The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-08-21
True Stories of Successful Womem
BY Edith Moriarty

When Mrs. John Atwood was a
young woman with five growing chill
dren she found 1t hard to stretch her
husbands small income to cover the
necessities of life, and after five pairs
of shoes were bought and five hungry
children were fed there was little to
spend for such things as toys.
She decided, however. that the chill
dren should have toys and since she
could not buy them she made them.
She made doll houses and furniture
for the girls and she fixed up a work
room for the boys and let them help
her make the toys.
When toys were broken she mended
them herself and In the course Of time
she had made almost everything from
a little wooden doll to big bob-sled.
Her husband thought she was a marv-
ell. for he was not very skilled with a
hammer, chisel or saw. The children
had as many playthings as other chill.
dren and seemed to enjoy them even
more, and yet very little actual money
was spent for toys.
No Need for Work.
AS the children grew older and Mr..
Atwood became more prosperous there
was no need for Mrs. Atwood to con.
tinue in her toymaking and SO she
finally put away her tools and spent
more Of her time planning party
frocks for her grown girls and keep
Ing watch over her growing boys.
Her husband was now established
and she had no more worries about
money matters. Her children were
going through college and so she had
little to occupy her time. She often
wished for the old days when every
spare moment was occupied In fash
ioning new playthings for the young
sters.
Social duties took up some or her
time, but she was not satisfied to at
tend club meetings, dinner parties and
do nothing else, and so after all of her
children were grown up and most of
them married she found that she could
not stand the monotonous round of d.
recting her household affairs in the
morning and going to a bridge party
In the afternoon. Even such things as
church work and social work did not
seem to fill the need.
Houses Make a Hit.
Then one day she showed a friend
the doll house she had made for her
youngest girl many years before. 1t
was a perfect reproduction of a real
house and every bit of it was made by
hand except the little porcelain sink
In the kitchen and the bathtub. The
friend was enthusiastic about the
plaything and asked Mrs Atwood to
make one for her to give her small
niece foS birthday gift. Mrs. Atwood
said she would, but she would take
no money for it and so her friend
bought the materials and Mrs. Atwood
spent the next three weeks saving,
planning, vanishing and papering a
miniature house.
She enjoyed the work so much that
she wished she could make another
for somebody, but as the materials
were rather expensive she decided
that she could not quite afford to
make them just to give to friends.
Then another woman saw the one she
had made and she begged Mrs. At
wood to make one for her and offered
her money in addition to the cost of
the materials.
Mrs. Atwood was so pleased to have
another to make that she would have
done the work for nothing, but the
woman would not take the house on
. that condition and so it happened that
Mrs. Atwood started in the business
of making doll houses at the age of
fifty.
After she had made three or four
of the houses a manager Of one of
the large department stores in her
town asked her If she would not give
him the exclusive right to sell them
for her This had never occurred to
Mrs. Atwood, for she had to charge
80 much for them that she did not
think many people would buy such
expensive toys.
She said she would try 1t, however,
and she decided to give him a sam
pie of one and let him take orders
for them at his store. At the end
of two weeks she had so many orders
that she was afraid she would not be
able to complete them all by Christ.
mas.
Sixty Dollars Up
The prices Of these luxuriously ap-