The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page
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Afternoon Tea and Ironing Day in th "Cottage-on
Wheel." On the Right It a Photograph
of the Whola "Caravan."
LAST August Mist Berenice Lome and William O. 8chmelk,
s well-known New York artist, were married. Miss Logue
had been Mr. Bcnmelke'a model (or some of his most
successful work.
. "How shall we spend our honeymoon?" they had asked
when the date for the wedding was set. How they answered the
question and what has happened to them since the day they set
forth wtth Oswald, their "durable horse," Mrs. 8ehmelk, after
more than six months of honeymooning, here entertainingly
relates.
By Berenice Schmelke
HEN we decided to marry. Billy
and I decided also that we were
going to be really happy on our
honeymoon. Of course, so the poeta and
all aay, the happiest way to spend a
honeymoon la to become a "lore-in-a-cot-tager."
But we also wasted to trarel on our
honeymoon. How could we travel and
hare oar. lore in a cottage at the aame
time?
Picture ua thinking heavily! Ah!
That's the idea! We would have love In-a-cottage-on-wheels!
And that'a what we're having.
Automobllea were too fast and too ex
pensive. Besides one could hardly call
an auto a cottage on wheels. What we
wanted waa a horse and a caravan. That
Is what we got As we had decided to
extend our honeymoon for a year at
least and travet all over the South all
the time we wanted, of course, we bought
the most durable kind of horse we could
get.
We have him still. His name la Oswald.
He was a dray horse pulling coal on the
Brooklyn docks, where we saw him first
and were charmed with his strength and
else he weighs 1,600 pounds so we
bought him for $200. After more than
six months of traveling he is in perfectly
good condition, although not quite ao
heavy.
Our caravan cost fZOO to have built,
also. The inislde measurements are '4
feet long by & feet wide and 6 feet high,
with roll up canvas curtains back and
front, and a little window in each side.
The general; rffect is that of a small pa
per box wagon, the weight being 1.400
pounds. It could have been built very
much cheaper and lighter It made with
-rounded canvas top like the old fsshloned
-prairie schooner which the horse traders
use down South, but it would not be so
cosy and homelike, especially In rainy
j weather. It pays to have it well built in
the beginning because we have bad no
accidents with the wagon besldea a few
rips In the canvas which we mended our
aelvea. ! Our furniture Is simple and Inexpen
sive, since we built most of It ourselves.
Vnder the driver's seat are two sbelvea
with our books and a box for provisions,
stlbbes and od'is and ends. The lid pro
jects, and serves a double purpose, being
av desk on one side and an Ironing board
(n the other.
The bed is two mattresses,' one laid
on the other, to form
a couch In the day,
leaving a floor apace
three foet wide. At
the back is our chif
fonier, Juat a box
with shelves, cov
ered with cretonne
and with a mirror
above, and opposite
a little stove the
smallest site we
could buy which
cost eight dollars.
The rug, couch cov
er, cushions and cur
tains are all green
to iatch the walls.
Niy kitchen uten
sils are aluminum
and ao have not
shown the alightest
bit of wear. We
carry a little fifteen
i i"
1:F
dollar phonograph, the' especial delight of
aim: le country folk, many of whom have
never heard one before, and a chafing
dish for quick lunches and candy mak
ings. However, I think our whole in
terior equipment cost less than fifty
dollars.
After we had gotten everything to
gether we bad to decide how much we
wanted to spend every meek. We de
cided at lost to allow ourselves five
dollars a week to run our establish
ment. Two dollars of that Is for horse
feed, usually oats, core being very much
more expensive In the South. We almost
always manage to get an armful of hay
for the night from neighboring farmers
for a few centa, and more often for noth
ing at all.
We repair the harness ourselves. Any
one csn do this by carrying a supply of
rivets and bits of old leather. Fuel coata
ua nothing, aa there la always an abun
dance of wood, and when we are near a
railroad track we have the added luxury
of coal.
We usually spend the remaining three
dollars for food, it is less expensive to no
tice what the people In each place eat and
follow their example. For instance, the
aoutbernera make great use of sweet po
tatoes, -which are twelve centa a peck,
bacon at eleven centa a pound, rice, corn
meal and hominy, and they are all the
best or tbelr kind. I am collecting every
new recipe that 1 discover, and my cook
book will be cue of the most complete
of ita kind, and unique.
And. oh yes! If you ever go caravan
log never forget to take a medicine cheat
lave m A f mi f1' $
I A ft ."'' p ;.- WMl.nHfj aaaeaannwi'l 1 ""-. '
Coirade-oerFvim -
V V JiLv&iLw)' F'v ,( I i. 7 . ....
' il rfis 's Bride Who Is
Taking a Year's Honeymoon.
in a Kitchenette Wagon
Tells How They Live on $5
a Week and
Healthy and
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i '. v .t,a .-? -
;ttKi-! it:
Oswald, the "Durable Horse."
with full directions tor use. We have a
tiny one, which, although we have neves
had to use it, gives us great confidence.
I am writing thla now from "some
where in Florida." We have been more
than aix months on our wedding Journey
and it baa been Just perfectly lovely
every bit of it.
Adventures? Lots of them- And, to go
back again to the automobile idea, ao
many people have asked ua while on our
way why we didn't take an auto Instead
of a horse, "so as to trsvel faster." Tha
reasons why we didn't were, as I have
astd, the expense, our preference for the
gypsy style and the fact that we didn't
want "to go faster." But since then we
have discovered thst our wsy Is the only
way! Besidea being cheaper, which It Is, of
course, in spite of the steady rise In the
price of feed the farther south one goes,
there are the discouraging roads In some
States. There are still a great many so
called automobile roads which are Im
passable except toy the lighter cars, and
the despairing expressions on the faces
of the owners give one the impression
thst their efforts are far from pleasant
For example, on the road from Dum
fries to Fredericksburg, Va., there la a
frightful mud hole, the mere existence
of which In dry weather la enough to
cause suspicion. Kvery passing auto
mobile sticks in it. until several rough,
uncouth natlvea appear, build a bridge
of planka. which are atrangely near at
hand, and push the car over. Where
upon the frantic and perspiring owner
paya them and goea on hla way.
Ceprrisht, 19ia br the Star Company. Great Britain Rights Raaervel
Are Happy,
Economical
i 1
' s
Dinner Almost Ready.
They then break tip the bridge, throw
the.planka Into the gutter, and after deep
ening the mud hole, If they think it nec
essary, disappear until the next victim
appears.
We were ao angry with their duplicity
that we rested two or three hours, and
then attacked the mud hole ourselves,
and owing to the enthusiastic aid of the
noble Oswald, pulled through with flying
colors.
There have been many trials like the
Dumfries mud bole, and still our horse
haa not lost his Pickwickian girth, or hla
complacent disposition. I doubt if an
auto with ao heavy a load aa oura would
have done ao well.
Ever alnce we atarted we have been
wonderfully fortunate In finding euch de
lightful camping placea at night, in aplte
of the uncomfortableness of finding our
selves on very private property where we
shouldn't be at all. One night In New
Jersey we camped quite Innocently near a
convicts' camp, until a man came up to
Inform ua that If the authorltlea, whoever
those mysterious beings are, knew we
were there we would be arrested on the
ausplcion of helping convtcta to escape
Can you imagine anything more thrtUlng
ly criminal than that? So we atayed. but
we were unlucky, because4hey didn't dis
cover ua after all.
Another time we stayed on the property
of the Newark Water Supply without
realising how very aacred and private
water aupply property ia, until an excited
guard came rushing up to destroy us.
But we argued and argued, and finally be
F ii J "
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PHOTO nr INTMNATIANftU FtVM CC.ViCfc,.
went away, but I
am aure we are the
only people In the
United States who
ever aet up house
keeping on the
Newark Water
Supply!
Those were the
days when It hadn't
occurred to ua to
ask permission to
spend the night on
private property.
We used to select n
a desirable spot,
take possession
and then wait for
the advent of the
owner, who alwaya
turned up, and then
trust to our per
sonal charm and
hla good disposi
tion to let us stay.
He usually did, but
It la ao much
simpler and more
satisfactory to ask
first.
Thla is not ao
true of the South
where land la less
valuable, ' houses
fewer and people
not ao auspicious
S- 'r.i
( -
of strangers, except the Southern gen
tleman in Maryland who was going to
shoot Billy for carrying me off, and yet
who allowed hla own wife and daughter
to drudge themselves to death on hla
farm.
We have camped perfectly happily and
socially In the same grove with Italian
organ grinders, horse traders and gypsies,
although we generally avoid the latter,
they having never been sufficiently taught
the law of mine and thine. We have
chatted with a Civil War veteran who re
. membered Grant and Lee in Spottsyl
vanla Courthouse; we have awapped ex
perlencea with a horse trader who had
been gypsylng for ten years; we saved a
peanut factory from burning to the
ground In Virginia; we witnesed a regu
lar old fashioned negro baptism In a
river, which had all the welrdnetta of a
heathen rite, and we discovered a still
with some sure-enough, dime-novel moon
shiners in North Carolina.
Despite our good intentiona and discus
sion of expenses before we started out,
we soon discovered that neither of us haa
s grain of sense about finances. It has '
only been for the past few weeks that
we have been keeping aocounta. Before
that, as long as there was any money to
eiend It went recklessly, and after that
we lived with painful economy for a time
until we caught up with our schedule.
It Is possible to live this alternate lean
and fat life to a much greater extent In a
"cottage on wheels" than In a plain cot
tage. Simplest food seema luxurious
out, of doora, and there are very few
Mra. Berenice Schmelke Cooking Dinner on the
Stove of the "Cottage-on-Wheela."
things one can spend money for on long,
mysterious roads, where there are only
tree taverns for birds and the Jealously
guarded treasure hoards of squirrels. But
since the accounts we find that we can
live perfectly comfortably on our five
dollars a week and usually with some left
over.
Sometimes when we are near cities we
find ourselves yearning for civilization.
This means extra expense, for civiliza
tion seems to Include theatres, restau
rants and unexpected costs. So then we
march up to the city editor of the best
known paper and offer him our story for
a aufflclently modest sum, which. Is
simple, not troublesome, and pays for the
celebration. We stopped In this way at
Baltimore, Washington and Richmond,
returning to the last several times to ad
mire the beautiful Capitol building with
Its graceful lines, aet In a aunny park.
But why do they have convicts In stripes
wandering about the lawna sweeping up '
the leaves and keeping children off the
grass?
These are our only expenses, food for
ourselves and the horse, luxuries, and
horseshoes, for our horse loses his shoe
with startling rapidity, the reason being. I .
think, that the southern blacksmiths are
used to shoeing only mules and smaller
horses, and ao do not use sufficient effort
to nail them firmly.
As I write there Is a hunt going on la
our woods, and unfortunately we seem to
be the centre of It. About eight able
bodied men and ten or twelve doga have
been pursuing one small, shaky rabbit
all morning long, with the most blood
curdling howls, which they Vise for sig
nals. There Is a certain class of men
here who never have any work to do et
all. They go about in rags, and aeem to
be half fed, but there Isn't one who can't
afford his rifle and hla hunting dogs. In
the north there are a great many people
ao poor that they can't afford the lux
uries of life. Here, when a man Is poor,
he can't afford the necessities, although
he always finds a way to get the luxuries
It sounds like an attractive system, but it
produces the most unattractive specimens
of humanity, the chief end of whose
existence is the capture of the 'possum
and the rabbit.
We do not suffer the slightest discom
fort from bad weather. In fact we rather
look forward to a few days of rain as a
rest We put our horse in some good
natured neighbor'a barn there are al
waya euch in the South build a cosy
little fire and close either the back or
the front curtain according to the direc
tion of the rain. The wagon is perfectly
waterproof and nothing haa ever Buffered
from dampness or mat.
When it was warmer we used to put
on our bathing suits, and go out la tha
rain for a cold shower.
We have both gained slightly in weight
and are greatly improved in health, due
to keeping early hours and simple food,
and best of all. the open air. We are
going to continue our Journey all through
Florida, and from that on our plana are
very indefinite.
But wherever we go we've proved one
thing. Love in a cottage-on-wheela Is lots
better and more Interesting than Just
plain love In a cottage.
