The Topeka state journal., 1911-09-06
GIRL DID IT ALL.
Continued from Page one.)

Middle creek anL without the least ap-
parent consciousness of the bld days
and worse nights she had caused the
forty imm -tdis of the FGpeka C.ela-
merc.al ~lub-
you see L was called to nurse Mrs.
Rhodes of Topeka when she wss taken
i'll at Bazaar with smallpox 1t was
terrible form of the disease she had,
and she died in spite Of all that could
be done for her Then I begun 20 hear
reports from Topeka about the cpl
demic there. I read them in the papers
and Mr.. Chandler of Bazaar, who mas a
son in Topeka, had q letter from him
telling of the awful conditions there
IT tell you I heard the story from
three or four different sources and be-
lieved it was true. I thought about II
a good deal and finally / decided that
something ought To- De done TO warn
the people Of the state.
.'Then came the day for the meeting
of ,olIr Sunflower Embroidery club. and
I decided that we girls should do some
thing more useful than needlework, so
proposed the idea to them OF warning
the state about the danger OF gong 10
the Topeka fair They thougnta II ooI, ~b''to ~
be q. good plan, and we agreed each TO
send a letter
She Drafted the Letter.
eyes. it was I who drafted the form
of fhe letter and each girl wrote one
and sent it to q paper. We thoushC we
were doing right. It is true that since
then I have seen that the state ooaro
of health has announced tnat tne US US
ease is stamped out in Topeka. we are
not going to send out any more letters
now. I did not mean harm to any one
7 inst wanted to do good and save peo-
nIe from the risk of taking the awful
disease that watched day by day as II
killed Mrs. Rhodes.
Here the reporter nurmured some
thing about the change in the name OF
tie Embroidery club to Protectlon cruz
and asked if the change IN the name
was permanent
The presidents eyes flashed for a
moment, and then she smiled and said;
mo, sir; the change was made just Tor
a day. We amended the charter ana
became the Sunflower Protection clup
for that one date and the next day
brought back the old name OF the sun
flower Embroidery club.
In response to the polite query as 10
her residence before she came to grace
the Middle Creek neighborhood with
her presence and make Chase county
the base for her advertising genius,
Miss Hegwer declined to be specific,
but she did not deny the implication
that she had come from Hutchinson
And so a slip of a girl living in an
obscure neighborhood in a country
county was able, working from slen-
der basis of hearsay and rumors' to en-
danger the success of the plans OF
large body of Topeka business men
who have been working hard for
months and spending money with
lavish hand for a grand state fair The
girl apparently had no backing, no in
fluence, no printing press or postage
frank She had only an embroidery
cl,Ib. recruited from among the coun-
try girls of her neighborhood. They
used pens, not typewriters, and they
furnished their own postage. But they
kicked up q dickens of a row in To-
peka and innocently made most
glaring Misrepresentation of the facts
in the case The harm they did will
live after them. But the reporter was
afraid to tell the Middle Creek duchess
just how great her fault had BEEN
Initials Furnish Clue.
But for the fact that she had used
her initials, ''E. NJ. H. in her letter to
the Hutchinson paper (the other girls