The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-10-25
What She Found Refutes Much Of
What Has Been Written of
Dangers and Temptations

had been there about two years
when / was called home by my sisters
illness. Two weeks later I stood shud-
dering and shrinking outside the office
door in my black clothes gathering
courage to face them all When I finally
skunk in the men were all busy and no
one noticed me, After little one by
one they seemed to become aware of
my presence and came up with out
stretched hand and hearty Glad to
see you back" Only one. a man who
had recently lost his only daughter, VEN
tured to express his sympathy, with
tears in his eyes. Those men will never
know how grateful l was.
The next day the president called me
into his private office and l went. note
book in hand. He motioned me to shut
the door. and as / seated myself in the
customary chair facing him he looked
at me over his eyeglasses, cleared his
throat loudly and said:
Put up your book, Miss Black
dcrstand"-dinidcntly and hesitat-
nsly-"that YOU have had a heavy ex-
pcnse connected with your sisters sick
Interpretations, nurses, &c"
| looked at him dazcdly and nodded
my head. What was the man getting
at?
II shall consider it a favor If YOU will
allow me 10 share the expense with
YOU. Miss Black And he handed me
his personal check for a hundred dol
lars.
did not dream of refusing il. |
knew that out of the bigness and good
ness of his heart he was Offering me-
sympathy in the coin of which he was
long and | would not for worlds have
intmated that | resented il. Nor did I
resent it, for he had been poor boy
himself and his sympathy for all
struSglers was keen.
Afterward. when became his pr,vota
secretary and knew his business better
than he did himself l found no sinister
revelations on his check stubs. did
ma long list of monthly and quar-
terry allowances TO a host of poor re-
lations, not only his own but his
wife's as well, and few faithful old
employees. l wrote all his personal
letters to large family and his affec-
tlon Tor them was a beautiful thing
When his eldest daughter came back
from her honeymoon abroad, rushed
directly to his office and flung herself in
his arms, / thought Of my own father
ana walked the corridor for half an hour
before | could control myself enough
to so back to work.
I was eight years In that office. the
only woman among twenty men, and the
only unpleasant thing | had TO endure
was tobacco smoke. During my first
day there one of the men asked mo if
! objected to II. | had to do some quick
thinking. | had been taken under
protest, the first woman they had ever
employed, and / knew some of them
were not happy over my advent. All
smoked from the president down. So
! SmllIngly said that, on the contrary,
! rather enjoyed it occasionally. But a
~uporabundancc of thing pals after
Il time and my clothes would slcken
me when | put them ON in the morning,
the odor of stale tobacco was SO stron.
! nightly shook them out Of
the window at the risk Of protesting
ncighburs.
The presidents health failed ana he
was obliged to retire from business.
us successor was "A man from the old
Nhlcktrhocker set, an aristoCrat of
the arstocrats, Art letters and the
law having failed to attract him. con-
trary to all precedent in his family he
had turned to business. \ woman in an
Office was to him a machine or an ami.
NAL; fortunately his type is rapidly
becoming extinct.
He did not stop at profanity;
sometimes caught words | vaguely re-
mcmbcred as something l had heard
from bad little boys in school. from
which | fled in terror. My fighting
blood rose. Here was foeman worthy
OF my steel; my employers hitherto
had come up from the ranks, but here
was one whose family was as old and
whose blood was as blue as my own,
and laid for him, 1t was not long
before the opportunity came for me