NOT AN UGLY WOMAN IN LONDON.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3136, 25 September 1922, Page 8

NOT AN UGLY WOMAN IN LONDON.

(By George Bcnwick, Berlin.) "In London there is not an ugly woman to be seen—on Illy oath." That ic the pleasing verdict of one of Germany's most notable literary men, l)r Alfred Kerr, the distinguished dramatic critic of the Berliner Tageblalt. who has. alter a. visit to New York, been casting an observant eye , over London. "New York," he says, "is full ol new avidity: London is cosy. New York is the city of many motm-cais ; Loudon that of many buses. London, talent; New York, genius. England has a history; America has a future. I)r Kerr.'who "did" London anew from Westminster Abbey to the Lower, from park Lane to Whitechapel, fays that London smells of three things-, "opium-sweet tobacco, ham and eggs, and mutton'' ; but he does not, like i.o many foreigners, despise the Engh'sll cuisine. He was especially charmed with the way in which London restaurants serve ' lobster, though he was evidently disappointed that Eng'ish stout is'a trifle thinner. (Incidentally the port at the German Embassy is "wonderful." he declares.) lie envies London its "wondeitui houses of dark stone, weather-proof. solid, lasting. In Park Line they arc enchanting; the architecture ol security." Then there is the increased number of statues in London. "Was that fto Edward VII. already erected before the war?" he asks. "Now he rides proudly on horseback through the centuries - and quite near the German Embassy." But other statues impress on him'the terrible'gulf which has opened between two races since hwst he saw London. Ho says: "Before the Exchange, a monument to the fallen. Iwo soldiers, true to life, with rifles and puttees. Nothing pompous. Only lor remembrance. It is as though one did not wish to make too much out ol the sad glory of it. all. This beside fhv Exchange and the Hank of England! -a business quarter is not unholy ground. Manv a loving band lays an offering ol llowers at the unrailed base of tlio monument. Often a few wild blossoms. There arc always people tbvie. Very still. Mostly women." Then the statue to Miss Cave It: "Shot bv the leaders of the German Army. The date of her death |b graven on the monument. ... In Westminster is the grave of the unknown soldier With that eternally penetrating date: UH-l-18. . . On a brewery wall, a bronze plaque with names of the fallen. Again that date: 10U-IX." Regarding our "economic condition." as the German papers' put it. Dr Kerr is pleased to be a trifle sarcastic, for he remarks: — "Those who formerly had eight servants have now live. Because the times are bad . . . merely five. People sell their cars .... a sign of social distress. .Many things cost half as miwli again; many are already at the old prices. If only we had this distress in Germany! Silk shirts for gentlemen, I'is. Silk pyjamas. 17s. In a word: distress. A pure-wood holiday lountze suit. 7os: to measure. 80s. Oh. the high cost of living." Dr Kerr then turns to the women ol London and compliments them. "The women ai'e without age; they stand siill in the midst of time, curiously unchanging. In London there ;s not an ugly woman to lie seen -on my o;ith. (Or, yes: that hard provincial creature with the small-boned nose. l*gh!)" The compliment is not merely lor society to accept: he repeals it to the women of Whitechapel. There he saw "dazzling beauties. And the young girls who laugh. ".Mau.\ of them have lovely faces above their closely-wrapped shawls. . . The young women of London do not paint as much as they did before the war. (Only face cream.) And the wai-re-ses in cafes and restaurants look like nurses, and are, niethinks. handsome."