of America, some of which have been translated into the languages of
Europe and introduced into those countries. Many of our fair
countrywomen have distinguished themselves by their poetical effusions,
and quite a number have published their poems in book form. Mrs. Everett
Green, author of the "Lives of the Princesses of England," is now
employed by the English Government upon state papers. Research into
historical data, and the nice, careful arrangement of details, are well
fitted to the patience of woman. Several years ago, Queen Victoria
granted to Mrs. Gore and Mrs. Jamieson each $1,000 a year as pensions.
These are not by any means the only instances of her liberality to
literary women. During the year ending January, 1860, she granted
pensions to thirteen ladies, either for literary merit of their own or
that of some relative. The French Academy awarded to Madame Louisa
Collet, in 1851, the prize of $1,000 for poetry; also one to Mlle.
Ernestine Druet, a governess in a school at Paris. Mlle. Royer received
the prize, a short time ago, from the University of Lausanne, for a
philosophical essay. The labor of authors is not rewarded as well as
other kinds of intellectual labor of the same extent: for instance, a
physician or lawyer, with the same abilities, amount of learning, and
application, would derive a greater reward pecuniarily. In the United
States an author can retain the profits of his work a certain number of
years, being at liberty to make any arrangement with his publisher he
sees proper. In France and Russia he possesses the profits arising from
the sale of his work during his life, and his heirs receive them during
twenty years. The following is an extract from H. C. Carey's article on
the Rewards of Authorship: "Mr. Irving stands, I imagine, at the head of
living authors for the amount received for his books. The sums paid to
the renowned Peter Parley must have been enormously great; but what has
been their extent, I have no means of ascertaining. Mr. Mitchell, the
geographer, has realized a handsome fortune from his school books.
Professor Davies is understood to have received more than $50,000 from
the series published by him. The Abbotts, Emerson, and numerous other
authors engaged in the preparation of books for young persons and
schools, are largely paid. Professor Anthon, we are informed, has
received more than $60,000 for his series of classics. The French series
of Mr. Bolmar has yielded him upward of $20,000. The school geography of
Mr. Morse is stated to have yielded more than $20,000 to its author. A
single medical book, of one octavo volume, is understood to have
produced its authors $60,000, and a series of medical books has given
its author probably $30,000. Mr. Downing's receipts from his books must
have been very large. The two works of Miss Warner must have already
yielded her from $12,000 to $15,000, and perhaps as much more. Mr.
Headley is stated to have received about $40,000; and the few books of
Ik Marvel have yielded him about $20,000. A single one, 'The Reveries of
a Bachelor,' produced $4,000 in the first six months. Mrs. Stowe has
been very largely paid. Miss Leslie's cookery and recipe books have paid
her $12,000. Dr. Barnes is stated to have received more than $30,000 for
the copyright of his religious works. Fanny Fern has probably received
not less than $6,000 for the duodecimo volume published but six months
since. Mr. Prescott was stated, several years since, to have received
$90,000 from his books, and I have never seen it contradicted. According
to the rate of compensation generally understood to be received by Mr.
Bancroft, the present sale of each volume yields him more than $15,000,
and he has the long period of forty-two years for future sale. Judge
Story died, as has been stated, in the annual receipt of more than
$8,000, and the amount has not, as it is understood, diminished. Mr.
Webster's works in three years can scarcely have paid less than $25,000.
Kent's 'Commentaries' are understood to have yielded to their author and
his heirs more than $120,000; and if we add to this, for the remainder
of the period, only one half of this sum, we shall obtain $180,000, or
$45,000 as the compensation for a single octavo volume--a reward for
literary labor unexampled in history." It is necessary that the reader,
in considering the figures given, remember that the reputation of an
author has much to do with the price paid by a publisher for
manuscripts. The number of women authors is much greater than one
unacquainted with the statistics in regard to the subject would suppose.
"In 1847 Count Leopold Feni died at Padua, leaving a library entirely
composed of works written by women in various languages, the number of
volumes amounting to nearly thirty-two thousand. Whether the English and
American lady writers were included in his list we do not know, but we
wish some woman of taste and fortune, in our country, would make a
similar collection." It is said that two thirds of the writers in
_Chambers' Edinburgh Journal_ are women. Some of the writers of our best
periodicals are women. The success of women in works of fiction is
unquestioned. This class of books requires less time, less study, and
less money, and rewards the authors pecuniarily better than any other
kind of work, considering, of course, the comparatively small amount of
application required. As the females of our land become more generally
educated, and have more leisure for the cultivation of their minds, no
doubt more attention will be devoted to literary effort. The easy,
natural manner of female authors is a marked feature. Different motives
prompt to authorship--love of fame, wealth, influence, and a desire to
do good. Persons are generally prompted to write by feeling that they
know more of some particular subject than most people, or something
entirely unknown or unthought of by any one save themselves. Some
collect and arrange information obtained from books, observation, or
experience, or all combined. E. Hazen says: "The indispensable
qualifications to make a writer are--a talent for literary composition,
an accurate knowledge of language, and an acquaintance with the subject
to be treated." Good health and freedom from care are necessary for one
who would give him or herself up to the severities of mental labor. Dr.
Wynne says: "With him whose occupation is either intellectual or
sedentary, or both, the nervous energy necessary to digest food is
already abstracted by the operations of the mind; and the meal taken
under the circumstances is but partially digested and appropriated to
the use of the body. The remainder acts as an irritant, and, if the
practice be persevered in, terminates in dyspepsia, followed by that
Protean train of nervous diseases which destroys the equanimity of mind,
and finally terminates the life of so many of our most efficient and
worthy business men, at the very time when their services are most
valuable to their families and the community. The cares of business
should be dismissed with the termination of the hours devoted to their
pursuits, and their place supplied by those exercises or amusements
which bring with them cheerfulness and exhilaration." Of all studies,
the quiet and contemplative kind are most favorable to long life. Those
of an exciting nature produce a reaction, sometimes, of the physical as
well as intellectual powers.
=5. Bible Readers.= An incalculable amount of good has been accomplished
by this class of persons. The originator is Mrs. Raynard, the L. N. R.
of the "Missing Link," "The Book and its Story," &c., who lived in
London. "One hundred ladies have joined her as managers and
superintendents. The ladies each select from among the uneducated class
the best women they can find, and send them out to read Bibles and sell
them to their own class. They have now two hundred such Bible women in
England, Ireland, Scotland, and France, and they are meeting with
unheard-of success. Mrs. Raynard told me they made soup for the poor in
winter, and sold it to them very low, and in such a way that the poorest
could have his bowlful for some trifling service; and while one is
serving the soup, others serve them with portions of God's word. Then
the lady superintendents have tea meetings without number, and sewing
meetings, and clothing meetings. Beside, the ladies must first instruct
their readers every week or day in the Scriptures, in teaching, in
meekness, in manner, in helping the sick, and sympathizing with all
suffering, and, above all, teach them to lean only on God. They must
also pay the Bible women, who give up their time to this work, and keep
an account with each one. These lady readers or superintendents in
England publish a monthly of their own, conducted by dear Mrs. Raynard,
so that they can all communicate with one another; and God sends them
funds to the amount of $35,000 the year." A lady of Baltimore writes me:
"The Maryland Bible Society employs three paid Bible readers--all
women--at eight dollars per month each. These are purposely selected
from the poorest class of pious women, because it is thought that
persons of that class have readier access to the homes and hearts of the
poor, beside the aid it affords to honest poverty. Independently of this
Bible effort, another has originated from the London charity, unfolded
in the 'Missing Link.'" The lady of Baltimore (Miss W.) wrote from the
Maryland Bible, &c., through the _Word Witness_: "Just one year ago, I
engaged a pious poor woman, at two dollars per week, to labor among the
destitute, vicious poor--a class that could not be reached by ordinary
methods of voluntary effort, dwelling in localities that ladies might
not safely visit. The work was to humanize these people; to wash and
clothe the children, and put them in Sabbath and public schools; to read
and pray, and teach their mothers; and to relieve personal suffering.
She has done a good work. Another woman has been employed in South
Baltimore, in the same calling. Recently, the ladies of the First
Presbyterian Church have formed a union, and raised the salary of one of
these female colportors, and thus the experiment promises to expand
itself into a permanent benevolent organization. I may say that the plan
adopted, if vigorously and efficiently carried out, would rid our
crowded alleys of half the suffering and nearly all the vices and
impositions that now render them intolerable to the refined. On
Christmas, I assisted to serve up a supper, provided by a good lady for
the poorest of the poor. It was given in the district, and at the house
of a widow, and under the care of our colportors. There were forty-eight
women and children present, not ragged and hopeless, as they were one
year ago, but tidy and bright, looking hopefully to the future, as
though they felt there is kindness in the world. It was a pleasant sight
to witness." The New York Female Auxiliary Bible Society now employs
thirteen Bible readers. A brief but interesting account is given of them
in the last report of that society, from which we copy: "From the
reports of the Bible readers for only a part of the year, we find that
they have paid more than seven thousand visits, gathered more than two
hundred children into the Sunday school, sold and distributed Bibles,
induced many to attend church, ministered to the wants of the destitute,
established sewing schools, and, in more ways than we can enumerate,
have gone about doing good." A Bible reader is now employed in
Philadelphia by the Pennsylvania Bible Society.
=4. Bankers and Bankers' Clerks.= Before the existence of savings banks,
the poor had no safe place of deposit, where they could receive
interest, and whence they could withdraw their deposits at pleasure. If
they loaned their money, there was no certainty of recovering it. If
they tried to accumulate by saving what they had, it was not always
secure from depredation. Consequently they were tempted to spend any
surplus money they had, and often no forethought of the future could
save them from anxiety and misery. Now, by industry and perseverance,
they are enabled to accumulate something for contingencies--to provide
against want, sickness, old age, and slackness of employment. The idea
of a savings bank was originated by a woman--Mrs. Priscilla Wakefield.
It is a most worthy institution, and deserving of support and patronage.
Holding office in a bank is a very responsible situation. The numerous
men defaulters that have disgraced themselves in the last few years, are
sufficient proof that the temptation to appropriate unjustly is very
great. It requires men and women of fixed principle, whose honor is
dearer to them than life itself. We think women could very well manage
savings banks. They could at any rate attend in the female department,
and in some parts of Europe do. We find in the census of Great Britain
two female bankers reported. In the _Englishwoman's Journal_ we read:
"At St. Malo, a few years ago, the wife of a rich banker, during his
absence, took her place at his desk amid the numerous clerks, received
checks, and gave to the writer of this article French money in return.
They are frequently found in offices, and often mainly conduct a
husband's or a father's business." One of the Mrs. Rothschild, I have
been told, even now spends two or three hours every day in her husband's
banking house. Mrs. Mary Somerville says: "Three of the most beneficial
systems of modern times are due to the benevolence of English
ladies--the improvement of prison discipline, savings banks, and banks
for lending small sums to the poor." Not many years ago a banking house
was conducted by a lady in Nashville, Tenn. She was a widow, but had
during her first husband's life attended to some of the duties of the
bank, and accompanied her husband when he visited New York on business.
She is now the wife of one of the late candidates for the highest office
in this nation--that of chief magistrate. A lady was employed in a
savings bank in Boston a few years back. A gentleman who has been
cashier in a bank for many years writes me: "I have no doubt that women
might be qualified for bank and brokers' clerks as well as men. In the
offices of cashier and teller, they would have to come in contact with
so many rough characters, I doubt whether it would do. I do not know the
salaries paid in Europe, either in stores, shops, banks, or brokers'
offices, but suppose it varies as it does in this country, according to
the size of the city, the bank or broker's capital, the qualifications
and character, and the situations the persons occupy. The cashier
receives more than the teller; the teller often more than the clerk, and
the clerks are graded. In large banks in the city of New York, the
cashiers get from $4,000 to $6,000 per annum, while in the country banks
they scarcely get half that amount. In the city their situations are
very laborious, and very responsible, and many of them have been
twenty-five or thirty years in the business before they got to be
cashiers. Tellers receive in large cities from $2,500 to $3,000, and in
small places from $1,200 to $2,000. Clerks get in New York banks from
$600 to $3,000, taking the whole range from boys of seventeen to men of
sixty with families and great experience. In smaller towns they receive
from $300 to $2,500, taking the same range, many of them getting not
more than $1,500 at any time during their lives. In stores and shops the
salaries are much less, say not much over one half in very many
instances; but persons in stores and shops have this advantage over bank
clerks: when they learn the business, they are often taken into
partnership with the proprietor, or they may set up in a similar
business for themselves. But bank clerks have no such prospects before
them. There may be salaries, in a few instances, over those mentioned,
but very seldom; and on the other hand, some young men are placed in
business sometimes without any remuneration for the first year. I would
also state that the situation of bank clerk, although very much sought
for, is certainly not desirable, as $1,200 or $1,500 will not support a
family in any city of the United States, without the most rigid economy;
and then they have little or nothing to lay up for a rainy day. Many
bank clerks in this city are no better off now than they were twenty
years ago, though they have lived poorly and economized all the time.
So, in some respects, the store clerk or salesman has the advantage. One
reason why young men prefer becoming bank clerks to mercantile clerks
is, that they have more time for themselves. Say, they commence by seven
o'clock in a store, and nine at bank; they get through by two or three
o'clock in bank, and they have to work until night in a store.'
=6. Brokers.= This is a business in which very few, if any, women engage
without the aid of the other sex. We are not aware that any women are
stock brokers, exchange brokers, or insurance brokers. We suppose women
could not very well conduct the business without having to mix
promiscuously with men on the street, and stop and talk with them in the
most public places; and the delicacy of woman would forbid that. But the
wife, the sister, or daughter of a broker might perhaps conduct the
indoor business of the house, or keep the books at least. In Paris,
where women are extensively employed in various departments of business,
it would, perhaps, be more practicable for a woman to carry on the
business than in this country. There are respects in which women of
well-disciplined minds would be well suited for the vocation: they are
their observance of order and method, and their close attention to
details.
=7. Colonizationists.= This is a business that would never have entered
our minds for women to engage in, had it not been for the course pursued
by Caroline Chisholm. Says the author of "Women and Work:" "Ask the
emigrants who went out to Australia year after year, under the careful
and wise system of Caroline Chisholm's colonization, how women can
organize, and what professions they should fill. I think they would
answer: As organizers of colonies, promoters of emigration, secretaries
to colonies, &c." Many a husband and wife may thank her for the comforts
of home life. Some years ago, Mrs. Farnum proposed taking from New York
a shipload of women to California. The matter was laughed at and passed
by; but if we may believe the reports that came from California of
miners wanting wives, perhaps it would not have been a bad plan to have
taken out a supply (in case they could have been had). In the early
history of Virginia, women were brought over from England as wives for
the men. "A society exists in England for the promotion of female
emigration to Australia. Under the auspices of this society, about
eleven hundred women, mostly distressed needlewomen, of respectable
character, have been sent to Australia, where they find employment, and,
we presume, the most of them, husbands."
=8. Colportors.= "This is an important field of missionary labor in our
own land, where women might be employed to great advantage--namely, as
colportors, or distributors of tracts and books. The Boards of
Publication now employ men only, whose services must be paid at a much
higher rate than women would require. There are widows who need this
employment for support, and single women who need employment for health,
and many women would like this way of doing good. In every place, women
would be found suitable and willing to undertake this profession. It is
one exactly suited to them. It enters into their domestic circle of
feelings and pursuits; and honorable women, not a few, would be found
ready to engage in the work. A number of men would be needed to
penetrate the wild places of our land; but throughout all the settled
portions, women would be found the most effective agents. By this
arrangement, a double gain would be secured. The talents of pious women,
now allowed to be wasted on trifles, would be employed in the cause of
moral improvement; and those men who now give up their time, often at a
great pecuniary sacrifice, to the colportor's duty, would be at liberty
to enter into other pursuits more beneficial to themselves and to
society." Are there none among the gentler sex consecrated to the work
of promoting the glory of God and the good of their fellow beings? Are
none of those that owe all their privileges and blessings to the Bible,
willing to make a sacrifice for its extension? Are all so selfish, that
the desire of personal gratification is the ruling, the only object for
which they live? a display in dress and style of living, the acquisition
of property, or notoriety? Are these the only objects of woman's
exertions? No: most women are too conscientious and unselfish to live
for such a purpose. There are many that would gladly do what they could,
but they have no definite plan in view. They know not exactly how to
shape their course. If they were once started, they would neither lag
nor faint in the race. Let such become colportors, deaconesses,
physicians, painters, engravers, whatever best accords with their
inclinations and abilities. Let them go forward. The mist will gradually
disappear, the way be made clear, and they followed by others. It is
best for one of strength and vigor to engage in the labors of a
colportor. Walking from house to house all day is very fatiguing to
persons not accustomed to being much on their feet. It requires a person
that has at heart the good of her fellow beings, and is willing to
converse with all classes and ages. It calls for a person of piety, and
one of tact and judgment.
=9. Copyists.= Law copying is done by young women in charge of the
society in London for promoting the employment of women. Miss Rye, who
is superintendent of the class, says: "Of course it took the writers
some weeks to unlearn the usual feminine spider-legged fashion of
inditing; some weeks more to decipher the solicitors' signs,
contractions, and technical terms. We dare not pretend, in defending the
opening of this trade to women, that there is here, as in printing, a
deficiency of workers, a cry among the masters for more; or that woman's
work here, as in the telegraph offices, is intrinsically more valuable
than that of the other sex." In France, lawyers often employ women to
copy for them, and a number of women are employed by the French
Government to write. At Washington, ladies have been employed to copy,
not only for congressmen as individuals, but to copy government
documents; and received the same salaries as men. A friend told me many
ladies are thus employed at Washington. She knows two who each receive
salaries of $1,200 per annum. Miss N. says some ladies in Washington
make from $500 to $600 a winter, copying speeches and other documents
for members of Congress. She knew a lady who wrote all the year at a
salary of $1,200. "In Cincinnati, some lawyers employ women as copyists,
when the work can be sent from the office." Ladies employed by lawyers
must write a very clear, round, legible hand; if any mistake is made,
the writer must copy the manuscript anew. A young lady told me she used
to write for a lawyer, and received three cents for every hundred words.
One day she earned two dollars and a half. She wrote in the office of
the lawyer. Many ladies, she says, are so employed in New York. Mrs. N.,
copyist, charges twelve and a half cents a page of foolscap, for
copying, estimating her time at nine cents an hour. She writes mostly
letters in English for foreigners, and receives twenty-five cents a
letter, usually of one page and a half. She is very careful, she says,
never to divulge the business of the individual for whom she writes--a
something very essential. Mrs. Blunt used to earn in Washington $700 or
$800 a year for copying. One copyist charged $5 per week if she wrote at
home, and $6 if away from home. I find that in the Western cities the
prices for copying vary from eight cents to thirty-one cents a page.
Ladies are occasionally employed at the Smithsonian Institute for
copying, and are paid 5 cents per 100 words. I believe in New York a
very common price for copying is 4 cents per 100 words. Miss W., an
English lady, copied music about three years ago, and sent it to London
to be sold. She often earned $12 a week.