The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-25

which they traVeled had not DOX ana had to stop frequently At Menlo Park, while the hot box was being repacSed, their train was run into by train be- hind. When the crash came Mrs. Fisher was chatting with some neighbors, who were seated in the seat just behind her. Captain Fisher was seated some distance away reading. The wreck was a horrible one. It took 20 minutes for the rescuers to dig Mrs. Fisher out. First they had to get out dead man. whose body was close to hers. She was in terrible asony. Her hip had been crushed, her shoulder cut to the bone. her right side paralyZed, and she had been injured internally. But she
 did not lose consciousness. All the time
 the rescuers were working to reach her,
 her mind was active. There was a lot of jagged glass close to her, and somehow she could not help but think how much that glass looked like stalactites. The doctors never expected that she would recover. For r months she was in the Presbyterian hospital in New York city, When she was removed from there to the Waldorf-Astoria she could not even use crutches. She had to have a specially rigged chair support under the arms While in hospital with her right hand useless and her right side paralyzed. she learned to write with her left hand, so she could sign checks and attend to her business. She knew that the continuance of her husbands business depended upon her. Her husband had suffered, too, in that wreck. His long illness, his accident with the buzz saw, his age agd the shock had unfitted him for work. If Mrs. Fisher did not keep control of affairs the works would shut down. Then Captain Fisher died
 When Mrs. Fisher was able she returned to Trenton. She was on crutches. Slowly but surely she reganed her strength. So soon as possible she went to the foundry. Crippled though she was, she determined | to master every detail of that business | and to be as finished workman as any
 one on her payroll She would climb up 20 the staging of the cupola, crutches and all. to watch charging. Of course, she
 had to be assisted up and down, and of | course there was risk 10 so seriously a | crippled woman, but she felt she had to | do it. She realized that there was an atmosphere of opposition to a woman in | such work. She knew that the men did not altogether like her presence there. But | that foundry meant everything to her by | that time, and she was not one to be l checked by such prejudice. One day there l was a change. When molten iron comes | in contact with wet sand or water gases l are generated and there is an explosion. |
 and let the stream of iron out too quickly. | There was a shriek from him, simultan- | eous almost with an explosion. Then there was a mad, senseless, panicky rush | of the men to get away. Only Mrs. Fisher | was calm. She arose and in a cool voice | shouted:
 "The first man who leaves this place will | be dischargedi"
 | Every man was stopped. The next min
 ute every man was back at his post From | that day to this Mrs. Fisher has been the l undisputed master.
 And there has been no more of those ex- plosions and panlcs It wasn't long sdter | that that Mrs. Fisher devised a stopper | that will prevent such accidents. The day she nodded her first anvil she felt prouder ] than ever before in her life. Long before | that she had got over all qualmishness l about smoke and soot and dirt. She even l joked about overalls until some persons
 thought she worked in her foundry in that | style of garment. Of course she never | donned such dress. The great apron.
 like that the sculptor uses, suffices for | her
 | There isn't bit of machinery and thera
 isn't too. in the Eagle Anvil Works that | she doesn't know or that she cannot use as well as any man in her employ. She | runs the great crane just for the joy Of i,.
 and she says it isn't as hard as rocking | the cradle. She says that working in a l foundry is not half so hard or exhausting as doing a days shopping. She is proud
 of her men, proud of the product of her l foundry, and she is choclS full of life and energy. Gradually she has been restored | to health and strength. To look at her to- | day no one would think she was the ter !, riby crippled woman who for more than | r r1c--hs was in the Presbyterian nos | pital The paralysis had gone. Her right
 arm is good and strong again. She has no 1 need of crutches. She can go up stairs with the speed of a girl Coming down, | however, she has to halt a trifie. Tt is difficult to believe. if you look at her hands. that she handles sledge or works with iron at times like the commonest of her laborers. She says that in all her work in the foundry she never has had an | insult and never an ungentlemanly look or. word
 | It was natural. perhaps, when 1t seemed | the famous old Eagle Works were going | to close down on account of the death Of Captain Fisher that anvil factories were 1 started all over the United States. The men who started these plants reckoncd without Mrs. Fisher. Her business had I not suffered In 1904 it did slump. but in | 1905. 1916 and 1907 the business expanded | wonderfully and was the biggest the com
 pany ever had known. She has prospered ! amazingly. She loves her work and she l loves her home. She says there is some
 thing wrong with any woman who does not love home and home making. Busi-
 ness has not curtailed her home making arts in the slightest degree. She puts up
 her own fruit each fall. makes her own