New Britain herald., 1928-05-28
BL ALLENE SUMNER

BL ALLENE SUMNER (Staff Writer for The Herald and NEA SerHice)
 Annapolis, Md. May 2S-If hand some Albert c. Ritchie. Maryland, bachelor-governor. should be given the right to wind up the White House clock. put out the White House cat. and feed the White House goldfish. if any, after March 4, 1929. there would be regular fashioned mother of the garden pinks and lavender variety as First Lady of the Land.
 For the governor himself so de- scribed his mother. Mrs. Elizabeth Cabell Ritchie. the present hostess of Marylands beautiful old execu- tive mansion in that way. And then he added:
 And you don't see many ot them left these days." His beautiful mother is the one subject on which Governor Ritchie dares boast. He adores her il story book style. He tells you how beautiful she is, how gracious and charming.
 "Why. she even darns my socks!" he adds boyishly.
 Was Virginia Beauty
 But beautiful Mrs. Ritchie who was Miss Lizzie Cabell, a Nirsinian belle who even today brings tender "reminiscences from various silvery. haired "colonels" below the Mason Dixie line, is no "Old Lady of the Chimney Corner"
 One walks up the tulip-bordered brick walk of Maryland's executive mansion expecting to meet fragile bent little woman in lavender oi gray wool shawl, knitting needles 1T hand, kindly blue eyes peerlng from behind spectacles perhaps-a replica of Whistler's Mother"
 But that picture is wrong. One meets a dark-halred, dark eyed, erect little woman whom one refuses to believe has lived the 7t years biogra phical history accords her. She has the charm Of old fashioned mothers of chimney cor ner days. but she is, too. as mod ern as silk hose and telephones I from America to Paris.
 She is the old d-fashioned pinlS' and hollyhocks and cosmos ano zenias all mixed up with orchids and American beauty roses ane double hothouse violets.
 "Id hate for the governor himself to read this diagnosis. for no lady ever gives another lady away. But T just wonder-if that twinkle 1T the lovely lady mothers eyes as she bent over "Albert's" gubernatoria socks didn't mean that maybe yer, modern little lady finds it yer, diplomatic to play the mother o1 the chimney corner" role.
 "Men do so love home women. she says. Albert likes to find m' here at night with my alarming ol mending basket"
 One thing is very sure and ask' for no sub-rosa interpretations what soever-"Albert' gets exactly wha he likes and wants-even the picture of a mother with her alarming ball
 His Favorite Dish
 And, too, the pickled pigs feet "Alberts favorite dish-which hi' dainty little mother sees are upoI the gubernatorial table at frequen intervals, though she feels that pigs feet are not just the aristocratic die for a Cabell and a Ritchie and l, governor.
 There's a decided smell in Al bert's" study. too, in the lovely olt mansion. It's the accumulated aroma of the many smokes Albert must have when working far int the night on affairs of state. Tn first lady does wish that the stud. were a bit more fragrant. but i Albert likes it like that. he shal have it.
 Maryland's executive mansion here in quaint old Annapolis keep open house to Maryland's citizenry Most anyone, upon request, can wall up the flower -bordered walk to tn, white doorway and find the door al ready open and smiling servan announcing cordially:
 "Just walk right through all thu rooms and look at anything yo, want to-
 Though home life is very swee 10 the Ritchies. mother and son. the! believe that the storied old bricl mansion belongs to the people al uell tn the Iyae