Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 112, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1910 — RECALLED TO HER DUTY. [ARTICLE]

RECALLED TO HER DUTY.

“Of all the complex requirements of modern civilization, the hardest t.o live up to is an English butler!” declared an American ■ hostess recently in humorous despair. “You see, he gives no sign of satisfaction when one does fulfil his demands for a lady in ‘ ’igh life’; and when one doesn’t, there is somthing in his eye—an expression of remote, respectful, but utterly crushing withdrawal from responsibility for the errors of such a hopeless person as yourself—that extinguishes one’s last, lingering spark of independence. Under Higgins’ disapproval I am reduced to a worm of the dust!” Her guests laughed, and several feelingly assented But one woman, who visited much in England, declared that on his native heath the British butler developed virtues he seldom carried across the Atlantic. The butler at a famous country house where she visited was an aged man, of silver hair and benignant countenance, whose many years of loyal service in the family had earned their full reward of affection and respect ' He felt an almost fatherly degree of responsibility for, the manners and behavior of the younger members of the family, especially upon ceremonial occasions. At a large reception the American guest overheard him speaking to the youngest grown daughter, under pretense of bringing her a lace scarf. “Miss Hedith! Miss Hedfth! The hold gentleman by the ’earth ’asn’t ’ardly been noticed by hatiybody for ’half an hour.” Miss Edith not displaying any eagerness to hasten to the relief of the neglected one, —a fat, bald-headed, unattractive little man,- —he continued, reproachfully: “ ’B’s a person of himportance if ’e is helderly. I’ve ’eard ’e’s much respected in the ’Ouse. Besides,' Miss Hedith, in the words ofthe poet, ‘Kind ’earts are more than coronets’; and I ’aven’t a doubt, if ’e’d ’appened to think of it, ’e’d ’ave hadded, ‘and brainy ’eads than ’air’!” The conjunction of bard and butler was sufficient to recall Miss Edith to her duty as a daughter of the house, and she was soon successfully entertaining the bald but distinguished member of Parliament.