she may be expected to do this herself; and they will pour in, hundreds in each mail delivery.
These manuscripts she will glance over, enter the name of the article, the title of the story, the date of its receipt and its disposition in a large book, not unlike a ledger. Then she will take a fresh envelope bearing the firm's name, place the manuscript in this, address it to the writer, and in the upper right-hand corner where the stamp should go she will write the amount of postage enclosed with the article by the sender. Then this manuscript and all its fellows she will toss into a big receptacle to be sent to the first manuscript reader. The stamps she turns in to the cashier. By and by, each manuscript or a report upon it will come back to her desk, and she must complete her record, writing in the record book whether the script was accepted or returned, and if returned on what date.
This is purely clerical, mechanical work, and it must be done accurately and regularly, for every time a writer reports a manuscript as lost, this girl must prove that the loss occurred after the article was turned over to Uncle Sam for its homeward journey to the writer.
How long the girl must do this purely mechanical work depends upon herself. In a large and important office, she serves a stern apprenticeship. Gradually, however, the first manu-
