The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-16
REWARDS OF A WOMAN'S PEN
4 RECORD OF FIFTEEN YEARS
or HARD WORK.
Besides Bringing Up Family and Doing
Most OF the HOIiscwo rk. She Was Able
to Increase Her Earnings. by Writing
From $500 Year to More Than 81 200.

to Increase Her Earnings. by Writing
From $500 Year to More Than 81 200.
THE Sun printed recently an account of
by man who. while not making literature
his life work or means of livelihood, has fol-
lowed! it for twenty years. Here is 4 rela-
ton of what c woman can do under similar
I circumstances.
While it j. impossible to give minute
detail es - the sums received. this woman
has Kept careful count OF the money she has
made by writing During the fifteen years
concerned she has besides brought up a
family, done most of the time her own
homework and sewing, and found time
for some church work and some social
pleasures.
Sixteen years ago this woman, feeling
that she must do something to aid in bear
| ing the family burden. crocheted babies
bootees at 10 cents a dozen pairs. There
was little baby year old to be attended
to. and by dint OF great perseverance she
was able to earn 81 q week.
In the meantime she was writing, at
the request Of an editor. little news items
from her home locality for very small
country newspaper In another town. She
got a free paper, and stamps and envelopes
and nothing more out of it but the salts
faction of seeing her work In print, which
was something.
There came about this time to the womans
home town city paper which was ma king
an effort by printing page Of suburban
news, to get a foothold In suburban towns.
The paper had correspondent In her place,
but the correspondent did not seem to be
doing very good work. and the woman de-
cided to try to get the work for herself.
Waiting till large fire in the vicinity
gave her material. she wrote and sent out
little account of it to the city paper. Her
pride and delight knew no bounds when
the next evening the paper printed the
item. only very slightly blue penciled.
This satisfaction was added to very
materially the next day when the sub
urban editor of the paper called upon her.
The result Of the visit was that the woman
was told to send in what news she could get
and the pay, while not munificsnt. seemed
like fortune after the sockmaking ex-
perience.
This was the beginning. Unfortunately
the beginner did not deem 1t necessary
to take account Of the very small sums
which she began to make with her pen.
For three years she worked. before it
dawned upon her that she oughtto get some
kind of an idea what she was earning.
So at the beginning Of the year 1904 she
started a system of bookkeeping. The re-
suits show what she was able to do while
she was giving much attention to her house.
work and her children. and little to out
side matters,
The year 1894 netted this homeworker
500. &c. All OF this was earned in actual
news reporting, items being sent from a
small village Of probably only 1900 inhabi-
tants.
1t took the woman several years to realize
that human interest stories were as ac-
ceptable to the newspapers as actual news.
When this finally dawned upon her. things
began to look up, and from that time on she
had a feeling OF Independence which
amounted to tie belief that II necessary
she could take care Of herself and OF her
children.
The year 1895 brought an increase Of
about 800, making Sss5 IS. The next year,
~hile 1t brought . new baby to the home.