Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-12-28
HAPPIES'T WOMAN
IN THE WORLD
Mrs. Joey" Chamberlain Give IL
This Honor, Though Her
Duties Are Heavy.

been discovered at last.
She is the wife of AN aged and hopeless
invalid.
Perhaps there are other "%happiest won-
en- in the world for theirs IS a superla-
tive that can be plural, If less often and
less numerously than the reverse of the
shield which shows so many as the UNI
happiest women in the world.
But this woman believes she is happier
than all others OF her sex under condi-
tions that have repeatedly hurled wives
into tins depths of despair. She has seen
Il great career close in utter eclipse in
spite of all she could do to preserve it;
she has been for years simply the nurse
and caretaker OF the man she married in
his brilliant prime; she herself has van
fshed from the worlds stage, on which she
is fitted to shine as a splendid figure.
But her happiness remains unmarried.
and she has found heart and tine to do
her needed part In f%ashioning the son of
TIL. man she loves into a leader who may,
in HIS maturity, rival the greatness OF his
father.
American she is, the daughter of an
American who held high place III the
councils of this nation, while the men she
cares for was looked upon. for years. as
perhaps the leading statesman of Great
Britain. She is Mrs. Joseph Chamberlain,
who was Mary Endicott, the lovely
daughter Of President Cleveland's secre-
tary of war, William c. Endicott.
Politics forgets quickly, like society.
The hopelessness OF Joe ChambeI
ness Of Joe Chamberlain's case 1nce con-
leaders. new interests swept across
the stage of empire. and the in
valid was left to the quas.-oblivion which
Details Il famous man who has at last
dropped out OF the running. With him in
the dim retirement went his wife; and,
barring some occasional references as to
what Chamberlain might have done in
some emergency. the name has gradually
been %relegated to the limbo of the past,
except where Austen Chamberlain, as he
rose from civil lord of the admiralty to
financial secretary OF the treasury, post
master general and chancellor of the ex-
cileas:.-. lent 1t IL new generations promi-
aenca.
NcveS has the utter quiet of so complete
a retirement, which has lasted now FIVE
Years, been so beautifully broken as it has
been by the brief words of Mrs. Chamber
lain, quoted with friendly indiscretion by
the acquaintance to whom she said them.
"1?" she remarked. why, 1 am tn.
happiest woman in the world"
Her friend could believe it better than
understand it: she thought the martyrs
sense OF duty done must be at the bottom
of the Wife's content.
No was the quiet, assured reply. .It
is because I happened to meet the one
man in the world who matters to me-"
Joe Observation-Disclosures joe
they called him.. because he had made his
fortune in birmingham, where he was fire.
! luently mayor-had risen TO high place in
British politics by 1857. when he came to
the United States to go over the Canadian
fisheries dispute. At a ball IN Washington
he met the daughter of the secretary of
war. The attraction was mutual and in
slant, for she was g woman of intense
personal charm. and one qualified by in
tellect to seize and hold the attention of
IL statesman. They sat out the rest OF
tho evening together.
Chamberlain was a widower. but with
no special reluctance to marrying again.
at least, not after that frs, evening he
had enjoyed with the fair Puritan from
Salem. When he met her at an informal
luncheon, he s~traightway took the seat
next to her, and it was apparent that the
man who had become one of Gladstone's
cabinet within four years of his election
10 parliament was more than passingly
, Interested in the girl he had met while
on a mission to a foreign country brist-
ling with points of quarrel.
Their engagement was announced, and
Two weeks later they were married. BIC
made "a concession to her on their wedding
day that was significant of his affection.
He is the most devoted lover OF orchids In
Europe, and ar orchid invariably decor
ated his lapel. But for his w~edding-they
say it was the only time in his life afte,
/ he was old enough, to have a lapel-hr
wore white v%iolcts. her favorite flower.
An Able Lieutenant.
AS the years went by and larger power
came into MI. Chamberlain's hands, his
wife entered always more intimately into
his work. an able lieutenant, an indis-
pensable helpineet. even to the counsel she
gave his son, Austen.
In the early summeI of 1896 rumors
spread that Joe Chamberlain, the famous
~unionist leader. was no longer himself
Seventy years DID. friends and foes alike
were willing to concede TO him the in
firmitics of age. but no one suspected that
he was on the velg of complete collapse
I His wife, with a loving woman's devotion
1 had long accustomed England to her pres.
cnoe by his side when he went about his
public labors, and she had so propped ant
aided the failing energies of her hero tina,
few comprchended how near to collaps.
| he was.
But paralysis overlook him so complete.
ly, with deafness and other AFFECTIONS
that 1T was out Of the question for him t,
strive any. longer. Joe Chamberlain re.
tired from the field OF politics, and his
/ wife disappeared from all public view.
a tha when he went abroad in ques,
of health she was ever with him-compan-
ion, guide friend, nurse, faithful and cher
ishing wife.
And love has made her feel that this OK
| iStence, at his side. Is for her the life o1
the happiest woman in the world.