FRIENDLY AMERICA

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 4, 6 January 1936, Page 8

FRIENDLY AMERICA

VISITOR IMPRESSED

THE SKYSCRAPER GIRL

Full of enthusiasm about the reception she received throughout America and thrilled because she was made an honorary member of the National League of American penwomen, Mrs. M.. M. Hovey, writer, lecturer, and traveller, of Auckland, returned today by the Makura from San Francisco. Mrs. Hovey spent six months in the United States, and apart from visiting most of the main cities she made a 5000-miles' motor tour through Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and California.

In San Francisco Mrs. Hovey met Mrs. Christina Maddison,-who is State president of the National League of American penwomen. Mrs. Maddison convened a tea in honour of Mrs. Hovey, and the guests included the president or chairwoman ■of every women's organisation in and around San Francisco. Mrs. Hovey was also a guest at various other important functions. She is very proud of the honorary membership conferred upon her by the National League of American Penwomen, as only three others can lay claim to such a distinction.

"I was overwhelmed by the kindness and hospitality I met with while in America," Mrs. Hovey told a "Post" reporter. "Americans generally think very highly of New Zealand. All you have to do when in the country is to say you are a New Zealander and you get an especially good deal." Mrs. Hovey was very impressed with the friendly relations that obviously existed between America and Britain. The feeling one got was that it was America and Britain against the rest of the world.

One of the most interesting persons Mrs. Hovey met in America was Miss Geneve Shaffer, one of the biggest real estate agents in the country. Miss Shaffer, said Mrs. Hovey, was known as the Skyscraper Girl because she financed what was at the time the bigg"est skyscraper in San Francisco. There was now one taller building, but Miss Shaffer had carried out all negotiations in connection with the selling of the site. This "high-pressure" business woman also sold recently the biggest hydraulic gold mine in the world, the purchase price being three million dollars.

In Chicago Mrs. Hovey met another extraordinary business woman, Ola Schneider. Twenty-seven years ago, said Mrs. Hovey, Mrs. Schneider's husband was desperately ill, and sue pledged herself to make good for both their sakes. The only thing she could do was to make candy, and she commenced operations by selling sweets to schoolchildren as they came out of school. The first week she made a little over two dollars; today, after 27 years of work, she is a millionairess, with a huge factory and shops throughout Chicago. .