HIGH JINKS AT DEAUVILLE

Shannon News, 5 November 1926, Page 3

HIGH JINKS AT DEAUVILLE

THE MYSTERY OF THE "DARK / DOZEN."

Deauville, the dream of a man who transformed it almost in a night from a waste of empty sands on the Normandy coast to a pleasure city without parallel in the world, has opened its Arabian Nights season—the merriest, maddest, most riotously extravagant four weeks to be had anywhere-—with a bang (writes a correspondent). This year the stage is set for a wilder orgy of pleasure and spending than ever.- All the world and his wife, and, the world and somebody else's wife —more often the latter—are here for the fun. There is only one cloud to dull the brilliant season in prospect—there arc not enough men to go round! Three-quarters of the glitter and frivolity are purely of feminine origin. The hotels, are full of pretty girls, but half are escortless. Fever Heat. But it is only the Eves who are worrying; the fortunate Adams are having the time of Iheir lives! Lovely women in superb gownsj wealthy holiday-makers from both I hemispheres, adventuresses, chevaliers of fortune —never has there j been such' a gathering of pleasure hunters and sensation mongers. j And the luxury resort grows fuller every day. Vaster and more expensive motor-cars than ever honk through the streets; dresses are daily growing more extravagant, and there is less of them; the. marvellous casino is ablaze with jewels and colours; anybody and everybody seems to ' have "money to burn." Everything is feverish —the dancing, the gambling, and the flirtations 1 . Everybody seems to bo wanting to forget someone or something. And they don't seem to care much how they do it. The Dark Dozen. \ L,ife is always exciting at Deauville, but an extra thrill is added to \ it this year by the Dark Dozen —J so-called because they look exactly | as though they had stepped from the pages 'of a William le Queux spy story. ' There are five women and seven men; and their appearance and manner would be enough to get them arrested in any that hap- , pened to be at war. Sometimes they j are seen about together; at other j times they will pass each other , without speaking. ] Nobodi- knows anything about , them—-who they are —where they > hail from. They seem to have plenty of money, and the jewels of the women are the envy of the town. That is as much as the curious have been able to discover. Meanwhile, the Dark Dozen are under suspicion. Deauville distrusts mysteries, and they present a problem that is baffling. Gill's £BOO,OOO Gems. , Among other arrivals who have created some stir is a blonde young English girl who usually lives in Paris. When she was dancing in a fashionable restaurant there recently she was said to be wearing £BOO,000 worth of jewels. She is credited with owning one of the longest diamonds in the world. It is nearly an inch long', and she wears it on her right hand. On the little Anger of her left hand giitters another almost three-quarters the size. Round her neck is a marvellous pendant, each stone, the size of a \ large piece of sugar lump. Where the glitter of fashion is most brilliant is the "Best-Dressed Woman." Mrs Nash, whose bathing suits have caused a mild sensation. Peers—and Others. Three English peers are having a holiday minus their wives. And maharajahs, multi-millionaires, wealthy Argentinos, film stars and I actresses—whose acting is chiefly oft the stage!—are as common as mill I hands at Blackpool. The English contingent includes one bishop, a canon, and several judges. Foreign princes and titles are two a penny. In a stroll along the "plage" a few mornings ago I counted at least thirty people with j more or less blue blood in their veins. They seem to be about the only pleasure-makers in the town who are hard-up! The woman friend of one prince a Russian —is so poorly dressed that the "tabbies" are talking about getting up a subscription to buy her a new gown! Chewing Gum.

But outward show is never a safe ' guide to u person's pocket at Deauville./ A shabby little. man with an untidy threadbare suit, who smokes cigars in the ldunge of. one of the smaller hotels all day, can sign a cheque for two million pounds and never miss the money. He is an American oil king of fabulous wealth. There are more Americans hero than ever. In fact, one. can scarcely stir without running up against a I jaw jutting with chewing gum. At the Casino the other evening one husky son of the States actually parked his gum on one of the tables —much to the disgust of the croupier—while he wagered a dol.lar on the red. Life at Deauville is topsy-turvy. There arc more pretty women in i bathing costumes than the wildest i dreams of an American, film producer. Yet riot one in ten ever ' enters the water. That would spoil ,%ie costumes. ' Instead they festo.on the sands j sun-bathing under sunshades! ! In the morning Deauville is a he- ' a-bed city. Scarcely anybody rises ' early and life only really gets into ! its stride after nightfall. Then the I Casino lights flash out like a bea--1 con and the merry gamblers make i for'them like moths. { Gambling is more daring tnan

ever. Fortunes are being lost and won almost every night. The minister of fashion who created the Deauville of , to-day —M. JEugeno Cornuche —has not lived to witness its zenith. During his lifetime he used to walk through the rooms of the Casino as quietly and as humble as though he were the humblest of the w r aiters. Some say he- never enjoyed his toy. At any rate he never enjoyed the pleasures he had crated. "lam tired, too tired," he once declared.