Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/234

 finishing-school, and who meet with sudden financial reverses, think they would succeed best as assistant editors.

"I have always read the best literature, and kept up in current magazines. I write a good hand, and I never grow tired of books. I understand that all editors have assistants who read things for them."

This is a sample letter, and a representative sample. Generally the writer adds that she "understands that editorial hours are short and editorial offices elegant and refined."

Who, oh, who is responsible for any such "understanding"? True, editors and publishers have large staffs of assistants, but each is a worker, and each must have some preparation for the work. The girl who has never seen the inside of a publishing house and who has never written a line for publication must have remarkable ideas regarding the needs of the editor who will pay her salary. And she, too, must serve an apprenticeship.

She will need a letter of introduction to some one well up in the firm, and this must be backed by a willingness to begin at the bottom. If she is very fortunate, she will be given an humble elerical position, that of manuscript clerk. This means, in a large concern, that all incoming manuscripts will be brought to her table or office. Perhaps a boy will open them; perhaps