As public readers, women who have a talent in that direction have an excellent chance at the present time. "Readings" are getting to be a very popular form of entertainment. The theatres are offering such poor and trashy attractions that many educated people who want to be amused, are forced to seek diversion in this way. The general spread of culture is also, probably, creating a taste in this direction.
The lady who would succeed as a public reader must, like the actress, be good-looking. The most successful lady readers now before the public are physically attractive. Some of them are large, fine-looking women, while others are petite; but no matter what the particular style of beauty may be, they are all pleasing in their personal appearance.
The woman who wants to make public reading a profession will do all she can to get her name and profession before the public. At first she will give free readings before church societies. In this way she will gradually become known, and, after a while, she will be able to appear before some lyceum in the small outlying towns. If she is favorably received she will be invited to come again, and so, gradually, her name and fame will become known, and if she has the necessary talent she will eventually command very good pay.
At first she will give free readings. Her readings for pay will, in the beginning, bring her from $10 to $25 a reading. After that the compensation will increase, according to her reputation as a reader. The very best female readers, or "elocutionists," as they prefer to term themselves, receive as much as $500 for one entertainment.
The social position which a lady occupies will have much to do with her success. If she has a large circle of influential friends in good social standing, provided, of course, she is talented, she will find the road to success much easier than it otherwise would be.
BOOK-AGENTS.
Canvassing for books is a business in which some men have been known to make $10,000 a year, and a large number of other men have earned $2,000 and $3,000 in the same length of time. This is an occupation which, under certain conditions, is admitted to be just as suitable for a woman as a man.
The newspapers have poked a great deal of fun at book-agents, and their ridicule has, doubtless, deterred many a person from following the occupation. A young man, a book-agent, once wrote for advice to the editor of a New York paper. He said that he had followed the calling for some time, and that he made, the year round, from $50 to $60 a week. He liked the work of travelling from place to place, but he had doubts as to whether his calling was a respectable one. Would it not be better for him to get some other employment? The editor promptly informed him that the work he was doing was not only respectable but exceedingly useful; that many persons were glad to see him present to their notice the new and useful books he was endeavoring to sell; that his earnings were exceptionally large, and that it would be a long time before he could hope to earn as much in any other business. By all means he should remain a book-agent.