FIRST PROFESSIONAL WORK 73 



day afternoon. I found what the hours of labor 

 were, they began at eight in the morning and 

 ended at six o'clock at night, with an interval of 

 half an hour or so at noon. I went on working 

 for Mr. Wallace until Saturday night, when we 

 stopped an hour earlier than usual, and for what 

 I had done he paid me ten dollars. He told me 

 he was willing to pay me thirty dollars a week for 

 the next few weeks at least, and asked me to come 

 back and work for him, which I did. I continued 

 in his employ from some time in October until 

 late in January, living and lodging at my grand- 

 mother's house in Brooklyn. 



In connection with my labor at John Wallace's, 

 a word with regard to the attitude of the public 

 toward the shooting of song-birds in those days 

 seems essential. This was in the winter of 1874 

 and 1875. During the three months I spent 

 in this shop my time was occupied almost 

 exclusively in skinning native song-birds for 

 millinery purposes. Early every morning the 

 local gunners from Long Island, New Jersey, and 

 the environs of New York would appear at the 

 shop with the previous day's bag of birds. Noth- 

 ing larger than a wood-thrush was accepted. 

 About three hundred and fifty or four hundred 

 birds were received on an average each day. 

 These were chiefly the following species : song- 

 sparrows, white-throated sparrows, fox-sparrows, 



