The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-07-16
THE TYPEWRITER GIRL.
One OF Them Has Something to Say
About the Profession

From the Boston Traveller.
Every girl nowadays is learning 10 use
the typewriter and studying shorthand.
Just as soon as they finish school they begin
to learn, and a great many young women
who used to be clerks in stores and copyists
have learned, and the result is there are too
many applicants for every position.
Il don't think it Is any particular advan-
tage to young woman who has her living
to earn to be a stenographer, any more
than it is to be n book-keeper. If she is a
good stenographer, and that means more
than being a rapid writer, OF if she is good
bookkeeper, she stands good chance for a
good salary. And ! know, for | have tried
both" said the young woman as she replied
to my inquiries in regard to her work.
People don't understand all that stenog-
raphy includes" she continued.
1T means more than simply learning
shorthand and using a typewriter.
"A good stenographer must understand
the rules of punctuation, must spell cor
rectly and have intelligence enough to
catch the correct form of dictaUion even
when it is given incorrectly. No matter
how stupid an employer may be, nor how
awkwardly he may dictate his letters, he
expects to see them come from the type
writer models of correct expression and in
telligence.
81 work for lawyer, and when began
in his office he had a serious conversation
with me in regard to exactness. l was to take
word for word as he die tated and never
omit or add a syllable. Well, after few
days | noticed he looked over the letters I'M
easily, and that he did not seem to ap-
prove Of them. Finally one morning he
said:
"'Miss L., er-I don't know as you will
do for tho work | Won tn
write rapidly, but don't think you always
catch the exact meaning of my words
II had taken his exact words, but he die
tated hastily, and his letters were not
models of expression. After that endeav-
ored to understand what be was trying to
say. Gradually got to know his clients as
well as he did, and to understand about
what his views were, and now he considers
me the most exact stenographer he ever
had, although L frequently add and occa-
sionally omit in copying"
What pay do stenographers get4"
1T depends on how much they will work
for. The average pay is Sl2 week, but
good many who don't understand the work
very we'll will take positions at S. If they
prove competent, bright and intelligent they
generally get up to the average pay. If
they can't spell and don't have any brains
they keep along at IS. and are not worth
that L know of young woman here in
Boston who gets $lS a week, and who begins
work at 9 a. m. and finishes at 4 D. m. But
she is an expert. She worked six years for
$40 week, and she is a bright girl who
would succeed anywhere. 1t all depends on
the girl. know two young women, clerks
in dry goods house, who began work at So
week; one now gets $50, the other about
the same, and they are both experts on
laces. They can tell the make, almost the
history and price Of piece of lace the mo-
ment they touch it, One of them buys the
laces for the department in which sle
works Are you going to write an article
about the typewriters" the young woman
asked, with a smile at my many ques-
tions.
IF you do, there is one thing want you
to say, and say 1t firmly, that is, about all
this nonsense about typewriters flirting and
all that 1t ia simply ridiculous and silly.
or course there are simpetons who learn to
be stenographers, and there are simpletons
who are lawyers, but, as a rule, the type
writer girl has something else to think
about than fiirtations; and her employer
usually thinks about her as he would of a
young man in his Office and if he treats
her with. perhaps a degree more of cour-
tesy and consideration than he would the
young man, why. put it down to his credit
and to the advance in civilization"
After assuring her that the fact should be
duly acknowledged, and if possible in large
type, she went On.