To become a thoroughly competent music teacher will take three or four years' instruction. It is said that a good musical education can be obtained as well on this as on the other side of the water. Many of the foreign music teachers in this country are as good as can be obtained abroad, and the European instructors, some critics say, do not give as much time and attention to pupils as the American tutors.
If a woman has a thorough knowledge of short-hand, she can do well, as a teacher of the art, in almost any community. Many persons, even in remote and small places, would learn phonography if the subject were brought to their attention by an instructor. Clergymen, lawyers, doctors, many women of leisure, young women who would study with a view to being amanuenses—all such people could be obtained as pupils. The teacher could give from fifteen to thirty or forty lessons, at a charge of from fifty cents to a dollar a lesson. A great many learners of this art prefer to have a teacher's help, though phonography can be mastered without such aid.
Teachers of the art of decoration—the ornamentation of China screens, plaques, panels, etc.—and drawing, receive from $400 to $2,000 a year. A course of two or three years' study will fit a properly talented woman to be an art teacher. There is a fair demand for such teachers in the large schools and academies throughout the country.
BRIEF NOTES
ON MARKET GARDENING, POULTRY-RAISING, BEE-KEEPING, HOUSE-KEEPERS, CASHIERS, BUTTON-HOLE MAKING, FLORICULTURE, AUTHORSHIP, TYPE-WRITING, AND WORKING IN BRASS.
It would be impossible, within the limits of this little book, to go into the details of all the employments suitable for women; only the most important and best paying kinds of work have been mentioned in detail. Some brief notes are here given of various occupations in which females are now engaged, and in which they are meeting with more or less success.
Market Gardening.—Some women make money by raising vegetables for the city markets. The produce is sometimes sent by rail, but, as a rule, it is brought in by trucks. This industry is not, as many might suppose, confined entirely to foreigners. There are thousands of American-born women throughout the country who are engaged in it, and who are doing well. Mention is made of a woman who, starting with a capital of $25, made a good living in this way, cultivating only an acre of ground. Her husband plowed and prepared the ground, and in her part of the work she had the assistance of the younger boys and the older girls. During the past year she made more money than her husband did from his farm. A woman could not expect to be successful in this occupation unless she was unusually strong and healthy, and had the taste for agricultural work very largely developed. Those who are born and brought up in the country do the best.