The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-07-29
ODD SORTS OF OCCUPATION.
Some of the Means of Livelihood Which
Civilization Develops.


Civilization Develops.
| New York SUM-
There are many odd ways of earning q
livelihood in great city ike New York,
and it is surprising to see how many
| persons there are who readily adapt them
selves to new occupations. Type.writing,
for instance, was unknown q few years
ago, and now there are thousands who
! support themselves by it IT has sup
| piled new and wide field for the EN-
I ployment of women, and has come into
almost universal use for legal documents,
| The invention of the telephone has given
| employment to thousands in the con-
| struction of the apparatus and the at.
tendance at telephone offices, and the
number thus employed already rivals the
number engaged in telegraphing.
The Introduction of electric lighting
has given employment to many persons,
as has also the comparati' ely recent use of
refined coal oil all over the world for
lighting and heating 1t is only a few
years since the invention of the district
messenger service and the employment of
street bootblacks gave employment to an
army of boys.
The successful manufacture of playing
cards. which were largely made abroad
until within 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 occupation.
Photo photography and many other
quick processes of picture printing have
furnished employment to many within a
few years. There is an immense business
in ready made clothing for women and
children that is of comparatively recent
growth
There are, at a rough calculation. about
nifty men in the United States who make
their living by hardening steel for various
mechanical purposes. There are three or
four who earn living by demagnetizing
watches, and perhaps about as many who
adjust compasses on iron ships. There
IS an old and somewhat intricate occupa.
ton IN the insurance business known as
the adjustment of averages, and the num-
Der of men engaged in it in great city
may almost be counted on ones fingers.
There are many men who earn living
Judging of them by their appearance
There are experts in Handwriting, 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 acknowledged
specialists in law, who have almost a
monopoly of a certain class of cases.
Some lawyers know all about patents,
and others all about admiralty others ali
about landlords and tenants; others all
about criminal law, and so on In the
same way the doctors take each some por-
ton of the human body as a special
study, so that the old family doctor, who
undertook to doctor all sorts of diseases
is comparatively obsolete in crowded com
munities
This division of labor leads to the estab
hshment in great cities of many queer
stores or depots of supply for all sorts of
odd things, of which the general public
knows little or nothing There are, for
instance, depots for the supply of pecu-
liar food for the various nationalities that
center in the great city. The Cinnamon,
the Italians, the Germans, and the Scotch.
men all know where they can go and buy
things that are specially suited only to
their own taste.
A craze like rollerskating gives employ
ment to many persons. American roller
skates are now known all over the world.
There is an American roller-skating rink
even in India. The progress of mechan-
ical inventions, while it throws many per-
sons out of employment also furnishes
new occupations to many. and does away
with the apprehension that the machine
may supplant the man.