The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-07-29
Only Woman .Embalmer In the State Says Little But Says
 1t Well.
By ZELDA BEDEII.

Il has worked wonders for ! women.
 Business vistas have been opened to them They have accepted the burden that hith- erto was borne by the male, 4 and have carried it well. : Hardly any line of endeavor is : now closed to women. They do their work, and they do it efficiently. Men, no matter how prejudiced, will concede that fact with emphasis.
 There are many lines of |. work where women are many. There are a few where women are few. Undertaking is one : of these lines.
 The reason perhaps lies in the fact that embalming does not appeal to women; that the emotional side of the female of the species will not permit her to do such work.
 Only Woman in State
 Tfeis argument is refuted by Miss
 
 only woman embalmer, and the only weman engaged in such business in { the state, so far as present-day rec ords show. Miss Gallagher is by no means an assistant, which the male i uid ertalzer takes with him to assist att the burial of a female. She is a ! graduate of the finest college in the country, and is fitted to do the work, from start to finish. to do it alone, : and to do it well.
 Eff didn't like the work I couldn't [ do it, "is Miss Gallagher's reply to question about her business. Extreme H shy of interviewers, difficult to se- E cure tcopy" from, what she finally E consented to say was almost curt, but ! to the point A wholesome and at | tractive woman, with sympathetic ! n15en and mother1y manner, still she stiffens perceptibly when publicity is : tn econsid eratfon.
 Must Be Fitted
 CT can't see why a woman shouldn't be an embalmer,'' she said. "Of course she should feel herself fitted for the work, for it is arduous It seems only logical that women should fit women for burial.S Why should a woman be cared for tenderly by wom- en nurses, and then when she dies, women walk out and the dead wom- an is given into the hands of men7 It seems illogical. To me, a dead body is sacred, and should be cared for even more tenderly than when 
 Miss Gallagher. And that is the watchword of my business, and prob ably that is why women prefer my services to the same service rendered by men.
 "But the whole matter is rather diff ficult to talk~about. It is too deli cate for newspaper discussion,'' said Miss Gallagher, in a deprecatory man ner. 'I have been living in Bridge port for thirty-three years, and my brother and myself have been in busi- ness here for thirteen years. At first I was given little hearing, but now educated to the fact that women are = essential in this business just as they are in many others.
 :. ''Out West the laws insist that a woman emba1mer officiate at the flu neral of a woman The East has been slow in it's legal recognition of the Undertaking business There were no laws pertaining to it till 1903, and now they are more rigid"
 Miss Gallagher studied at the fla nous Renouard Training School for ESmbalmers in New York city and was graduated with honors in 1908 She had a hard struggle securing admis- sion to the school in the trst place, E but the head of the faculty, a broad { in her sincerity and permitted her to register.
 Passed State Exams.
 Afber intensive study, there, the only ! woman in her class, Miss Gallagher K took her state examinations at the F Yale Medical school and passed with E . high mark Her diploma hangs on 5 the wall of her par1ors at 571 Fair s field avenue, hanked on one side by the picture of her graduating class, l. and on the other by her state certifi cate.
 An interesting incident of her col 1ege days was related by Miss Gal lagher In her class was a Swedish doctor, sent over here by the Swedish government to learn American meth ods of embolming- He said to Miss Gala gher one day:
 You have so many nervous people herei I should call nervousness the great American disease
 Apparently the gentleman became enamoured of the same disease for he dropped the study of embalming and devoted some time to the study of nervous disorders. Today he is pro prietor of a large Sanatorium for nerv- ous diseases in Philadelphia.
 Someone said once: 'No one can anticipate the wants of womankind like a woman. In trouble a woman friend; in sickness a woman nurse; in death a woman emba1mer."
 Which seems to explain this story fully.