WE ,HAVE banks vrun _ by women;
. barber shops. and real estate offices.
.Now we’ve a-townr '“ . ,
There is a town” in these United States
piloted ahnost entirely‘by -women. . .It’s
fair to say widows and wives and daugh-
‘ters are at thehelm when they directm»
every business enterprise within the‘city
limits except one, and- that’s the case
in Lackawaxen, Pa.,‘ which hides in the
emerald mountains in' the northeastern
part of the Keystone State‘and Whose
_novel claim to fame is just beginning to
seep out to the world. . A
Lackawaxen, Which riseein a series
of brightly painted stores and homes
beside the rushing waters of the Dela-
ware and the river whose name the.
town takes, is twelveniiles from Milford,
the home of Giiford Pinchot, Governor
of Pennsylvania. It-is famed as the
home of Zane Grey, the novelist. It also
holds Louise Corh'ight, the “pastures-,0
ter” and German~born young rwo'man
Who _led all America in her-work for out-
toppmg quotas fine the Third Liberty
Loan. It is‘sung for matchless scenery
and has become a summer resort ~02
sorts. ' ,
But the township is going downto a
newer brand of fame. An Adamless
Eden it has been christened, and letters
from the romantic and the curious are
pouring in from all parts of'athe coun-
ry. ,
All the stores in Lackawaxen are con—
ducted by widowa or attractiVes young
Wives or daughters, who, through some
family circumstance, find themselves in
charge. ' ,
The “mail man” is a high school girl
of 19. The faihous "postmaster” has
soft golden brown hair and pretty hazel
eyes to match. The assistant postmaster
is a striking brunette. In a blue serge
dress and lace boudoir cap, the town's
paperhanger serenely, works on her lad-
der and plies her brush. The owner of
the only movie enterprise wears skirts;
Call for Lacka‘waxen's proprietor of
the cab service‘, and you’re apt to be
hung up a second while she finishes
curling her hair. '
The butcher? But, no, you’re wrong.
. Her name'is Adeline Kuhn. She wears
a shirtwaist witlra Peter Pan collar
and has wavy blond hair.
The milkman? Guess again. “Here
comes Anna Bankers,” housewives say,
when they hear the clinic of shiny cans.
W0 reasons have been advanced as
cause for the rise of this astonishing
feminist movement in this little town-
ship, of which most of the world never
has heard. One is that Lackawaxen is
a railroad community‘and the men have
preferred the more strenuous outdoor
occupation to the more genteel calling
of standing behind a counter. The other
is that some‘years ago one of the daugh-
ters of the town, Mrs. Ada Smith, went
forth to big New York and accomplished ,
fine things. She now holds an important
post in the Brooklynschools. She served
as an inspiration.
‘Thei'or arc, plenty. of men about the
township of Lackav‘vaxen. You can find
them
Mrs. Cortrig-ht’s general store, which
she. with her assistants, runs as well as
the postofi‘mc.
the country over, this becomes of eye-
ning-s the town gathering place.” And
if you are seeking‘grave, deep conclue
dons about what-happens .when women
"run the town,” here’s a neat 'little
answer to put down—except for. a. few.
splatters, nothing, Men sit aroundin
the store ‘of the charni‘ing’and' cultured
little Mrs. Cortright just, the same.
She 'busies herself about her books‘or'
her shelves and lets thematalk away
v—unless shei hassomethi’n‘g elsevtod’o.
when she turns the light out on them. ,
It: was in the establishment of the
n)...
“postmaster". and general merchant this ‘
writer made a drab-acquaintance with
Lackawaxen’s modern women.‘ Directly "
opposite the neat’flagged‘ stone railroad
station rises the frame building: which-
houses the Erie Hotel, its restaurant,
the store and postoifice. ‘" ‘. f ’7 “ .
Here under the same roof touriwo‘rnen
direct the activities-cf these enterprises}
Nata man raises a finger to help. 73nd;
there was more ~truth9 thnn3fiction' in
"”that—this lastwlnte’rratany rate. rAQud '
. ‘ By MargaretM.
night sitting around little "
Just as in small towns ‘
‘ that alie met and married William Co
as_'a “To the Ladies” town‘began to be
sung the mendecided thatit'the ladies
could run the town, they could. shovel
their own snow. And the sun had to
settle the argument. ’ . ’ "
MRS. PAULINE. DIEM owns this
.. 'frame building where‘the’woman
movement has got a: stranglehold. She
is a widow who lived in Newark. N. 1..
during the lifetime of her husband. She
conducts the hotel .and restaurant so
well she has made‘a name for‘he'rself.
Shela Mrs. Gortrlght’s-auntr - - ’
A question-brought, the answer tha
the slim, blond bobbed-héired "ydung
woman just showing a pair of shoes
was Edna Carpentcr,_in charge of the.
store while. Louise. ,Cortright fend .her.
assistant, .Mrs. Jessie Davidson, attend
to the Government’s business. Dark-
eyed, dark-haired, spiel: and span in
an, embroidered apron, Mrs. Davidson.
whose husband is employed by the rail-'
road. made her hands fly. She was help-
ing-Mrs. Cortright give quicker service
than you would get in many a city
postoilice. Lackawaxen is on the main
line of the .Erie between Chicago and
New York. Eight trains a day stop.
Great canvas mail bags are shooting
back and forth all day. for this is the
distributing center for star routes; but
the service atjthe window never slackens.
And of what use for ladies town the
town it" they cannot give special service? .
In strolled aparcel post customer with
a- box under each arm. Ashe drew one
out he became: crestfallen. “Mary’s got.
these addressed wrong. Now the one
with the boudoir cap ought to ’go to
Florida and the other one with the little ’
book in it ” He stopped. “Say, Mrs.
Cortright, now 'which of these boxes ,
would you say'd’ have a boudoir cap in
it?" i t . '
Mrs. Cortright, in her dainty and-aim?
ple wash silk dress, smiled and settled
his Worry in a jiify.‘ She isslim, and ..
self-eifacing, with soft hazel eyes that
are full of light. ‘ Therevis no *Mayor 'in
Lackawanen, not evena Burgess. An a‘gia
tation has begun for borough gMern-ue
ment.. but that is; in the future." But
if there is a«jguldin'g' spirit in this com-
munity it can sunelybesai'df to be this
young woman who came: to America»:
from Germany in‘ 1904:. It wasthrough j
spendin‘giher vacations in Lackawaxen,
right, ‘at'th’e‘ time-Iai‘scho'ol leeches. “7N
many years fafter he became postinaster,
runninga general store as well. In 1915
he’died of tuberculosis. 3 V: -. .
.Mrs. Cortright f Mine; a forérun'ner
of those women: who” flake up, the ‘ié’rlt
of “
therein rests thev s'tor'y‘df'at’least one -'
little splatter that-is apt to arise”
women '-“run the “1'0an . l It? had; been
the custom of the moultojdoihe ew-
ing of the path titroughfthe‘s ' 1 from
the railway statiou tithe hotel" , ’
emce. But after the fame-off
l”?
_O
The butcheress—
,. ‘a f '_I;"i‘n"e‘-r
' formifor‘r
:. butcher—41a
' {Mrs Adeline
. ‘ Kuhn
oversubserihed its quota fort'y-four times.
leading the Nation for its size.
~ It Was Mrs. Gortr' ht whofounded the
young folks’ society- It was she who
agitated for a new school and had the
town put on a Chautauqua basis. Mrs.
Cortright doesn’t tell you any “1 this,
but you cannot visit in Lackawaxen a
half hour without learning from others.
Gifl’ord ‘Pinchot‘and other famous ones
sponsored her when the time carnegfor
reappointment to the postomee. The of-
fice is a presidential appointment new.
The late Senator Penrose personally telae‘
graphed news of her appointment with
congratulations. when it went _through.
Everybody loves hire. Cortnght and
sings her» praises. Zane Grey and Mrs.
; Grey, who now spend most of their time
in Galifornia, are her great friends. She
holds in her possession an enviable letter
of commendation from the novelist, of
which one is only able to see the words.
“There has never been any one so cili-
cient and capable and able as Mrs. Cort-
right. ardent and indefatigable worker
for the Liberty Loan, faithful and gen-
erous to the poor,” before she whisks it
away. '
Mr. and Mrs. Frank J. Price, other
literary notables. are also her great
friends. Mr. Price,.pn author and na-
tionally known newspaper editor, who
has retired to the beauty and quiet of
Lackawaxen to write, is deep in the male-
iug of a weighty home on economics,
but hc‘cou‘nts. that day lost which does
not include n‘chat'with this unusual
‘fpostinasterff . '
UT of the “postoiflca and just a few
, _ stepwdown the street, in a bright
green frame building beyond which one
glimpses the greener hills.of Lacke-
waxen youflhdanother’woman who has .,
_ made businasmhlstory for the township.
She is Mrs. Alina, Gregory, likewise a ‘
widow whoconducts a store. and agar-y
model-none at'that.
have not stopped there. It was Mrs.
_‘ Gregory who built the motion-picture
emporium next door. In summer ,it
sex-vases; dance place as Well» Church
(airs are also held here: in fact, the
‘structure takes the place of a town hall.
Mrs. Gregory has her owri electric plant
there Should 1n ‘
But .her activities .
7 The-feminist reign is indisputedininackawaxenrl’a. jlist-instance, there is f
'7 fthepo‘fs‘tomce, general store and restaurant which is conducted by women
entirely. ‘ Mrs. Louise cortright is the j‘bizboss?’ .of. the three-ply enter"
' '7 prise. Anna Bankers, the “mllknan”.isatthe right ' , _ '< .
and as further enterprise has driven a
great well. , ,
It is Helen Gregory. her daughter, who
conducts the town’s taxi and hacking
service. Helen has brown eyes, brown
bobbed hair and wears a brown-coat.
In spite of n merry twinkle to those
eyes. she holds the reputation of being
a better chauffeur than any man with»
miles. In thc’summer time vacationers
will wait until she is free to take them
on their long winding tours of these
mountained places becauSe of the ease
and sense of safety with which she
drives. ,
Vying with Helen as a. driver. but
serving in a different capacity, is Frieda
Dellert, the “mailman." She iaan ex-
ceptionally bright high school girl, who,
because of her father‘s illness. handles
the rural subcontract for the mail in
communities stretching for miles out
from Laekawaxen. She does hauling as
well. ‘ The woman movement in Locka-
waxen hurls a neat little brick into many
a manomade tradition aboutrthe gentler
sex, but i‘. does not .upsetany more com.
pletely than this one-that women are
always“ late. 7 Frieda, , ‘Vtth‘ me:- "my
cheeks and more often than not in her
brother’s coat. has the reputation of
never bein late. The town uses her
for a clock, in feet. «If Frieda's little
mail truck is standing out in front of
the postoifice. then it must be 11 o‘clock:
Rain, hail, shine or snow, she’s there.
The story goes that men carriers have
passed up the snowstorm Frieda has
always faithfully plowed out in.
‘ Standing by her truck on this par-
ticular morning, she talked a bit'about
her strange calling.
“I have a regular route going from
point to, point. making each place as
far as I can at a certain time. 7 When
the weather is right, it takes from 9
until about 9:30. _
fearful snowstorms when that same route
has taken from *7 o’clock in the morning
until 9 at night. In the worst feather,
though, my brother goes with me!“
‘ ERRILY at her butcher block in the
grocery store and meat: market on
the other side of the railroad worked
to: do it.”
We’ve bad days of-
in ,bed at night. Then I start to think:
liow awful it would be if one arm
ever slipped. I cut myself just once
and I made up my mind I’d never let
that happen‘ again." _
She wore a great white butcher apron
and neatly out loin'Lamb chops as she
talked. . The trill on her pretty waist
made the rest of the picture. .
“Yes, I guess I do about everything
most butchers do, only. of course, we ,.
have only {small community, you know.”
, It was Adeline Kuhn, who once lived'
in Boston, who made sandwiches and:
coffee for her husband the night of a
big forest fire: When she discovered
he was’working'ln a dangerous spot far
’awayfmmtheremthestoryistold
she did not hesitate to follow him there.
' NY woman who ever,tried herihand
at wallpaper-lug will appreciate the
talents of Mrs. Jane Campbell, whom the
writer undertook to visit next and even-.
tually located on the top of a'ladder in
the act of paper-lag the parlor of a
20040011: summer hotel.’=
“I’ll'gbe Goimy next birthday, I’m a
grandmother and I'm proud to be able
She admitted it all. with a
smile. Smoothly a piece of silver moire
Vpaper. went on the ceiling, just’whene
it was supposed to go. No dribblesmf
paste, no misfits, the work of a pro-
fessional. ‘ -
“I started to do this when I was a
little girl.” In her dark serge dress,
apron and boudoir cap she was down
from the laddu new, skillfully smooth-
ing paste at the table. “One day when
my mother was out I took it into my
head I'd like to do some papering. It
‘seems to me I’ve been doing it ever
since, so I guess it was just natural
I should turn into. the town paper-
hanger.”. "
. . Mrs. Campbell is theionly paperhanger
in the township. She is an interior
decorator as well. She has papered the
entire Delaware House. on which she
was working at the timo. She makes
on an average ,of‘. .36 a day and has on
Mrs. Adeline Kuhn. She is a tall, slim
blond woman with happy blue eyes; who
entirely runs this store of her husband
William Kuhn, while he plies his trade
of carpentry. She has been married just
a~little over’a year and if you think
it’s rather a joke for a young mm
to be a butcher—well, so does she. Be-
side the big frigerator door hung the
saw, the cleaver and all the rest of‘tbe
meat man’s paraphernalia,
them ominously.
She eyed '
v “I never get afraid in them until I’m
occasionsw worked with} paperhangsra_
from‘ Newr York'City on various Jobs
lathe vicinity. '
., Just beyond the hotel where Mrs.‘
Campbell worked,
by the
great emerald hills where pmes’ brush
the sky and fronted by the broad spar-
klmg' Delaware, stands' the home of the
Prices. ,It would_ not be fair to set
dowuthisnsagaofwomenatallifxt
was not related how the other evening
in‘this renovated white Colonial farm-
house Mrs. Prise, mother and grand-
mother, lived up to the traditions of the
place. The first burglar ever’to invade
Lackawaxen entered the .Price place,
choodng for the time of his appearance
a night the author was 'spe‘nding in New
York. The burglar announwd himself
by turning on the electric light. The
fact that there was no man within half
a mfle'and only a little 16-year-old girl
on the premises did not prevent Mrs.
Price from 'saying out loud: “Well, I
guess there’s a burglar downstairs and
I’m going down after him with a shot-
gun”, :.3‘be;burglar‘ ran “away from her
through the window mews! probably
never again invade this town where
women dothings.» ’Not far from the
Price place the Minisick battle was
foughtandthereamonnmentsbandsto
.mark the spot where Brant, the Indian
chief, with his warriors, massacred a
company of Continentals in 1779.
Mrs. Adele Shannon, the wife of Dr.
Walter R. Shannon, former Representa-
tive in the State Legislature, is Lacke-
waxen’s fa'mous woman politician. She
was in charge of this section of the
country when Gifl'ord Pinchot ran for
Governor. She is as well a poet of note.
BUT the story of Lackawaxen and her
women is not yet told. There is the
cheery dink of cans and‘ far in the dis-
tance appears Anna Bankers making
her way over her milk route. She is not
the traditional milkman. She wears a
very feminine black hat and suit. Yet she
flunk: nothing of walking five or six
mice a day in serving her customers.
Margaret Snuth' is the right bower
of the store of her father, John
Smiths wealthy merchant who handles
eVerything froni harness to hairpins.
. Last but not least there is Adalyn
. Adalyn is as sweet and pretty
a girl of twenty as you would want to
see, and as demure and feminine. She
has big blue eyesrand golden hair that
is. not ‘obbed.’ Yet. her job in this ,
schememf thm' gs is as much of a man’s
as that of any of the Women of Lacks-
waxen. ‘» .. ‘
She entirely runs her father’s place.
which was once the town’s tavern. Now:
she drape cigars and soft drinks and
ably and gently handles a clientele en-
tuer masculine. Her father is almosl
blind and that is why she has taken
over his business. Shergoesinfor jitney'
ing as well whenever the tune‘ ,afi’ords.
,The only business in Lackawaxen in
which woman does not have a hand is
Athegarage'!
GLEN arefied tothe poetthat stands
rinfron tofthe me HoteLbutLacka—
branch hasperhapsgoneifarther-in the
,7 womanmovement than anyigreat whirl-
mg:melropolis of bheseUnited States. i
Upstairs in this 'glittle‘ frame " hobo?
here .ahe‘makes her home Mrs. Cort-I
right "reads limits that do, not grace ,«
an'erndite: 1 city home; ‘Her roonyr '
"Werkthatintereets her andanoppofl
tunitytoserve the community are"!!!
magnum-r of the best ' " .-
n. . : mi,
Norwalk Chronicler