emark, I must
state again that "I say the tale as 'twas said to me"--women
book-agents are apt to waste a great deal of time in the spring and
fall in getting their wardrobes ready for the coming season. "Who ever
knew of a man," remarked a cynical publisher, "stopping work for two
or three weeks because he was going to have a suit of clothes made? No
one. And yet you will find a female book-agent stop canvassing in the
busiest season in order to superintend the making of her dresses." Of
course, all lady book-agents do not adopt this practice, but it is
well to allude to the custom, because it is very unbusiness-like, and
furnishes a hint in the direction of how not to succeed.

Two classes of women, publishers find, seek the employment of
book-canvassing. A great many young ladies enter the business--it
might be said skip into it--with all the gayety and with all the
inexperience of youth. These young persons are about eighteen or
nineteen years of age; they are buoyant of nature, full of hope,
bursting with self-confidence. They work a few days or weeks, then
abandon the business, tearfully proclaiming that it wasn't any thing
like what they thought it would be.

The really successful female book-agent belongs to the second class.
She is of middle age, sometimes single, sometimes a widow, or, it may
be, she is married, and is bravely assisting a sick or unfortunate
husband in the support of the family. Such a woman enters the business
with the idea of making it her vocation. If she is a single lady or a
widow, she is not on the look-out for a husband, when she should be
carefully watching for customers. Having passed the youthful stage of
life, she is apt to be a pretty good judge of human nature, and, at
all events, she will be quick to learn the ways and weaknesses of men
when she is thus forced to daily come in contact with them.

The earnings of this latter class of women are sometimes very large.
Of course, the reader understands that book-agents almost invariably
work upon a commission.

That commission varies. On some books it is only ten per cent.; on
others it is sixty per cent. The better the book the less the per
centage of profit; but, let it be remembered also, the better the
book, the more ease in obtaining subscribers. Some women make $50 a
week for many weeks running; some earn $30 a week the year round.
One lady made enough money in two years' canvassing to send her
boy to college, and to purcha