The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1934-11-22

/ Mrs. Nice supervises every detail OF
her home just as she has done during
the whole twenty-nine years of her
married life. No ordering over the tel
ephone for her, either. Regularly, two
or three times week, she goes into
the kitchen to ascertain the state of
the family larder, makes list of the
needed staples and groceries and then
she is off to Lexington Market.
Selecting her own fruits and veg
etabler, securing her meats in the
right cut, discovering little delicacies
with which to surprise her husband
and son, provides an absorbing occu-
patton for the woman who is soon to
keep house in the Governors Mansion.
1t is a practice, too, which she eX-
poets to continue after she moves to
Annapolis.
Social ambition as such does not en-
ter into Mrs. Nice's scheme of things,
but she loves to entertain and expects
to do so a great deal at the State
Capital. Just what form it will take
is matter still to be decided, for Mrs.
Nice, while she felt confident from the
beginning of her husbands victory at
the polls, was far too level-headed to
make plans for festivities that might
never take place. And since the cleo
tion she has been too busy receiving
congratulations and preparing for the
vacation she and her husband are now
enjoying in Florida to find time for
such considerations.
For the first time in fifteen years,
however, the Executive Mansion will
be rendezvous for a swarm of young
people. Two nieces and three nephews,
sons and daughters of Mrs. Nice's
brother, James W. Amos, Jr., and of
H. Clay Nice, brother of the Governor
elect, will be much in Annapolis.
For them, as we'll as for her own
and her husbands friends, Mrs. Nice
will keep open house in the future as
she has done in the past, but that is
as far as her plans go.
81 like to have people around me, "
she says, "and I am sure there will be
plenty of them at Annapolis. I couldn't
imagine myself in a house without
people constantly coming and going
and coming back again. We have
dinner parties and that sort of thing
now and then, Of course, but 1 don't
think that matters nearly as much as
making people feel welcome and try
ing to give them a good time. We
have always lived that sort of life,
particularly since Daddy has been in
politics, and nothing gives me more
pleasure than to know that people en-
joy coming to my home and to have
them show it by coming often"
That phrase, "since Daddy has been
in politics." is significant of much that
concerns Mrs. Nice. An avowed Vic
torian, she looks up to her husband as
head of the household-though she al
ways goes with him to select his cloth
ing-and she has no desire to do any
thing that would alter that relation
ship. Politics she regards as his bus
mess and is content to stay out of 1t.
Other women may buttonhole voters
and take to the hustings in their own
interests of those of another, and that
is all right with Mrs. Nice as long as
she doesn't have to do it. She doesn't
say so, but it is apparent from her
manner when she talks of it that, were
it not for her husbands career, she
probably never would have taken ad-
vantage of the right to vote for which
so many of her contemporaries fought
and bled and went to Jail.
***
Nevertheless, in spite of her indif-
ference to the system by which he has
been made Chief Executive of the
State, Mrs. Nice did make one very
important contribution to the cam
paign. She made it, too, in the capac-
ity of chauffeur, for driving a car is
one of her few real hobbies, and she is
an expert at the art of maneuvering a
big car in all sorts Of traffic. During
the last two years, ever since Mr.. Nice
told her one evening that, with her
permission, he was going to make an
other fight for the office he sought and
lost in 1919, she has driven him all
over the State, penetrating every
nook and corner of both the Eastern
and Western Shores.
Asking her permission, Mrs. Nice
declares, was just matter of cour-
tesy. Any undertaking upon which he
wished to embark she was certain tC
approve in advance, and what he real
ly meant was that her services at the
wheel were going to be requisitioned
pretty steadily for some time to come
"First and last" she says, 81 think
1 must have driven 100000 miles and
l got a real thrill out of it, too. Once