London, June 14.
Although there will be no Royalties at Ascot, owing to the mourning for the late King, the meeting promises to be no less brilliant than usual, and the list of wealthy people who have taken' houses. at Ascot. and will be entertaining large parties runs to 2 couple of columns of small type the papers, For iis one week in the year this torpid—dare one say dead-alive? Berkshire town awakes to" superb activity, sharing with the Cowes yachting week the honour of being the most decorative social event in the world, The reign of its foundress Queen Anne is associated with the stateliness and polish of its Mterature, building and furniture. and it would really seem as If those qualities remained entrenched at Ascot against the mechanical utilitarian spirit of the times we live in, Here dress and deportment survive in undiminished importance. Manner, that elsewhere almost forgotten a tribute of true elegance, reasserts its imperious claims, and all the men become Sir Willoughby Patternes and all the women Duchesses of Wrexe.
It is a gorgeous piece of nlay-acting, which must leave the actors and actresses thoroughly exhausted though pleased to have been privileged to. play such a part, As all the profits of Ascot go to making it yet more beautiful and convenient, a great deal has been spent since last year on Improvements. Thousands of tons of earth have been dug to make a reservoir from which the whole course can be watered, and this earth has been applied to raising the lawn nearest the Paddock by 10ft, to meet the complaint that people on the lawn that they could not see the horses till they were nearly at the winning post. Several other minor changes have been made; the old unsaddling boxes have been abolished and the people seem to prefer women as doctors." Another, writing from the Belgian Congo, says that the advanc~ ed tribes come readily to a woman doctor, but not so much the backward: which strikes one as odd; one might have thought that superstition, the mystic figure of "the great white chieftainness" so to speak would count for much among natives. The whole results of the questionnaire are encouraging, vet a little surprising. For I have never yet met a woman who did not plump for a man doctor every time, and sex certainly seems an embargo on women treating men, The Servant Problem At the other end of feminine om-ployment there has been a heavy Fevival of lamentable letters in several papers on the difficulty of obtaining maidservants.
This is largely incidental to the season, We know on ancient authority that there is a "time of year when the kings go out to war" (I Lave: heard that Chinese generals always become pugnacious In the summer) and at that time maids begin to think of seaside hotels, reslaurants and tea shops and' the harvest of tips to be reaped.
The letters, Including a series of articles by the "Morning Post," run fon the old lines, Girls do not like the long hours and continual calls upon them of domestic service; their quarters, except in.big houses which have servants' halls, are cramped; living perpetually in' the kitchen they are never away from the surroundings of their work; they like their evenings free, as everyone does; and there is a social stigma in their own class on being in service. Personally I believe the last factor the most potent of all, obviously the most dimeult to over come. first three horses will be unsaddled in the view of thousands in front A Useful Suggestion of the steps; and for the first time tote is installed in the Royal Enclosure. Even if you wear a 1 guinea gown, you are not above two-shilling bets in the tote. There is always a dearth of florins in the country round Ascot since the tote became a part of the week.
A Royal Entertainment One other royal entertainment may appropriately be" mentioned here, namely, the Royal Richmond Horse Show which finished yesterday. Here, too, dress and deportment are everything, and the competitors salute and treat each other. with the ceremony Jousness of duellists. don't know that women ever figured much as duellists, except perhaps among the Amazons, But they certainly were to the fore at Richmond. More than half the horses entered were put up by women. The women, Countess Orsich and. Mrs. Gulland were first and second th the lasses both for novices and for park backs. Mrs. Edgar Henriques was first in the novice harness ponies competition. Mrs. Gulland, Miss Pamela Partie and Miss Mary Gibson were first, second and third for backs under 15 hands. In the children's competitions the girls thoroughly ested the boys. Finally in the coaching Marathon from Hyde Park to Richmond, Miss Josephine Cole-brook, driving her father's four-in-hand easily repeated her previous triumph at the International Show which I mentioned last week. Even Mr. Bertram Mills of elreus fame could only run second to her.
Question for Ceaseless Discussion.
While the question of careers for women remains one of ceaseless discussion, itis interesting to see that, on the basis of a questionnaire sent out by St. Mary's Hospital, doctoring offers far the best chances for It is I think the oldest of all the more distinguished trades for women, though one must not forget our incomparable women novelists, from Mrs. Radeliff onwards, In "Punch' so far back as the fifties, there were satirical pictures of lady doctors, know a woman who became a doctor the eighties and has done well as a mental specialist. At St, Mary's Hospital, between 1916 and 1924, 255 women qualified as doctors, and over 80 per cent. of them are doing well according to the questionnaire. Halt of them are married; one of them, being. in partnership with her husband, says that at the end of the year' she not infrequently shows better returns than he do says that the fact of her having had three children has increased rather than lessened her practice, as one may well imagine it would if other mothers are among her patients, One woman says that "very old One writer, however, really new and useful Domestic nurses, she points out, ha been organized in several Known institutes, the Norlan cess Christian's, St, Christopher's, ete., and can now regard their calling as a definite profession. Indeed: you con see that in their general bearing, and there is litle dimiculty in getting a good nurse though Heaven Knows "her hours must be much longer and more trying than. those of other domestic helps. If the same organization and—institute-training were applied to cooks and housemaids what might not be the result?
T forget who is the patron saint of cooking, though there 1s one, St, Martha would obviously be "the patroness of a housemaids' institute. But there is no lack of possible patrons. The thing is to invoke their id, attract the maid, and give her title which will enable her t0 toss her. head in the company of mere mill hands and counter-jumpers, On Cooking Carp When the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries comes down into the market-place to tell the citizens how to cook carp, taxpayers may feel that they are getting something for their money. He' is, of course, a dimeult fish to manage, as it is use ess to eat him when small, and a big carp is many years old and his flesh necessarily solid and heavy. Yet we may be pretty sure that the old monks did not regard him as a penitential dish, and having once eaten him in Paris us he should be served I can testify how good he can be. I can see him now, lying fon his majestic chest, with his mouth open, his tall in the alr, surrounded by a'rich brown gravy and decorated with leeks, chestnuts and curls of bacon, "Afterwards we ale pancakes and, like St. Paul's shipwrecked mariners, wished for the day. But it was worth it.
The Ministry insists on one thing after a preliminary soaking for two or three hours in water, the carp must be boiled In beer, White wine is also possible but, fortunately, the advertisements so often tell" us, Beer Is Best. There "are German, polish, Hungarian and Belgian re-cipos," but (since we are long past the" Hang the Kaiser days) "the Ministry plumps for the Germa So flavour the beer when boiling with bay Leaves, lemon, paprika, and cinnamon. Then serve the carp on fried bread garnished with poached carp roe, browned pickled onions, mushrooms, shelled prawns and a plain sauce, Stuffed carp is also excellent, the stuffing being made of chopped onions, bread soaked in milk, the yokes of one or two eggs and herbs. But in this method the fish must be baked.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.