Glacier County chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1931-1940, 1939-09-15
Americas No. | Job Hunter
Takes Montana i'm Stride

Americas No. "job-huntress,"
who has had rs jobs in 80 states
during the past eight months, is
sojourning temporarily in Mon
tana. Slim, silvery-haired Lyra
Ferguson of Reeds, Mo-, is we'll
on her way towards her goal of
having held 81 jobs in 81 weeks
by the time the first day of 1910
rolls around. From the rock-bound
coast of Maine to the sunny shores
of California, she has journeyed,
seeking, finding, but never holding a
job more than a week, if she can
No plain publicity seeker this, but
serious minded woman who is out
to learn all she can about employment
throughout the United States, the con-
ditions under which working people
live, all the various industries and the
different Jobs people hold in these in
dustries. The material she secures will
be incorporated in book which she
will begin writing as soon as her trek
over the country is concluded.
Lyra is also a picturetaker. and in
the 30 states visited since Jan. !, she
has taken colored moving pictures of
the outstanding interests of each state
The movies will be shown at schools
and at club-SponSored programs next
year. and on the South American cruise
to Chile awarded her for her interest
ship line of New York.
Travels in Car
Miss Ferguson drives her own car
and pays her own travelling expenses
Arriving at her destination she seeks
work. taking employment without pay,
I IL - To-, 1n,. tod
Her Montana job was that of cooks
helper at CORTLAND Du Rand's IA
NOUS mecca of dudes" the Big Elk
ranch, at Martinsdale. She proved to
be a first-class kitchen helper for it
wasn't the first time her strange Job
culinary department. During her dude
ranch employment, Miss Ferguson was
treated to a special showing of the
only wild game water rodeo in the
world, put on annually at the ranch
by. du Rand, noted trainer of wild
animals.
Here Miss Ferguson snapped buffalo
and elk diving 40 feet into the water,
trained elk Saddled with an Indian
travels, and elk teams drawing loaded
wagons. She pronounced Montana
scenery and interests the most I'M
usual in the entire country"
In her job itinerary, Miss Ferguson
has done everything from acting as
booking agent for a dance group and
Gen. Smedley D. Butler, to construct
ing a rock garden at the Matinicus
Rock lighthouse, Is miles off the coast
of Maine.
The latter was her most isolated
position, and also the most interesting
She built a miniature garden minus
the customary dirt, and her job lasted
IL days, not by choice but by chance,
as she was marooned on the light
house by the high pounding seas OF the
Atlantic ocean. Finally reaching San
Francisco she secured a job at the
worlds fair, and during her brief So
journ made the longest free telephone
call when she talked with Lighthouse
keeper and Mrs. R. L. Fletcher Of
Matinicus Rock.
A most versatile person, Miss Fer
guson has worked in a pen plant at
Fort Madison, Ia, in chocolate fac
tory in Pennsylvania. in peanut
packing plant in Virginia, and in a
salmon packing plant in Oregon. She
polished silver at the Hotel Monticello
in Longview, Wash. and has labored
in logging camps and general stores
And take it from Lyra, who knows,
"jobS are hard to get" She attributes
her success to the uniqueness of her
tour, but all over the country ordinary
persons are finding it increasingly diff
ficult to find work. she says.
Her next "impermanent" job will be
in Yellowstone park-provldlng her
car behaves and her luck holds out.