The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-12-20

mother and sister to call on mine and he
gave box party one night, that his
parents might hear me sing. minimizing
ly wore my engagement ring. The elder
Mr.. Wheeler seeing it, said: Bert, it ap-
pears Miss Carlstedt is engaged, and 1t
wouldn't be hard to guess to whom" Tnat
ring revealed the secret we were on the
verge of disclosing.
l was playing the next week in Scranton
The elder Mr.. Gallatin came over to see
me- He said:
miss Garlstedt, am willing you should
marry my son.. believe you would make =
him a good wife, But feel that it is 1Dy
duty to warn you. He is faddist. He
won't stick"
In the confidence of youth / answered.:
80, Mr.. Wheeler! You don't know your
son."
The smile with which the elder Mr..
Wheeler greeted this speech was a-proph-
ecy, had l but known.
My parents went back to Chicago for
a few weeks. Thus the actual obstacle to
our marriage was removed, and the mar
riage took place in the apartments of the
elder Wheelers, in March, following the
May in which we met.
Mamma Wheeler at once took me under
her wing 1t was an ample wing, she
weighing $50 pounds. But / accommodated
my proportions happily to it, for she was
the mother of my adored bridegroom, the
man whom l called my Angel from
Heaven"
Mamma Wheeler wanted me to become
domestic. l was more than willing She
wished us to be installed at once in a
home. She said: "Unless you have the
common interest of a home, you will not
be as close to each other as husband
and wife should" l agreed. The day after
our wedding We went house hunting We
decided upon furnished fiat somewhere
in the Eighties. Mother Wheeler bought
whole mountain of table linen, and I
hemmed and embroidered it, That kept
me busy for three months. When Sum-
mer came we went with the elders to
Lake Champlain.
We stopped at hotel There it was
that the campaign of criticism began. l
was identified in many minds with the
song: 20, Love Divine" which Mr. Her.
bert had written for me. When / would
pass through the great hall leading to
the dining room the orchestra would strike
up the strains of 20, Love Divine"
This annoyed Mamma Wheeler. She
would say: 80, Claudia, am so sorry you
were an actress. People look at you so.
Please come into the dining room through
the piazza window"
When we came back to town Mamma
Wheeler's complaints grew louder. She
said: II hate to go to sherry's with Bert
and his wife. Claudia is so conspicuous"
At the opera she complained that people
stared at us because l was conspicuous.
My education in domesticity continued.
Mamma Wheeler taught me to darn table
linen. Being Pennsylvania Dutch woman,
she was frugal. When Albert and bought
country place, Fairfield in Connecticut,
just across the line from New York, we had
fourteen servants, but l hemmed and ar
ranged all the curtains for our huge house.
Three hundred yards Of silk l made into
curtains, and one thousand yards of other
silk for draperies, couch covers and so on.
worked for weeks turning the new satin
finished brass mantels and fixtures into
properly old verdigris tinted ones, by ap-
plying mixtures. l even mounted the
scaffolding and painted panels. -
Why? Because the shadow that lies
upon so many muti-milionaires' homes had
already fallen upon mine, the shadow of
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