The Washington bee., 1907-07-06
WHERE WOMEN RULE
NORWAY, ME-, WORLDS MOST
DIsTINcTIVELY FEMININE CITY.
Sex Supreme in All Vocations-5anks,
Hotels, Post Office and Meat
Markets All Managed
by "Sklrts."

Norway, Me.-Frills, furbelOws and
chiffon do the actual business OF this
bustling thriving New England town
In every line OF commerce and
finance, trade and procession, the sen
tier sex OF Norway is successfully en-
gagged, and it is the most distinctly
"womans town in America. The
women not only clothe. hat and shoe
the population, but they gracefully
preside over meat markets, the post
Office and three hc,els.
The women OF Norway marry the
living and bury the dead. Legal dis
putes are settled by a feminine JUS
tice of the peace. Sick and wound
ed are administered TO by wom-
an doctor. The countryside is pho
tOgraphed by another woman. For
% years the checks of the bank have
been cashed by a small white wOm-
ans hand, while a quarter of a cen
tury is the period that a woman has
swayed the morals, opinions and poll
tics of the town through the columns
of her paper.
A director in the street railway and
the corporation that lights the village
is a woman, and she attends each
and every meeting of the directorate
and gets her pay for attendance with
the same regularity that old Uncle
Russell Sage did.
Yet it cannot be said that the fair
ones of Norway compete with the
men. The latter are too gallant to
permit of competition. They simply
loll back in their big comfortable arm
chairs and admiringly tell what their
women folks" can do.
The S. B. & z. S. Prince store is
not only owned by two sisters, but
everything in the shop is done by wO-
men. The only connection that man
can have with this establishment is
as a purchaser
Across the street from Miss Prince
is a shoe store conducted by Miss
Edith Smith. Mrs. Laura A. Sanborn
can set the type. feed the press and
set up the copy for the Norway Adver-
tiser as easily as she can write its
editorials.
7 was a good adder and that is the
way I started in the banking busi-
ness" is the modest explanation that
Cashier Stella B. Pike gives of her
association with the Norway National
bank. q soon found out, though,
that it took more than an adder Of
figures to be a financier. But women
are especially adapted for the bank
ing business. We are by nature hon
est, and that is the thing that tells in
a bank"
If there is not a preacher handy
and a couple wish to get married,
Miss Margaret A Baker is the one
whom the swain seeks out AS the
justice of the peace she is permitted
to perform the marriage ceremony. to
acknowledge deeds and administer
oaths.
This justice of the peace has
clever young sister Miss Jennie P.
Baker. She is one Of the most capa-
Bile business women in Norway, man
aging a large dry goods store, the
proprietor of which lives in Portland.
Miss Jennie is about 25 years old.
Caring for the dead is one of the
necessary things Of life. Miss Grace
Thayer owns a large undertaking es-
tablishment and is licensed as an un-
dertaker.
For eight years DR.. Annette Ben
nett has been the town physician.
The walls of the studio of Miss Min
ME F. Libby are covered with such
fine examples of photography that her
art should have a national reputa-
ton.
The hotel women of this place are
noted far and near. Martha c. Whit
marsh came to be the proprietor Of
the Elm house. She delights to tell
of the times, 40 years ago, when the
stage, with four, used TO dash up to
her tavern door Mrs. Lizzie Wood
man is the proprietor of the Beale
house. Her sister, Mrs. Ella Tibbitts,
was also a hotel keeper, but she has
retired rich.
One of the biggest butcher shops in
Norway is run by Mrs. Owen P.
Brookes, whose husband insists that
he never made money until his wife
was behind the counter.
There are a couple of women
among the large group of money-mak-
ers who attend simply to the growing
of their fortunes. Miss Elizabeth B.
Beal is a director in the Norway &
Paris Street Railway company, and
she is also a director in the corpora
tion that operates the electric lighting
and power for the village and ad-
jacent land.
There is little or no crime IN Nor
way. The town has not a saloon, and
liquor is not even sold on the quiet
The men do smoke, but the women
are hoping that the time viii come,
and come soon, when this vicious"
habit will not be INDUCED in by the
. voting population.