er, to hold a position of this kind must be thoroughly competent,
and not only rapid, but accurate in her work. She must, too, be a
woman in whom the utmost confidence can be placed, and possessed of
that rare womanly gift--the ability to keep a secret; for she is, in
reality, a sort of confidential clerk.

A gentleman occupying a high position in one of the leading telegraph
companies in New York says, that telegraphy is a good occupation for a
young woman, and, provided she has no talent to do any thing better,
it will furnish her a reasonably pleasant, profitable, and sure means
of employment. But the opportunities of eventually getting a large
salary, or of obtaining an enviable position, do not exist in this
field of work. Women, he says, do not make good managers. They do not
seem to possess the ability, so common even with many ordinary men, of
grasping the varied details of a large business, and conducting it
with system and regularity. In the company alluded to, there are
ladies who have been employed for the last twenty years, but they are
receiving no more pay now than they received ten years ago, and ten
years from now their salary will be no higher than it is at the
present time, if, indeed, it is as much.

It might be thought by some, that from the comparative ease with which
this art is acquired, many might take it up as a temporary means of
subsistence, and leave it, either for some better employment, or to
assume matrimonial relations. But this is not the fact. The occupation
seems to be one in which few die, and none resign. It should be added,
however, that with the growing use of the telegraph by private
individuals, and the starting of new telegraph companies, good
operators may be reasonably sure of obtaining positions.

Telegraphy is generally learned at some business college, or some
school which makes a specialty of teaching it. The lady who desires to
become an operator should be very careful in making her selection
among institutions of this kind. The Cooper Institute School is not
included in this remark, but attention is called to the many firms
throughout the country, who advertise largely in the weekly papers, to
teach telegraphy in an astonishingly short space of time, and, it may
be added, at astonishingly high rates of tuition. Some of these
schools are good, but many of them cannot be recommended. Before
entering any one of them, the would-be pupil should get the honest
advice of so