HOW MARY FILLED THE COPPER

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 87, 6 January 1908, Page 5

HOW MARY FILLED THE COPPER

, Miss May .de Sousa, the charming American actress, who can boast of the distinction ,of being the first lady chosen, from the land of the Stars and Stripes to play the leading role at the historic Prury.Lane pantomime, recalls with intense amusement a certain 'superficially trivial happening she once witnessed when having tea with a friend nt St. John's Wood..

" My, hostess," . she,'says, "was a'.great authority on the servant question, and, indeed, I think she extracted' n vast amount of innocent' plcasuro from .personally supervising hor domestics' work. One afternoon we-were flitting chatting in. .the drawingroom, when, she suddenly jumpod up, and, apologising for leaving mo alone,- added—' I must romind Mary that this is her washing afternoon.'.

"A few seconds afterwards I beard her call down tho kitchen stairs—'Mary, don't forgot that it is .time for you to begin your washings • • " This message,was followed ,by a scuffling of uncommonfy heavy, feet for a female/servant, and, I, heard Mary bustle out from ■ the' kitchen,and,'-hurrying to the foot of the stairs, shout backW All right, mum, I'm jiist filling the copper.' ■ . ; ' ..'.'Thirty .seconds .afterwards," adds Miss de Sousa, "I saw a portly policeman, wiping his half-filled, mouth on tho sleevo of his

uniform, run up to tho area ■ steps, • and, crouching carefully below the top of the. railings;,hurry down the road. " Mary was evidently quite'a truthful girl. She had "obviously not departed from, the paths of treiithwhen she confessed .that 'she was ' only filling "the ' copper'.'.,"—" Royal Magazine;" '. : - •'