Evening star., 1923-12-09
THE mistress Of home in ru-
raj Mar'-land has been waited
on all her life by IA family of

"HE mistress Of a home in ru-
raj MARYLAND has been waited
on all her life by IA family of
five colored people. who.
themselves, have been Identified ali
their lives with the place and were
presumably descendants of family
slaves. t.r
Owing to deaths and departures o:
various members of the household,
including that of two sons to board
ing school in Washington, the lady
finds no further use for the services
of FIVE helpers, nor can. the family
budget, added to by boarding school
bill. etc, successfully cope with pre-
vious five-fold wages. So she called
a conference. and asked the colored
family to decide among themselves
which were the best three and the
poorest two workers, as, loving them
all, she couldn't bring herself to
make a selection.
Her idea was to keep the poorest
two and let the best three go out
in the world, as more apt to win a
successful living on their own hook.
The conference ended in genuine
tears on the part of all. due to the
approaching separation after life
time of affectionate association,
but
Back came the colored family, with
a joyous settlement of the problem:
All five will stay on for the wages
of two,
IN one motion picture lobby the
other afternoon people were pack
ed like figs, with more people surging
in. And while the crowd waited for
the inside audience to come out and
give It a show, there was jazzy
undercurrent of laughter and grum-
bles and nudges and calculations. ex-
cept at one point, where n couple of
mothers caught the rapt attention
of every live thing wedged six deep
around. And yet there was nothing
novel in their discourse, as every
BODY knoWs-except mothers.
Honest. you may not believe me.
but even the doctor says we will
have to be careful with Ralphie-
brain too big for his body. don't you
know. Just to give you an instance:
The other day he stood on a stool
and put needle in the phonograph
rs good as ] can-and him not seven
years old till June-I cant tell YOU
Same way with my little girl
think of child only four years old
knowing I'm going down to the city
because I've got on my best hat
you can't fool her-knows If 1 was
just running to the store I'd put on
my TAIN" and so on, and on. until
everybody looked at everybody else
and gisgled, without missing a word.
Finally. however. as the two gave
signs of slowing up-
youngish but not real young man.
who was jammed behind one of the
women. said to man next him
obviously a stranger:
You haven't seen my little boy
lately, have you? Most remarka Bile
child-sometimes doubt if we'l be
able to rear him. Came i'll the house
the other morning while the wife
was making cookies and. without
anybody to prompt him, he cried out
-'Oh, mamma, you're baking cookies
just like that. And to show you his
really remarkable memory-the min
ute L got home that night he met me
with, Say, pop, mamma made cookies
today. A child like that. mind you
mere baby of fourteen-
The entire stranger tuned his voice
10 friendly conversation by inquir-
ing. with spry interest
"How's the little girl coming ono-
Who, Dotty? Well. I'm sorry to
say. Dotty's only ordinary-takes af-
ter her mothers people-seven her
next birthday. and only in her first
year at Central High. A good girl, I