Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-06-19
EARNING A LIVING.
Some of the Peculiar Means of Livelihood
Which Civilization Develops.


Some of the Peculiar Means of Livelihood
Which Civilization Develops.
There are many odd ways of earning
a livelihood in a great city like New
York, and it is surprising to see how
many persons there are who readily
adapt themselves to new occupations
Type writing, for instance, was UNI
known a few years ago, and now there
are thousands who support themselves
by it. 1t has supplied a new and WIDE
field for the employment of women,
and has come into almost universal
use for legal documents. The inven-
ton of the telephone has given en-
plovment to thousands in the con-
%struction of the apparatus and the
attendance at telephone offices, and
the number thus employed already
rivals the number engaged in tele-
graphing.
Q The Introduction of electric lighting
has given employment to many per-
son as has also the comparatively
recent use of refined coal oil all over
the world for both lighting and heat
ing. 1t is only a few years since the
invention of the district messenger
service and the employment of street
~bootblacss gave employment to an
army of boys.
The successful manufacture af play
ing cards, which were largely made
abroad until within a few years, has
recently given employment to many
American workmen. . The canned
goods industry has grown up since the
war, and offers an entirely new occu-
patton.
Photo-lithographing and many other
quick processes of picture printing
have furnished employment to many
within a few years. There is an i'm
mense business in ready-made cloth
ing for women and children that is of
comparatively recent growth.
There are, at a rough calculation.
about fifty men in the United States
who make their living by hardening
steel for various mechanical purposes.
There are three or four who "a a liv-
ing by demagnetizing watches, and
perhaps about as many who adjust
Comprises on iron ships. There is an
odd and somewhat intricate occupa-
ton in the insurance business known
as the adjustment of averages, and the
number of men engaged in it in a great
city may almost be counted on ones
fingers.
There are many men who earn a liv-
ing by tasting various articles of food,
or judging Of them by their appear
ance. There are experts in handwrit-
ing, in chemistry, in mechanics, and
all sorts of things, who turn up in the
courts and make litigation costly.
Civilization tends to a division of
labor. SO that in every profession there
are men who get a reputation for some
particular branch. Thus there are ac-
knowledged specialists in law, who have
have almost q monopoly Of a certain
class of eases. Some lawyers know
all about patents, and others all about
admiralty, others all about landlords
and tenants, others all about criminal
law, and SO on. In the same way the
doctors take each some portion of the
human body as a special study, so that
the old family doctor, who undertook
to doctor all sorts of diseases, is COM
paratively obsolete in crowded COM
| mupities.
This division of labor leads to the es-
Enlistment in great cities of many
queer stores, or depots of supplies for
' all sorts of odd things of which the gen.
eral public knows little or nothing.
There are, for instance, depots for the
supply of peculiar food for the various
nationalities that center in the great
city. The Cinnamon, the Italians, the
Germans, and the Scotchmen all know
where they al go and buy things that
are specially suited only to their own
taste.
A craze like roller skating gives en-
ployment to many persons. American
roller skates are now known all over
the world. There is an American roller
skating rink even in India. The pro-
gress of mechanical inventions, while
it throws many people out of employ
ment, also furnishes new occupations
to many, and does away with the APP
prehensions that the machine may sup
plant the MANN Y. SIN.