COSMOPOLITE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 132, 6 June 1929, Page 10

COSMOPOLITE.

THE CONTINENTAL ROUND. WHAT YOU EAT AND WHY. VENICE'S TREASURE AND BERLIN'S MUSIC. (Capyright N.A.N.A. and "Auckland Star.") PARIS, April 20. "Tell me your diet and I'll tell you your fortune," says the ingcniou6 Frenchman who has discovered this new method of character reading. And it seems very simple to deduce, for example, a mental alertness from a preference for simple cold meat and salad or a love of entertaining and being entertained from a liking for mixed grill. All eorts of fortunes this gentleman might be able to tell among the .holiday crowd in the foire aux pains d'epice, or Gingerbread Fair, on the Place de la Nation. There is always a street fair going on in one or other of the outer boulevards of Paris, and the Gingerbread Fair no longer includes only sellers of gingerbread, though it has a distinct air of its own. An important part of it is miseing this year, however, for Mourma, the dancing bear, brown ae the old-time gingerbread, the delight of the children of Montmartre, of Neuilly and Montrouge, is dead. Mourma was a very important Parisian, whose passing had been fully celebrated. Mourma knew a thing or two about children and why they ate gingerbread* And what of the characters and fortunes of the fastidious Parisians who have for weeks pact been partaking of the Loris asparagus, ripened under glass in Southern France, and the rare Pauillac lamb from Bordeaux, and the tasteless but costly early strawberries ? The character reader no doubt knows that eminent folk in London still include i the old Cafe de Paris among the best restaurants of Paris, as also Voisin's, famous for its matchless winee; that for their suppers they go to Cire's, the Ritz, the Tour d'Argent, and the Perroquet. The new Hotel George V. received something of a cachet in being chosen by the Reparation people for some of their conferences, and now, adjoining the George V., there rises toward finished perfection a stately neighbour, the Prince de Gallee. What, one wondere. did the diplomats eat at the George V., and why? Would any fortune teller divine the artist in the Paris gentleman who was seen carrying a bed of mint, destined to be planted in the window-box outside his etudio, the other day? Would he guess that this fragrant herb was to grow up nto mint juleps for the solace and delight of the artist and his friends during the hot summer days? Le Touquet. You can do everything with gambling chips in Le Touquet now. Barmen and coif caddies will give you chips for your change, as well as taxi drivers and shopkeepers, and it is declared that chips even appear in the offertory plate in church! The red chip is as good as eighty cents any day, the white twenty cents, and the yellow and black chip four dollars; the caeino's lure is everywhere in ite most practical form. Everything begins at the Casino bar, and there it was that the Italian Count asked the French woman novelist, Colette, if it -was true that Miss Jenny Dolly had Attended one of the authoress's luncheons wearing millions of francs' worth of jewels. "An exaggeration!" said Colette. "Jenny was very simply dressed. She wore a charming little walking suit made entirely of diamonds!" Riviera. If the Duke of Connaught is well] enough it is possible that he may take King George's place for the trooping of the colour in June, before which time he will certainly be back in London. The Duke is much better for his stay i in the South of France and so is the j King of Sweden, whose friends have all remarked a great improvement in his form on the tennis courts. King Gustav always carries a cigarette case with a portrait of his Queen inset on the cover. One of his tennis partners to whom he offered a cigarette the other day asked | who the lady was. "My wife," he answered in his simple manner. "We have been married for just over forty-eight years and we are already planning how we will celebrate our golden wedding." The tennis courts at Cannes are going to London! Sir John La vary is sending a painting of them, with several wellknown tennis players in the foreground, to the Academy. While her husband was painting the tennis courts Lady Lavery embroidered some very lovely lace curtains. Both of them have enjoyed the South so much that they are planning not only to stay on into May, but also to take a villa in Cannes for next season. Venice. Lady Wimborne, who has been the guest of the Duce della Verdura, in Sicily, is coming back to Venice after flitting home to London to take up her role as one of its leading hostesses in May. Venice's old loveliness" will have much to delight Lady Wimborne. whose town house is a treasury of dignified and quiet beauty. Her red brocaded drawing room, with its Old Masters and antique furniture, lit by crystal chandeliers containing three hundred or more candles shedding their soft'light on her guests, may be enriched in the autumn by some Venetian treasures. And Venice will probably see her gemset bracelet, one of whose stones hides a small key of much importance, unlocking, as it does, the way to some of the treasures of Wimborne House. Lord Wimborne is a man of politics and of polo; he is something of an imperious golfer, too, if there is any truth in the story about his play on the famous golf course at Broadstone in Dorsetshire; someone said he played a round there recently, and every time his ball went into the rough he ordered that piece of rough to be cleared. For his lordship is in the fortunate position of being able to make his own fairways on that course. Rome. Italy is going to launch a scheme for the encouragement of amateur flyin-r. Of the two new companies that will be formed the Sociota Incremento Turismo Aero will, as its name implies, devote itself to the promotion of amateur flying and the Societa Vendita Apparecchi Turismo will be concerned with the sale of light aircraft, and that, moreover, on the instalment system! Flying meetings are to be held at holiday resorts, such as San Remo and the Italian lakes, and altogether Italy is in for a flying time this season. Berlin. The niusic lovers who have followed with anxious interest the phases of HenBruno Walter's war with the musical authorities here have received a new

shock in the news that Signor Roscanini, the Italian conductor who for years has been so great a feature of the Scala, is leaving Milan for Chicago. Signor Toseanini is famed for his sotto voce conversations with members of his orchestra during performances. "Oh, you blackguards, how awful!" he will murmur at one moment. "Sublime!" he will exclaim at another. He is, indeed, in himself an entertainment; when conducting a 'cello part his left hand will vibrate as though on the instrument, and Chicago will find him a tyrant to any misbehaving audience, which he will lash with his tongue. Visitors are still talking about Cologne's wonderful opera season. Handel's "Julius Caesar" proved the chief attraction for the English people, and Herr Fritz Komond was most successful in his desisns for the scenery and costumes. The latter were fantastic versions of the eighteenth century ideas of Roman and Egyptian fashions. Caesar in full periwig, gold breastplate, wide skirt and gallant panache courted Cleopatra in crinoline, white-spangled veil, and osprey plumes under a blue sky in which the stars were ranged in semicircles. The opera was played within a gold frame of massive twisted pillars and heavy scroll work, and the scene m Caesar's camp, with Pompey's tomb, was one of those that made one catch the breath at its beauty. Moscow. Very complicated are the many changes of place names and all over Eastern Europe changes of Government continue to bring changes of names. A pleasant little townlet in the woods near Leningrad (or. Petrograd, or St. Petersburg, as some may remember it), erstwhilo called Gatchina, was later named Trotsk, in honour of Trotzky. Now that Trotzky is in disfavour they have renamed it, poor little town, Kras-no"-vardeisk, or Red Guard Town. How often those folk change their address* without the bother of removal.