The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-01

\N GATHERED throughout Tennessee,
 Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana N and Mississippi are cottonseed oil mills the owners or managers of which look to girl in Memphis as their guide in disposing of their product. Upon her knowledge and good judgment they depend absolutely in matters where tens of thousands of dollars are concerned. She is their eyes and ears. so far as the market is concerned. She watches the whole cotton belt for them, the vast grain area of America the dairy dis tricts of Denmark, Holland and Ger many, the olive fields of the Mediter- ranean land She is only 9, but she has become an authority in the cottonseed oil business and is credited with having made the largest single sale ever known in the industry.
 The girl is Kathryn Ballou. Her of flee is in the Merchants Exchange building Five years ago she knew no more about cotton or cottonseed oil than she knew of whaling She comes of a fine old southern family. When her father died it became necessary for her to earn her own living. The women of the south have not had to look to busi- ness careers to such an extent as have their sisters of the north. But change | is coming over the new south. Other
  ing. so why should not Miss Ballou? She looked around for something to do. She got work in an office that made a spe- cialty of handling cottonseed products.
 The girl did not get much salary at the start. She had absolutely no ac- uuajntance fwith business methods She was a bit dazed for a few days. Then she began to get her bearings. A girl of 17. if she Is bright and clever. learns fast. especially if she is interested. The business interested Miss Ballou decided ly. There was a novelty to the trade that appealed to her. Cottonseed had been burden 10 the south. The farm CTS used to burn the stuff or throw it il the streams to get rid of it. Then some one discovered that the oil in the seed was of some value and of some use and that the residue of the seed left after the oil was squeezed out also had value and use From this discovery had come others until cottonseed oil. cottonseed cake, cottonseed meal and cottonseed hulls have become articles of large com r>ercial importance. Today they add 3s50, 100000 or s2o0 o00.O90 a year to the in- come of the planters of the south
 Cottonseed oil Is employed today in hundred different ways. It's use is bl oadening constantly. Ten years from now it will be used in 20 branches of industry perhaps. It has become one of the worlds recognized products.
 There are some persons who can find the dryest of subjects fascinating. There are men and women who are more en- tertained in delving in life insurance sta fistics than fin reading kipling or Rex Peach. Miss Ballou, like most girls of 1s. was bright, lively and vivaeious. She was fond of the theatre Iarties and of all youthful eayeties, but she did not waste any time on trashy reading. She found mi t If did p 10 long to master the typewriter She was orderly and systematic without being too n ecise Business appealed to her as something vital She was deely con cerned in every detail If her employer had negotia ations on for some business and did not get it, 1t seemed to her like | personal loss. When he put a deal through she was delighted. She did not think so much of the $s or s10 she was getting as she did of the success of those She was working for. It embarrassed her to roalizo how little she knew about the