The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-23

@ ECOUNTING charmingly her de- lA lightful experiences during her GS S three months trip abroad Mrs. Philip oster, one of Birmingham's most. accomplished and cleverest women. included In ner chat with me yesterday incidents of her trip which were unusual as well as unique.
 Mrs. .oster with her husband went abroad three months ago for pleas ure trip, making the rounds of the delightful resorts, cities and places of interest viewing them with an enthusiasm and zesc which bespeak the temperament and pleasure of this lovely lady. whose appreciation of art, music and sculpture, as well as keen eye for sartorial effects and everything modern, make her an in- teresting raconteur-or should say-"raconteuse
 "After landing and exchanging our return tickets from the New Amster- dam to the Impsfator. which by the
 way IS uOW hHOH 1T oo tAAN h'NA t7eNt -'N' being named for an English states man by the name or Berengar, we proceeded immediately to The
 Hague' Here we found the most charming surprises everywhere. l have never seen such gorgeous flow CTS; rhododendrens, tulips, peoples, orchids so cheap that corsage made r of them was not luxury as It 's here. And jazz music we heard on every corner. and everybody was dancing and 'shimmy-ing.' Our Amer ican soldiers certainly left Jazz In their wake, for not alone did we hear it in The Ha.gud' but everywhere.
 "One of the beautiful things that we saw at The Hague was The House in the Woods-the summer palace of Queen WiIhelmina of Hol- land who with her daughter and Prince Henry were there. This Is the
 original Peace Palace, where the Czar of Russia called the potentates in 1909. Lii Hung Chang was in at- tendance, and he is still much in evidence through the magnificent gifts he made. The dining room is beautiful, and one of the unique things seen is the handsome set of 12 dinner plates, representing the 12 seasons. A screen, the gift of Ii Hung Chang, is of lockwood, heavily carved in gold. The Chinese room is gorgeous; it is papefed in rice paper. and the furniture fs of white satin, marvelously embroidered in chrysan themums, and roses and oth- CT flowers in riot of color such as only the Chinese can combine.
 "The Peace Palace itself" Mrs. oster said, lis the most stately of buildings-cold as an iceberg, majes- tic. grand. Pictures of the Czar of Russia and Andrew Carnegie are prominent and every nation has con- tributed to the structure. The great
 bronze gates were given by Germany the huge bronze doors, by Belgium :,
 the massive candelabra, by Austria, and a Malachite vase, taller than the avera geN. person and weighing 4.000 tons, was the gift of Russia by the Czar.
 "The private audience rooms and the session rooms for the various conventions, are done in different woods representing different nations, and the huge inkstands in which the pens are dipped to sign the great documents of the world, are of solid silver and are the gift of Spain.
 'Ffom The Hague we went into Germany" Mrs Oster said. "and there we found conditions pretty much as they are reported. Germany knows that America was the victor over her, and to America she looks for everything, realizing that Ameri- cans are good sports, and will do the right thing The same thrift and progressiveness characterize Ger | many that obtained before the war and the fields are under splendid cultivation and the flowers and the general surroundings are normal. The, women and children are the ones | who have suffered by the war We
 saw an Easser procession of hundreds of chiIdrlen emaciated and undersized and the women half-fed and under Kourished, who will tell you that it would have been easy to die, but h ! Is hard to live and stand the .brunt of war.
 '.We went to Bamberg. Bavaria. to
 visit my husbands father who ia 90