Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 245, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1910 — LADY BOOTBLACK IN SPOKANE [ARTICLE]

LADY BOOTBLACK IN SPOKANE

Madame Holland Working Up Business That May Surpass That of Men Competitors. Spokane, Wash.—With a winsome smile and a twinkle of the eyes that would do Justice to the leading lady of a high-class opera, Madame Holland, Spokane’s only woman bootblack, who has a stand in the lobby of the Columbia building, is working op a business which is likely to surpass that of male competitors. Why have I taken up the business of a bootblack? Why, most assuredly to make money,” said Mme. Holland, •as she deftly applied the polish and brushes. "No, Mme. Holland is not my true name, the only thing true about It being that I am a madam, as I was married once, and after my husband died 1 was left to make my own way in the world,” continued the girl with the brushes. "I was a retoucher of photographs, but my eyes failed me and for a while I was afraid I might be blind. J. was in California at the time, and, really, I was at a 16ss what to do. 1 looked atyout there for several days and observing a young woman shining shoes in one of the leading blocks in San Francisco the idea came to me like a flash why could 1 not do the same. Of course, I thought of my folks at home and I knew if they realized 1 was doing anything like that they would feel badly. Consequently I decided to go to a city where I was not known, where I could take a name and never give my real identity away. “When I first applied for the stand in this building the agent asked if I was joking. Not so, I told him. It is a real serious matter with me and I mean what I say. 1 have showed that I meant what I said by buying this equipment, and, although I have been here less than two weeks, I think the agent and others who thought me Joking have seen their mistake. "My shoulders and hands troubled me at first when I started It, but they are getting used to it now and I like my work more and more. I was born in the South, educated in the public schools, was a graduate of a high-, school in a large southern town and my people travel in the best of society. I do not feel that I have lowered my social position in the least by becoming a woman bootblack. Every cent 1 earn is got honestly, and for that reason I am content. “Many prominent men of the country started out as bootblacks, ancl if woman suffrage wins out who knows but I will be elected the first woman president of the United States or become a great leader of finance,” laugh-1 ingly said the madame. I