South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-01-07

mother and sister to call on mine. and he
gave box party one night, that his
parents might hear me sing. Unthinking-
ly l wore my engagement ring. The elder
Mr.. Wheeler seeing it, said: Bert, it APP
pears Miss Carlstedt is engaged, and it
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 Carlstedt, 1 am willing you shoulG
marry my son. l believe you would make
him a good wife. But ! feel that it is I6y
duty to warn you. He is a faddist. He
won't stick"
In the confidence of youth 1 answered:
90, Mr.. Wheeler! You don't know yodr
SON."
The smile with which the elder Mr..
Wheeler greeted this speech was proph-
ecy. had 1 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 WheeleTs, in March, following the
Nay in which we met.
Mamma Wheeler at once took me under
her wing. 1t was an ample wing, she
weighing $50 pounds. But l accommodated
my proportions happily to it. for she was
u
man whom l called my Angel from
Heaven"
Mamma Wheeler wanted me to become
domestic. / was more than willing She
wished us to be installed at once in
home. She said: Unless you have the
common interest Of a home, you will not
be as close to each other as a husband
and wife should" l agreed. The day after
our wedding We went house hunting. We
decided upon a furnished fat somewhere
in the Eighties. Mother Wheeler bought
a whole mountain of table linen, and l
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 a hotel There II was
that the campaign of criticism began. !
was identified in many minds with the
song: 90, 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 stIike
up the strains of 60 Love Divine"
This annoyed Mamma Wheeler. She
would say: 90. Claudia, am so sorry you
were an actress. People look al you so.
Please come into the dining room through
the piazza window
When we came back 10 town Mamma
Wheeler's complaints grew louder. She
said: Il hate to go 10 Sherry's with Bert
and his wife. Claudia is so conspicuous"
At the opera she complained that people
stared at US because was conspicuous.
Ny education in domesticity continued.
Mamma Wheeler taught me to darn table
linen. Being a Pennsylvania Dutch woman,
she was frugal. When Albert and | bought
a country place. Fairfield, in Connecticut,
just across the line from New York, We had
fourteen servants, bat I hemmed and ar
ranged all the curtains for our huge house.
Three hundred yards Of silk | 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 / even mounted the
scaffolding and painted panels.
Why? Because the shadow that lies
upon so many multimilliOnaires' homes had
already fallen upon mine. the shadow Of
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