The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1899-07-14
WOMAN RAN A CAR.
MRS. MABEL BRIEFLY OF PcRT JEWS
N, Y. HANDLED THE BRAKE.

pany intorn,ed IIou slc Must rursu" ii"r
Studies Elsewhere.
A young woman has shown that her
sex is quite. capable Of handbag the
electric juggernaut with Skill AND
safety, says the New York he.aid.
She is Mrs. Mabel Briefly, Of Port Jer-
Wis. N. Y, who has been learning III
Middlesown how to be motor-woman.
She has been accompanied by an IN
struetor during the week she was on
trial.
After one week of operating tha
brake her services were dispensed with,
but she has determined to follow her
newly adopted profession elsewhere.
Her husband demonstrated with the
superintendent, and the latter conclud-
ed that the woman's presence ON tho
car was giving the road too much no
toriety.
Mrs. Biierly was mach depressed,
but declared she would go to Port Jer-
Wis and get q position on the electric
road there, as she was determined to
make it life business in spite of jeers
tand tauntS.
The car from which Mrs. Briefly
hoped to graduate belonged to the Mid
dletown Goshen Traction Company,
and was used as an express car be-
tween Middletown and Goshen. The
forward end was used to convey boxes
nd bundles sent by express, whi1e the
rear was .partitioned off as a smoking
car.
Mrs. Briefly went on duty at z
O'Clock in the morning. The track
streets and then among fields and
woods to Midway Park and Goshen.
AS soon as the express ear was out in
the open, where there is little danger
of accident, the motorwoman threw
the cape of her macintosh back over
her shoulders and grasped the brake
with one hand and the controller with
the other. She answered the caution
of her companion with the remark
that if she could handle a bicycle she
could take care of trolley car.
She knew how to modify the current
and take the car around curves with
out "a jolt. If COW got on the track,
as sometimes happened, she tangled
the gong until the animal fed in dis
may. She likes the work and means
to continue it.
Mrs. Briefly is tall and strong, and
thirty years old. This is the account
which she gives Of herself and of the
reasons which led her to engage in her
novel occupation:
MY name before / was married was
Mabel McCarty. My mother lives in
Matamoras, where she is nurse. My
husband, Charles Briefly, left me, and
/ was forced to support myself and
my three children as best l could.
II tried first one thing and then an
other, working at almost anything that
could get to do. Finally ] became an
agent for a household article. and sold
it all through this part Of the State,
using a bicycle to get around. l find
can do mans work, and when l
have learned all about running a car
am going back to Port Jervis to try
for position on the new road there.
don't think the work is hard. Any
way, it is a lot better than doing
housework for some fretting woman"
Mrs, Brierly's entrance into a hela
which has hitherto been occupied ex-
clusively by men has aroused some op-
position among the latter. One of
them wrote note TO her a short time
ago and left it where she would see
It, telling her that she had better go
back to Port Jeryis "and not be trying
to run men with families out Of jobs"
in Middletown. Another man has Of
fered her work cutting wood in CALI
coon, and promises not to charge her
anything for board. A citizen of Mid
dletown has written to her to say that
he will give her pair of boots if she
will wear boomers. She has not &C
cepted the boots.
She has even had a proposal of mar
riage through the notoriety which her
work has given her. A short time
ago she received a letter from Scran-
ton, Pa, signed by James Runyon, OF
that place, telling her that he has a
good salary from the Scranton rail-
road and would like to correspond with
her concerning matrimony.
Perhaps however, the motorwoman
may come to the conclusion that it
will be better to go back to her own
home and resume her place in the
ranks Of matrons whose names are not
heard beyond the circle OF their
friends. Her husband is anxious to
have her adopt this course He went
to Middletown day or two ago to ask
her to return to Port Jervis. where he
promises to establish a home for her.
When he arrived he found that his
wife had just left for Goshen on the
express car, and he was obliged to
wait for an hour for her return.