The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1886-11-03
FAST WORK ON TYPE WRITER'S
a Western Editor Turns OF Enough Copy TO
Let HIS Con!reros Take n Dny on

|
Let His Con!Cercs Fake n Dny or.
Type writer's of the best class will, in
the hands OF an expert, transfer to pa
per. space and pllnctuate from seventy
10 eighty words n minute. In copying
matter, Or writing from dictation, even
Dctter can be done; but the operator who
depends upon his own brain to supply
ms fingers must be very expert, and
nave a constant mental flow to reach that
Standard: The fastest pcnman rarely
eAcccds lorty-i1Vc words minute, SO it
VIII be seen that the little machine has
GrGatiy the advantage. But the saving
Oh labor IS also great blessing. Nobody
peltcr than newspaper men realizes the
dflldGcry OF the pen or pencil. Let u
man write continuously for two or three
hours with the speed that most news
paper men acquire and his wrist and his
arm and his eyes all ache alike. He must
stop and rest or his nervous and over
wrought hand will soon begin to make
spider marks" 10 lawyers clerks who
used to have to copy with laborcd pcn
thc awful and lnintelligablc vcrbiagc
made necessary by centuries of tradition.
the type writer has indeed been Il bless
ing. lie can now rattle Off little com
plant In Il suit to recover the price of n
COW killed on rairoad--a little matter
vi oOO or ZOO pages of cap--in day ut
most 1t used to take him week to do
1T with the pen. The merchant eau now
dictate hundred letters in the same
Tune he once took to write twenty, and
nave them all ready for his signature
when tho dictation is over
Many persons refrain from the use of
the type writer, and especially those
matlrcd III years, from the fear that they
could never learn to operate it proficient
ly, but that is a false idea. 1t is very
simple. Indeed, those accustomed to
compose and who arc at all apt, can
learn III II short while to drive the ma
chine at its best. The Herald writer
knows of an editor who had ncvcrtouch-
cd key until the other day. Then
somebody got him to buy type writer.
lie hunted up his topics for discussion,
mostly newspaper scraps and clippings,
laid thcm beside the machine, got ont
his oil can and oiled her up, took off his
coat and put on his cuff protectors, and
then, with kind OF hard and aggressive
let-hcr-go Gallagher look on lis face,
squared himself for business. The kew
worked little hesitatingly at first, and
the "cllcks" were infreQucnt, but the
editor toiled away. Pretty soon it was
observed that the chestnut bell on the
end Of the machine struck Il little oftcncr
than it had done for an hour or SO. Evi-
IDENTIFY the triumphant editor was getting
the hang of things. BY night he had
many sheets of copy piled up, and lis
face wore CLEAN Of triumph. True,
some OF the copy was little rickety in
alignment, and few of the capitals were
out OF plumb, but these fault were easily
corrected with the pen
The next day the editor was at the
machine bright and early. He told the
rest OF the staff they might take a vaca-
ton that day, as he was going to fill the
paper--he wanted to see just how much
there was IN type writer anyhow. He
turned on the steam about 8 n. M, and
now the chestnut bell was going at the
rate of ten strokes 10 the minute. Sheet
after sheet of ''copy" flew off, ana the
machine fairly quivercd, but the editor
never stopped except twice to wipe his
brow and three times to cool of hot
box. BY o'clock the supply of sub
Jccts began to get low and the machine
cooled down, but toward night, when
the editor turned loose on his column of
Jokes, the strain was too much. He had
Just whlzzed of tho fourteenth funny
paragraph, the bell was making twenty
strokes to the minute, the smoke was
rising from the heated cylinder, when
snap! went an eccentric, the crank-pin
flew into the ash-pan, and the poor little
machine lay prone and lifccSs.