The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1931-11-12
UELLA MORSE was one of those
girls who turn efficient, so to

uOI UCCu CuuCdlCO LOWdlo
that end.
A girls finishing school in the East
and a pretty sound musical training
had endowed her with the comfortable
veneer of one whose life seems des-
tined for easy places.
Luella's life, however, did not turn
out that way at all. When she was
twenty-one, satisfactorily returned to
her snug home from her SNUG finish
ing school and living the busy life of
the society girl in her Middle West
city, fortune suddenly turned a cold
shoulder. Within four months she
was not only orphaned, but found her.
self seated among the ruins of family
splendor that had apparently been
only papier mache.
Luella's father, who, ever since she
could remember, had maintained a
pleasant, large household, sufficient
servants to relieve his wife and daugh-
ter of creature concern, two automo-
biles at least and plenty of hospital
ity for visitors, left an estate which,
after the debts were paid and thou
sand undreamed obligations met, net
ted his startled daughter just seven
hundred dollars.
1t was a rather appalling situation,
because If any girl seemed untitled
for the strenuous procedures of bust
ness woman's life, that girl was the
pretty and frail Luella.
She had always blended so cogerial
~ into the pattern mapped out for her
by socially ambitious parents. She
had done just the right and normal
things for a girl in her position. She
had never been problem; never been
one of those girls filled with mysti-
flying desires and unrests.
But like so many human beings who,
under pressure. show undreamed of
possibilities, Luella responded to the
change of circumstances in fashion
that fairly took away the breath of
the community.
After month or two of inevitable
collapse and bewilderment, the trou-
bled young woman, refusing various
offers of friends to tide her over the
immediate future confronting her, took
: matters upon her own shoulders, so
to speak.
And of all enterprises for a girl Of
Luella's gentle breeding to enter!
Within six months after her parents
death, Luella was in the real estate
Ut &c hof hn ho
selected it; more specifically, it had
selected her. That is, after weeks of
aimless searching she had finally STUN
bled across an opening in a real es-
tate office where. on no salary. but
a commission basis, she was given the
opportunity to prove her fettle and her
nettle in craftsmanship.
Her whirlwind career as a real es
tate promoter in district covering
her own city and the countryside with
in a twenty-mile radius, was one
which was to make local history.
How it all came about. how her en-
terprise. her aggressiveneSs and her
incredible tenacity focused themselves
on real estate values, immediate and
future, has already become legend.
Unexplainable, least of all to her.
self. except that her logged determi-
nation to make good gripped her from
the first day Of her entrance into this
business, was the fact that within five
years the Morse family house" had
become one of the dominant archi-
tectural features Of the city.
Before she was thirty Luella Morse
was undoubtedly the foremost real es.
tate promoter in her part Of the coun-
try. Hundreds Of modern apartment
houses, built along lines originally de-
signed by her. dominated the streets
Of the city. Her fame as a sociologist
had transcribed far beyond her own
state and, in making possible these
circumstances. she was declared by
many to have emancipated the family
from many of Its creature expressions
and woes.
The Morse homes, which were de-
signed in units graduated to the needs
of families of various sizes, were the
last word in efficiency. Everything in
them was modelled along lines calcu-
lated to destroy the deadly and dead
ening effects of household drudgery
upon women. The living rooms were
models of comfortable efficiency and
rounded corners. A minimum number
of dust-catching surfaces. Bedrooms
with disappearing beds. Kitchenettes
that were electrical marvels.
There was not a detail in modern
housekeeping that Luella Morse had
not figured out with power and SIM
plicity. She was honored not only in
her own community but the country
over. She had made possible econ
omy, comfort and luxuries for the
middle class.
When Luella Morse was thirty she
was worth two million dollars. She
was one of the outstanding, success
stories for women Of her time, and
Enthusiastically enough. she herself
occupied a Morse home, her life mar
rowing down to the simplicity she
loved. She kept no servants. In
Morse home they were super1uous.
She was the modern efficient wom-
an, all right. She had reduced house