Evening star., 1926-04-11
Entertaining, as Revealed in Testimony,
IsPenalty That Wives of Great Men Pay
BY NINA WILCOX PUTNAM.

" who invented divorce suits
"A once wrote in his book How to
4 a be Happy Though Married
wives Of great men oft re.
mind us how they made their hus
bands so.''
And how true 1t is that greatness
in a husband is largely a, matter OF
the way wife regards him, come
home to me strong, directly after the
meeting of our Ladies Thursday Club
when we entertained for Mrs. John
Henry Smathers, slightly less-well
known wife of the very well known
John Henry Smathers, president pro
tenn of the Associated Buttonhole
Manufacturers Of America
Mr.. Smathers, of course, is the larg-
est manufacturer of buttonholes in the
country. and makes buttonholes to ac.
commodate the largest buttons there
are. l believe 1t was J. II. Smathers
who laid the corner stone for the larg-
est buttonhole in the world. the one
that was SO big nobody could find the
necessary button, and which give rise
TO the well known saying, Button,
button, who's got the button?" It
was him, also. who manufactured the
solid gold buttonhole, which was pre-
sented to the President by the Asso-
ciated Grand Natl Congress of But
tonhole Mfgrs. when they held their
convention at Wash. ID. C. in 1892. The
rest of the bunch held the convention.
but Mr.. Smathers held the gold but
tonhole and a audience with the Pres
1t was all in the papers at the time,
especially in the Louisville, Kansas,
Star. which made quite a feature of it.
especially as that is Mr.. Smathers'
home town.
So naturally, when the local chapter
or the Natl. Assoc. of Buttonhole
Mfgrs. held their annual banquet at
the Chamber of Commerce Bldg, here
in Dinglewood. why it followed natur-
ally as May follows April, that our
Ladies Thursday Club should have
Mrs. Smathers as our guest OF honor
at the same time as her husband had
come on to be the guest Of honor and
chief principal speaker at the banquet
as per see above.
= X *
HOT Bozo. There was quite some
argument in our club over who
should have the meeting to their
house. In fact, it become quite
chubby. and for a while I thought
the ladies would use actual ones on
each other. But in the end Mrs. Goof-
nah got the honor through donating
the ice cream on condition the other
members would make the cakes.
fudge and sandwiches. And we
hadder give in to her on account
she had the only big enough punch
bowl in town and wouldn't let 1t go
out OF her house on account it was
her mothers.
| dunno did she imagine IL was
so old it would catch cold IL she let
1t go out or what, but anyways she
got away with it, and lot of murder,
too. on account her husband Is in
the Ice cream business and all she
hadder do was telephone. while the
cake and sandwich ladies would haf
to work, if you get what I mean.
But finally 1t was all settled that
Mrs. Goofnah was to have the recep-
ton, and when the day of it arrove, I
put on my new Breath de Elephant
crap-de. Chene dress and my Rose de
Blows cloche. which is French for
hat, and went to the meeting and
met Mrs. John Henry Smathers and
had quite long talk with her. / says,
how do you do, Mrs. Smathers. how do
you like Dinglewood? 1 wanted to say
something original, see? And she was
right there with a comeback. quick
as a flash. So glad to meet you, she
says, yes, it's a delightful place. I'm
sure.
So after this nice little chat I went
on into the dining room where the
refreshments was being served, and
ate some Of my own cake on account
I could be sure of that. after which
I come on back in the parlor and
sat down in a bunch OF ladies which
was gathered around dear Mrs.
Smathers. listening to her brilliant
conversation.
Believe you me, her dress was
something rich, she was heavily up
holstered in red plush and there was
something honey about her, in fact,
she reminded me a lot of the Empo-
rium's Annual Home furnishing sale.
especially the extra large overstuffed
sofas. And not alone was her ap-
pearance rich, but also her line of
conversation. I
Oh yes indeed, she says. it's a terri
BILE life, really, being married to such
prominent gentleman as Mr..