Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1888-10-17
THE ANCIENT COPYIST.
Driven Out out of Existence by the
Use OF the Typewriter.

The Introduction of the typewriter
has driven the ancient copyist entirely
out of existence. Before modern me-
chanical ingenuity devised this means
OF overcoming the deficiencies of bad
handwriting there was quite trade
driven by the scrivener. In the copy
ing he found constant employment.
Each theatre usually had copyist at
tached to its staff. Sometimes he was
tie prompter, who thus added 10 his
t<moluments, and at others an entirely
Independent member of the company.
When play was accepted several clean
copies had to be made of the complete
/, -ork, one for the prompter's use and
others for preservation in case OF acci-
Iaent. Each part has also to be copied
of for each individual player and the
directions for the carpenter and prop
erty man besides. Altogether the copy
ist in a large theatre had his hands full
throughout the season. independent
of the theatre were, also, men who had
made a trade OF copying plays, legal
documents and manuscripts for publi-
cation. That there were quite num-
Der of these might be inferred from the
fact that at one time they had sort
of an exchange in Union Square,
where they used to gather daily and
very often work among the beer mugs
ION the tables.
Indeed, beer was as essential fluid
to the professional copyist As ink. He
! was, as a ruie, a decidedly snuffy and
GTubby person, gwen to chronic alcoho-
lism. and as careless in his attire as he
was irregular In his habits. Most of
these men had been, L fancy, actors.
hflt 1 1Rtei halter than fh9V
wrote do not wonder at their change of
profession. Nowadays We have altered
all this. There is typewIiter's desk
| In every hotel Office and typewriting
establishments all over town. You now
have your manuscript converted into
!. a. book even before 1t goes TO the prin-
/ ter's hands. Indeed there are publish
ers In this city who send manuscripts
to the typewriter TO be copied in order
to save the expense of the innumerable
corrections by the printers which would
be necessitated by the bad handwriting
| of the author. There is firm of
young women who make a speciality of
handling manuscripts OF this sort, and
who somehow or other contrive to ex-
tract sense, as well as dollars for
themselves, out of manuscript beside
which Horace Greely's was copper
plate.
In addition to books which are prln-
1 ted and plays which are acted there are,
as may be Imagined, a good many that
never see the light of public day. In
| deed, the plays which are acted and
the books which are sent TO the press
are but drop in the huge bucket OF
production. Consequently the pros
perity of the typewriter cannot be
gagged by the amount of matter act
1, ually MADE puullC. L know ono woma an
| who makes a business of copying plays
alone. and who keeps from three TO
half dozen girls continually busy.
She once informed me that out of some
hundreds of plays which she had copied
during the year she had, although she
| followed the dramatic papers very
closely. as a matter of curiosity, only
discovered about a dozen that had been
put on the stage. The Others had been
consigned TO the limbo of rejection that
holds so many unfulflIed dreams.