Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-06-13
TYPE WRITER'S.
What Women Can Do.
From Hsrper's Bazaar.

From Harper's Bazaar.
The nature Of the work required in type-wrIt-
ing and photography and the wide and rapidly
increasing demand for it invest the subject with
"a special attraction for woman who desire to
earn living. An artist, unless she possesses
the very rare gift OF genius. usually encounters
difficulty in selling her wares and even the true
daughters of the MUSES. often pine for lack of
recognition. But a typewriter operator or a
photographer, or. best of all. woman who is
both. may reasonably expect to find steady, COM
Portable and remunerative employment
The business known as type-writing is only
about eight years old, having been first brought
into general notice at the time of the centennial
exhibition. small instrument fixed to stand
about the size of a sewing machine table is op-
Grated like pianoforte by play ing upon three or
four banks of keys with the fingers. Whenever
key is struck a letter of the alphabet is printed
on a sheet OF paper, and these letters can be
printed as fast as the KEYS can be struck Obvi-
ousiy this is very much faster than they could be
written by the most practiced penmcn. Expert
ence shows that skIllful cOpyist transcrbes
about twenty words a minute. and that skillful
operator On typewriter prints about sixty
words minute. OF three times as many as the
skiltful penman. 4 young woman sitting
in front of the instrument dispOses herself as
easily as when in front of her panofOrte She
plays on the notes. but neither uses her feet nor
bends her back. The type-writing machine Oc-
cUples less room than the sewing machine and
to operate it is very much less trying to nerves.
spine and soul. II have noticed with surprise, y
said a weli-knOwn business man recently. that
our girls after seven or eight hours of work,
perform their last half-hOur's duty without ap-
parent fatigue" The cost of the two instru-
ments is about the same. the price OF first
class typewriter being from eighty to one hun
dred dollars but in two months you can earn
enough TO pay for your typewriter by working
on it only six or eight hours a day.
There are other things to be said in favor of
the typewriter. 1t operates as legibly as
printing-press- legibly than some print
ing presses its letters are two or three times
as large as those of an ordinary newspaper; it's
sentences are punctuated with the care be-
slowed by good cOpyst and the general effect
OF page OF them Is a refreShment to the eve
II carbon" or manifold" paper is used three
pages are written simultaneously at the end of
your allotted task you have three copies instead
of one. Fer whenever you strike note OF the
instrument the impress of the particular letter
OF the alphabet represented by that note strikes
through the lowest of three superimpOsed sheets
OF paper and appears successfully on the other
two. On each of three sheets, placed one upOn
another, the imprint Of the letter is seen and it
takes no longer to print duplicates than to print
a single saeet. If. therefore, the operator on a
=
the rate of sixty words minute, or three times
as fast as skilled penman can do it, she can
take three copies of that page simultaneously
or. In other words, can accomplish the work of
nine skilled penmen Put your nine skilled
penmen in one room. ard your skilled operator
on the typewriter in another: at the end of the
day the latter has produced as much COPY as
her nine competitors: and while anybody who
can read at all can easily read her copy, perhaps
1t will require an expert in penmanship to dc
a1n hof
copy really are. In all business offices. there
fore. where much copying is required, the type
writer is a valuable assistant 1t has been
found 10y business men who have avaled them
selves of woman's work in type-writing that
women possess the inestimaDle advantage of
not being the rivals of their employers. man
acting the part of private secretary or conf
dental clerk may leave his employer at any
moment and set up for himaelf. With young
women the case is different. For reasons which
everybody recognizes but which perhaps will
not hold good forever. they are not regarded by
business men as possible rivals.
In the next place. my private secretary"
said well-known solicitor of patents the other
day, nOdding in the direction OF young woman
who sat in front of a typewriter, "has been in
nor an hour" The average salary of such a
secretary is $500 a year. Sometimes a thousand
dollars is earned. The run of the typewriter
can be learned in a week. and after a practice of
tiTee OF Tour weeks q clever girl can write faster
than penman. Persons who can play on the
pianOfOrte become proficient in a shorter time.
In any case it is comparatively easy to become
first-class operator. An hour. or two hours a
day is as much as any young woman ought to
practice when beginning. To become first
Class photographer or shorthand writer is much
more difficult The young woman who begins
at the age of twelve or ten years is likely to
succeed the soonest.
The best private secretary is one who can
write shorthand and can operate a typewriter.
She Is able to take down answers to letters. and
then to make copies on the typewriter from her
Photographic notes. The business of O firm of
solicitors for patents has so increased since the
advent Ofthe typewriter their days seem to have
become longer, because SO much more work can
be done in day. that they are training in their
office two or three young women to become
operators on it, who meanwhile make them
selves generally useful, and receive for their SER
vices SIS or $40 month. After year so spent
these pupils will earn $40 a month Young
men. If applying at this Office for similar
positions. would be told frankly that experience
had led the firm to prefer the services of the
gentler sex. The rooms are bright and cheer
full. and noticed that during an interval of her
task one of the operators had been refreshing
herself with novel, in strict accordance with
the privileges of her position.
How Harvard (:raduafes Are tn no