Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-23
MRS. REAGAN.
How She Mastered Shorthand and Acts as Hell
Husbands Private Secretary.

How She Mastered Shorthand and Acts as Hell
Husbands Private secretary.
Correspondence of the Gazette.
WASHINGTON, June IA correspond
ent of the Washington Sunday Herald
gosslps as follows about Mrs. Senator
Reagan:
1t is pretty well known that Mrs. Rea-
gan, wife of the Texas senator, is her
husbands private secretary, but it is
not so well known that the lady Is a stem
ographer aud takes her husbands COR
respondence down from his dictation in
shorthand.
''There is an impression that our
Southern women are indolent, said
Mrs. Reagan the other day. 81 was
born and bred in the South, and know
many examples of spirited women among
us who have business talent, who man
age their domestic affairs without fric-
ton, controlling number of servants.
or even lending hand in the domestic
work of the household when necessary.
This was true to a limited extent before
the war when they had slaves. Ny per-
sonal feeling is that it were happy
thing if our Young women generally
could be trained so as to have one ac-
complishment so thoroughly learned as
to make 1t dependence in case of re-
verses, for the wheel of fortune turns
round south as we'll as north. l think it
degrading when a young woman is so
situated that she has to look to marriage
as resource or succor, rather than
free choice.
"For twenty years, MRS. Reagan
continued, after pause, 81 have been
acting as the senator's private secretary.
did it simply because he did not like to
contfde all his purely personal CORES
pondence TO the eyes of comparative
stranger; and little by little, L got to
doing more, until once the idea occurred
to me that l, like others, would get on
faster If learned shorthand. The sena-
tor generally keeps two men secretaries
to attend to public business, and at one
time he had good stenographer, who
lent me books and as had not much
else 10 Go just then 1 looked into them
and thought it not too difficult for even
me to learn, but on confidIlg my views
to a lady friend she declared l never
could do it. Well, / did, aud it took
me just three months hard, painstaking
work to be able to write at dictation. l
never had teacher. l dug it out my
self. l have no idea of my speed, nor do
l ever expect to report, but l find it very
useful. The stenOgrapher afterward
left the senator's employ, and as tenn
porarY expedient offered my services,
not for the money, but to be of use to
my husband. But he nor cannot see
why if 1 do the work as we'll as another
[ should not have the pay. l have
no idea how long this arrangement will
w ia
Right after breakfast the senator die
tates a dozen or so letters to me; take
it down, and he goes off about his bust
ness, and then 1 write them out and
mail them at once, at least twenty four
hours earlier than they would be under
the old way when he dictated to me for
long hand. 1t seems TO me that the dear
public have manifested an unnecessary
amount of interest in me as being my
husbands secretary. Why, there are
several ladies in the congressional circle
who are doing as much for their hus-
bands as l am for mine, and the only
difference is that 1 choose to do what
they might do if they wished to, draw a
small salary rs compensation due for
services rendered. rather like politics;
if l did not l should not enjoy this kind
of thing so much. l think Southern
women are all pretty well acquainted
with politics. l was but twelve years old |
when the senator was postmaster general |
of the Confederacy-I am his second |
wife-but even the little girls heard so
much political talk then that we could |
not help imbibing the sentiments of our
elders ..,7..ssss y
One bottlsp1f VII drive more |