SOME NOVEL OCCUPATIONS.

Northland Age, Volume 4, Issue 3, 3 September 1907, Page 5

SOME NOVEL OCCUPATIONS.

The struggle for existence which was never so desperate as it is at the present day and the consequent overcrowding of all the ordinary avocations of life, have compelled a good many persons—many of whom are women—to forsake the common fields of industry and to seek out for themselves novel occupations. Of these persons none probably enjoy greater immunity from competition than the lady w r ho had for some years carried on in London the business of a landscape-gardener. As far as is known, she is the only woman who has ventured to adopt this peculiar calling, for which, it must be said, the sex is not particularly well suited.

Liverpool boasts a lady who earns a good income by reading character from old gloves. This extraordinary business is called "manicology;" and all that anybody has to do, who wishes to give it a trial, is to despatch a pair of cast-off gloves together with a few postage stamps to the enterprising "manicologist/ w*ho will forward in return a full and particular account of the sender’s character, disposition, and "prospects in life," as disclosed by the gloves. In a good many large drapery establishments in the West End a shapely and handsome woman is employed as a model, on whom to fit ladies' cloaks and similar articles of attire for the temptation of hesitating customers. It is said that many are thus induced to purchase who would not succumb to the attractions of a garment otherwise displayed. Another curious occupation in which . a number of women are employed in London, Glasgow, and Manchester is that of sorting and arranging corks from old bottles. One would scarcely imagine that there was much to be made out of used corks, but there is a great deal more money in the business than people would believe. A novel way of earning a living is afforded to a certain number of young girls in one or two places of business in the East End of London. Their sole duty is to test the condition of eggs by holding them between the eye and the light. Examined carefully in this matter, the state of an egg can nearly always be accurately ascertained.