The San Francisco call., 1910-01-30
R Social Life Of San Francisco by intelligent Educated
% Woman Who Served for Years In Many Of Our Best Fanes

w OIlldIl w liz
II viii want you to do general house
work and look after my baby when I
have TO be away. I always do the cook
ing myself Then she twinkled her
silver ankles in the air and went back
TO being a fairy until it was time for
her to go home and go to cooking.
BY the time we had reached her
house I understood what my duties
were to be and before I had fully got
my bearings she had changed her dress
and was tripping around quick as light
ming and as springy as a kitten all over
porch, pantry and kitchen at once,
wearing a blue and white checked ging-
ham apron. and cooking beans and ba-
con.
BY the time Mr.. Erickson got home
the baby was awake. and they all three
sat down to dinner together. The din
ing room had a rag carpet on the floor,
and the baby ate off tin waiter. like
the most commonplace people in the
town Mr Erickson was playing leads"
as they called it, in the same company
with his wife, who. by the way, was
only Miss Erickson on the biIlboards.
and between saying "Will you pass me
the bread, my dear?" and "Win you
have more tea, honey7' they were doing
a dying scene diaIogue-gasping out
sighs and choking over baked beans in
the same breath.
Well, nothing is ever what 1t seems
to be when you see it at close range,
guess. In the homes of the everyday
well to do people I had gone through
common melodrame, real tragedy and
light comedy and here in this lit
tie downtown fat, with spangled
fairy and a red handed villain, 1 was
leading the simplest, most wholesome
life in all my experience.
People were sending Mrs. Erickson
flowers-always directed to Miss Nell
lie-and writing her notes the whole
time, beautiful love letters they were,
too, telling her how they were dying
to know her and that she was the most
perfect creature they had ever seen
on the stage, and inviting her to sup
per with them after the theater, and
all sorts of things like that, and she
and her husband would take it all as
a matter of course. just as they took
the bakers and butchers bills. Once
there was a young man who pestered
her so with his love letters and expen-
sive presents she couldn't put him off.
He belonged. and does still. to one of
the best known families here-he lives
at Burlingame now and is fat and bald
headed, but he was dapper enough in
those days, can tell you. One day
after getting box of roses so large
she could hardly get it into her little
parlor Mrs. Erickson came to me and
said, "Norah, listen to me. You are
about my complexion and not so very
much taller. Now 1 will make it worth
while to you if you will dress up in
my clothes tonight and take care of
this young cub for me. I just must
take this evening to change the papers
on those pantry shelves" I said: 'Tll
not do it for anything less than a dol
lar an hour, ma'am."
She didn't tell me what would be ex-
oected of me. nor how much would have
to give and take The fellow was quite
young and thought himself a great
lady killer" and besides he was ter
ribly caught by Mrs. Erickson's "glori-
Gus orbs," as he called them. He must
have been disappointed when he met
the stage beauty at close range, but he
was game enough not to show 1t, and
when I told Mrs. Erickson the next
morning about il all and told her that
she owed me SO OF hard earned money
she agreed that it was well deserved.