227. A Woman’s Newspaper.—One has just been started in a Western city. The editors, reporters, printers, and press-feeders, are all women. Of course it advocates woman’s reform. An enterprise of this kind requires considerable capital, and is not without risk, but a woman of ability and experience can make it pay as well as a man, besides the advantage of an appeal directly to her sex in support of a paper conducted in this manner.
228. Advertising Agent.—A lady by her courtesy, tact, and gentle address, is especially fitted for this work. All our great newspapers and magazines pay large salaries to successful agents, for, as a rule, the advertising department is the one that pays the dividends of the business. The shopkeepers and others who, by reason of repeated solicitations give the cold shoulder to the male agent, would listen at least respectfully to a lady. On the whole, this field presents to ladies who have the right qualities better opportunities than to men.
229. The Civil Service.—This is now open to women. There are more then ten thousand of these places to be filled every year. Clerkships range from $600 to $3,000. Very few fall below $1,000. These places, according to the Civil Service Law, are filled by competitive examinations. There are thousands of bright young women who secured these places, not through any governmental pull, but by sheer merit in examinations. Get a book entitled “Civil Service,” by John M. Comstock, Chairman of the United States Board of Examiners, for the Customs Service in New York City, and published by Henry Holt & Co. This book will give you a complete table of the positions open, the salaries attached to each, and a list of questions required to be answered.
230. Post-Prandial Classes.—Few, even among educated women, are masters of themselves to the extent of being able to rise before an audience, and without previous preparation express themselves clearly and creditably on whatever subject may be under discussion. A woman in New York, a member of Sorosis, made a reputation for bright, witty, after-dinner speeches. As she earned her living by newspaper work, a friend said to her, “Why don’t you add to your income by teaching other women how to say a few graceful words in public?” She caught at the idea, and organized classes in the hitherto untaught art of post-prandial speech-making, and had capital success, earning $500 by it in one season.
231. Women Druggists.—The neatness of women, their delicacy and attention to details, qualify them admirably for the drug business. At the Woman’s Infirmary, New York, the apothecary department is entirely in the hands of ladies. Drug clerks receive on the average of $9 per week. There are few lady proprietors, but there is no reason why there should not be more, as the business is very profitable.
232. Almanac Makers.—Of late years many of the great dailies issue yearly almanacs. The mass of matter which goes to make up these publications can be collected as well by women, who have gifts for details, as by those of the other sex. In one publication house a woman is paid $30 a week to manage one of these almanacs, and in another $20 for the compiling of an index for the daily paper.
233. Women Lecturers.—Women of talent have earned a competence and almost a fortune on the platform. Lucy Stone was sometimes paid as high as $260 for a lecture, and Anna Dickinson also received large sums. The lady who hopes to succeed in this field must have fluency, the gift of oratory, self-poise, and a certain dramatic or magnetic power.
234. Magazine Contributors.—In this work women are paid as much as men, and their facile pens are often able to turn out equal and even superior work. The Harpers pay $10 a page; the Atlantic Monthly, $6 to $10; the North American Review, $1.50.
235. Women Physicians.—Says a recent publication: “There is a real necessity for women physicians; there are many ladies who prefer them, and in some cases will consult no other. There are now over one thousand lady physicians in the United States, but the number will soon be doubled, and even trebled. Several of these lady physicians are making over $2,000 a year.” One of them says: “I have several well-to-do families whom I charge by the year. I charge $200, if they are people who are considered well off; less, if they are poor.”
236. Paper Box Making.—Hundreds of women are making paper boxes, but as employees, not as proprietors. A woman made the first orange box in California. Seeing that it was a good thing, and that there would soon be a demand for others, she built a factory, and is now turning out fifty thousand boxes a year.