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Show A CIVIL ENGINEER'S WIFE Two pages she wrote about the pleasure of being a dweller on Main Street. Typewritten pages, too, closely close-ly spaced, on big sheets. As. I read I wondered a bit why Mrs. Herrick, vocational vo-cational expert, had suggested my writing her. Charming she undoubted Is. A good citizen. A splendid wife. A woman other women delight to honor for there Is a whisper that If the General Federation of Women's Clubs ever elects a mountain president, presi-dent, It will be this same Kathryn Peruana Per-uana of Glendlve, Mont. But a woman of business? Then I found It. Tucked away as apparently the least Important fact about her life was a modest sentence. "I have had training In civil engineering work," Mrs. Perham wrote, "and since my marriage to a bridge and building contractor, con-tractor, I have been able to work side by side with him on blue pr.'nts, specifications, speci-fications, etc." There aren't but 18 women civil engineers en-gineers In all the United States. No wonder my vocational friend claims Mrs. W. T. Perham for Montana. And when one can add to the personality per-sonality and courage of a pioneer in such a "man's field," the feminine charm that has obviously made her a success as a helpmeet to her husband, then surely one has material for a first-class romance. Imagine a "best seller" with the unfinished bridge that was to be the engineer's masterpiece, endangered, then saved because the heroine could figure out stresses or boss a labor gaag. Fiction aside, Mrs. Perhom'g is the letter of a happy woman. Particularly Particular-ly happy because her life Is lived in a small town. She comments on the number of famous folk who "start careers ca-reers In small places and establish themselves securely before seeking larger fields to conquer." And then she sums up her creed with this: Let others reap the aplendor. Lord, but Klve instead to me The homely round of livlna: blent with pmall-town sympathy. Thj little, small-town sympathy that Bl'-als on neighbor feet From tiny iarnpllt houses down A maple-Bhaded Btreet; That len' s 'An strength on tear-dimmed ways lit own bruised feet have trod. The little, small-town sympathy th very soul of God. |