The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-04-05

like for a young girl to make tele-
phone. Wen the phone did not work.
Like many another enterprise on which
high hopes hang, it failed. Yet not
wholly. for il made buzz buzz that
was really scary to one knowing not
whence it came. and to that extent the
girl was consoIed. She knows now that
the magnets were not right A friend
of the family, seeing how intensely n
earnest she was in pursuit Of scientific
knowledge, gave her the latest and best
books on the subject that most occu-
pied her. Thus at an age when ordi-
nary girls are reading novels Edith
Griswold was delving into the mysteries
Of electricity with the ardor of Mar
conf Astronomy was also a science
that attracted her powerfully, naturally
because of her mathematical bent
She found a school of steam engineer
ing that admitted girl pupils. Fortu-
nately. again. nobody prevented her
from studying steam engineering on the
ground that it was not ladylike. 80 n
this school she and a girl friend en-
rolled themselves as students. One day
their teacher showed his class some
exquisite mechanical drawings that had
been prepared for United States patent
Office inspection. The work was so
wold's mathematical imagination, and
she and the girl friend decided they
would prepare themselves for patent
Office drawing. In the school of steam
engineering they learned the use Of
mathematical Instruments. and at it
the two went with enthusiasm, practic-
ing for future excellence. The first OBJ
ject they made a drawing Of according
to patent Office rules was an ink bottle.
MI
neys in New York and interviewed
them. Ore lawyer gave Miss Griswoid
a set Of old patent Office drawings.
These she took home and copied over
and again week after week with the
earnestness and fidelity OF soul that
characterize her in every undertaking.
Thus the eye and hand of exactness IN
curve and angle developed till she felt
herself able to make pictures OF ma
chinery. What the woman patent at
torney has obtained in either honor or
emolument she has earned.
At length she had some pretty little
cards printed in violet ink announcing
that Miss Edith J. Griswold was pre-
pared to make patent office drawings to
order. She got in return some work.
though patent lawyers. with the supe-
rior wisdom that characterizes the mas
culine sex. often refused to consider her
seriously. She did, however. obtain
regular employment in the Office of a
solicitor. who paid her s6 a week. She
was making progress. For awhile. too.
she taught mathematics in girls
school and made patent Office drawings
at home in the afternoon
After a time she opened an Office for
! preparing mechanical drawings and
soon had more orders than she herself
could I'LL. Things had come her way at
last. But a nobly aspiring nature IS
never content with present achieve
ment One of her customers, a patent
attorney, Mr.. Hubert Howson, offered
her the place Of managing clerk in his
Office. She saw in this an Opportunity
to learn more than she could do alone.
so, without hesitating. she gave up her
own established business and became
Mr.. Howson's head clerk. In his EN-
ploy she remained several years, learn
ing still. always learning
Then a new dream. a higher aspira-
tIon-could not she herself be 8 patent
attorney Why not? There was 10
reason. The thought that being a wo-
man prevented her from doing what
she wished in the industrial world had
never been educated into her, and she
did not know how to fail
Her employer became her preceptor
and gave her every aid IN his power,
which her grateful soul duly appreci-
ates, for thus some hard things we're
made easier for her. With him she
studied mostly till she was able to pass
examination for the bar. In 1897 she
opened her own Office as patent solic-
itor, passing her examinations for the
bar a year later. She is now rated as
an authority on trademark and copy
right.
Miss GriswoId looks back over a path
toilsome, but ever tending upward ana
replete with happiness. because OF the
/ kindness and affection of the friends
she made along the road; because, too.
she had trained herself to meet the
events of this life in that spirit which
was the Iamented Robert Louis Steven
sons most cherished ideal. a spirit
courageous and gay"
So may we, too, whatever happens be
courageous and gay.
LILLIAN GRAY.