The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 23, 1904, Page 17

SAN FRANCISCO, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1904. CREAT BRITAIN'S KING fi&iety Now Has Pet Cats Vaccinated London Dog Doctors Find a New Oc- cupation. Queen Alexandra Has Feline Family Treated s e LONDON, Oct. 22.—The dog doctor has been for a number of years a fa- miliar figure in society—in fact, no “Soggy” family could get along with- place in the household ost on a par with that of the and his higher. exam- y surgeon or ph an income was in m cases Following Queen Alexandra’s wever, m y society women make have discarded the bo for pussy, dog doctor” has, in Bu He has from m n evil times. were supposedly con- he has actually women believe that if ed” they ble to catch some disease after and llpox. has discovered an antitoxin that h ne family from con- The method to inject the serum - be~ in of pussy by means of inge. few days a “profes- the was not before he er Majesty that ions in life had ben- atment that she to be operating on “punctured.” British Peer Raises Cash in 0dd Way Earl of Essex Sells Valuable Church Living. e LONDON, Oct. 22—When a British peer marries an American woman, it is assumed as a matter of course that he will have money enough to gratify his most extravagant tastes for the rest of his days. But in the case of the Earl of Essex, at least, that expectation has e +- | | | | —ZAPY LABVITE o oo QE OF racE S Gy O 4 | x=7 og CEOSEIT FASZENZ . VG FORPRS T QuERY AZE XFNACE P The “professor” is a Liverpool man not been fulfilled. . It was eleven years named Pritchard and the antitoxin is a secret which he discovered during a sojourn of sport on the west coast of Africa. ———— Czar to See War Scenes. ST. PETERSBURG, Oct. 22.—The American kinetoscopes showing scenes of the war, which the Czar recently ordered, have arrived here, and a private exhibition is being arranged at the imperizal-palace, to which only the personnel of the court will be invited. ' ago that he married, as his second wife, the beautiful Miss Adela Grant, daugh- ter of Beach Grant of New York. What was her fortune is not known, but whatever it was it is a lamentable fact that his lordship is now hard up. To such straits has the Earl been re- duced to procure ready cash that he has just sold one of the three church livings to which he has the right to ap- pointing the incumbent. He inherited —_— IS A WARM ADMIRER OF AMERICAN WOMEN, AND COUNTS A MANY OF THE TRANSPLANTED YANKEE. GIRLS WHO NOW ADORN LONDON'S SMART SET — | Lo TWO OF THE FAIR FRIENDS OF ENGLAND'S KING. — e no less than three of these common appendages of the English nobility— one at #Watford, his residential seat; another in Essex and a third in War- wickshire. It is the first named with which he has parted. It is an extreme- ly valuable one, the income amounting to no less thax: $20,000 a year, and as is usually the case where a rector gets big pay in the Church of Engltnd, he is required to do very little for the money. The occupant of the Watford vicarage is an old man and unless he violates some ecclesiastical law he can not be deprived of his snug billet while he lives. It is the right of appointing his successors that the Earl of Essex has transferred for a cash consideration. That so many members of the nobility, who, as a rule, are by no means con- spicuous for their piety, should possess such rights and be privileged to barter them for gold, constitutes one of the greatest scandals of the English church. But when a peer gets hard up he does not let such considerations worry him. And traffic in church liv- ings is recognized as a perfectly legit- imate and lawful form of business. The Earl of Essex has also sold another of his ancient rights at Wat- ford—that of exacting “toll” of all who enter the town to sell agricultural produce. This additional evidence that he is in financial difficuities has evoked many expressions of sympathy from the people of Watford with whom, because of his sporting tastes, he is extremely popular. But it is a matter of common gossip in society that the Countess, perceiving well what such indulgence is leading to, does not approve of it and in conse- quence things are not running with perfect smoothness between them. The fact is the Earl, who is now only 47, got his early training in a very bad school—the Guards. In that famed regiment, scions of the nobil- ity seldom take soldiering seriously, but they do learn how “to go the pace,” so thoroughly that they find it hard to draw rein when retrenchment becomes necessary. Serious ‘financial difficulties, as far as the Earl is concerned, are out of the question, because his brother-in- law, Lord Brassey, would never allow any one of the family to fail on evil times. It is supposed that the sale of the Watford “rights” will be the end of the Earl's commercial transactions as far as his éstates are concerned. S A R Japanese Buy Many Bibles. LONDON, Oct. 22.—Never in its his- tory has the venerable English Bible Society distributed so many copies of the good book as since the Russo-Jap- anese war began. Tens of thousands of Bibles have been sent to Korea: the demand was extraordinary. It devel- ops that the Koreans have sold the Bibles to-the JW” who have stud- jed them indus oufl{,, not for their spiritual welfare, but that they might have good English. — Smart Society Woman Enters Business Field Opens Dressmaking Es- tablishment and Makes It Pay. LONDON, Oct. 22.—Smart society has furnished another recruit to the legion of “lady dressmakers,” as they are styled in London.. This time it is the Hon. Mrs. Charles Forester who has condescended to step from the lofty pinnacle of an assured position among the fashionable elect to make money by ministering to the vanity of its gay butterflies. And there is no doubt that she is making it pay handsomely. She has obtained possession of the shoptin aristocratic Bond street which was formerly occupied by the Countess of Warwick, and ‘‘picture gowns” de- signed by her have become quite the rage in the fashionable set. She is one of the sisters-in-law of Lord Forester. Her husband has a pretty place at Ascot and is a popular member of the Royal Yacht Squadron, membership in which ‘is so rigidly guarded from all taint of trade that even if Sir Thomas Lipton should succeed in “lifting” the cup he would never be elected to it. Before her marriage Mrs. Forester yas Miss Elspeth Mackenzie, and her shrewd' business instinct is attributed to her Scotch extraction. —_—— VENICE IS BEING ROBBED ~OF MANY ART TREASURES Officials Accused of Accepting Bribes for Connivance in Wholesale Looting by Americans. VENICE, Oct. 22.—Venice is being robbed every day of its art treasures with the complicity, it is said. of bribed Government officials. Day after day barges laden with boxed-up marble or- naments and monuments sail for un- known destinations. Many beautiful marble windows which once ornamented historical pal- aces, statues taken from churches now closed to worshipers, marble well in- closures of Byzantine origin, medal- lions, coats of arms and columns have recently disappeared- and, it is said. have been shipped to America to adorn the palaces of millionaires. An investigation has been ordered. Some of the accused officials say most of these supposed ancient works of art were manufactured in Venice by deal- ers who imitate all things worth repro- ducing and sell them as geunine to for- eign visitors. 3 It has been ascertained, however, that a London museum lately acauired several church vestments of the fif- teenth century, and the Italian author- ities are trying to find out which of the 129 churches lost them. [ Edward VII's Predilection for Their Society Arouses Jealousy. MONARCH NO LONGER DEMANDS BEAUTY IN FAIR ASSOCIATES His Majesty Insists, However, on Wit and Skill at Bridge Whist. LONDON. Oct. 22.—King Edward’s partiality for American women was again shown recently when, to the chagrin of many titled folk who were eager to entertain him in grand style, he slipped off for a week- end holiday to Highcliffe Castle, near Christchurch, Hants, as the guest of George Cavendish-Bentinck. For, as one paper frankly stated, “Mr. Cavendish-Bentinck is nobody In particular, but his American wife is a great favorite of his Majesty’s and one of the brightest society women of the day.” Considering that he is a descendant of the great ducal family of Portland, that he is a wealthy man and was for ten years a member of Parliament, it is rather rough on Cavendish-Bentinck to be described as “nobody in particular,” but it is the fate of many Englishmen who mar- ry American women to be known thereafter merely as the husbands of their wives, particularly, as often happens, when those same wives are singled out as the objects of royal attention. Before her marriage in 1880 Mrs. Cavendish-Benfinck was Miss Vio- let Livingston, a daughter of Maturin Livingston of Staatsburgh, N. Y. When she came to England she astonished people by the rapidity with which she scored social successes and r« to the top of the swell set, but she had three strong cards to play—beauty, wit and money—and she knew how to make each one of them count. Her town residence is in Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, near the Houses of Parliament, and when she lay ill there some years ago “Big Ben,” the famous Parllamentary clock, was muffled for fear that its noise might disturb her. That was pretty strong evidence both of her popularity and what in America would be called her “pull.” This is the King’s holiday season, when he visits big country houses and invites his frlends—and more particularly his women friends—to meet him and help him enjoy himself. Nominally, of course, it is his hosts who issue the invitations, but, as everybody knows, it is the King himself who supplies the lists of the people whom he wishes to meet. In many matters the King’s actions are so circumsecribed by cere- mony and the rigorous etiquette pertaining to a court that he has far le: freedom of choice than most of his subjects. But he can choose his friends—both male and female—and especially with regard to the latter he exhibits a far more cathollc taste than is shown by many of the heads of the nobility. Some of the feminine intimates are rich, others are comparatively poor; some have titles, others have none; some are married and some are single; some are young and some are old: many are strikingly handsome women, but not a few never had any preten- sions to beauty. That latter statement may rather surprise some American readers who in former days, when the King was the Prince of Wales, with a worse repu- tation for gallantry than perhaps he deserved, heard his name so frequently linked with those of reigning belles and professional beauties. But it should be borne in mind that he is now 63 and at that age, when the blood begins to run cold, beauty no longer constitutes an overpowering attraction. Nor that he is indifferent to it by any means, and other things being equal he still gives the preference to the pretty faces, but for many years it could no longer be truthfully said of him that he bestowed his friendship only on pretty women. The things that he does insist on are wit and vi- vacity. DEMANDS FRIVOLITY. He cares nothing for women who cannot “frivol” a bit. Feminine blus stockings he abhors. He may publicly applaud women with missions who make a success of them, but in private they bore him. He seeks soclety for pleasure, relaxation and—bridge; not for serious discussion. He gets enough of that when attending to his business as a King. That among the King’s friends there should be so many American women has given rise to no little bitterness and jealousy in aristocratic circles. But these daughters of the United States owe their distinction en- tirely to the fact that as a rule they are bright, tactful, attractive and good talker and esteem their birthright too highly to be flustered by the attentions of royalty. They are too well known on the other side to need more than a passing mention of some of them here. Consuelo, Duchess of Manchester, the Dowager Duchess, has for many years been regarded by the King as one of his stanchest friends, which is proof that in such matters he is not fickle- She is getting on in life, but is still a brilliant woman and retains much of the youthful beauty which as Miss Yznaga made her famous in America. Her name oftener than that of many younger women appears among the list of guests at big house par- ties gathered to entertain the King. That other Consuelo, the Duchess of Marlborough, has often played the hostess to the King, though she is gen- erally regarded as one of the Queen’'s special friends rather than his Ma- jesty’s. The reigning Duchess of Manchester, formerly’ Miss Helen Zim- merman of Cincinnati, though she cannot be classed among his close friends, is distinctly “persona grata” with the King. She would have had the honor of entertaining both the King and Queen at Kylemore Castle had the place been ready for occupancy on the occasion of the royal visit to Ireland. Mrs. Cornwailis West, formerly Lady Randolph Churchill, and before that Miss Jerome of New York, is another instance of the King's loyalty to his old friends, though since she took unto herself a second husband so much younger than herself she has not been so often seen at the country houses which he visits. Lady Curzon for a time was not in the King's good books because of the reports sent home from India that she gave herself more airs than were justified even by her rank as the wife of the Viceroy, but since her return she has been fully restored to the royal favor, as was evi- denced by the fact that the King stood sponsor at the christening of her youngest baby. Among English women who figure prominently as friends of the King the most conspicuous and, for many reasons, the most interesting, is Mrs. George Keppel. With far more justification than in the case of Cavendish- Bentinck might the phrase “nobody in particular” be applied to Mr. Keppel. He has a business billet of some sort with Sir Thomas Lipton, who makes things as easy as he can for him and always allows him a holiday when his wife is helping to entertain the King. Mrs. Keppel is generally considered the prettiest of the King's women friends. She is certainly the poorest. But she treats her poverty—her comparative poverty—as a jest and has often threatened to write a book entitled “How to Enjoy Life and Entertain Royalty on Five Hundred Pounds a Year.” ANOTHER ROYAL FAVORITE. Another woman who also enjoys the distinction of being a great favorite with both the King and Queen is Mrs. Willie James, whose husband is of American descent. She is a pretty little woman with frizzled hair and Wears glasses, but she is a brilliant talker, a clever amateur actress and an enthusiastic yachtswoman, which makes her a welcome guest on board the royal yacht. That she plays a good hand at bridge goes without saying. James himself, though chiefly known to fame as the husband of his accom- plished wife, is of versatile character, the possessor of great inherited wealth and a mighty hunter of big game. That the King esteems old women as friends, as well as young ones, is shown by the fact that among his guests for the Goodwood week this year was Miss Jane Thornewill, “old Miss Jane” as she is generally re- ferred to in society. But Miss Thornewill is keen on bridge. That shs happens to be .a sister of Lady Burton of Bass has nothing to do with the King’s liking for her. Another elderly woman who is on very friendly terms with the King is the Duchess of Devonshire. But the Duchess is one of the grand ladies of England, and her husband one of the most distinguished peers of the realm. At Chatsworth House they are able to entertain royalty right royally. The King's friendship for Laldly Saville dates back many years prior to her marriage to Baron Saville when she was plain Mrs. Helyar. She is a petite woman, with abundance of golden hair in which few silver threads have yet appeared, and, of course, witty and acious or she would not have been so long numbered among the King's friends. She is not one of the great entertainers of London, but the King is a frequent guest at her “little dinners,” Lady Gerard, whose only son will become of age this autumn, is another of the King's old friends who has discovered the secret of preserving her youthful good looks. She recently enter- tained the King at Eastwell Park and Mrs. George Keppel was one of the guests. 3 The King has numerous other friends, but those enumerated will suf- fice to show that in his selection of them he exercises the widest range of choice, NTS AMONG HIS CLOSEST FRIENDS