The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-11-24
FAIR TYPEWRITERS.
Over Two Thousand of Them EN-
ployed in Chicago.
Both Intelligence and Good Looks a Rec
ommendation-The Sunshine of Many
Of.ices-"Ready for Actfon'-Two
Washers" Sad Fate.

Washers" Sad Fate.
The female typewriter is mostly a
lively and good-looking young woman
of eighteen to twenty. There are now
over two thousand of them in Chicago,
and the number is rapidly increasing.
The reason for her youthfulness is found
in the fact that the typewriting bust
ness is still in its infancy, while the fact
of her good looks is merely another
illustration of the laws of natural selec-
ton, Old girls do not learn new tricks
in the way of earning livelihood, and
the young ones who have essayed the
typewriter with success have not yet had
time to grow old. The attractive and
deceptive circulars of some typewriting
and shorthand schools have led many
thick-fngcred Biddies to take ''type-
writing course" but the invarable re-
suit in such cases has been that the as
p'ring females soon returned to their
places in the kitchen sadder and wiser
Biddies. Chicago is being educated to
high standard of taste in this matter.
The female typewriter to be a success
in this city must be not only
young and good-looking, but refined,
intelligent and educated-with the tact
to repair her employers grammatical
breaks without injuring his dignity, and
capable of throwing his few vague and
heterogeneous thoughts, badly eN-
pressed, into clear, concise, and ex-
pressive communication.
She gets to work either at eight OF
nine o'clock-at nine in lawyers Of
fees and some of the larger business
houses, and at eight in the general run
of business Offices She generally ar
rives about fifteen minutes late, with a
pleasant smile ON her face, a pleasant
Good morning" on her tongue, and a
library novel and a lunch-box on her
arm. After hanging up her hat and
wrap in the closet and asking anxiously
after the office boys mothers rheuma-
tism, she takes the cover off her ma
chine and spends half an hour wiping it
with cloth and olling its joints with a
miniature oil-can. Then she steals a
peep at the list of marriage licenses in
the morning paper. after which she
sticks a plug of chewing gum or cara
mels in her mouth, hides her novel I'M
der her little apron, and settles down in
her chair at the machine as though
ready for business. But neither she
nor her machine is yet ready for work.
She sticks a sheet of paper between the
rollers and starts off briskly to write
private note to her darling Eleanor
Alice, from whom she had letter this
morning. She goes along at 2:40
gait for about ten seconds, when she
suddenly stops and filings back the top
OF OF the machine with a vicious snap.
Then she juggles the paper minute,
and fingers the cranks, and pulls hair
pm from her back hair, and jabs it at
the ribbon, and sticks her gum plug be-
tween the leaves of her novel, and slams
back the machine into place, and starts
again. 1t usually takes the girl and
the machine about an hour every morn
ing to come to an amicable arrange
ment by which work may proceed with
smoothness and dispatch.
They're all bright girls, every moth
efs son of them-I mean mothers
daughter, said man in the business,
VINO had employed hundreds of the girls
and sold thousands of the machines;
every one of them, sir, bright as new
aoliar. Slouches have no place in this
business. I'll tell you how l average
them: First, they must be up to the
average grade of female school teachers
n, y, intelligence and education; second,
they must be up to the average of the
aleswomen in the fashionable stores in
lhe matter of good looks. You see a
schooi-teacher needn't be good-looking,
out she must be smart in her grammar
ana spelling and figures; while a high
G. class Or highly-paid salesgirl needn't be
u any education to speak of, but must
oe pretty and gracious. Now, type
writer's must be both. A good educa-
'uon is absolutely necessary, and good
LOOKS and amiability are also necessary
u IN order to obtain or retain n good posi-
uon. Why2 Well, l hardly know. l
merely state the fact l suppose it's
human nature for people to like pretty
faces ,.s near them. A pretty girl type
writer is spot of everlastingly bright
sunshine in dreary office. The system
=. mas Its disadvantages The best OF
'hem, when they take the notion, will
20 Oh and marry regardless of who is
me May be we shall have
t yla maid typewriters by-and-by when
u sae stock of pretty girls run out. At
present the market is we'll stocked. My
customers, I've noticed, always prefer
RRfieeatty, girls, and so 1 employ that
machine?"
Like chrome to pound of tea or
Map;eee of pie to every fifteen-cent meal?
NO. we don't. But if man who buys
q machine wants somebody to work it
we can give him an expert hand. We
Always have a list of girls waiting to
Jake situations"
There are about five thousand type
writing machines in use in the city. A
large number of these are operated by
.aelr owners or by male operators. but
apoat three thousand machines in use