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."