Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-10

employment The city is aAoat with in
competent stenographers, and business col
leges are turning out yearly hundreds Of
young ladies and gentlemen who never &C.
complished anything with their shorthand,
and the reason may be attributed to their
lack of education and the mechanical way
In which they endeavor to do their work.
SOME OF THE DUTIES.
A business man in debating, does not gen.
orally round out his letters very fully. He
gives just scanty outline, but expects his
stenographer to fill in the unimportant words
and turn the abrupt sentences into euphoni-
Gus ones. He also wants an amanuensis
that will grasp the idea he wishes expressed,
and not change the entire meaning of a sem
tence by the substituting OF word directly
contradictory 70 the one dictated, simply be-
cause the notes are similar.
Neatness and dispatch are also desirable
and necessary, if one would be successful.
For q combination of such virtues business
men are willing to pay good salaries. But
amateurs begin their business life on very
moderate salaries, $25 month being con-
sidered fairly good by young ladies just
through with their study, but who very
shortly command $40 and $50 if they are
competent to do the work required of them.
A salary OF $50 is considered very, very
good, and is paid to some young ladies here
in the city who have held their positions
long enough to become thoroughly familiar
become very rapid in correspond
ence, turning out any number of
letters day. The Independents, however,
outside of the court stenographers. make the
most money in this business, and the city
has any number of them. They rent an
Office or 60 in with some attorney whose
work they do in payment for the Office room,
and then take in copying and correspond
ence. There is no schedule in prices gov
erning work done in that way, but there is
sort of an unwritten law making 10 cents
sheet, and half that for a carbon copy the
usual charge, though, as L say, anyone can
do it for less if they wish to, or charge more
if they can get it. That does not include
legal work, which is always more, often 30
cents sheet, often double that amount, and
very frequently, in taking testimony, as
much is charged as the regular court STE
nographers charge-$10 day.
WHERE THE MOST MONEY Is.
''The position of court stenographer is
very desirable one, as the salary is princeIy
and the labor not particularly hard, but for
one vacancy made by death there are
thousands of applicants. It is very seldom
that court stenographer transcribes his
own notes. He usually dictates them to
some one else, or reads them into phono.
graph, from which they are transcribed.
Over and above his salary he receives a
liberal compensation for every sheet tran
scribed. and in special cases involving vast
estates where there is no one to protest and
the costs come out of the estate, he is
allowed to make his own charge. He i'm
proves the opportunity, but his charges
correspond with the attorneys, generally.
substituted once in such case and received
$45 Tor one day and half, which was only
two-thirds of what was paid the regular
stenographer.
There are mot many ladies who do court