FIDELIA.—We are much interested by your letter, and applaud your desire for self-improvement. We think the series of articles now appearing in the GIRL’S OWN PAPER by Mrs. Watson on “Self-Culture for Girls” may help you. You are wise in supposing that if you indulge in desultory reading alone, it will spoil your taste for solid reading, and interfere with your power of concentration. At the same time you must remember the old proverb about “all work and no play.” We should recommend you to begin by reading one of Scott’s historical novels, _e.g._, _Ivanhoe_; or _The Cloister and the Hearth_, by Charles Reade; or, better still, Kingsley’s _Heroes_, and then follow on the line of study suggested if it appeals to your taste. But we think you are under a misapprehension as to the expense involved in joining the National Home Reading Union. Apply, at any rate, for full particulars to the Secretary, Miss Mondy, Surrey House, Victoria Embankment, London.—2. Your letter is well composed, and your writing is decidedly good. GIRLS’ EMPLOYMENTS. SAMARITAN (_Art and Designing_).—To pursue any branch of artistic design successfully, you would need to give all your time to it. And we are obliged to admit that, outside the chief centres of artistic production, it is not easy for a draughtsman or woman to find employment. Perhaps in your own town there may be some firm of lithographic printers. In that case, it would be well to inquire what kind of work the firm could use, and then try to supply the class of design needed. Some artists in London (including one or two ladies of talent) combine such work as the designing of book-covers, illustrations, head and tailpieces, initial letters, etc., with the drawing of picture-posters. Nor is this work confined to the Metropolis. A gifted artist in Liverpool has designed beautiful wall-posters for the announcement of picture exhibitions, and he has not even scorned other kinds of decorative advertising. Does not this give you an idea? Might not you at least endeavour to do something of this sort in your own part of England? Find out who are the colour printers who produce the large fashion-plate figures which probably cover the hoardings in your own locality in order to announce the attractions of the leading draper. See whether you cannot do something that is prettier and equally effective, and then submit your specimen to these printers. But do not forget that you must draw and paint in a very broad style, and use the fewest possible colours. Content yourself with red, black, and a neutral or flesh tint, or some such combination. If you prefer to attempt drawings on a smaller scale, you could design Christmas cards, menus, almanacks, and the like. Messrs. Raphael Tuck and Sons, 72, Coleman Street, London, E.C., are among the largest manufacturers of things of this kind. Ideas, however, rather than coloured pictures are what they require.