ROYAL COURTS 1939

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20728, 11 February 1939, Page 19 (Supplement)

ROYAL COURTS 1939

4000 TO BE PRESENTED RECORD IN LOVELY DEBUTANTES (Times Air Majl Service) LONDON, January 20 Five Courts and a Presentation Party at Buckingham Palace this year. That was the news that, came ticking over the tape-machine last night. It was the official announcement from the Lord Chamberlain's Office, says the Daily Sketch. i Simultaneously set in motion with . the tick of the tape will be the smooth- ; running wheels of scores of dress : houses —the beauty salons—the deportment schools. It is the great grooming process of the year. Four thousand women will have to i learn to curtsy—to dip gracefully, i with back straight and head erect, ; balancing a book to keep it steady. Plump young girls from the country j will come to London's beauty special- | ists to slim. In the morning it will be j massage, exercises, face treatment. A special diet sheet will be worked out for them. 3eauty r s Greatest Ever This year is likely to create a record in lovely debutantes. That will mean a bigger spate of parties. Small informal lunches in exclusive restaurants —heads lurning—who is that? One of the lucky young women will become famous as “the Prettiest Deb.” of 1939. She will be photographed at race-meetings, hunt-balls and cocktail parties. Cosmetic manufacturers will clamour for her custom —it will double their sales. Four thousand women w T ill be allowed to enter the sacred precincts of the Royal Enclosure at Ascot. They will have reached the apex of uie social scale.

But the Courts mean more than mere events of the season. That simple announcement from the Lord Chamberlain’s Office is a tonic worth scores of thousands of pounds to the industries of Britain. Think of the items under Entertaining. Three private dances a night—that is the average for the next eight weeks till the First Court in March. It means scores of dinner-parties—-the caterers will work overtime. More servants will be employed—even the Post Office gets its pull out of invitations and telephone calls. Then there are the dressmakers. Four thousand Court gowns, and add to that 40,000 new ensembles to cope with the incessant round of various functions. That is putting it at a minimum—ten dresses per person—most have 20. Fortune In Shoes It means trade for our fabric manufacturers—furriers and jewellers. Something for South African ostriches to live for. You can go on for ever tracking the repercussions on British industries. I have just thought of shoes —my arithmetic won’t stand up to the strain of working out just how many pairs will be sold —but, as the English foot is a law unto itself, you can be sure 75 per cent, of the 4000 will buy British. Already the dressmakers’ workrooms are packed with gown-hands—addi-tional staff employed to embroider elaborate Court trains. One Court gown can keep four girls busy for three weeks —then it is sold for 150 guineas. But that is not an average price. There will be debutantes -whose parents are squeezing every penny so that it may buy a background for their daughter’s social life. Those girls will be fitted by the little-dressmaker-around-the - corner. It will probably cost them ten guineas and the dressmaker will add “Court.”

“The sedan skidded 114 feet without injury to the lady in it.”—New Westminster British Columbian.— Proving the safety value of the piledup hair-do.

I RAIN | I love the rain, its fingers move ® Gently as the hands of love; U It sets a crown within my hair ® ® The hands of love have not set ® ® there. g 'Jj I love the rain, the way it sings jf; ® Of earth and moss, and stilly ® | things, 1 ® And do I weep for grief or pam, ® ® I share a sorrow with the rain. ® ® I love the rain, its fingers twine ® ® Intimately into mine, ® ® With every kiss upon my skin ® It seems to wash my soul within. ® •§• J 1 love the rain, it does not flee g, ® Because a sorrow walks with me. ® J’ Because I hunger or I thirst, g ® Because of old my dreams were ® ® T love the rain, most swift to g ® bless. ® Most infinite in tenderness — & indeed, in time of greatest ® I drouth, ® The rain has stooped and kissed & ® my mouth. I * —lsabelle Grace. &