The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1886-11-03
EASE uuR:. OK T,.i.y WRITER'S.
& "c>tci; Editor Tam, un i:ncl2', ;'npy
LET Ills Cot:frer,.s FAKE II Day0Y

= Mc>t"S;, Editor Tm,n> on i:nc1g;, ;apy t
LET HIS Coi:rerrs FAKE Dav O9.
T,vpe writer's of tie bcs: class VIII, i!
the hands Of III expert. transfer to pa
per, space and punctuate from sevcnt,
to eighty words a minute. n copyin:
matter, or writing from dictation, eve,
better can be done; but the operator who
! depends upon his own brain to supply
his fingers n:!ist he very expert, an(
have & constant mental flow 10 reach tha
standard. The fastest pcnman rarely
exceeds fortyIiye words 4 minute, so il
will be secli that tie little machine h;,>
great the advantage. But the saving
of labor IS also great blessing. Nobody
better than newspaper men realizes the
drudgery OF the pen or pencil. Let &
man write continuously y for two or three
hours with the speed that most news,
paper men acquire and his wrist and his
arm and his eyes al ache alike. He must
stop and rest or his nervous and over
wrought hand viii soon begin to make
'spider marks" To lawyers clerks who
used to have to copy with labored pen
the awful and unintelligable verbiage
made necessary by centuries of tradition,
the type writer has indeed been a bless
ing. He can now rattle off little com
plant IN 4 suit to recover the price of q
COW killed or Il railroad-a little matter
OF 600 or 700 pages Of cap--in day at
most. 1t used to take him week to 10
it with the pen. The merchant can now
dictate hundred letters in the same
time he once took 10 write twenty, and
have them all ready for his signature
when the dictatiop is over.
Many persons refrain from the use of
the type writer, and especially those
matured in years, from the fear that they
could never learn to operate it proficient
", but that is false idea. 1t is very
simple. Indeed, those accustomed to
compose and who are at all apt, can
learn in 3; short while to drive tie ma
chine at its best. Tie Herald writer
knows of an editor who had never touch
ed key until the other day. Then
somebody got him to buy type writer.
He hunted up his topics Tor discussion,
mostly newspaper scraps and clippings,
laid them beside the machine, got out
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.her-go- Gallagher look on lis face,
squared himself for business. The key
worked a little hcsitating,y at first, aud
the "cicks" were infrequent, but the
editor toiled away. Pretty soon it was
observed that the chestnut bell on the
end Of the machine struck little oftener
than it had done for an hour or 50. Evii-
IDENTIFY the triumphant editor was getting
the hang OF things. BY night lie had
many sheets of copy" piled up, and his
face wore Il CLEAN OF triumph. True,
some of the copy was little rickety in
alignment, and a 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 Il 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 9 a. H., and
now the chestnut bell was going at the
rate of ten strokes to the minute. Sheet
after sheet Of copy" flew off, and the
machine fairly quivered, bat 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
jects began 70 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 whizzed of the 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 ifeless.