Page:Sunset Magazine vol. 31.pdf/346

 

commercial world, so she purchased a typewriter and a book on stenography and put in all her spare moments studying. It was not long until she obtained a position as private stenographer to the president of the Title Guarantee & Trust Company. While doing her office work she also kept house for her brother and sister, both of whom she was putting through school. Her ambition urged her toward further achievements, so she began the study of law, grasping the fundamentals so readily that her tutor gave her credit for being one of the brightest students in his class. While she was thus employed the bank failed, resulting in investigations and prosecutions. As confidante of the president of the bank she was in the thick of the financial storm, and she recalls the experience as one of the most trying of her life. But it was the loyalty and spirited defense of her employer during those turbulent weeks that opened the way for her to obtain her new $3000 position.

As a considerable sum of the state's common school fund was on deposit in the bank when it failed, Governor Chamberlain appointed Ben W. Olcott, now secretary of state, to represent the state in the investigation of the bank's affairs. When Olcott began to probe into the intimate papers and documents of the institution  349