El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-05-07

mother and sister to call on mine, and he
gave box party one night, that his
parents might hear me sing. Unthinking-
" wore my engagement ring. The elder
Mr.. Wheeler seeing Il said: Bert, It ap-
pears Miss Carlstedt Is engaged, and Il
wouldn't be hard TO guess to whom" That
ring revealed the secret We were on the
verge Of disclosing.
1 was playing the next week in Scranton.
The elder Mr.. Gallatin came over to see
me. He said:
Miss Carlstedt, am willing you should
marry my son. believe you would make
him good wife. But feel that It is ny
duty TO warn you. He is a faddist. He
won't stick"
In the confidence Of youth I answered:
20. Mr.. Wheeler! You don't know your
SON"
The smile with which the elder Mr..
Wheeler greeted this speech was proph-
ecy, had I but known.
Ny parents went back to Chicago for
a few weeks. Thus the actual obstacle to
our marriage was removed, and the mar
rage took place in the apartments Of the
elder Wheelers, in March, following the
Nay in which We met
Mamma Wheeler at once took me under
her wing. It was an ample wing, she
weighing $50 pounds. But accommodated
my proportions happily to 1t, for she was
the mother Of my adored bridegroom, the
man whom I called my Angel from
Heaven"
Mamma Wheeler wanted me to become
domestic. I 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 a husband
and wife should" ! agreed. The day after
our wedding we went house hunting. We
decided upon furnished fat somewhere
in the Eighties. Mother Wheeler bought
a 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 a hotel There It was
that the campaign Of criticism began I
was identified in many minds with the
song: 20, Love Divine" which Mr.. Her
bert had written for me. When I 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: 20, Claudia, am so soTry you
were an actress. People look at you 50.
Please come into the dining room through
the piazza window"
When we came back to town Mamma
Wheeler's complaints grew louder. She
said: 4 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 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, but hemmed and ar
ranged all the curtains for our huge house.
Three hundred yards Of silk I 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 Yerdigris tinted ones by ap-
plying mixtures. l even mounted the
scaffolding and painted panels.
Why? Because the shadow that lies
upon so many multi-millionaires' homes had
already fallen upon mine, the shadow Of
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