Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-04-10
PROFESSIONAL READERS.
A New and Pleasant Occupation for Gem
tie, Cultured Young Women.

a New and Pleasant Occupation for Gen.
tie, Cultured Young Women.
As the elegancies and Injuries Of life
grow more common, the increase Of wealth
produces new needs which are constantly
creating new employments, writes Garry
Owen Gaines in the Country Gentleman.
One of the latest Of these, and to which
women are admirably and specially adapt
ed, is the vocation of reader to invalids or
elderly people. In number Of cities ladies
follow this as q business and make q good
living by it, and it seems destined to be one
Of the increasing occupations Of the future
as education, intelligence and wealth be-
come more general. There will always be
invalids and always q crop of well-to-do
old people for patrons, and the woman who
can make herself useful in this way will
not lack for employment. There is no
schoolroom drudgery connected with IL to
wear her out body and soul, before her
time, as is the usual lot of teachers in our
graded schools, but rather 1t Is Q delightful
ministering to her intellectual peers, and
one can readily imagine the work to be in
entire consonance with the tastes Of the
most cultivated, refined lady whois forced
to be self-supporting.
In many families among the wealthy
classes there are aged parents. whose dim
eyes can no longer see the printed page
Children are too busy and full of cares
in this rushing American life, and grand
children often too needless, to stop their
work or their pleasures to read to these
forlorn old folks, who, though surrounded
by iuxuries on every side, actually suffer
from starvation of the mindl Think, then.
what beam of light is this visiting read
er, who forms the link that connects them
with the bustling circles of humanity of
which they have been hitherto only q silent
part-''the world forgetting, by the world
forgot'-because they could no longer
seel
Perhaps it is blind or partially blind
scholar, or one Of literary tastes, who, but
for the kindness Of others-a kindness too
often given grudgingly, to the shame of
humanity be 1t said dl-must ever sit in that
darkness which is greater anguish than
physical night. Perhaps it is sick man or
woman slowly convalescing, whose keen
interest in the outside world has become
intensified by long weeks Of deprivation Of
the accustomed daily journal To all such
the visiting reader is a prize for which they
are willing to pay good sum.
Reading seems such an easy thing that
doubtless many young women win catch at
this prospect of a new and less laborious
field than many Of the paths trodden by i'm
pecunious womankind, but the fact is that
good reading is one of the rarest of accom-
plishments. Hundreds of girls are good
piano players, and creditable artists and
painters, who will mangle an essay or
poem beyond all recognition by its author,
were he so unfortunate as to be present to
listen to it.
There are some persons who read an
anecdote or humorous sketch about as spir-
itedly as they would the Lamentations of
Jeremiah, while scarcely one person in
twenty knows enough to give the proper
infections, and therefore utterly fails to
read conversational passages intelligibly.
1t is simply because the writer's meaning
is not understood. We might almost saw
that readers, like poets, are born and not
made. Lacking that subtle insight, that
sympathy with the author, the possession
or absence of which constitutes the diff
ference between good and poor readers.
they lack every thing, and all the schools of
eIocutlon and labor of voice drill In the
world will not supply what nature has
failed to give
An hour or two spent in the cheerful
morning room Of brown-stone mansion,
reading the news of the day to a bright.
companionable old gentleman, then a brisk
walk in the pleasant air to the house of
some refined old lady or sweet invalid girl.
who Is longing to hear the latest sermon of
noted divine or the choice things in the
last magazine, certainly seems the very
acme of the agreeable in the way of earn
ing ones bread; but please to bear in mind.
dear miss or madam who aspire to this pro-
,esslon, that to secure such places you must
know your business thoroughly.
Know that If there is one thing more
Irritating than another to a sensitive au-
ditor, 1t is to have reader stumble over
and repeat words, or spoil the pleasure of
the entire article by ear-torturine misnro-
nunclation. 1t is like sitting On needles and
pms Tor nervous persons to be compelled
TO listen to botchg reading, to anticipate
TWO oE three seconds in advance of the
drony voice and measured sing-song sem
tences just what will come next. and oct
themselves into fever speculating how
many times more you will come to dead
stop at an innocent comma, and thus mar
the whole meaning.
A really fine reader has it in his mower IN
CONFER so much pleasure on others that the
wonder IS why it has been allowed to al
most become one Of the "lost arts" The
hostess OF a country party blesses her
lucky stars when she discovers among her
guests one who knows how to read. feeling
Ihat sne mas secured an attraction as rare
as u Is pleasurable, and instances are moi,
uncommon where a popular minister,s hold
on congregation Is his beautiful render.
ing at the Scriptures and the hymns.
In greater measure, because reaching
those who are cut of by age or sickness
from the usual channels of information.
does the visiting reader give enjoyment to
others, and earn her daily bread as well. hv
means OF clear articulation, q symna.
tnetlc voice that carries the listener with
her through moods, merry or tender, as de-
plcted on the page, and, lastly, Quick an
preelatlon and comprehension of the au-
thor's meaning
A Lovers Strange Dream.
Inc ran Gall Gazette records q lsver,s