The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current, August 22, 1920, Magazine Section, Page 3, Image 77

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    3,
QUEEN MARIE'S FANTASIE TAKES PARIS BY STORM
Fairy Tale She Wrdte for Her Little Boy, Now Dead, Is Given
to the Children of the Wor1d at Height of Summer Season
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, AUGUST 22, 1920
patronesses of the production which
had brought them there.
That the literary mantle of "Car
men Sylva," the late Queen Elizabeth
of Rumania, had fallen upon the
shoulders of her niece. Queen, Marie,
had not been generally known. It vaa
therefore a double pleasure to the
audience at the grand opera to be
stow Its tribute of applause when It
discovered that her production so
richly deserved it.
"The Lily of Life" was originally
Just a beautiful fairy tale written by
Queen Marie for her youngest child,
a little boy who died during; the war.
She had written fairy stories for each
of her children, as they successively
grew old enough to understand them.
But because of the sad memories re
called by the tale which she had
written lor her darling son. she chose
this as the most appropriate for
dramatization.
It is the story of a princess who
goes In search of a flower the lily of
life which, she has learned, is the
only thing that can save the dying
prince of her heart from the cruel
fate which has been wished upon him.
Alas, for the poor princess! The
place where this precious lily Is
guarded is almost inaccessible even to
those who are close to it. But to the
princess it is beset with a hundred
other obstacles. During the long '
Journey which she has undertaken to
reach the flower she encounters many
charming allurements, each of which
makes a tremendous effort to cause
her to swerve from her purpose and
detain her until it shall be too late.
There are the Sirens with their
wondrously sweet, enchanting voices.
The princess almost forgets, and is
about to turn and yield to the in
vitation to sit herself down and listen
to their song. But. like Christian in
"Pilgrim's Progress," she buckles on
tighter the. armor of her resolution
and presses forward toward the goal,
where she is to find the saving plant
for her beloved prince.
. Then she comes to a sea and again
she finds herself confronted with an
enticing Invitation to accompany the
queen of the mermaids to her castle
of msrvels beneath the waves. The
day is hot and the way has been long
and fatiguing, and the water looks,
oh! so cool and refreshing. Almost
the tired, footsore princess loses sight
of the quest she is after. But only for
second does she waver. Then up she
prings and goes on and on, hurrying
away out of earshot of the tempting
pleas which the mermaid queen and
her beauteous princesses are so tune
fully sending after her.
And now an ogre comes upon the
scene and nearly the princess is scared
nto turning back. But a kind fairy
comes to her aid and the hideous mon
ster plunges into a deep crater which
has torn into the earth with his
own rage-lmpenea claws ana disap
pears.
Cave gnomes, elfin and forest
sprites also cross the path of the
princess, each seeking by some new
device to wean her from her deter
mined course. In vain! Now and then
they may cause ier to falter for an
nstant, but the picture of the suffer
ngs of the prince who is bo dear to
her heart impels her ever forward,
onward, upward.
Once she falls in with fairies of the
field and asks them, as she has asked
so many others, to tell her where the
wondrous flower Is with its healing
properties.
Not all of these fairies are friendly.
Some, bribed by the malignant spirit
which had caused the prince's illness. .
try to misdirect the princess. In the
end, however, she learns the truth and
finds the coveted lily of life. And thus
the life of her Prince Charming is
saved. Nor is it superfluous to add
that, as happens in all fairy tales,
they are "happy ever after." for the
inevitable marriage in this instance is
one of the most superb and spectacu
lar pageants of the play and the Rou
manian queen's beautiful and poetic
fairy fantasy ends in an actual "blaze
of glory."
Loie Fuller, the famed creator and
exponent of the "flame ' dance of a
decade ago. Is the one to whom credit
is due for the successful presentation
of the play. She was the almost con
stant companion and one of the most
Intimate confidants of Queen Marie
during the trying peripd when the
German and Bulgarian armies devas
tated Rou mania.
She told me that the good queen.
who, as everybody knows, is a grand
daughter of the late Queen Victoria, is
busy all the time thinking of ways to
aid the sufferers of the war-ruined
country over which her husband
reigns.
"I suggested," said Miss Fuller,
"that a play fantasy built up out of
one of the fairy tales which she had
written for her children might bring
rich returns for her country's muti
lated and destitute ex-defenders and
their families. She immediately went
to work on it and this is the result."
What Miss Fuller referred to as
"this" was the amazing success which
crowned "The Lily of Life." Miss
Fuller has established a dancinsj
school In Paris and it is her own
pupils who constitute the cast of
characters of "The Lily of Life." Such
exquisite dancing and singing have
rarely been seen and heard as ac
company this play from beginning to
end.
The stage decorations and lighting
effects, too, merit a more than pass
ing remark! for they conjure up before
the astonished eyes of the spectators
so marvelous an illusion that one
could easily forget life's actualities
and deem himself a wayfarer in a real
fairyland.
And as for the music! Well, it re
quires but little winged imagination
to guess at its quality when one
knows that its composers were De
bussy, Moussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsa-koff,
Grieg and Mendelssohn.
Permission to use the National
opera house is seldom and only re
luctantly granted. But for the pres
entation of Queen Marie's production
this permission was gladly accorded
by the minister of fine arts and the
National Society of Fine Arts.
"The Lily of Life" Is to be pre
sented in London in a short time and
it is expected it will come to the
United States in the autumn. Whether
Queen Marie will come with it is prob
lematical. She had designed to pay
this country a visit, but It may be
postponed for a more auspicious occasion.
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''4i(Cf4l y0 ' ' "l-Tfce LlIyBIfeftnarte tantaale, la the story of a princess who gwi fort 9
wt 'W-4itf''iT '"''w ' '-O'V ia inrck ( i flower cure ktr t1 prlace ud tke tlMtaclei (he eneouten. j
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B-J 'Vl .iJlv J' J' W If ih$ 7Si ' Jl - tk Mermld who try to Inre tte princes, from ke. ae.t.
ii i- B I I Qnren Marie and Iter equally benutal vV - I i
fv.iC.lK I l course, she Is seldom out In the even-. , ,fJJt" -' Vvt4 "- ' i" v
vdl 12 irg However, this was a fairy play, , l Vtf XtV,' ' i '"J,?-.
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From st gUmt sea shell lovely aMnrements beckon the princess to revt from
hex heavy Journey.
BT CONSTANCE DREXEL.
A QUEEN in Paris! Under any
circumstances, at any time, the
presence " of any queen would
send, a thrill down the boulevards,
once more brilliant with gay thron-gs
whose vivacity even he most bit
ter struggle of the ages has failed
to kill. And when that queen is
the beloved Marie of Roumania
and when she comes to be present
at a play which she herself has
written, and when that play is staged
by special arrangement in the Grand
Opera house before an audience of
world-famous personages, and when
the play Itself is a sublime, pathetic,
heartgripping panorama of transcend- 1
ent beauty, is it any wonder that
Paris momentarily forgets even the
races at the height of the season?
Even demonstrative -Pari3 can hard
ly do justice to such an occasion.
Karely, if ever indeed, has that old
Grand Opera house been thronged
with so brilliant an audience as that
which gathered there the night of
June 30 to witness "The Lily of Life."
a fairy fantasle, written by Queen
Marie and presented for the benefit
of the war sufferers of her Rumania.
There were in that audience nearly
all the great functionaries of France
and the ambasbiors and other en
voys from most of the countries of
the world with their wives and en
tourages, and dukes and duchesses,
generals, prelates and dignitaries of
state and army.
And, in drab, soul-stirring contrast
to all these, to all the glitter and
grandeur and wealth of costume and
jewelry, there were -present also. In
deference to the express wishes -of the
queen and occupying the first two
rows In the parterre, wounded French
veterans of the war.
Queen Marie herself, of course, was
tho cynosure of all eyes ere the first
curtain rose. She Is an extraordin
arily beautiful woman, statuesque and
majestic in figure, but with the gold
' en hair and pink and white complex-
Jon and blue eyes of the fairy queens
of childish Imagination. She takes
extreme care of her appearance, not
only because of her own inherent love
of art and beauty, but because she
feels that in this way she best helps
represent her people before the civil
ized world.
Cn that gala evening, her wavy,
golden hair was coifed low, with pearl
and diamond earings gleaming be
low. She wore a diamond tiara and
her wonderful 'ropes of pearls. But
the Jewels were hardly more dazzling
than her beautiful teeth as she smiled
and bowed acknowledgments to the
acclaim of the audience.
She was very wise In choosing what
looked, like a simple gown of white,
shimmering material, with some lace
in the low corsage, for the personal
beauty of her majesty and her well
chosen jowels stood out the more re
splendently. Her two older daughters were also
dressed in light evening gowns trim
med in tulle and flowers, but, oh.
what a joy for little Princess Ileana
to be there with her grown-up sisters!
The little eight-year-old princess is
j the favorite of the queen, since the
loss of her youngest baby. And the
queen adores having little Princess
Ileana always by her side, but, of
course, she Is seldom out In the even-
ing-. However, this was a fairy play,
so small wonder that she had per
suaded her mother to allow her to be
present.
Close by her mother's side, In strik
ing contrast to the fair queen, the
sparkling, dark-eyed little daughter
held attention. She had on a child
ishly cut frock In straight lines, but
it was of some rich, shimmering ma
terial, befitting a royal little princess.
Her straight black hair is worn
Dutch cut, with a straight bang over
htr wide dark eyes. Frequently tb
queen would draw the child even
closer to her and press a kiss to her
cheek.
Over there, in the box almost di
rectly opposite the one wherein sits
the royal party, with the Illustrious
General Petain doing them the hon
ors in behalf of the nation, who is
tlfat sweet-faced, sad-looking woman,
whose tears flow unashamed during
the progress of the wonderful play;
who weeps in sympathy for the hero
ine because the latter's trials, al
though altogether different from
those of the heroes of the war, never
theless recall to her the spirit of
sacrifice which had cost such heca
tombs of victims and left so many
orphans in her beloved France? It is
Madame la Marechale Foch, wife of
the great man who led the armies of
Streni vrltb. enchanting; volcea would delay the searcher.
the allies to victory. Daily she has
visited her countless charges, so dear
to her heart, in orphanages and other
establishments in which she has in
terested herself.
Three days before, on the presi
dential stand at the Orand Prix,
Queen Marie had spent nearly all the
time when the horses were not
actually running talking animatedly
with Marshal Foch, she as well as he
obviously deeply absorbed In the sub
jects they were discussing. A white
frock of broad bands of lace and
georgette crepe she had chosen as a
costume most appropriate for the
brilliant summer afternoon. Her .hat
was algo of white, with four large
pink roses posed on the wide brim,
the whole covered with white lace.
She carried a parasol the color of the
roses, and, of course, wore her won
derful rope of pearls and pearl ear
rings. The two older princesses, both of
them over 20, were appropriately
dressed. Princess Elizabeth, who
looks very much like her mother, was
in white, with a white cape trimmed
with fur over her shoulders and a
small toque of robin's egg blue
trimmed with spreading feathers of
the same shade. Princess Marie wore
a green silk dress and black tulle
hat.
Only public duty kept the marshal
himself from the play on that mem
orable night.
The queen nods and smiles pleas
antly at Madame la Marechale. as she
does also toward others whom she
recognizes in that vast audience in
the opera house. Conspicuous among
l these are the British ambassador and
Lady Derby, the Dowager Duches
Rohan, the Due de Talleyrand and hi
duchess, who was Anna Gould; the
Grand Duke Dimitri. who escaped th
cruel fate of so many others of hi
imperial house, and the Duchesse d
Vendome. sister of the king of th
Belgians, one of the long list of titled
METEOR A MINUTE MAY FALL
SOME-NIGHTS IN AUGUST
Earth's Fireworks Believed to Be Caused by Tail of Long-ago Comet
Appearing in Early Evening.
(Prof. Eric P. Doolittle In Kansas City which the stones of this shower came
Star.)
DURING thj second week In 'Au
gust we have the nights of the
August shooting stars, or Per
seids, so called because these little
bodies dart outward In every direction
from a radiating point in the constel
lation Perseus, in the position S of the
accompanying star map. Unfortu
nately this constellation is below the
pole and very near the northeastern
horizon in the early evening, but by
midnight it has risen much higher in
the sky, so that from midnight until
dawn is the best time to watch this
interesting display.
The number of shooting stars soon
will average about one each minute,
or even more. Each one is merely a
little cold particle or meteorite with
which the earth collides, each particle
being burned up and so rendered lu
minous by friction as it plows through
our air. The great stream of millions
of little particles stretches around the
sun in the exact path of the bright
comet of 1862, and it is highly prob
able that the stream is merely the re
mains of the comet which has been
stretched out along Its orbit by -the
tidal action of the svfn. . ,
The particles of this stream are
very much scattered; it is even possi
ble that a very numerous shower of
small meteoric stones which fell to
the ground on July 19, 1912, were a
part of the Perseld swarm, though
from the absence of reliable observa
tions made upon the direction from
this is by no means certain.
There is at least one place on the
earth where there is definite evidence
that a great projectile or, more prob
ably, a compact swarm of meteoric
stones struck us at one time with a
very high velocity. This remarkable
structure is known as "Meteor Crater."
It is in northwestern Arizona, about
ten miles from the Canyon Diablo sta
tion. Here there is a great round hole
in the earth about 4000 feet in diam
eter, and the depth of which from the
rim to the nearly level floor Is about
570 feet.
When this great depression was
made the terrific force of the collision
pulverized and even melted many tons
of rock and also threw fragments to
great distances. It also raised the rim
around the hole, named by early ex
plorers Coon mountain or Coon butte.
The whole region for many miles In
every direction nas now been very
carefully surveyed and explored and
deep drillings have been made in the
floor of the crater, partly in the hope
of finding the great Iron masses of
the original meteorite itself. To" date
the latter search has, however, been
unsuccessful.
The ejected material Maries from
very finely pulverized stone, ;which
seems to have welled out of the crater
like flour out of a barrel," to great
masses weighing 4000 tons and more.
Pieces weighing from 50 to 700 pounds
were thrown a distance of two miles
away, but the largest fragments are
found, as might have been expected,
nearer .the crater rim. The total
weight of the rock ejected from the
crater has been estimated as 200,000,-
' 000 tons, but this estimate is probably
too low. There can be no doubt that
enormous quantities of the rock flour
were blown to great distances by the
wind tvhen the collision took place.
On an "Air Cushion."
Scattered over the plains to a dis
tance of six and one-half miles from
the crater there are .also found great
numbers of iron meteorites, appar
ently outriding members of the great
swarm which hit the earth. It la be
lieved that when the compact, central
cjoud reached us a cushion of hot air
was pushed almost as a solid mass
before it and that this cushion was
mainly effective' in making the crater.
The tremendous outrush of air around
the edges of the crater after the ac
tual collision took place would have
carried, not only the rocks of the
earth, but also the outer meteorites,
to great distances from the scene of
thf collision.
Altogether this Is one of the most
remarkable and interesting features
of the whole earth. The colliding
body may be regarded as a compact
meteor swarm or as a comet, "but in
the latter case we must suppose that
the comet was a very small one.
WALK LIGHTLY IF RED LAMP
IS IN ROOM TO ESCAPE ANGER
If Girl Wears Magenta Dress and Yon Like Her Go Ahead If Her
Eyes Are Blue Don't Tell Too Much Blue Shows Intuition.
WALK Hghtl
If there J
room red
Development Body Enters Politics.
HELENA. Mont. Directors of the
Montana Development association
have called a meeting in Helena,
August 2, to be attended also by
county and district chairmen, to de
termine what, if any, part is to be
taken by the association in the pri
mary campaign. The primaries will
be August 24. The association wa
originally composed of merchants but
now Includes persons in other indus
tries. It is avowedly In politics "to
elect the best man."
ALK lightly and talk cautiously
s a red lamp In the
room red begets anger.
If the we you are going to marry
has green eyes you may take their
sea green color as a safety signal
and go ahead' green denotes humil
ity. If, however, the eyes are blue,
don't tell too much blue shows In
tuition. If a girl wears a magenta dress
and you care for her. go ahead! All
you have to do Is to go out andv buy
the wedding ring.
- These theories of color characteris
tics and mystic powers were- ex
plained by Dr. DInshah B. Ghadiall
in a lecture on spectrochromic ther
apy delivered before the recent con
vention of the Allied Medical associa
tions held in New Yerk city.
. Dr. Ghadiall discussed the Impor
tance of colors in the treatment of
disease, and said that a mistake had
been made in stating that the pri
mary colors were red, blue and yel
low. He maintained that violet, in
stead of blue, was the third color,
for without violet it was impossible
to make white.
Dr. Ghadialr- in advocating the
treatment of disease by the use of
color waves said:
"Ninety-seven per cent of the hu
man body is built of hydrogen, oxy
gen, carbon and nitiogen, and the
body is therefore responsive to color
wave tendencies, ror tno proponaerat
ing color waves of these four ele
ments are red, yellow, green and blue,
respectively.
"In health th bodily colors are
proportionately balanced. Disturb
ance of this color balance by admin
lstering the lacking colors or reduc
ing the increased ones restores
health."
Dr. Ghadiall said that no matter
what afflicts a person, color waves,
if properly applied, will effect a cure
He showed a chart on which th
various colors and their combination
were depicted. Red and green mad
yellow; green and violet made blue
and red and violet prod-ice magenta.
All these colors were shown on
screen with a stereopticon.
On the chart red was marked as rep
resenting .anger; yellow, mentality
green, humility; blue. Intuition; vi
let, spirituality and magjnta, love.
Among the other colors, lemon was
supposed to express pride; orrnge
jealousy; turquoise, dignity; indigo
benevolence and purple, veneration.
In giving an example as to how col
ors affect the body. Dr. Ghadiall eaid
that when people take quinine th
blue waves of the medicine drive out
the fever, thus restoring the colo
balance.
Csecho-Slovak mint Rebuilt.
The mint of the Czecho-Slovak re
public, located at Kromnlce, which
was partly destroyed by the Hunga
rlans, is being reconstructed, remod
eled and re-equipped. New coinin
machines are expected soon and after
being installed the first Czecho-Slo
vak coins will be minted. A recen
product of the mint is a plaquett
with a portrait of President Masaryk,
in honor of his 70th birthday anniver
sary.