WOMAN’S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 September 1922, Page 10

WOMAN’S WORLD.

A BRILLIANT SCENE. KING AND QUEEN WITH GUESTS. AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE. At the first of three Juno Courts held by the King and Queen at Buckingham Palace some eight hundred guests were present, including the greater part of the Diplomatic Corps and the Ministerial and official sections of society were largely represented. Tiie proportion of debutantes, young girls just entering society and paying their homage to Royalty, was relatively small, though the actual number of presentations made was high. The revival of plumes, veils and trains restored the ceremony to its pre-war magnificence, and the splendour of the different uniforms, naval, military and diplomatic, relieved here and there by the sober black of plain levee dress, completed a brilliant pageant. Crowds lined the Mall, and a myraid curious eyes gazed in through the windows at feather-adorned debutantes and their tiara-bedizened mothers inside the lined-up motor cars. This was perhaps a little disconcerting to some of the more nervous and self-conscious among the waiting ladies. The spectators near the palace itself were massed in serried ranks. • If already she had some feelings of a certain Cinderellaishness in a stately progress up the Mall, when she finally set foot in the palace and realised that the Court had actually begun, the debutante was sure that the whole thing was a fairy story, a scene out of an exquisitely staged play, in which she was enacting a noble part. LIKE FAIRYLAND. White and gold walled rooms, brilliant lights and crimson carpets were a wonderful background for glittering uniforms and lovely frocks. The Gen-tlemen-at-Arms on duty outside each door were magnificent to behold. Having passed them, feathered ladies and their escorts filed, in stately procession, into the various ante-rooms to wait until their turn should come to pass before the King and Queen. Lines upon lines of nodding feathers fluttered and swayed as their wearers, seated in decorous rows on either side the room, chattered excitedly to their friends. ‘ How long will it be before we go in?” “Won’t they send in the rows on the other side first ?” “The Corps Diplomatique hasn’t gone through yet. ’ Adventurous ladies daring to stand up to see how far the front row had progressed towards the door leading to the Throne room, were ordered by a stately but determined gold-laced usher to sit down. Eventually the lines ahead filed slowly out of the ante-room. The debutante, with a last look at her feathers in a passing mirrow, having narrowly escaped catching her veil on several passing epaulettes, found herself, nervous and excited, outside the Throne room. Someone arranges her train. Her card is taken, her name shouted out by the Lord Chamberlain.

BEFORE. THE QUEEN. Still feeling that she is acting her part in the great scene of a play, she advances, be it admitted, considerably frightened, to make her curtseys. The charmingly gracious way in which the Queen, she inagines, smiles on her as she passes the royal circle makes her forget her alarm, and she goes on into the ante-room beyond the presence feeling that the Court has been infinitely more wonderful than she anticipated. The attendance of this the first Court of the season—indeed, the first Court for two years— was a record in brilliance and distinction. The Corps Diplomatique was a wonderful array of uniforms—one or two jewelled turbans passed by in the procession of Ministers and Ambassadors —was present in full strength. Everyone who attended the Court realised that it will be memorable for almost unprecedented brilliance. All the State apartments of the palace were opened for the Court. The presentation took p)lace in the ballroom, the largest apartment in the building, which for such occasions as this becomes in effect the Throne Room. Windows giving on to portacos and balconies were thrown wide, and awnings were erected over the balconies so that guests could retire to the open wiien their presence in /the ball-room was not required. The ball supper-room, the state dining room and other apartments were provided with buffet supper tables. THE QUEEN’S DRESS. The King wore the uniform of Colonel-in-Chief of the Ist Life Guards with the ribbon of the Garter across his breast, and the stars of the Garter and Bath. The Queen’s dress was of pale blue and gold boire brocade in mediaeval style. The train was of blue and gold, with a -border of blue galon, upon which were embroidered lotus Howers. She wore a diamond crown, and her principal ornaments in addition were diamonds also. The Queen, like the King, wore the Order of the Garter across her breast. Princess Mary and Lady Mary Cambridge were among the most striking figures in the royal group. There was no formal royal supper, but the King and Queen took refreshments with their guests, anil at the conclusion of a brilliantly successful function returned in procession to their own apartments. JAPANESE PRIMA DONNA. HUSBAND OBJECTS TO TOUR. A PLATONIC FRIENDSHIP. London, July 31. Discord replaces harmony in the life of Madame Miura. Japan's leading prima donna, who will sail on August 2 for • America under contract to appear with the Chicago Opera Company, and in Now York with the Metropolitan Grand Opera Company. Her husband, Dr.

Miura, attempted to prevent the issue of a. passport, and is appealing to the authorities to retain his wife in Japan. What the Japanese Press explains as “an alleged too close intimacy” between the songstress and Signor Franchetti, on Italian accompanist, is allege! by her husband as a reason for requesting the refusal of a passport. At the same time he is urging the authorities to administer “a moral admonition” to his wife.

Madame Miura not only refuses to cancel her passage by the Tenyo Maru with Signor Franchetti. but also refuses to permit her husband to accompany her to America.

A family council in Tokio of the Miura clan, which lasted for several days, arrived at a compromise, based on the view that artists could not be judged by ordinary standards and that platonic affairs must be expected. Therefore, Madame Miura and Signor Franchetti will sail together for Honolulu,' where they will separate, the former going to Chicago and the latter to New York. A friend of the'family wil 1 accompany them to see that the compromise is carried out. “Such is life when you are married to an artist!” Dr. Miura is quoted as saying after the family council broke up, Madame Miura has just finished a triumphant tour of Japan. The Japanese Press is ringing with the details of the affair. NINE TIMES MARRIED. TWICE TO THE SAME HUSBAND. One of the unfortunate husbands of a. woman who has been nine times married and who has seven husbands hv- | ing. is appealing at Mumfordville, Ken--1 tucky, for the annulment of his marriage—the second to her. I She lias a passion for getting married, i and the poor man can congratulate himI self on the doubtful compliment of bei ing only one of her nusbands to whom | she has returned—no doubt because he j was the only one who called upon the ! law’s assistance to end his association with her. Some time after he had divorced hit they met, and she suggested that they should re-unite. Under the impression that the husband she had since married was dead, he agreed, anti the ceremony was duly performed. Actually, however, in the meantime • she had married four other men. all of whom are still living. One of these is i alleged to be her own mother's h’-Uand.