Evening star., 1939-10-08
BY GRETCHEN SMITH.

The old slogan that "Missourians
must be shown" might well be
changed to "Missourians do show"
in the case of Mrs. Charley Tidd
Cole. who learned as a little girl
in Missouri how to show other
women ways to help themselves.
Mrs. Cole, who is with the Pro-
fessional and Service Division of the
Work Projects Administration, also
is active in numerous women's clubs
in her native State and member
of the Business and Professional
Women's Club of the District. Her
interest in women's work and the
domestic arts and sciences, she says,
was inspired at an early age through
love and admiration for her grand
mother. who against great odds had
successfully brought up family
of five children after losing her
husband during the Civil War.
"It was through her that I first
learned the practical side of women's
work" Mrs. Cole said. "She knew
how to do everything, from weaving,
spinning and dying wool to garden
ing and conservation of vegetables.
Nothing was wasted.
II remember particularly" she
continued, her story of how the
slaves on her fathers plantation
asked for the hide from dead
sheep and then sheared the hide
and washed and dyed the wool for
their clothing"
This story. Mrs. Cole says, was
later the inspiration for a program
which she inaugurated in her home
State, whereby hundreds OF women
were taught to utilize wool much
as the old slaves had done, and
which even led to the establishment
of small tannery, where vests and
gloves for men were manufactured
for a time.
Mrs. Cole, who specialized in home
economics at the University of Mis-
souri,, first put her knowledge of
domestic science to practical public
use when she experimental with
flour substitutes during the World
War, AS emergency home demon
stration agent in Oklahoma, she
discovered two substitutes for white
-four. which, she says, became wide
ly used by the farmers of that State.
"One was made from Kafflr corn" ;"
she explained, "the other from
feterita grain, and we made many
kinds of hot breads and cakes from
these substitutes" Mrs. Cole wrote
a cook book at the time, containing
menus for breads and cakes to be
made from the -four substitutes,
which is still used in certain sec
tions of the country.
Later, as a Missouri State direc-
tor of women's work in the F. E.
R. A., Mrs. Cole did relief work
among miners families in Joplin
and started small lunch project
for school children. Meat was
furnished by local slaughter
house, which she frequently passed
on her way to the school, and one
day she noticed sleeps pelt lying
in the stockyard.
} Memories of her grandmother's
story prompted her to purchase the
pelt for 10 cents and take it to a
woman on relief, whose home was
without blankets and other warm
covering. Leaving instructions for
preparing the wool from the pelt,
she returned a week later and was
gratified to- see that enough wool
had been obtained to make warm
and serNceable bed covering.
Later Mrs. Cole established shops
throughout the State, where hum
dreds Of sheep pelts were shorn
of their wool. which was turned
over to woman relief workers for
carding, spinning and weaving.
To-day many beautiful blankets
made by these women are on ex-
hibit at the Worlds Fair Mrs. Cole
stated with pride.
The preparation of foodstuffs,
from early gardening stages to their
conservation, also was taught sue
cessfully to the farmers wives of
Missouri in a program inaugurated
there by Mrs. Cole.
"One season over 375 900 cans of
foodstuffs were put up by the wom-
en- in Jasper County" she stated
Now in the w. P. A., Mrs. Cole