Los Angeles herald., 1906-01-14

a long period of drudgery managed to
| save $50. Then came the trick of fate
| that changed the whole current of her
| life. While still a shy country girl
she was subpoenaed as witness in a
case in court. She took the witness
chair, tmid ana trembling. The sol
emnity OF the proceedings awed her,
but fear gave way to girlish curiosity
| when she observed the court Stcnog-
rapher making his strange marks as
she talked. She had not the faintest
idea what he was doing. but she was
determined to find out After the court
session was over she ventured to the
side of the stenographer.
81 wish you would tell me what you
were doing while | was testfying," she
said, questioningly.
IL was writing down just what you
said was the reply.
"You don't mean to tell me you got
every word just as / said them?"
EVERY word; want me to read it to
you?"
NO; but why couldn't 1 learn to do
that too?"
There's no reason why you
couldn't"
That night as she lay in bed Flor
ence King, the farmers servant girl,
decided she would give up The old life
stenographer. She took her boarded
thirty dollars and went to Mount Nor
rs business college She presented
herself before President J. G.. Roger
and recited the story of her difficulties
and her hopes.
"If you have made up your mind to
trampla over those obstacles to educate
yourself" said the amiable man, Il
guess you will find help here. Go and
consult my daughter and she may be
able to give you work as a waitress in
the dining room to pay your living eX-
penses.'
1t was so arranged. Miss King gave
three hours a day to this menial labor
and applied herself assduously the rest
of her time to her chosen course. In
June, 1890, she was graduated as a
stenographer and typewriter and i'm
mediately went to Chicago with ten
dolIars in her purse. She engaged her
self to a publishing house at Sc Il week,
but with court stenography then as
the height of her ambition, she sought
employment in the office of an attor-
ney, meantime boarding herself and
occupying the humblest of quarters
There were times when she was hun
gry but that was her secret.
Subsequently she went to live in a
working girls home. There she talked
little, but she listened well. One even
ing at table she heard one of the girls,
with whom she was not personally ac-
quainted, say she had been dismissed
from her position in a law office. Here
was another trick of fate and it. too,
was followed by a night of waking
dreams. Early the next morning Miss
King sought a city directory, found
the address of the lawyer and sought
employment from him. He happened
TO be patent" attorney, an important
fact in view of subsequent develop
ments, in the career of Miss King. She
was engaged at 81 a week.
Miss King is her own technician and
expert. She can make intricate draw
ngs and specifications and elucidate
mechanical principles to the finest de-
tail she is intimately familiar with
the construction, purpose and operation
of every one of the hundreds of parts
of a locomotive or dynamo. She dis
cusses them ftuently and authorita-
lively. The keenest mechanician is un-
able to confound her once she has made
study of particular device.
one Of the most prominent patent at
tOrneyS in the country once refused TO
go into court with a case after he had
learned Miss King was to represent
the opposition. This fact was disclosed
by friend or MISS King. She rSluSeu
to discuss It. This reputation for
painstaking investigation of every in
terest she is asked to defend is bring
ing more and more important cases
into her practice.
The triumph of her career as law
yer came in the supreme court OF the
United States in 1903 in a suit inYolv-
ing the rights in packing for jour
nails used in axle boxes on railroad
equipments. The inventor had spent
three years, from 1897, the year the
patent was issued, until 1900, trying
to induce the railroads to use his pack
ing. In 1900 he died and left his pat
ent to his widow who had no other
means OF support She licensed the
patent TO a big supply company with a
capital of s5.000000, the company
agreeing TO pay her a minimum royalty
OF $4,000 a year. The company full
filled it's contract for time and then