The Shingle Mill Girls of Cosmopolis

At last accounts, the crew of female shingle weavers at the mills of the Grays Harbor Commercial Co., Cosmopolis, Wash., was still at work. Rumors have been flying around lately that the shingle weavers' union was about to make a sortie, marry the young ladies, and thus break up the only female shingle mill crew on the Pacific coast. So far the sortie has proven a lamentable failure. When the lady employees first appeared on the scene, the male shingle weavers made merry over the event. They would come around the mill and inform the lady knot sawyer that it was full of rats, much to that lady's embarrassment. However, she found that the cry of 'rats' did not mean anything, and she is now the best worker in the mill. When the proprietor, Mr. White, finally heard of his lady weavers' complaints, he gallantly came to the rescue by locking them in during working hours. The wicked male shingle weavers went on a new tack: they patronized the barber, invested in store clothes, spats, yellow neckties, perfume and bouquets, and every evening endeavored to escort the lady weavers home from work. Now comes the report that the ladies have turned up their pretty noses at the dudish-looking young men, and the union is in despair. There are ten persons connected with the shingle mill, and outside of the foreman, sawyer and roustabout, the balance are young ladies. They do their work well, and White's shingles are a model of good packing.