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TALE OF FAITHFUL HOUSEMAID. This “Perfect Jewel” Won Admiration on Every Side. WAS PRIZE COVETED BY ALL, in Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha NE) July 18, 1918, p. 1—
Because of the humiliating nature of the tragedy which occurred, and because, too, this is a story of camouflage, it is both wise and necessary that the heroine of this tale be called, for convenience, Mrs. Johnson—there are more Johnsons in the city directory than any others.
This Mrs. Johnson lives in that vague and extensive district embraced in the West Farnam neighborhood. For the last year she has been envied—wholeheartedly envied by all of her feminine neighbors.
She possessed that rara avis known as a faithful maid. The maid in question was Titian haired, very much so, wore green goggles and a rather striking though indefinite individuality. Every morning, when her mistress was supposed to be enjoying her “beauty sleep” the maid would appear and sweep off the porch, dust the porch furniture, and when occasion demanded would scrub the woodwork and the windows. She was industrious, painstaking and painfully neat—a perfect pearl of a servant. It was noticeable, too, that during other hours of the day she tactfully obliterated herself from public view, supposedly devoting herself to duties in the kitchen and chambers where she unobtrusively slaved from early dawn to dark.
Neighbors plotted and planned to make the acquaintance of this ne plus ultra of servants, some, it must be confessed, with ulterior and selfish motives of luring her away from her mistress by any kind of blandishment or strategy that could be employed.
But she was as evasive as the fabled Irishman's flea. Nevertheless, her fame became great in the neighborhood and grew on the element of mystery of her complete isolation after the outdoor work was performed,
All other maids and servants in the neighborhood were abjured by their several mistresses to model their energies and devotion along the lines of Mrs. Johnson's “jewel.”
One fateful day last week the tragedy occurred which wrecked an idol.
The mysterious servant was at work washing a window at Mrs. Johnson’s home. As usual she was the cynosure of many covetous eyes. She worked silently, albeit blithely, when suddenly she lost her equilibrium and for a moment it seemed she would fall from her perch to the ground with a dull, sickening thud.
Frantically she tried to recover her balance and save herself from a fall. She threw up her arms and as she did so she scalped herself completely and tore the green spectacles from her optics. There, to the affrighted onlookers, was revealed Mrs. Johnson minus a red wig and the disguise of green eye shades—a perfect jewel of a maid no longer, but her own sweet and efficient self.
The neighbors were slhocked. by the revelation, but what she lost in prestige as a maid Mrs. Johnson has gained in the reputation of being the most artistic camouflager in Omaha.
RELATED LINKS
Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? / Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage / Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage / Optical science meets visual art / Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness / Under the big top at Sims' circus
