THE RURA.E NEW-YORKER 
1167 
Some Odd Jobs for Women 
The Woman Plumber 
Her Qualifications —If anyone un¬ 
derstands bow the plumbing of a bouse 
could best be arranged and fitted it 
should be a woman, for it is the women 
of a household who stay in the bouse and 
use the plumbing most. If one may judge 
from the criticisms women make of the 
arrangement of plumbing in many houses, 
the entrance into this field of women 
workers will be welcomed by all tenants. 
Women should make good plumbers. They 
have all the qualifications essential to 
the successful prosecution of the business. 
In confirmation of this assertion visit the 
well-kept little shop owned and managed 
by Mrs. Bertha Tallman in Rutherford, 
N. J. For 15 years she has carried on 
a business which ranks with any in her 
vicinity. Her friends say that nearly one- 
half of the dwellings and other buildings 
erected in and near Rutherford during 
that period have had their plumbing in¬ 
stalled by Mrs. Tallman. 
Improving tiie Kitchen Sink. —She 
is credited with being the first plumber 
to understand that the kitchen sink should 
vary in height with the height of the 
woman who used it. Women who do 
their own work well understand how valu¬ 
able a concession this was to them. She 
not only installs her kitchen sinks for 
the benefit of the medium-sized woman, 
so she does not need to stoop to work at 
it, but if the sink is to be used by one 
of more than average height she raises it 
to correspond. Farm women who are bend¬ 
ing their backs daily over low sinks in¬ 
stalled in the old-fashioned way would 
undoubtedly welcome a demonstration of 
Mrs. Tollman's practical sink philoso¬ 
phy. She is the only woman who is 
permitted to tap a big water main upon 
her own responsibility. This doesn’t mean 
much perhaps to women readers of The 
R. N.-Y., but in cities water mains are 
very precious possessions, and their own¬ 
ers guard them with extreme care. Only 
certain persons are permitted to make 
openings in them, and Mrs. Tallman en¬ 
joys the unique distinction of being the 
only woman included in this carefully 
selected and legally protected list of for¬ 
tune’s favorites. 
The House Surgeon. —House surgeon 
is the title Mrs. Tallman likes best, and 
she believes she is honestly entitled to it 
since she has advised many hundreds of 
women upon the proper method of in¬ 
stalling their plumbing fixtures. In these 
days when a necessity for this kind of 
work is becoming apparent on the farms 
and all over the country, plumbing is 
being installed in farmhouses as well 
as in city dwellings. Mrs. Tallman might 
find a broader field for her expert knowl¬ 
edge of what women need in this par¬ 
ticular direction. The law requires it 
in cities. Its convenience should enforce 
its installation in the country. 
The Work of a Cyclone. —“A 
cyclone made me a master plum¬ 
ber,” said Mrs. Tallman. “My husband 
had a shop in Atlantic Highlands, N. J. 
We lived just over it. One day I looked 
out of our window and saw a horribly 
black cloud approaching. I ran to the 
head of the stairs and called to my hus¬ 
band to close his windows and doors, for 
something horrible was coming. Just 
then the cyclone struck. It wrecked the 
building across the street, but jumped 
over our little shop and took the roof 
off the building next to it. Scores of 
buildings throughout the place were un¬ 
roofed that day. Any man who could 
work in tin was driven day and night in 
making tin roofs. To assist my husband 
I attended to matters in the office, but 
the work grew, and somehow I felt as 
though I ought to help even more. I 
went down into the shop with my two 
babies and stood watching the men edge 
the tin. Shortly I felt that I could do 
the work as well as they. So I told 
my husband I would edge tin with the 
men. It seems to me now as I think 
of it I must have edged thousands of 
sheets at that time. When the day’s 
work was done I worked over the books, 
often as late as three o’clock in the 
morning. I hired and really managed all 
the men. 
Responsibility in Widowhood. -- 
“Later we came to Rutherford aud built 
up a good business here ; but just as we 
were started my husband died, and I 
was left with six children, all young. It 
was then that the necessity of keeping 
up the business in order to provide for 
them became apparent. While I knew 
the details of office management of the 
plumbing business, I did not know much 
about the practical work, except a few 
things like edging tin. I pondered long 
on whether it would be advisable to sell 
out and try something else, or whether 
I should make a study of the practical 
part of the business and actually learn 
it so I could do it myself. I.ike every 
other trade, plumbing has its details and 
intricacies which seem like a maze to 
one who does not know them. The in¬ 
stallation of plumbing fixtures in either 
a large or small building is a trade by 
itself, leaving out of consideration all 
the thousand and one details which must 
be known before figures upon a contract 
of such a character can be made. But 
I always had a taste for mechanics, and 
there were six little people to be cared 
for. So I went into the business and 
here I am to-day.” 
Details Involved. — To go over the 
long list of details which one must learn 
to carry on this business successfully, 
is unnecessary, but Mrs. Tallman can 
wipe or thread a joint with the best of 
men, and has passed all examinations 
and received all the certificates required 
by the laws of this State and the ordi¬ 
nances of her own and surrounding 
towns, for the master plumber to carry 
on his business. She makes her own 
figures on all contracts and when the 
work is under way directs her own men 
in person. And more than one master 
plumber who has been criticized for the 
way he did his work has been very glad 
to go to her for advice as to the correc¬ 
tion of whatever deficiencies existed. 
Figuring on a Job. —Continuing her 
narrative Mrs. Tallman told of the trepi¬ 
dation with which she approached the 
figuring of her first job. “It took more 
than one sleepless night before I was 
ready with my figures” she said. “But I 
must have gone over them very carefully, 
for I got the job, and what is better, I 
made good money on it. And right there 
I discovered that I could make more 
money estimating and overseeing the work 
than I could by actually doing it myself. 
Probably my career as a master plumber 
began with that first job on which I es¬ 
timated some 10 years ago. I don’t 
mind it now, but I look back upon that 
first experience and can feel again some¬ 
thing of the nervousness with which I 
submitted my first figures. I have them 
yet. Occasionally I look at them, since 
they are really a sort of a milestone in 
my life. 
Good Work Needed. — “I have seen 
all the important changes and scientific 
achievements in the plumbing work in 
the past dozen years and have studied 
very carefully t-he practical and beneficial 
side of the trade. I may be pardoned 
perhaps if I consider it the most import¬ 
ant part of house building, and I begin 
to see that many do not comprehend the 
necessity for careful and accurate work. 
The success of the house, and perhaps 
the lives of the various members of the 
families who occupy these houses, depends 
upon the care with which we install these 
fixtures. It is possible sometimes to do 
a poor job, or skimp it in some way, so 
that our profits are larger, but it is 
taking money at the expense of the health 
of the tenants and it is, to my mind, a 
dangerous thing to do. I do the work 
in any house as well as I would do it 
for myself, and I have surprisingly few 
complaints from owners and tenants. 
Convincing Customers. —“Of course, 
as you suggest, I have had many odd 
experiences in my time. Men laughed 
at the beginning of my career to think 
that I had the temerity to compete with 
them in what they believed was an ex¬ 
clusive field. Owners, too, were a little 
shy about accepting my figures. They 
didn’t think I knew my business well 
enough to do the work after I had made 
the estimate. I don’t know how I can 
tell you any specific instance where I 
actually lost business, but I remember in 
a general way that sometimes it required 
a good deal of argument to convince the 
owners of my ability. But that is all 
past and I now have difficulty in con¬ 
vincing them that I cannot always do 
their work as soon as they want it fin¬ 
ished. Success has changed their atti¬ 
tude.” 
The Fruits of Success. —Mrs. Tall¬ 
man owns a Summer home in Atlantic 
Highlands, not far from the place where 
she went as a bride. She calls her home 
Resthaven, and there she goes in her 
motor car for the week-ends through the 
Summer, taking with her those of her chil¬ 
dren who are still at home. She knows a 
motor car as well as she knows plumbing, 
and is capable of making whatever repairs 
are necessary on her own machine. Her 
son is foreman of her shop, and atteuds 
to the details of the business when she 
is absent. Just now she is working on 
a problem which may seem strange to 
readers of The R. N.-Y., but interests 
city dwellers who burn gas logs in par¬ 
lor fireplaces. She is trying to determine 
why the gas in one of these artificial 
logs sometimes burns red instead of blue. 
Ask her if she approves of women in bus¬ 
iness and she will answer you “No” so 
emphatically as to be almost startling. 
If you press her farther and ask why, 
she will tell you because it takes the 
heart out of men and reduces their ef¬ 
ficiency, to be compelled to compete with 
a woman, and often see her succeed while 
they have failed. 
ESTHER A. COSSE. 
A Garbage-can Problem. 
Unfortunately there is no place around 
the house where a garbage can can be 
kept out of sight. There are about 15 
gallons of garbage every day j it is given 
to the pigs daily and can is scrubbed. 
Can you figure out some scheme so that 
the can can be kept out of sight by put¬ 
ting it underground, still have it conven¬ 
ient to empty, and kept clean and sweet? 
It is hardly possible to plant hemlocks 
close enough to make an enclosure to 
conceal it. j. m. g. 
Stockbridge, Mass. 
Burying the garbage can underground 
in a manner to make it convenient of re¬ 
moval would hardly be practicable. In 
the shore section of New Jersey, where 
hundreds of families spend the Summers, 
the garbage is all deposited in cans and 
removed daily. At each residence an en¬ 
closure is provided for the cans; this is 
sometimes constructed of cement, in the 
rear, two ends and bottom, the top and 
front being made of matched lumber. 
The top is given sufficient pitch to shed 
the rains and is provided* with one or 
more lids on hinges, so they may be 
raised from the eaves to admit of throw¬ 
ing the garbage in the cans. The front 
is made with one or two doors, for the 
convenience of putting in and taking out 
the cans. This enclosure should be no 
higher than actually necessary to accom¬ 
modate the height of the can nicely. A 
good enclosure for the cans may be made 
of all lumber and zinc lined on the bot¬ 
tom, or may have a cement bottom. This 
is really the only practical method of 
keeping the garbage receptacles out of 
sight and at the same time keep them in 
a sanitary condition. k. 
The Boy on the Lonely Road 
(Concluded from page 1105) 
movies or the steam cars or any show of 
any kind, and it says “Come down to me 
and bring your battered picture ma¬ 
chine and let me handle it and run it 
and put it in the wagon for you and, 
with it, bring your Bible story pictures, 
your hymns and psalms, and your fun¬ 
ny pictures—the bull dog and the ele¬ 
phant and the calf pictures.” It comes 
from the boy whose life is all heavy—■ 
heavy water, heavy wood, heavy swill, 
heavy corn, heavy milk, heavy manure, 
and it says “Come down to our school- 
house with your stories, the story of 
Epaminondas, of Ashipattle, of Drakes- 
bill and the King, of the whale and the 
elephant.” It comes from the boy who 
reads about autos, who talks about autos, 
who gazes upon autos, who tells the 
makes of autos and who never sees a 
prospect of riding in an auto and it 
says, “Come down in your auto some 
day on my back road and let me ride 
on the front seat of your auto and when 
the road is good just let me take hold 
of the wheel with you and let me tell 
how I steered it all alone for a way, and 
the thrill of the sharp bite of the mo¬ 
tor will make a different boy of me all 
my days.” It comes from the little Ital¬ 
ian boy way down on Church Brook Cor¬ 
ners who is out hunting and hunting for 
his drunken father and it says “You can¬ 
not find my father nor can you take me 
from him, but you can give me a hearty 
vigorous order to jump into your wagon 
and you can hand me a great heaping 
ice cream cone to carry me through the 
day.” 
It came to the Pastoral Parson once 
from a boy who rode home one bitter cold 
night on my hind axle, who kept asking, 
“When will you come again with your 
story and your picture,” and who soon 
after cried and tossed and moaned till his 
calls for help were heard up to Stevens’ 
corner and with long neglected appendi¬ 
citis upon him they jolted him 12 miles 
to the city and next day they “took him” 
back again—but he felt no more the jolt 
forever. The Pastoral Parson ought 
somehow to have heard that call for help. 
The nearest minister I know of was in 
New York City—looking up historical 
data to write a history of a church. Yes, 
the call comes from the boy whose life is 
full and surging and he says “Show me 
the greater hero and you show him the 
Master” and he says, not to you but to 
himself, “It is enough.” 
But here this letter is long enough and 
we haven’t talked over half the things 
I wanted to about boys so next time I am 
going to tell you about the social life of a 
boy in the neighborhood and about the 
church. 
Customer: “I bought a ham here a 
week ago and it was fine. Have you any 
more of them?” Butcher: “Yes. ma’am. 
There are a few of those hams up there 
now.” Customer: “Well if you’re sure 
they’re off the same pig, I’ll take two of 
them.”—Philadelphia Ledger. 
The Woman Plumber’s Store 
