The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-22
TALKS OF MRS. READER
CAPTAIN KOLB RECALLS INTER-. sr ESTING ALABAMA WOMAN.
First Met Her as Miss Rawls at Fa- thef's Home In Perry County
 and Later h New ~ .----+ York. -

noon primed his memory. Crowded into Captain Kolb's fund of reminis- cences are many things of diplomatic interest and his political lore of Ala bama would not make a small epitome. Captain Kolb knew Miss Ella Rawls He first met her in his momentous gu-
 bernatorial campaign of 1892. He met her in Perry County. a modest but virilc
 maiden, living on the humble cotton
 farm of her father. just ten miles from Marion. The historic candidate had just loosed roll of campaign thunder
 upon the denizens of that precinct. He was struck with the attractiveness
 of little Miss Rawls, which, however
 gave no promise then of maturing into
 the interesting figure which is now the exposure of the national political eye. Beautiful tufty hair of a dusky hue fell over her shoulders. Admirable though she was in her physical appearance,
 there was no index to the mental en- ersy and the wonderful hustle that characterized her commercial life after wards
 Il little dreamed then" said Captain kolb yesterday, as he sat in his of1ice in the Moses building. looking out over Court Square, that the country girl
 whose experience up to that moment
 was bounded by the pine rails and tho
 clrciing woods about the fathers farm.
 would astonish the nation with such | marvellous business ability as she has ] shown. l had delivered a typical 1892 campaign speech to the people of that section, and by invitation of Miss hawls's father, spent the day in their modest household. It was a pleasant stay with me. I have always remem-
 oered fondly the experiences of my
 campaign in Perry County. And par
 ticularly the Rawls family I shall never forget"
 This was in 1892. Captain Kolb roll ed back the pillows of time Since the appearance of Mrs. Readers name in the deliberations of Congress he has
 sent his mind back to- the year 1898. It was then that he visited the offices or Miss Rawls on Wall Street. She
 was good deal older than in the child
 hood uncertainties of Perry County. In
 her magnificent suite of offices she was
 surrounded by a corps of stenographers ana typewrfters who numbered at least seventy-five or eighty. They were all In her employ. In an elegant flat in u prominent part of New York she had
 living with her father. mother, broth CTS sisters and few kinsmen. Her net income from typewriting contracts at that time was $6,000 a month. There lay in her iron chest the unqualified en- dorsements of J. Pierpont Morgan, ex, Governor Morton of New York and the most distinguished f1nanciers of Wall street. That was her income then
 what it Is now Is not known, but must be much larger.
 Miss Rawls was, I suppose, about
 z4 years old when I called on her in ner omces, continued the genial Cap tain kolb. She received me cordially. It was some piece of chance that put L1 was in New York and found her in a few minutes of my leisure time. She told me good deal of her career in New York. She had gone there from Birmingham and first went to work Tor some office for a pittance of wages, This did not last long, however. be- fore she conceived the Idea of hunting typewriting contracts and establishing bureau in Wall Street. The short time In which she executed this Idea Is astonishing. She certainly has di-t plomacy. She has good looks, too. had them then and has them now. as I un- derstand It was partly her smiles that raked in the typewriting con tracts, put mostly her inherent busf- ness tact and diplomacy.
 T told her in my brief conversation with her that the next thing on her program would be the marrying of A rich Yankee. Well, she vowed she would always remain single. Her pre- Vailfng ambition, she admitted. was to make money and surround her family with comfort. There is no doubt that she has done that. She has incident ally taken unto herself a husband too It was not wealthy financier. as l predicted. but a man of some promi- hence, MT. Reader, a New Zealander. private secretary to the Governor of Ceylon. He met Miss Rawls in Lon don and married her in 1901.
 The shrewdest accomplishment of Mrs. Reader has never been told, or at least l have not yet read of 1t in the newspapers. Perhaps 1t is something of secret and shouldn't tell 1t. This IS far away. though, and will relate It to you. In the presidential cam paign of 1896 Miss Rawls, as she was then, having put her business prettv well under way. looked with envious eye on the enormous amount of tvpe writing work that was to be let by the Republican, Democratic and Populistic campaign Headquarters. Miss RawIs told me she studied for a long time on which tob she would concentrate. Sud denly it occurred to her mind. 'whats the matter with bagging them all. If was delicate task. You would hard " nelieVe that single woman could display such nnesse of management as to Jump iLto the field of competition and procure the confidential corres pondence of all three great campaign headquarters. Yet that is what she did. Even to this day the Republican manager and the Democratic manager and the Populist manager are alf iEno- rant that through a common mind all the political schemes of each nassed yet without a single instance of ha trayaI."
 Before going to New York 1t is in- teresting to trace some little of Miss Rawls's history that is known through Captain Kolb. She went to the Judson Institute at Marion, when she grad uated with some distinction. The at mosphere of Marion is one of culture and art. They have inspired many pupils of that school but it was a rare thing for graduate to take on Intense desires for commercial life. From Marion Miss Rawls went to Birming- ham where she was a saleswoman in M. J. Mullaney's dry goods store. It was there that she is believed to have first studied stenography. She went from there to New York where she dwelt in obscurity for short time and gradually sprang into business promi- hence.
 Stories printed in Birmingham news- papers entangle the woman in a scan. dal but of this Captain Kolb says he knows nothing nor did Miss Rawls re- fer to it.
 Of Mrs. Readers diplomatic achieve