YULETIDE ABROAD

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 24, 28 December 1925, Page 8

YULETIDE ABROAD

SNOW IN ENGLAND. OPTIMISTIC SPIRIT PREVAILS. LONDON, Dec. 25. Christmas Day opened in true oldtime style, with snow and wintry conditions practically all over the country, hut later there was a thaw in the south, bringing back a damp mugginess not usually associated with a holiday. Londoners mostly spent the day at the fireside. The streets were deserted, though there was certain liveliness in the evening, when gala dances began at most of the big hotels. Notwithstanding the cold, hardy swimmers competed in the usual event at the Serpentine. One of the participants was a septuagenarian, who admitted that the water was somewhat cold.'* Another vetoran, aged 78, won the Hampstead Heath’s event in the pond at Hampstead. The churches were crowded, where the Locarno Pact, as the herald of peace, furnished the keystone for many sermons. England generally celebrated the holiday in optimistic spirit, the leaders of financial and economic life predicting growing prosperity in 1926. A. and N.Z. cable.

GAIETY IN PARIS. EXTRAVAGANT PRICES. PARIS, Dec. 25. Paris awoke after one of the most expensive, noisiest and gayest Christmas eves, which in no*®way was dampened by tho gloomy outlook of the national finances. Restailjrants, despite the depreciated franc, charged outrageous prices, such as 200 francs for dinner and the sanio price for a bottle of champagne in the Montmarte and Boulevard districts. The newspapers waged an editorial battle to-day over tho celebrations of the previous evening. Tho Conservative press, while deploring extravagance and vulgarity, declared that foreigners were the biggest spenders and that Americans, notably, were among these, but tho Communist press declares the wealthy land-owners, who have been long evading taxation, were well represented among the celebrants, who tossed away a thousand-franc roll in orgies, .both gastronomic and bacchic.—A. and N.Z. cable.

EX-KAISER’S SERVICE

CELEBRATIONS AT DOORN. DOORN, Dec. 25. Tho ex-Kaiser Wilhelm began his household Christmas celebration with a sermon upon “Tho Nativity and a just peace’’ before an audience including his wife and her children, chief officers of the Gendarmes and various members of the nobility and staff of the ex-Emperor’s court, who all joined in singing hymns. One guest later said that Wilhelm’s sermon was delivered with the gestures of an actor. The ex-Emperor, accompanied by his wife, afterwards visited the servants’ quarters and distributed gifts, and this evening, in the grand ballroom, the couple sat on a throne and directed the giving of gifts to children and guests. The latter also received signed photographs of the ex-Emperor. Wilhelm cut his Christmas tree himself and also firewood for a poor fam- _, „jly in the village.—A. and N.Z. cable. RUSSIAN CELEBRATIONS. MOSCOW, Dec. 25Christmas was frankly celebrated in an abundance of liquor: Drunkenness, however, is decreasing under the new rule allowing but one bottle iof vodka to every person. Sales of the beverage are now approximating 20,000 bottles daily and arrests for drunkenness average 78 daily, compared with several hundred previously when more vodka could bo bought.—A. and ■N.Z. cable.