Courts Royal

The wife of the Japanese Ambassador, plump, cheerful Mme Matsudaira; the wife of the Chinese Minister, thin, nervous Mme Sze; and the wife of the U. S. Ambassador, pale, placid Mrs. Dawes, each presented her daughter last week to King George & Queen Mary.

Wromen presented at the first two Royal Courts of the London Season (the last two will be on the nights of June 9 & 10) totaled over 400. As usual the largest group of "foreigners" were U. S. women, 20 of them. But outstanding in the whole assemblage was sweet-seventeenish Miss Virginia Dawes, just home from boarding school. She had appendicitis.

The great, the historic case of appendicitis was in 1902. It disrupted the social arrangements not only of the British Court but of all courts. Just before the date set for King Edward VII's coronation, with the German Emperor's brother, Prince Henry of Prussia, and half the princes in Christendom assembled at London, with delegations from India and the remotest parts of the Empire all assembled, His Majesty's appendix suddenly fulminated, distended, was likely to burst.*

Miss Dawes is a resolute girl, as King Edward was a resolute man. In King Edward's case, after ignoring his appendix as long as was humanly possible, he found himself at the very last moment unable to be crowned. His Coronation was postponed, took place two months later on Aug 9, 1902. Last week Miss Dawes, luckier than King Edward, was able to advance upon Their Majesties, curtsey to the King, curtsey to the Queen, and retire in good order. Next day her appendix was removed by Sir Crisp English, operating at the U. S. Embassy in Princes Gate. So successful was this operation that Ambassador Dawes sailed the following day on the Bremen to grapple with Chicago's 1933 World's Fair.

Dawes Data: The Ambassador & Mrs. Dawes had a son Rufus Fearing (deceased) ; they have a daughter Mrs. Carolyn Ericson, an adopted younger son Dana (he eloped from Williams College last month, was in Hawaii last week with his bride, who eloped from Mt. Holyoke College), an adopted younger daughter Virginia whom they call "Ginnie." Carefully reared, she does not smoke. Her presentation at Court was arranged as a "surprise," Mrs. Dawes keeping the secret for weeks. When told, Ginnie became "quite excited." She went to Roycemore School in Evanston, Ill., now attends Broadstairs in Kent, will go next year to a school in Paris. Frank, impulsive, vivacious, she is a pronounced brunette, eyes almost black, sparkling. With horse or tennis ball she is tolerably adept. Friendly, she is a firm friend of eloped brother Dana, no blood kin.

Well Worth While! British courts are best. Mrs. Ralph H. Booth of Grosse Pointe, Mich., wife of the U. S. Minister to Denmark, presented at the Danish Court last winter, was presented at Buckingham Palace last week. She exclaimed afterward:

"It was well worth the time and energy, and it was all so faultlessly handled that a baby could not have gone wrong! I have never seen anything so marvelous and stately."

With marvelous stateliness the Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Cromer, walking backwards, led the King-Emperor and Queen-Empress through the state apartments to their raised dais in the lofty cream-&-gold Throne Room. At the first court, the Duke of York and the Duke of Gloucester were of the Royal Party. At the second court Edward of Wales appeared with Prince George, this being the usual division of labor among the four royal brothers. At both courts King George wore a uniform predominantly scarlet--first, the scarlet of the Scots Guards; second, the scarlet of the Coldstream Guards. Queen Mary wore, first, a gown of peach-pink chiffon embroidered in pale pink seed pearls; second, one of soft grey georgette embroidered in pink steel beads. At both courts the prodigious Kohinoor diamond of 106 1/16 carats blazed upon Her Majesty's breast beside the blue ribbon of the Garter. Queen Mary's head, one of the most regal of all time, was surmounted by a diamond tiara. The sight was one to awe:

Miss Barbara Hutton of New York, heiress to $15,000,000 left by her grandfather Frank Winfield (5-c- & 10-c-) Woolworth, daughter of Socialite Franklyn L. Hutton. Just before court time last week Mrs. Hutton told reporters that her daughter might not attend "because of a sore throat," but this proved a false alarm.

Miss Louise Behn (New York), daughter of the world-potent I. T. & T. telephone tycoon Hernand Behn, gowned by Molyneaux in silver and white lace, carrying a sheaf of lilies.

Miss Margaretta Duane (Boston), daughter of Harvard's physicist, Professor William Duane, in a creamy creation of "angel's skin" (peau d'ange) satin, carrying a white ostrich fan.

Miss Adele Townsend Jahncke (New Orleans), daughter of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Ernest Lee Jahncke, her white satin princess gown accented by hip and hem lines of silver-embroidered ovals, these repeated in her headdress wreath of silver ovals.

Miss Jasmine Schoellkopf (Niagara Falls, N. Y.), daughter of President Paul Arthur Schoellkopf of Niagara Falls Power Co.

Miss Bertha Potter Palmer (Chicago), daughter of Capitalist Potter Palmer (a generation removed from the famed Palmer House hotel founded by his father Potter Palmer).

Miss Edith Curtis Martin (Wyncote, Pa.), stepgranddaughter of Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis.

No unmarried woman from the U. S. Far West was presented, but for the State of Washington curtsied Mrs. Clarence C. Dill, wife of the Senator who is an Odd Fellow, Mason, Moose, Elk.

The former Mrs. Helen Wilson (Scottish), who married last year the Sultan of Johore, appeared at Court last week as a Sultana, gorgeous in a rose-pink gown of jervisa Bengale. Her throat was in a diamond collar, her head proudly supporting the fabulous tiara of Johore, studded with diamonds the size of pigeon-eggs. Beside her paced her Sultan, also ablaze with jewels, laced into a blue uniform with great loops of gold.

*Appendicitis so super-acute is known professionally as perityphlitis.

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