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Show THE LONDON JOHNNIES. tfoos of Britlsli Xobleincn Shock PolIU Sfr cioty by Tliclr Golnss On. Polite society la London has had an other severe shock in the announcement that one of the most eligible young men In the matrimonial market has engag2 himself to a pert young person playing a second rate part at thoGaie7 theator. The gentleman is Majoribanks, the eldest eld-est son of Lord Tweedmontb, one of the wealthiest of peers, and tho lady is Miss Birdie Sutbpriand, better known per haps as the sister of Lily Harold, the oomedienne and singer of plantation ngs, at present gracing the Drury Lane pantomime. Nobody has ventursiJ to suggest that these two young women nro not as gooa and virtuous as they are undeniably pretty, and it is a fact that they reside in a genteel suburb with fchoir widowed mother and frequentlj take part in local church charity con certs, but all that, with additional proof of severe respectability afforded by the fact that their father was a clerk in th Bank of England, is scarcely sufficiem to justify their ambition to contract an alliance with a family the head of which is a member" of tHo British cabi-not. cabi-not. Lord Tweedmouth asked newspapei men in tho commons lobby tocontradioi tho report of his son's engagement, from which it may bo assumed that he succeeded in arranging mattera But it would not be at all surprising if the match would be ratified after alL ?oung Majoribanks, who is familiarly known to tho habitues of tho Gaiety theater as "the Skipper, " celebrated his majority the other day. This infatuation is probably the result of tho latest fad among the London Johnnies, who indulge in exciting ri alry to Ecoro the highest possible number num-ber of attendances in the front row of tho 6talls whore tho most popular entertainment enter-tainment is given. There is declared to bo tho finest aggregation of female loveliness love-liness just now in "The Shopgirl" on the Gaiety theater stage that was ever achieved in London. The same individuals individ-uals fill the front stalls night after night They are either very young or very old, but the young ones predominate. predomi-nate. The Sun reporter in the lobby the other evening heard young Majoribanks boast to another sprig of nobility that it was his sixtv-second attendance. Tho other appeaivd quite crestfallen. He said it was only hiB forty-fifth. Lon-ion Lon-ion Cor. New York Sun. |