The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-10-01

name, "a. w. Walker" placed upon the
firms sign. Few knew it was the name
of a lady and that the lady was learn
ing the business management of a $780,
100000 estate. Mrs. Walker was and is
very quiet. r r
Malaria, which attacks nearly every
part of the earth, was the foundation
of the fortunes of Powers & Weight
man. William .Weightman came to
America from England when he was
sixteen, seventy-four years ago. He
had already begun to study pharmacy
and came here to assist an uncle, John
Farr, who had established a chemical
laboratory in Philadelphia. The uncle
made a speciality of the manufacture of
sulphate of quinine. All along the Mis-
sissippi valley there was demand for it
as a remedy against what was then
called fever and ague. The demand
was steady and constantly increasing.
William Weightman and a fellow en-
ployee, Thomas H. Powers, were taken
into partnership by Mr.. F'arr. At the
death of Mr. Farr in 1914 the firm name
became Powers e Weightman. From
the beginning preparations of quinine
were a speciality. Then came the civil
war, which more than doubled the de-
mand for quinine, at the same time
that the war duty on the drug increased
its price immensely That was really
the beginning of the great wealth and
influence of the Philadelphia chemists.
Branch houses were established in
Europe and elsewhere. the earth was
for peruvian bark, planta-
lions of cinchona trees were started in
the East Indies, and all contributed to
the wealth of the quinine manufac-
turers. Shrewd. quiet William Weight
man became the largest real estate
owner in Philadelphia. His daughter.
after him, is also shrewd and quiet.
Dollar crazed are we American peo-
pie. The morning the newspapers an
nounced that Mrs. Walker was heir to
all her fathers wealth her fellow i
townspeople, even in well behaved
Philadelphia, rushed in herds and
droves and stood hour after hour in
front of her house just to get a sight
of a person who had 100000, 600. No
respect had they for grief or for the
privacy of a lady's home. Hawklike
fellows with cameras waited to swoop
upon her and snapshot her. The shy,
sensitive lady in black peeped from be-
hind her window shade and saw the i'll
bred throng and was aghast. She was
obliged to go to her Office. The bust
ness of the great house of Weightrnan
could not wait.
The lady telephoned to the police !,
station to have officers sent to clear
the crowd from in front of her home
This was done, and before the COM
bfned chargezfof a number of healthy
looking police officers the throng melt
ed away.s
Mrs. Walker is very charitable. She
has announced her intention of con-
Quoting in the same manner as her ia
Their did this inherited burden of finan-
cial interests scarcely less important
than those of a Pierpont Morgan or a
James J. Hill. The chemical laborato-
ries give work to 700 people, men and
women, Mrs Walker is at her office at
o'clock in the morning. She is fond
of autornob sting and uses an electric
carriage to go. to- and from her BUSH
ness. Mrs. Walker is also a scholar
and an accomplished linguist. She
speaks French and German as well as
English. LILLIAN GRAY.