he First Woman M.P. occasion.. "You can't got a no use Jor people with
mee" All prejudice" said Astor on a anything into their minds and what me, she is @ bundle of pre= ices herself; were it otherwise she would love some of her charm.
She dislikes the drink trade and all who have a good word to say for it; she has personal antipathies Which' she would find it diffeult to defend, except on the "Dr. Fell" principle; she h ing talent! for vivid and indiscreet speech and Sometimes of action. But every-shady knows that she has a heart of gold, and loves her even when she annoys. Her oral thumbnail sketches are passed round among her colleagues with a laugh, as for instance her reference to a famous Minister as "having a face like the Meat Trust." From her comer Beat just below the gangway, she can exchange "'back-chat" with the Jabour members with all the gusto and readiness of an east-end factory' girl, and ten minutes later she will be in the lobby in the middle of a group of them continuing the battle to the mutual delight of; both sides, One is tempted. to. think of Sir David Baird's. mathe who, hearing that the British pric) soners in India were being chained in pairs, exclaimed "The Lord pity' the man that's tied to my Davie To live with her must be an exciting experience; it can never be a. dull on country the first woman to when a daughter of that great day for the United)
take her seat in the House of Commons, introduced thereto by persons of no less eminence than Mr. A. J. Balfour (as he then was) and Mr, Lloyd George, A great artist was commissioned to paint thb scene, which he did on a great scale, and the canvas might have been har ing in the Houses of Parliament! today kad the presentation of interesting and' valuable work been Yone in a more tactful way. The Incident was characteristic of her tendency to act or speak first and, think afterwards. I would much! rather have a picture of another; incident, Lady Astor panting along the tow-path at Eton, following her son's boat and on the verge of! exploding because she had had filial injunction that whatever she did she must not shout. From this it will be gathered that she is not merely a: devoted but an enthusiastie mother, and perhaps even a prender moment for her than that which she took her seat was when she brought her eldest boy! on a visit to the House to be duly admired by all beholders. jancy"—for so all call her even to her face—has been maliciously described as "a middle-aged flaper," and there is just enough truth im the jibe to give it point. It applies to her manner rather than her dress, for she adheres to a rich but quiet elegance—a_ black velvet toque, a blue costurie, and a white silk blouse with a rope of pearls [that must be worth a king's ransom. Her political creed, if a bundle of inconsequential impulses can be so described, mainly by a vehement passion for the welfare of the less fortunate [members of her sex, and she probably holds the record for the number of semi-political benevolent organizations of which she is member. She keeps open house in, St. James's Square for the queeryest and most varied collections of social reformers, and when you go there your neighbour may be a Cabinet Minister, a great editor, long-haired devotee of some out-way movement, a rising poli an ardent social reformer, or a shell-backed Tory. Her teetotal principles and practice are not enforced on her guests, and those of them who have the courage' te ask for a whiskey and soda get it without fuss, Like so, many kind-hearted women she is a good hater, as one present occupant of, His Majesty's prison found to his cost. Her sister was the original "Gibson girl," being the wife and the model of the American artist of that name. But she is tall, whereas Lady Astor is of less than average stature. What she lacks in' inches she makes up for in energy and vivacity, which are not the Toast diminished by what a Union-int colleague ungallantly, if vague called her "frumpish psychology: She is a good sort and her indiscretions are dismissed by her} friends as merely "Nancy's ways."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.