The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-04-16
THE GIRL MILLER.
MISS sALLIE TREICHLER ONLY ONE IN THE UNITED STATES.

She Knows the Trade and Art of MIfIing From the Ground Up.
 On the headquarters of the Perho- men river in Pennsylvania stands flour mill a century old and famous for miles around. Its fame does not rest on its age, but on the fact that the miller is girl. one not out of her teens by two years.
 She is the only girl miller in the Key stone state. Berks county folk say and the only one in the United States, they believe; certainly the best, II there are others. They are jealous or her, are these Berks county folk, and while they know her personally and ln business dealings as Miss Sallie R. Triechler, they speak of her to strangers as the Girl Miller of the Perkiomen.
 Although Miss Triechler is only IS years old, she has had charge of the mill for two years. Not only the book Keeping and correspondence devolve up- on her, but also the actual labor. It is she who drags the fat sacks of grain into the mill as they are noisted by 8 windlass from the farmers wages three stories below. It is she who weighs the grain, who turns on the wa ter power that runs the mill, who fills the hoppers, who packs in barrels the flour from the millstones and who ships it to market. It is she who faces the ponderous grinding disks that they may powder the grain evenly and finely. In fact, the Girl Miller of the Perkiomen is the miller in all senses of the word.
 The trade and the art of milling were handed down to Miss Triechler, as was the mill, from her father and her grandfather. From infancy to girl hood she played about the old building, so that the ability to test flour, to know the quality of grain at sight, de- veloped in her as did the power of peech-unconsciously naturally.
 The mill is situated on the west bank of the picturesque river. near the town of Hereford. Just above 1t the waters are held back by a dam, so that they form a little lake that is long and mar row and deep. A sluice leads the wa ter to the mill where it hurls itself against the paddles of a great wheel, citing it in motion and filling the mill with a rumbling as, cog in cog and belt on shafting the cumbersome ma cfinery begins to turn.
 Hereford was famous sixty years or more ago as a stage coach certer. From it ran lines to Norristown, Philadelphia, Pottstown Easton and Allentown, with direct connection by coach with New York and Pittsburg; and the old hotel at which the drivers pulled up their | painting horses and from which they de- parted was owned by the great-grand- father of the Girl Miller.
 The valley of the Perkiomen is fertile and peopled with sturdy. thrifty des- cendants from rugged German stock. l This same strain runs through the Treichler family and the Girl Miller has all its qualities of industry and deter imitation. In school she was a close student, puncual, attentive, bright. When she took charge of the mill, al- most immediately after her school days were ended, she was equally punctual and attentive. She gave all her energies to making the business a success financially and so increasing the reputation of the output of the mill
 On the money side she has succeeded, she says, although her net yearly pro-
 
 ity of the flour is attested by the de- mand, which is more than the mill, N with it's daily capacity of 2,0OO pounds, or ten barrels, can supply. For ten months in the year the water wheel is < turning from soon after daylight until \ dark, and the flour brings the miller an B average return of $40 a day. For the other two months of the year the mil is idle for repairs or because of high water, which would threaten the build ing with an inundation if the sluice was left open.
 Rye is the grain chiefly ground by the Girl Miller, but can turn out wheat flour of an equally high standard change the oats of her farmer patrons into "chop" for their cattle or turr their corn into yellow meal. There is a class of bakers who assert no rye flour is equal in quality to that ground between stones, and these keep the pro duct of the mill at a premium. She has customers even in New York, where bread from her flour finds it's way tc the bar of the saloons beside the pret- gel and the stein of beer.
 From playing in the mill as a chilC 1t was only step for Miss Triechler tt learn the necessary craft of keeping the mill clean by the aid of a broom Then came the more technical parts such as the care and oiling of the bear ings of the machinery, the turning ol of the water power, the adjustment o the upper to the neither stone to regu late the fineness of the four, the intri cacies of the whole mechanism. Al these things she learned under tn watchful eye of her father himself { miller from his boyhood to the tim when he turned over to her the tasl and responsibilities she now bears
 It is only rare occasions that the Cir Miller has assistance-when an extrs large load of rye arrives or a heav, shipment of four is to be made-ant then only to expedite affairs. Sh thinks nothing of handling a three bushel sack rye or a barrel of flour, fo she has learned the knack of movins them with the least exertion, and tn mill is fitted so far as possible wit labor-saving devices.
 She is no Hercules, as one might ex pect. Instead, she is, if anything, little below the average height of wo men and slight of form. She has tn fair hair and complexion typical of tn German race and brown eyes.
 Miss Treichler's home is the home o