The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-29
MRS. IVA l.. TUTT Builder Of Electrical Power Plants


 Arizona, "dry zone," like certain otn- .r narts of the southwest. possesses untold wealth of mines. There are known to be gold veins of fabulous richness in mountain 1edges upon which rain never falls No water is within hundred miles of some of the richest of these. Whitening bones of man ana horse attest now and then to daring explorers who pass by that here crazed gold hunter perished from thirst in the desert. If only water could pc carried to the points where the mines are, millions that can scarcely De esti- mated would be added to the wealth or the country.
 Many men have tried to achieve this result and failed. One woman has suc- ceeded She is Mrs. Iva E. Tut, whose homes is in Los Angeles and whose | business enterprises are in Arizona. Mrs, Tutt's father was steamboat engineer on the Mississippi. Frequent- 1 ly he took the little girl with him on l his trips, she remaining with him in the engine room, which had fascina- | tion for her, while the dull ladies cap- | in had none. It was a delight to her to
 watch the governor balls of shining steel whirl round and round, the | great piston rod glide noiselessly to | and fro, and the sizzle of the steam | was music to her ears. That uncom- | mon girl child knew what cam and | Joint and collar were as well as she knew bread and milk and peppermint
 drops. We'll enough she liked the l things little girls usually cared for, but better still she liked steam ma-
 chinery and the engine room.
 This bent was born in her, and 1t
 wasn't by mistake that 1t was born in | T,,, AIH nd | could understand. what she read her choice of entertaining literature was the scientific and engineering perioai- calls her father subscribed for.
 Still like the boy Parsifal, she was | ignorant that she was to have any spe- cial part to play in connection with the | experiences of her youthful days. She married in Minnesota when very young and-went to live on a Montana ranch. | Here she had little to occupy her ex- | cept to watch others do what she knew she herself could do better than they. She did not take naturally or easily to this do-less life. She fretted under 1t like a race horse held back from the running.
 She had some money of her own, and she saved and accumulated 1t, looking | forward to the time when she could i break the chain that held her to tnac- ton. The ranch life became more of a l nightmare to her every year, staying i there doing nothing" shut out of indi- vidual development, throbbing and ! thrilling with the power to achieve that
 was born in her but could find no out | let. The real gifts of many a woman who might bless the world are stran- gled out of her by the life of useless
 ness society demands from the well to | do woman.
 Mrs. Tut could not submit to being
 strangled thus in silence. She longed
 unspeakably to plunge into the current | and go on with the swim of things. At | length she took the money she had
 saved and went to Southern California.
 seeking investment for it in something
 that would warmly interest her cease
 lessly working mind. At Long Beach,
 not far from Los Angeles, she found
 that an electric light plant was badly
 needed to supply the hourishing sea
 side resort. With a natural bent to-
 ward constructive engineering, Mrs, | Tut began to think how such plant
 could be provided. She resolved to build
 one herself. She knew little of electri-
 cal construction, although her knowl- 1 edge of steam engineering helped her
 greatly. She began to seek the further l knowledge of electrical machinery. She ] got books and studied; she visited eiec-
 tric plants already in operation, and
 learned more. She ordered the machin-
 cry installed and watched 1t being set
 up piece by piece By the time the work
 was finished and in successful opera
 tion Mrs. Tut had become a capable practical electrical engineer.
 Somebody had to manage this con-
 cern in which Mrs. Tut had invested
 all her money. She looked for a super
 intendent and found nobody who could
 direct operations so well as she her
 self could. She became president and
 general manager of the Long Beach l electric power and lighting plant
 Meantime her husband and little
 daughter had come to Long Beach too
 Mrs. Tut made the mistake of at-
 tempting to be at the same time man.
 ager of an electric plant and of her do-
 mestic plant, likewise singing in a
 church choir and keeping up with what
 are called society duties. Many a wo-
 man has tried before her to be busi-
 ness and society woman at the same l time. Not one ever yet succeeded. One
 lifetime is only large enough to ac- l eomplish well one crowning object
 Mrs. Tut fell i'll in trying to do three i things at once. When she recovered she