Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1932-04-29

h0usekeepers and COOK, the
wv usual hullabaloo took place.
Ought to be ashamed. Won
der Virgie doesn't turn in her grave.
Has he no shame2 At least If she
were young and good-looking, but
great big rangy dishwasher like Sim
mons! 81
Certainly Simmons was no beauty.
Forty, rawboned, with an angular lace
and an. angular body, she was a sur
prlsihg successor to the first Mrs.
YefeAei, who had been d mildly pre-.
possessing matron, endowed with
qualities which fitted her even over
and above her husband, for the posi-
ton his wealth established.
Yerckel, builder who had grown
rich in booming city, hesitated not
at all over this second alliance. With
in twenty months after the death Of
first wife, whom he mourned, he
turned gratefully to marriage with the
woman who had came in to take charge
of his household after the dislntegra-
ton following the death Of his help
mate had set in on the domestic at
fairs.
For ten years previous to this, SIM
mons had been housekeeper at one of
the larger local hotels. She had eff
cheney speed, handled her servants
well, was not above taking hand at
the cooking and Immediately estab-
lished herself as overload in the SER
wants quarters where discipline had
been thrown to the winds since the
death of Mrs. Yerckel.
She was sociable soul, garrulous,
fond Of sitting a long hour over an
afternoon cup of tea and after her
arrival the evening meal among the
servants came to be something almost
as much Of a ritual as the meal pre-
viously served in the long panelled din
ing room upstairs.
That was part of the success Of Sim
mons with her staff. She made life
below stairs attractive, granted long
hours of respite from duty in return
for exceptional service during working
hours, and presided at the servants
dining table as II she were mistress
of a household. Good, honey, salty
conversation flowed when Simmons
presided at her table of eight servants.
including a fine fellow Of chauffeur,
named Shard. 1t was said among the
dOmestics, that Yerckel himself, COM
ing accidentally to the servants pam
try one evening, happened to overhear
one Of these congenial occasions and
thereupon fell in love with his house
keeper.
Whatever the case, within six
month following, they were married,
and at forty, with only the history of
long years of domestic labor behind
her. Adelaide Simmons found herself
head of twenty-room home, wife of
one Of the wealthiest men In the CON-
munity and heiress to social posi-
tion that automatically descended
upon her shoulders as the wife of her
husband
The expected happened. Everything
pertaining to the new social life Sim
mons abhOrred. The long solemn din
ners in the panelled dining room,
which she had hitherto only viewed
from the kitchen side of the door, be-
came anathema to her. Functions
were something to dread weeks before
they took place. and for every snub
she received from "the Set" wounds
bled in the secret places Of her heart.
1t must be said for Simmons that
she succeeded in keeping practically
all of this from her husband. She
presided coldly 1t is true at his table,
hat with sufficient dignity to carry off
the occasions. She had no small talk.
no articles. no beauty, but somehow,
there was about this graceless woman,
stability. a firm. earthly quality of
the homely things Of life, that made
her rather magnificent ...si ..-...
Her care Of Yerckel was superb. Her
concern for his well-belng, her occu-
patton with creature and Cody things.
She was a religious woman; reverent
towards the spirituality Of the great
figures Of her Bible, and vigorous in
her condemnations Of those who, in
her opinion, violated the ideals Of right
living.
The pompous, ambitious, worldly
men, with pompous, ambitious, world
ly wives, who came to dine at the
table of Yerckel, left her cold. unani-
mated and in rigid, although secret dis
approval Of their aspirations and ideas
What was there to discuss with these
women who were self-conscious Of
their God; to whom the homely chores
of life were forbidden subjects, and
who talked along the lines Of frivoll-
ties and shallow pastimes that were
not only alien, but almost unntel-
ligible to Simmons.
Your never dared. with these women,
as in the sanctum Of the dining room
where she had presided as hOusekeep-
err, discuss the goOdly. Cody aspects
OF every day living. God. Cookery.
Toll The women who came to dine
at the table of Yerckel took pride In
the facts that their interests had not
to do with such. Country club, styles,
bridge. motor cars, servant problems
were topics that skldded lightly
around.
Sometimes 1t seemed to Simmons, pre-.
siding there in a world which was re-
mote and alien to her, that her heart
was a pool for the tears she was IN
yya rdlv ahaddiny for the old dava