CLUB GOSSIP

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 2 April 1929, Page 2

CLUB GOSSIP

"GATE CRASHERS" (BY A LONDON CLUBMAN). Wlion fch'o police raid a night club and there is ii pros'southm antl a Conviction tin) "runners" of the clubs either floe or, like Brer Babbit, lie low for a time, !o bestir themselves again when the police would seem Id be resting on llieir oars. Il is the sa with "gate-crash-of.s''—tlm dare-devil young men and young women, of Society who seek to i'urce their way into places where they have not been bidden because, presumably, they aro not wanted. They are in the same category as the hobbledehoys who would seek entertainment or amusement "on the. cheap" by rushing the gates at a big football match. A few mouths ago I here was such an epidemic of "gate-crashing" at some of Loudon's stately homes that hostesses rebelled and intimated that (he uninvited invaders would Tie expelled. Alter a period of quiet, the "crashers" arc again busy. The other night a parly of seven —most attractively costumed, had the temerity to appear at a West End house where a fancy-dress hall was in progress, after they had been asked to he invited and been refused. They had entered and were about to he photographed by the photographer in attendance when they were detected by the hostess, who- at once ordered thorn to leave. I doubt whether they were abashed, and T. should not be surprised if they did not try the same trick at another house the same night. Hostesses are determined that they will put a period to the impudent "gate-crash I ers." They are consequently issuing with their invitations special tickets, which must bo produced at the entrance to the house. TIT FOR TAT Apropos to uninvited guests, the has been told a story of a titled lady who had three very plain daughters, for whom she was anxious to secure husbands. Hearing that a wealthy bachelor had settled near her, in the country, she decided to give a ball in order that he might meet her daughters. The gentleman was invited, not directly, but through a mutual friend. When the gentleman appeared at, the lady's house, to attend the ball, lie was received by the lady with a Wank stare. She had not mot him, and she. did not know him. Why. then, was he there? "I have come," replied the visitor, "because I have been invited." Whereupon the lady remarked, "I never invite people I do not know," and the gentleman turned on his heels and hied to _ his home. The next day the lady received from the gentleman, without a word of comment, the invitation which she had sent him through a. friend. Realising her faux pas, the lady wrote an explanation and an apology, with a request that the gentleman would dine at her house. Back the gentleman wrote : "Mr. presents his compliments to Lady , and begs to say that he never dines with people he does not know" ! WHEN THE CHAPERONE WENT Sir Alfred Yarrow—who had intended to retire when he readied the age of 80, but who, at is "still at it"—has. one regret. It is that the bicycle had not been invented in the days of his youth. Those early Victorian days—as Iho late days of Victoria the Goodwere the days of the chaperone, when, in the "upper circles" if not *in the lower, young couples were not allowed to meet alone. How, with a chaperone in the "offing," if not nearer, young people were able to make love is a. mystery. How did a young man propose? And how many ears were reached by a young woman's "Yes"? TJie bicycle, Sir Alfred Yarrow contends, abolished the chaperone. "I could never take a girl out alone in my young days," says he, "but how could an old lady such as used to act chaperone follow a young couple on bicycles?" Especially difficult would it have- been to shadow a young man. and young woman careering along on a "bicycle built for two," and that was not uncommon in early cycling days. I am old enough to remember the consternation which was caused when young women started cycling. I was living in. a West Country town in which the pioneer female cyclist was a young woman who had always displayed mannish characteristics. Unblushingly, fearlessly, she daily pedalled afong the roads and streets, whilst women generally vowed she was riding to the devil. And when damages, in. Holborn, displayed divided skirts for female cyclists, did not a crowd threaten to smash the windows and ransack the place ! In these days of she-men, who fear nothing, wlio blush at nothing, who wear almost nothing, who are ready to do that which their femininity would not have them do, such days seem as distant almost as the Dark Ages. TIME'S CHANGES For what remarkable changes in life is the whirligig of Time responsible. Not so long ago that I am unable to remember, Premiers and other Cabinet Ministers were badgered and baited and tried to the limit by Suffragettes, one of the leaders of whom was Mrs Pankhurst. Now we are to witness the spectacle of the unveiling of a statue of Mrs Pankhurst by Mr Stanley Baldwin, the present Prime Minister, who has Tjeon a party to the concession to women of the vote for which Mrs Pankhurst and her followers pleaded, fought, and suffered, to be resisted and flouted by Government and Commons. A strange, inexplicable people are we. Yes, there were very lively scenes in the Suffragette days. There was nothing which women, old as well as young, were not prepared to do with a 'view to compelling Parliament to grant them the vote. They created scenes in the House, they fired churches, they smashed windows galore, and they flocked to prison gaily, in the spirit of the martyrs of old. One of the officials of the Peers' Gallery of the House of Commons was always armed with a towel, which, when a Suffragette rose to create a scene, he smacked over her head, to the closing of her mouth and the ruination of her hat. Not inappropriately, the official bore the name Warring !

LORD HOWARD DE WALDEN'S MSSIC-MAKING FAMILY Lord Howard de Walden. whose interest in music is well-known, and who has for years been a munificent patron of worthy musical enterprise, is fortunate in the possesison of a. family of young children all of whom are musical. There are six of them, the twoeldest (boy and girl twins) being L 6 years of age. The six children have been persuaded by Lord and Lady Howard de Walden to form themselves into a string band, consisting of three violins, a viola, and two 'cellos. At Christmas lime this children's orchestra provided appropriate music for a house-party of children whom their parents entertained, andno doubt they played together regularly for their own. pleasure and the improvement of their performance. 'this is family musicmaking of the best kind. There are few better "or more enjoyable forms of mu-

sic-making than that in which nuisicmaking is a family affair. Many families are aware of this: if the number of families who make their own music were known. it would probably be found to be much larger than, is imagined. Here, at all events, in this fine example set by the de Walden family, is proof of what can be done by judicious encouragement of the home-cir-cle's musical talent.