Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1888-07-27
SHORTHAND EXPERTS.
THEY ARE IN DEMAND AND GET
GOOD PAY IN WASHINGTON.

THEY ARE IN DEMAND AND GEL
GOOD PAY IN WASHINGTON.
The demand for the stenogra'
piers at the government depart
ment is still unsupplIed, and it is
verJ hard to get good stencgra-
pliers at the salaries paid by the
government, writes f. q. Carpen-
ter from Washington. Government
clerks receive from 81 600 to$2, 900,
and stenographers are among the
better paid men among them. Near
" every chief of a bureau, as well
as cabinet officers, has his private
secretaries, who are shorthand men,
and these receive, as a rule, over
$4,000. Each of the senators OF
the United States is entitled to a
private secretary at the rate OF 50
per day, and the business of con-
pressmen has increased to such an
extent that the representative who
would do his duty by his constit'
uents must have a stenographic
private secretary. Each congress
man receives all the way from 10
TO 200 letters day, and If he can
not dictate the answers to these
nor have an assistant to run his
errands throughout this City oil
Magnificent Distances, his life here
is that of a drudge, and he degen'
crates into a seed sender and an
errand boy. The result is that
stenography has grown into a pro-
tession at Washington, and there
are 1000 or 5000 stenographers at
the capital. They are mostly young
men, though here and there you
see a long-bearded, gray haired
shorthand writer, and now and then
a woman. In 1910 there we're not
more than a half'dozen CON-
petent stenographers in the
limited States. Now, it is said,
there are over 10000, and New
York city alone has at least 5000.
1t costs S75O,OOO a year to pay the
stenographic work of the various
departments of the New York city
government, and the salaries OF
stenographers here range from 81
600 to 81, 800 a year.
Washington pays, perhaps, the
highest of any of the cities for its
stenographic work, though this re-
lates only to the government and
to the reporting of Congress. Den
mis- Murphy receives $4,000 a year
for reporting the Senate for the
Congressional Record, and each of
the FIVE House reporters gets 80
900 a rear salary. These are, per-
haps, the highest government sal
aries paid, though IN New York it
is said that there are some stenog-
raphers so expert that they can
command 800 a day ; and l have
been told that Congressman Hit,
of Illinois, who is now a millionaire
through his marriage, could earn
this sum at shorthand if he chose
to practice it. Good stenograpbers,
however, make more money by the
Job than they do by a salary, pro-
vided they have a good clientele.
Court reporters are paid from 20 to
80 cents a folio, and in big cases
they make a great deal of money.
Take, for instance, the Star route
trials, and 1t is my remembrance
that the reporters got 100000 for
the job. In every large city you
will find firms of law reporters, and
the business is as legitimate and
profitable almost as the law itself.
President Cleveland pays his STEM
ographer 81, 800 year, but IN this
case the shorthand man Is not Dan
iel Lamont. Lamont gets $500
year, and 1t is said that the Presi'
dent adds about 81, 800 to this, so
as to make his salary equal to that
of a congressman.