18

•

.th e R ftui.re.r H er W ritingl Endle.rs' )! H f!r Daily R outin e ;. a Co n siderabl e Wh irl • - . .-:...

o JgJy ~JE MillJ&. (Gdl1 J&.JElJ CIll Il!llll J&.J&.JJMill IN/ at the mercy of the public she created when she wrote Etiquette. " ' hen the publishing firm Color P h o tograph $ Taktln f o r The Sa turday Euen in g Post by Juan D mitri of .l1"unk & \Vagnalls suggested that she write the book. she was skeptical; she disliked tho word "etiquette" as heing both fancy a.nd AWl' year, when the rort.\'-tir~ t printing of I·;mily ('ould hear in those siml}le words an (,(·ho of the phony. and she felt uncomforta.ble about setting PO!oit' s 1·:ti(luette: the Blue Book of Social author's own wistfulness ov('r the whole hellish herself up in print as an authority on <:Ol're('L sO('iul l'~ag(' was released to the puhli(', sonw of il~ situa.tion. behavior, which was something she had always ta.ken reader'S \\el'(' a little startled by the touch 01' lavender Etiquette in Society, in B u~iness. in Politic's a nd more 01' less idly forg-ranted. Hichurd Du fTy, of I ~"'ullk tha.t persisted in its pagE'R . " 'I'he ha 'helol' girl can. a.t Il ome has sold nearl y 500.000 ('opies-at fOllr dol­ & \\'agnalls, pointed out that, although there were on occasion, go out alone with any unmarried man lars apiece-sine-e it was first published in J922. and plenty of etiquette books on the market, nOllt' had ~he knows WE'll, if the thE-ater she goes to, or the it has been slightly revised three times. but it was been written by n. woman of J'c('ognized sO('inl posi­ resta.urant she dines at, be of conventional charac'­ not until this year that. lYl rs. Post-apparently con­ lion since .Mrs. Sherwood-grandmother of Rol)f?J'l t('r," ~ l rs. Post's book stated tranquilly in 1936. vi nced that people are going to go right on behaving Sherwood. the playwright-wrote~ l allnersand So(·ial "The striet rules of etiquette demand that the in the unfettered way that has become fashionable Usages. back in the 80's. l ie followed uphis argumellt eli vorced meet as total and unspeaking strangers" it and convenien t-decided to broaden the standards by sending ..\·Irs. Post all the current books a.bout set forth in another chapter. and "A lady hn.ving her of beha.vior she established fifteen years ago. This etiquette he could lay his hands on, and a few da.ys portrait painted always takes a. woman friend . or spring a completely revised and up-to-date version later she telephoned him. hf'r maid, '" ho sits in the studio. or at least within of l-aiquet.te is appearing. in whic:h bachelor girls. I . These people." $h e said, referring to the etiquette sight or hearing." divorcees a nd ladies who like to hang arollnd artists' writers. " don't seem to know what they're talking All over the ('ollntry, barhelor gi rls were going out studios are considered patiently. even perhaps with abou t." alone with unmarried men they knew only slightly, a twinkle. The Vanishing Chapel'On almost entirely I! \rell. you teli 'em," said !\ rr. DutTy simply. in the hOI>f', perhaps. of getting to know them better; disappears, and is replaced by a sprig'htly chapter on Goaded. ~ I rs. Pos t sat down 011 a high stool at the ciivoreed people were greeting eac·h other, when they T he .!\lodern ~ l an and Girl. 'rhe author has named architect'S drafting table she likes to write Oil and • met aecidentally, with just as much kindliness as this couple John Strongheart and Louise Lovely, and in the next ten months, turned out 250,000 words 011 though they had never been married; and whatever plans to let them spend a good deal of time just drift­ etiquette. She wrote about aU the problems that ladies were having their portraits painted had very ing around together. without anybody within sight occurred to her, and iL was scarcely surpriSing tha.t few women friends, or maids either, who were con­ or he.:'\.ring. l\l rs. Post is a gentlewoman of the old they were mainly the problems within her Own ex­ tent to sl>end a whole afternoon just sitting within s(·hool. and she likes the old ways best. but she is a perience or within that of her friends in New York, sight or hearing. But ~ l rs. Post pretty thoroughly businesswoman as well. \\"ith srarcelya sigh for the at Newport or at Tuxedo. 'rhe book. when it Wn~ ignored the modern trend. The 1936 edition of decorous past, she has made up her mind to march published, was a curiOllsly li\'el.v and readable work Etiquette also contained an entire chapt r devoted sturdily abreast of the times. through which the Toploftys. (he Eminents, th. (0 (he (,h"I'""on. and. althou!:h she was. in fact. re­ Although her word is accepted as gospel by millions Bobo Gildings. the P:otqllites and other c:hal'a.(·t4?r!-\_ fen'ed to as I. The ranishing Chaperon." the reader of readers. F.milv. Post has alwavs- been somehow all based on real people, a ~ the author c-onfess{'d in "

H er Fa ce SHll Ho s That F i n e T r unspuren c)I of L In e a nd Tex ~ f ure Thll t N flu.,r/J..4lte L . tr ves u W o m a n Wh u H I! ,s B een B 'Il.uHfu l

the dedication-moved symholi('ully, forever pre­ to be rook. waitress and channing hORteRs to n. dinn('r l'II(IIE'ssly ('art'ful a.hout IIPr own (·hoi(·l' of word ... III occupied with the righllivery for their footmen. the party-informal-of eight peoplc, without I{('tting forlllal (:011 vl'rsatioll. a lid I t mOl hol'S Iwr fa III t Iy U 1Il':I'lY order of precedem'e a.t fOl'mal dinners. the duties of up f!'Om the table. rro test the s~'stelll 8he had to twar anyone NI.Y ",>holl('," for inst:l1H'l'. illslt'ad 01' 11 kitchenmuid in a. stillT of twelve servants, and thought up for ~ l rs. ~I'hree in-One before she brought "telephone." During husin(>l:'s hours, howl'H·r. Iwl' similnr high-toned nuance~ of the mannered life. it out in print, ~ l rs. Post invited six of her own contu(·ts with the world of industry ha,\'l' ('OIHlitiolHl(\ Before it had boon out a. month. however, ~~mi)y friends-the Toploftys. the Gilding, and the her to a more (,olorful langnage. Sht' !:'a,vs .. damn" Post began getting lotters t hat staggered her. \\lomen \\"orldlys-to dine with her and her son, Bru('e, at in n. definite WllY whell things t'xu.slwrate hl~r, slw readers throughout the country wrote to her, saying. her apartment in New York. Seated ~erenely at describes furniture or clothes she dO(.'iol!l't like as "Dear ~ t rs. Post, You didn't say in your book the head of her ll.ble with a stack of soup plMes be­ "godawful," and one u.dvertisil1l{ man who askE'd whether a widow ought to sign her letters' !\l rs. John fore her. she served the soup from a. hot tureen and her opinion of n. layout showing a, tahle st't for a Jones' or ' :~d rs. l\1ary Jones,'" and "Dear 1\·1. rs. put the empty plates. 8..'5 they \\'('re hund(..l(i ba.ck to formal dinner got it in one "ord. ~ I n.;. Po ... t ~mid it • Post I fow can I give a formal dinner for eight people her. daintily out of sight on the hottom shelf of a Wu.s lousy. Not long ago. she wellt to a (·o(·ktailll:lrly , ? tI without a servant. tea wagon at her elbow. while Bruce, at his end of g'ivell by one of the ,YOllng'eT and giddier ('oupll's Shocked and puzzled, ~ I rs. Post informed such the table, ladled out the meat cou rse from a chafing among her friends at which a. newlSpapel' columnist correspondents that 110 lady, whether married. dish. b; verything went smoothly without a servant and his wife, who we re also guests, got into an urgu­ widowed or single. ever signs a letter "~ l iss" or in the place-except the (·ook. who sta.yed in th(' ment. intense enough to a.ttra.ct everybody's atlf'n­ "Mrs. Anything"-except in parentheses n.rter kitchen-and the glittering guests handed pln.tes lion, about what time he had come home the night "Mary Jones "-and that nobody can give a really a round from one to another as flawlessly as though before. The husband stated flatly that he had been formal dinner without any servant. they had been doing it all their lives. horne, in bed and asleep. at midnight. "You're a \Vhen leiters kept coming in, asking whether it ~;mily Post looks considerably youngf"r than hf"r damn liar, dear," his wife told him casually, out of was true that bread must be broken into pieces ex­ ag , which is sixty-four. I n her youth she was a long habit, and then. with a glan('e at the Quiet lady acUy one inch in diameter before it was eaten, and pretty distinguished beauty-portraits and photo­ si tting on the couch. hastily added ... if you'll excus(' whether when passing your plate for a second belr~ graphs of her were included in all the collections of me, ~ l rs. Post." ~ l rs. Post was a little embarrassed. ing. you 'must hold your k.nife and fork in your hand. famous American beauties-and her face still has mostly by the silen(,e lha.t suddenly ft'll around her. l\Jrs. Post began to realize that here, in this vast that fille transparency of Une and texture that never but she just smiled .. unsuspected throng of seekers after polite behM'ior. Quite leaves a woman who has been beautiful. She In her own apartment. on East 79th Street, Emily was her real public. In time for the next edition of is tall and compelling, and she might seem formidable Post likes to sit on a wide sofa. in the window, gener­ the book. she wrote a new chapter called American if it were not for her rather fluttery way of talking ally with one foot tucked under her, and tulk in a Neighborhood Customs, dealing with showers, sew­ and a nervolls habit of moving her hands contillu­ low, rather breathless voice broken by a good deal of ing circles, singing cil'rles and all the other cozy ously in small gestures-pleating a fold of her dress, laughter. Sbe laughs easily about the jokes that activities of outlying America which she was just fussing with n clishion or a letler 01' anything that appear about her in magazines and comic papers, heginning to learn about. She also invented a new hn,ppens to be within reach. She doesn't smoke or about the strange significance her name has tome (·hnJ'flC'ter-a wonder woman named 1\.'lrs. T hree in­ drink, but her hands are as unrelaxed /.IS those of any to have for millions of Americans-about everything, One who, without any servant wha.tever, contrived habituaJ cigarette smoker or cocktail nurser. She is in fact, except etiquette (Conti nued on P06e 52) THE SRTURDRY EVENING POST M a y l .s, 19:37

itself, which she bas come to respect she tried making cardboard models of testimonials by declining to mention fiercely as a code governing practically houses, mounting them 011 cigar boxes any par ticular brand. The gi nger-ale nll human relationships. She will tell a nd decorating each room with papier­ people said that that would be quite you, with an air of mild astonishment. IDache furniture a nd, sometimes, with all right, and paid her 83000 fo r the that nothing ever happened to her until tiger-skin rugs made of wax and painted use of her name. Linen, silver and she was nearl y fi fty, bu t that is not in stripes. John Russell Pope and a few glass manufacturers paid her as much quite true. Things started happening to other architects bought some of her as 85000 for each pamphlet she wrote her more than thirty years ago, when models, but there was little money in for them, describing the correct use of she became a double-barreled pioneer it for Mrs. P ost. linen, silver or glass. in New York society by di vorcing her One day a literary friend said to her, In 1929, she was gi ven her first radio husband in New York State-a pretty "Why don't you try wri ting? You audition. " There's scarcely any use in bold move at the time-and by going write such marvelous letters!" And my doing this," she said into the micro­ to work for a li ving. Nothing in her those words-which from one person phone, while seven potential sponsors life up to that time had promised such or another, have probably started more listened critically in another room. unconventional goings-on, and for a pens traveling over paper tha n any " My son tells me that my voice is too li ttle while even her intimate fri ends words ever spoken-sent Mrs. Post thin and too feminine to be any good were shaken to the core. hurrying up into her mother's attic to 011 the air, and I'm quite sure myself She was born in Baltimore, the only dig out the bundles of letters she had that it isn't very good, so I really don't child of Bruce Price, a n architect who written to her father from Europe dur­ know why you bother to li sten. I guess later designed the Chateau Frontenac ing· a summer she spent there when she that will be enough abou t my voice. in Quebec and most of the buildings in was seventeen.\Vith a little editing Thank you." Her voice was so good, Tuxedo Park, N ew York. A portrait of and the addition of a hero named Lord it turned out, that all seven sponsors her father, looking handsome and al­ " Bobby" Kirth, the letters made a rushed in, afire to sign her up for t heir most sensationally distinguished, hangs lively and frivolous book called The programs, and asked her to name her in Mrs. Post's study now, and she Likes Flight of a Moth, which Dodd, Mead prICe . to tell about t he time he t raveled & Co. published in 1904. Mrs. P ost "Well," Mrs. Post said pla.cidly, through Canada wi th the late Du ke of made abou t 83000 ou t of it, ILnd fol­ "what do Amos and Andy get?" She Connaught. Every time they arrived lowed it ra pidly by other novels : didn't get a~ much as Amos and Andy, in a town the reception committee, Purple and Fine Linen, The Title Mar­ but the sponsor with whom she frnally alert on the station platform to greet ket and The Eagle's Feather-all of signed did pay her $500 a broadcast. the royal visitor, passed Lightly over them pretty classy, swarming with In addition to her income from vari­ the Duke and rushed in a body to heap easygoing earl s and pri_nces, and laid ous side lines, Mrs. Post's royal t"ies their flowers and speeches of wel come against a dizzy background of high life. from the book of Etiquette, which has upon the startled 1\11'. Price. " ever sold steadily throughou t the years, mind, Bruce," said His R oyal Highness The E v olution. of a B est S eller have, since 1922, seldom fallen below tolerantly, when this had happened S300 a week. four or fiv e ti mes; "it isn't, your fault When some of her conservative By 1931, she was hroadcasting daily that God made you in the perfect image friends murmured that writing was a over a national network, she had writ­ of a duke." pleasant bobby for a woman of gentle ten The Personality of a House-a The Prices moved to New York birth, but that tak;ng money for it book about archi tecture and decorating wh en Emily was five, and sometimes seemed to them not a litUe crass, Emily which is used as a textbook in several ber father would take her along with Post pointed out that Mrs. Wharton schools and colleges, although it has him whon he was wo rking on a building was doing weH in a li terary way with­ never attained the fmakish popularity and let her clim b a round on the scaf­ out noticeably losing caste. a nd that of Etiquette-and she had joi ned a folding. But apart from t hese excur­ the Duer girl s were still asked to decen t syndicate which now publishes her sions, her childhood moved in a con­ people's houses, although they gladly column of questions and answers ventional pattern of summ@rs at Bar a.ccepted pay for whatever they wrote about etiquette in 150 newspapers Harbor, a nd winters in her family'S whenever they could get it. The Duer throughout the United States and browllstone bouse in rrenth Street. with girls were Alice, who later became Alice Canada. On the !"adio , Emily Post was lessons in the mornings with a German Duer Miller, and Caroline, who wrote originally presented as 'rhe First Lady governess a nd a walk in the park in a book of etiquette of her own a few of the Air, bu t her sponsors had to re­ the a.fternoons. years ago. nounce that title when Vaughn De Mrs. Post's novels sold fairly well , Leath, a female crooner, illsisted pretty .II Cardboard Architect and soon she began writing pieces for violently that, if it belonged to a ny­ magazines-mostly "confessions " by body, it belonged to her, since she had As It debuta nte, in 1892, Emily Price imaginary ladies of title su.rprised in a been crooning over the air since radio was tall, cool, and so dashing that four moment of exaltation Of, conversely, began. Vaughn De Leath became The men were often required to carry her in one of extreme fatigue. These arti­ First Lady of the Ai.. after that, a nd cotillion favors to her carriage after a cles and her hooks brought her varying Emily Post was anDounced simply as ball; and at the end of her fi.rst season n.moun ts of money in the years that " EmiJy Post." she married Ed win ~1run Post, a followed, but the small fortune which banker, by whom sbe had two sons, her mother ma naged to leave her at The Peak of Etiquette Edwin, Jr., and Bruce. She was peace­ her death in 1910 vanished in bad in­ fully established in the routine of a wife, vestments ; a nd in 1922, when FUllk & Radjo engineers, alUlOUD cers, musi­ mother and hostess when Edwin Post Wagna Us began to badger her about cians and other studio technicia ns, a bruptly lost nil bis money foll owing t he wri t.ing the Book of E tiquette, she was who h~\.Ve ?o~e to accept delays, mi s­ panic of lOOt. Emily Post's father died living in a New York hotel, had sent takes III tUllIng, and a general unre­ shortly afterward and, si_nce he was a two sons to Harvard, and was working mitting panic as their portion, have al­ generous and popular man, left almost away on her sixth novel, Parade, to ways revered Mrs. Post because she nothing to hi s heirs. Her mother, who pay for it all. carried a stop watch to every broad­ had managed to save a little out of After Etiquette was published, the cast, timed herself every fifteen sec­ wha t her husband had given her during question of whether Emily Post should onds, and never failed to finish courte­ his lifetime, moved to 11 smaU house at take money for what she wrote was ously on the nose. She seemed to infect Tuxedo. With disaster fresh upon them, lost forever in t he newer problem of her radio liste ners, too, wi t h a sudden, the Posts with their two babies went to how much money it would take to get Old-World punctiliousness. One woman li ve with Mrs. Price. If the ma rriage her to write anything at a ll. It was not wrote to her, saying that, the day be­ had lasted Emily Post's career might that she was tempemmental about fore, she had called to her sister in the never have begun. writing-she likes to work, and is al­ h;tchen to come and listen to Mrs. She was the first divorcee to com­ ways ready to plunge into prodigious Post, who had just come on the air; the bine her maiden name with t hat of her chores at t he sligh test rustle of a con­ sister hurried into the rooUl , taki ng off ex-husband, a nd it was as ~1.rs. Price tract- bu t she was in terrific demand. her apron as she came. "Do you think," Post that she went to work, after the When a ginger-ale COml)any asked her she replied proudly to the other's gla nce divorce was granted. to earn enough for a testimonial to advertise its prod­ of inquiry. " that I would dream of re­ money to buy clothes for Ned nnd uct, Mrs. Post wrote pleasan t1y that ceiving a. visit from Mrs . Post with my Bruce, and to educate them. She had ginger ale was a refreshing drink to apron on?" Another woma D, living picked up a considerable knowledge of serve at parties, and avoided the taint alone somewhere in Westchester , wrote architecture from her father; so, at fLrst, of commercialism attached to most (Contl n ... d on Pag. 5 7 ) THE SATURDAY EVENING POST

( Continued from Page 52) slight turn, however, to see " Mrs. pile labeled with a square of white that she usually had her tea at five Emily Post" on an envelope. She is pa per thumb-tacked to the sbelf and o'clock bu t she had changed the tea not fu ssy about small matters of be­ lettered in black initials such as hour to half pa~ t four. so that she havior, beyond the occasional mild I' ,.£1," . S". or "Z~. E'"., an d 1~1\ rs. P os,t could usten to M rs. Post at the same recoil in the face of bad manners that wandering into the office, is endlessly time. "I sit by the fire, with my Per­ is instinctive to any woman of taste, taken aback by this clear- cut evi­ si~l,n cat and my Scotty dozing on the and she likes to th.ink, a nd to impress dence of effi ciency. "Darlings, what is hearth," wrote this one, who appears upon her readers, that" etiquette" is a 'W. S.'?" she will say, and the girls to have been notably carried away by question of common sense and consid­ reply, ,,' Widows' Signatures,' Mrs. her feelings, "a.nd I pour fragrant eration ratber than a study of how to Post." (Here, the ill-advised Mrs. China tea into thin yellow cups. One speak to a visiting prince or eat a n ear Mary J ones crops up again.) Or, cup for me, and one cup always, dear of corn on the cob. "No rule of eti­ " ' ''hat is 'Z. E. '?" Mrs. Post wants to Mrs. Post, for you." quette is of less importance," she has know, a nd the darlings look shocked. Mrs. Post liked getting letters like written patiently, time and time again, "'Vhy. Mrs. Post," they murmur, "you these, and she misses them. Last year, "than which fork we use." And once, remember ' Zigzag Eating'?" (Zigzag four operations were performed in when she got fifteen letters in one day, Ea,ting is the practice- condemned in fairly rapid succession 011 her eyes, and asking which fork the writers should the Post li tany- of shifting the fork . although she has entirely recovered use when confronted with sevel·al, she from the left hand to the right before from them and sees well with the aid of answered all fifteen grimly in four raising it to the mouth.) special glasses, she has had to give up words: "Oh, use anyone." Mrs. P ost's apartment is in a build­ the strenUOlis routine of daily broad­ ing at the corner of Madison Avenue casting for a while. '¥ben she was in The Great.R merican Rudeness and 79th Street, leased twelve years the hospital, Walter Winchell broad­ ago tl.Ud er a co-operative arrangement cast the news of her illness one Sunday H er only fi erce campaign connected by herself and seventeen of her fri ends night. Within a n hour, Mrs. Post had with table manners is against the prac­ who were united by the common com­ received 100 telegrams and a roomfnl tice of serving the hostess first, wh.ich plaint that nowhere in N ew York of flow ers from people who had· beard Mrs. Post has branded as the Great could they find a medjum-sized apart­ 'Vinehell-mostly strangers to her. American Rudeness. There is no excuse ment with big closets, wide windows Her acknowledgment to Mr. \\finchell for it, she says, unless the food is apt a nd a servants' dining room. Once the startled him, for he had never got to have been poisoned-which is un­ lease was signed, ~1rs . Post and her around to thinking of Emily Post as a, likely in a well-ordered house- or un­ son, Bruce, who was beginning to be a reader fa,miliar with his column and less the guests a re such lou ts that they successful architect , were assigned to the phrases he uses in it. She sent him don't know how to serve themselves­ remodel the building, and they went an orchid. in which case it would be impolite, any­ happily to work tearing down waUs, Letters from the readers of Mrs. way, for the hostess to call attention to installing great windows, putting ill Post's own newspa per column are less it by showing them how. 1vIrs. P ost's closets as big as rooms. Mrs. Post 's intimate and more urgent than those followers, docile in other respects, de fi ­ own apartmen t is cheerful, comfortable she used to get from her radio fans, and nitely decline to string a.long with her and feminine, a nd it is run without any there are more of them. Some 26,000 on this question. American hostesses great fonnali ty. Sometimes a parlor­ lettel's a year, addressed to Emily Post, are accustomed to being served maid opens the door fora vi sitor; some­ corne in to the syndicate in New York, first, and servants in Ameri c

be chummy. " In the end, I believe, he difficulty in thinking of the right word; was highly polished and set with li ttle was unobtrusively thrown out on hi s and her passion for writing so often doilies, but he just stared at it, think­ ear," Mrs. Post says rem_iniscently, overflows after she has fini shed her ing that he was as good as it was any when she tells abou t this. daily stint that she always carries a day, until the nightmare moment came In 1927 Mrs. Post's younger son, fountain pen and notepaper with her when he cut into an English mutton Bruce Post, died. From that time during tbe day, and dashes off notes to chop on his plate, saw the plate skid until last year, when she was obliged friends and acquaintances, generally under his knife and fork, and the chop to follow a little less arduous routine, three or four pages long, while she is leap into the air a nd come to rest, she worked with a furious concentra­ ridi_ng from one place to a nother in a gre"sily and finally, on the edge of the tion, k'1king on whatever jobs came taxi. When she is writing for publj ca­ table. Still in his nightmare he rescued along, until they often occupied sixteen tion, however, she is seldom satisfied it, put it back on hi s plate and said, hours out of twenty-four. Because of with the first freny-i ed burst of prose "Good God, Mrs. Post, you wrote the her knowledge and love of architecture that occurs to her, a nd she revises so book! "Vhat do I do now ?" and design, and because Bruce had endlessly that once, after she had re­ Mrs. Post looked at him thought­ been an architect, she somehow found written the first chapter of Etiquette fully over her own fork. "I think you her greatest comfort in fiercely re­ thirty-eight times for a new edition, did the best thing," she said. " Just modehng old farmhouses, or even her pu blishers waggish ly sen t her a pick it up and begin all over again." shacks, into charming country houses. slate and a sponge for Christmas, with \,\7hen people are shy wi th her, Mrs. In the last ten years she has designed a card saying, " Many ha ppy revi­ Post gets, inwardly, just as nervous as and decorated twenty-three houses for sions. " they cll'e. But when any vast national friends, who are asked to pay her no question of taste is at stake, her own fee, or for strangers, who pay her The Day of a Social .Arbiter poise can best be described as im­ plenty, especially if she has to travel measurable. A few yeal's ago, when the to whatever part of the cou ntry they By eight o'clock the Post household battle concel'lling precedence between live in , in order to do the job. People is wide awake, secl'e L.:..... ries begin run­ Alice Roosevelt Longworth and Dolly who want thei,· houses designed by ning in a nd out, a,nd the telephone Oann put \Vashington into a turmoil. F~ m i l y Post are seld om daun ted by starts ringing. Hilda, the dour and reporters clamored at lVI I'S , Post's door the question of money, and sometimes devoted woman who has been M-rs. for a statement for their papers. She they contentedly pay her just for stay­ Post's housekeeper and personal maid gave them a statement of several thou­ ing i_n New York and giving them long­ for thirty-five years, sets out on her sand words, in f;tvor of Alice Long­ distance ad vi ce. daily, faintly suspicious and appar­ worth, and later sent eight copies of it One man, who was settling down ently never-ending tour of the apart­ to diplomats of her acquai_utance, and in Thifempltis, Tennessee, had the plans ment. Hilda, is not, in appearance or fOllr to the Department of State in for ltis house drawn up by a local archi­ ma,nner, the perfect maid. "I suppose 'Nashington. She never got any oflicial tect, but refused to accept them until you'll be wanting me to go to the reply, but, unot-n ciuiJ y, a rather tired the "rchitect had brought them to movies aga"in tonight? " she is apt to letter came from 'Nashington. " It Mrs. New YO"k and submitted them to say, pausing somberly in the doorwHY Post wi ll settle the precedence ques­ Emily Post. rrhe arcllitect was pretty of her employer's room . 'rhis remark tion ," the letter said, "the State De­ sore about the whole thing, but he refers to Hilda's long losing fight pcutment will be most grateful. " cn-me to N ew York just the same and against the mo tion pictures. She hates Every spring, in the face of possible had such a pi easc\.l1 t ti me with l\rlrs. Post them, but Mrs. Post likes to go occa­ contracts that would keep her in town, that he swept doorways, m(l,ntels and siollaJly, a nd she would rather have of thollsa,nds of potential dollars wait­ sta,ircases around i_nto the position a nd Hilda go with her than anybody else. ing to be earned, M rs. Post declines all form t lHl.t she suggested in a kind of Like most people who ::\re resigned to work except her daily column a nd sets dizzy fasci nation,