The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-12-30

There are men in New York who work at occupations in which no one else Is engaged. Their caflings are unique in the strict sense of the word. Each person so employed enjoys the distinction of making his living in pursuit followed by no one but him. self says The New York Sun.
 One of them is an old man who re- pairs the few remaining cigar store Indians in use by old-fashioned deal CTS in side streets. At one time he owned a wood caryer's shop where these figures were turned out in large numbers. He also did thriving bus mess in making ecclesiastical figures for churches and carving figureheads for the prows of ships. Part of his work consisted in carving decorations for circus wagons. At one time ne had l2o men working for several months on designs to fill contract with a celebrated snowman.
 This man. who is probably the last of the old-time wood carvers making a speciality of effigies for tobacconists, churches, and watch owners, can still be seen in his Brooklyn shop round ing out fifty years of expert work manship, but he has not carved wooden figure for ten years or more. He only repairs images made by him. self or others years ago which ina their way back to his bench for an overnauling. The reason for the fall ing of of this occupation is that to- day such figures are all cast in metal.
 Then. there Is an artist employed by Brooklyn's only manufacturer of com ic valentines. For twenty years he has put in all his time drawing the gro tesoue caricatures received by thousands on February l4 from friends who do not lose the opportun- itv to remind them Of their frailties and defects In the employ of the aaue firm Is a versifier whose vitriolic lampoons appear under the pictures drawn by other men and help them to make the recording angel work overtime on St. Valentines Day. These two are kept busy the year round and have the field to themselves.
 In certain New York publishing house a man sits at his desk from in the morning until in the after noon piecing together sets or three dime novels for the purpose of making one continuous story for publication in boek form. Not alone is he the only man in New York who works at thfs peculiar form of literary endeav- or. but probably he Is the only man in the world earning living this way
 Tn another publishing house is a man who does nothing but make legi- ble the handwriting of corps or reg
 ular authors on it's stan. These men far fifteen years have been contribut- ing A weekly story for boys measur- ing about 10000 words, and either cannot or will not learn to use typewriter Such an enormous out put means rapid writing even on a machine, and the great speed required to get so much out on time by long hand results in bad copy.
 The compositors were obliged to work slowly, and it became ques- tion of getting new typesetters or new authors. The latter course would hardly do, as authors with de- sirable sustaining powers and dyna~
 mic force cannot be picked up on ev- orv literary bush, and there was no use or firing the -long-suffering com positors. Therefore the publishers hit upon the scheme of having man fa- miliar with the scrawl of these high pressure word singers go over each
 manuscript to round out incomplete o's. defective Ps. and perform other
 necessary surgical operations In ch!-
 roEraphy to keep the competitors from l throwing a 1t at every other word | The only girl operator of wireless
 telegraphy in New York, and possibly
 in the world at present sits on the
 roof of a Fifth Avenue hotel in It,
 tie office sending messages through
 the air to ships at sea. She is only 21
 and her employers say she is superior
 to many men telegraphers, While the majority of the messages coming
 and going through her hands are commercial, some are of a tender na- ture some of these are addressed to
 her, as she Is reported to have a | vvirelesa romance Her dance is said
 to be an operator on one of the blG
 steamers, and when his ship gets within talking distance greetings are exchanged between them.
 | Two eoopers make a speciality of packing money for shipment for New
 York banks. and have no competitors