The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1912-09-12
Topics of Interest to Every Woman
EDITED BY JULIA CHANDLER MANI
WOMEN WHO HAVE ARISEN
FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS
By FRANCES sHAFFER,

A long while ago State fair was
about to be held in Virginia, and young
woman-she was not much more than a
girl-who had just learned TO make
pickles, OF which she was very proud,
decided to enter them and see what hap
pened. They won a premium. and some
body wanted to buy them. She was quite
willing to dispose OF few, because she
was in need of a little extra money. She
called II pin money, but at this distance
in point of years one strongly suspects
1t was more than pin money she needed
because Southern women at that time
were very. very reluctant to admit any,
thing that bore tag Of remunerative
work.
At any rate she sold her pickles, and
there was a demand for more.
Saw Her Chance.
Looking ahead, she saw a big future
for the pin money pickles." so she start
ed out with a grip packed full of samples
and down there they claim she was the
first woman drummer the world ever saw.
In time the pickles were introduced
throughout the United States and to-day
they are sold all over the world.
Mrs. E. G. Kidd, of PIN Money Pickle
fame, started her impromptu enterprise
with simple kitchen equipment. but 1t
soon outgrew those proportions, and to-
day she, operates a siX-story factory in
Richmond and employs many helpers.
There is nothing at all wonderful about
1t except as ii shows that while some
folk are listlessly waiting for big things
to drop into waiting laps, others pick
up the little things and develop them into
something better.
Owns Big Hotel.
In passing, Richmond has a mighty
fine hotel-Richmond folk call it one of
the finest and most attractive in the
United States-owned and managed by a
woman, Mrs. A. d. Atkinson. And II
grew from a little boarding house. start
ed something like quarter OF a century
ago.
She had to earn money somehow, and.
as there were not so many things to
turn to then. a boarding house seemed
to be the only available field. 1t was not
very big boarding house. and soon
1t became necessary TO take larger quar-
tiers. She kept moving until finally she
reached the dignity of a small hotel, then
larger ones, until now the old boarding
house environment is lost in the stately,
pretentious hotel, which is an attraction
of the city.
Difference In Women.
<aAiu lHOSt lllllt SlNt-ll6nlS upOH Nndl
some women can do when they find they
must, without any particular training or
any fitting tools. only emphasiz the
difference in women and the strange way
they rise or fall.
1t was only awhile ago that I read
of the daughter of a Spanish duke. re-
duced to the necessity of earning a liv-
ing by waiting in a public restaurant.
As the story was told. she felt no call
10 the cloister and as she was unframed
in any kind of profession. she tried
dressmaking first. but was neither skilled
nor experienced. Failing in that, she
sought a place in a restaurant, where
her identity was discovered by a man
who had often dined at her fathers
table. a number of Spanish grandees
raised a subscription to make suitable
provision for the young woman who
ranked with them, and she was rescued
from the work which was the best she
could do.
Within the past few decades the field
of work for women has broadened very
perceptibly, but, after all, it is not the
many. but the scattered few, who make
their way up in big industrial ventures
and pass from the bottom TO the very
head of all.
And the rest, the timid. the unseeing
and the mediocre need training, most of
all. for somehow they do not see the
little opportunities that may be knock
ing at their very door. And while some
easily identify themselves with the COM
mercial development of their city and
branch out in unexpected ways, others
lack the courage, the ability, or maybe
the heart to try.
But it is always a pleasure to read or
to know of the men and women who
take up a pretentious bit of work, put
into it heart and hands and develop it
into an enterprise worth while.