BARKING FOR A LIVING.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 288, 9 November 1912, Page 4 (Supplement)

BARKING FOR A LIVING.

The name of “ barkers ” is (says the Faris correspondent of the “ Daily Telegraph given by the Americans to those individuals who, outside restaurants and plan's of entertainment, proclaim raucously the merits of their separate establishments. Paris, we now learn, has a noble corporation of barkers of anothei and more literal kind. If you wish to join this body, what you have to do is to learn, to imitate the barks of different kinds of dogs. When iou feel sufficiently proficient in your art. you eiibmit to the officials of the exchequer your candidature for the post of " dog-revealer.” A few days later you will be requested to present yourself before a big official, who will submit you to a rigorous examination. He ill probably try you on an official dog, ar.d if you satisfy that intelligent animal that you can bark with tolerable verisimihti’.de, you will be appointed “ dog-revealer ” at an initial salary of £6 a month.

Your duties are simple, if arduous. Ear-h night you will be given a beat of a certain extent, and it will bo your task to bark for a period of five calendar minutes outside the door of each house on your beat. If the house contains a dog it is sure to reply with enthusiasm to your canine serenade. You will t hen mark the number of the house in your note-book. On the morrow an inspector will examine your note-book, and see whether or no the dog license has been paid. If it has not, ho will, of course, bring an action against the householder. You will always, however sore your throat, have the consolation of remembering that you are a Government official.