The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-04-25
howard on stenograpbcrs.


Howard on Sten0graphcrs.
Joseph Howard, Jr., delivered recent
" an address on Shorthand as Bust
ness" before the Stenographers' associa-
ton. from which we extract some para
graphs. He began by saying:
There are, am told, today. in the United
States, 100000 men and women-boys and girls
thrown in-who are earning Their living ny snelr
alleged stenographic endeavor.
They go as boys and girls from one of
the humbug shorthand schools to an
employer.
They are lninforned In history, they know
nothing about names, they know nothing OF the
great events of the past, they care nothing about
the present. they think nothing about the future;
the know, however, to make the curly-cues AL
right. God pity the employerl For the first six
months is torture the next six months 1t Is hor-
rid the third six months it becomes easy, and, in
about two years, he gets that boy and that girl
SO that they are really to him part and parcel OF
his mentality and Of his output, as much so as
his hands, as much so as any portion of his head
or his body.
Then, alas! the girl, whom Howard
calls Sarah, meets her George. After
that she is absolutely no good. She be-
comes Indifferent, she becomes careless.
All under heaven she cares for is to get
away at 4 o'clock and meet George
around the corner. Says Howard'
Men regard stenography as they regard the sale
Of dry goods, as they regard any literary effort.
Women regard stenography as bridge from the
now of endeavor to the then Of the apathetic
state when they no longer have their born name,
but take the name of that gorgeous creature,
George-until they are married-and then they
wish to heaven that they had stuck to their
crooks.
The women who are in my judgment, best
equipped by nature for stenographic work, after
they reach the age of e. are not worth the powder
to blow them to blank as stenographers. simply
because they have met George around the corner
For the past six and half years, how
ever, the speaker declared he had as good
a stenographer as ever walked, whose
George, he thanked God, was not in
view, though he had no doubt he would
appear. But what then? Going to a
Chicago convention he had said to his
stenographer, "Girley. I want you to be
ready to go to Chicago next Tuesday"
The girl would not go, for fear of Mrs.
Grundy's gossip. Thus through fear of
the "dirty dogs of life," Howard was de-
prived of his invaluable stenographer at
time when he needed her most. Only
for George and Mrs. Grundy women
would make better stenographers than
men.
Stenographers tell Howard that the
hardest work they have to do is when
they sit down in minister's study to
take his notes when he wrestles with the
subject of infant damnation.
Good stenographers, when they are
good, are invaluable. Howard says he
has been able through their aid to quad
ripple his income. But skilled stenog-
rapher must be up in everything-his-
tory, literature and current events.
Howard repels emphatically the gossip
of the world about the character of the
girl stenographer. He remarks:
OF all the stenographers that have ever met,
with the exception Of two high faluting somer-
sault turning girls in Chicago, never in my life
have met with one who did not conduct herself,
so far my work was concerned with absolute
self respect
He pays remarkable tribute to the
loyalty of stenographers. At the time
of the Grant & Ward failure, Howard
had their books in his hands to prepare
the story for The New York Herald. The
stenographer took it down in short hand,
and carried the notes home to write them
out. He might during that time have
made not less than $500 by selling the
information to other papers, yet he was
true to himself and his employer, and
kept the information sacred for the pa
per to which it belonged.