. At the outbreak
OF the war he was Sc years of age
and had seen service in Afghanis-
tan, Burma, Egypt and South Africa
had served as military attache in
Belgium and Holland, was military
correspondent of the London Times,
was a popular figure in the draw
ing rooms Of London and Paris and
q man whose opinion on military
subjects was listened to with re-
spect by many great soldiers and
some most intellectual statesmen.
AN ARIsToCRAT
OF HIGH TYPE.
The author says: IN him we see
the product of all Of the social ad-
vantages. Born Of the aristocracy,
educated at Eton, always associat-
ing on terms Of the friendliest in
timacy with the great and power
full, a traveller who would have as
tonished the Elizabethans, an ex-
cellent linguist, a man Of taste and
Judgment, a sports man in the best
English sense of the word and a
sincere lover of the beautiful, Col.
Repington comes before US with
every hallmark Of aristocratic ger
uineness, so blest by the gods, for
he is a singularly handsome per-
son, that a former generation might
have taken him for the ideal hero
of a Ouida novel"
But what he doesn't say about
the colonel later in the chapter
isn't worth sayingI Referring fur
ther to the cofoners book, the au-
thor says among many other things:
Col Repington met everybody. He
sets down in his diary what he said
to those great people and also what
the great people said to him. They
were our greatest and apparently
not one word was uttered which
ever glanced below the surface. A
Frenchman might read this book
and exclafm Of US, What cynicsP
or a German, and say, What hypo-
critesT or an educated Indian and
say What animals? No one reading
this book would understand that
England was fighting for the great
est political ideal which has ever
risen from the furnace of slavery
and that her sons were Offering
their lives in no less q cause than
the higher life of the human race.
Never was book written with great
er omission"
The Duster Gentleman goes on to
give extracts from the coloners d.
airy. Here Is one of them:
"Lunched in Belgrave square. Lady
Paget. Prince and Princess Victor
Mrs Duggan, wolkoff,
and Max Muller of the foreign Of
fee. The princess very nicely dress
cd and charming as usual. Mrs.
Duggsn was in the most attractive
widows weeds imaginable. callaud