Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-18

years. The most Of them use the graphic
phone and tie typewriter, and one of thu
busiest places in the Capitol is the big room
of the east platform of the Senate whert
this transcribing is done.
There is probably no city in the United
States which has so many stenographers il
proportion to its population as Washing
ton. There Is scarcely man in public lif,
who Las not stenographic secretary who
accompanies him on all occasions, and thi,
custom has grown up within the past q
years. Senators Seward and Sumner were
among the first to bring shorthand to theil
aid in their work, and since that time the
practice has grown like Jonah's gourd
Now every Senator has shorthand clerk
who is paid by the Government. and nearly
every member of the House has to employ
one to keep up with his correspondence.
Wilson, of Washington State, one of the
new Congressman, told me yesterday that be
had received !, 300 letters within the past
three months, and Senator Manderson re-
ceives on an average of 100 letters O day.
WHAT INGALLS, SPEECH BROUGHT.
During the week alter his great speech,
about a month ago, Senator ingalls, re-
ceived ], 900 letters bv actual count, and
there is not Western Senator who is not
kept busy for two hours every day in an
swering letters. The Eastern Congressman
have less correspondence, but it is impossi-
BILE for a man to attend to public affairs and
do all his own letter writing. The clerks of
the committees of Congress get Sc day,
and they are expected to attend to the cor
respondence Of the chairmen of the commit
tees as well. Senator Stanford is said to
give his private secretary his whole salary,
but not few Senators employ their wives,
their sisters, their cousins or their aunts as
private secretaries, and have their real work
done by the cheap shorthand men with
whome the Capitol abounds.
President Harrison's stenographer gets
81, 500 year, and his private secretary, Mr..
Halford, gets S., 500. The shorthand man of
the Bureau of Engraving and Printing re-
ceives 81 600 annually, and the fattest of the
House committeeships are worth $1,000 a
year. All the heads of departments have
stenographers. Every bureau officer has his
shorthand man, and there is scarcely room
among the thousands in the great Govern
ment departments which has notion or more
stenographers connected with it. The steno-
graphic work of Washington outside the
Government departments is very great.
There are several thousand stenographers
and typewriters who do business for lawyers,
claim agents and others. Many of these
men and women have their own Offices and
their assistants, and the court reporters here
receive from 25 to 35 cents folio.
THEY MAKE BIG MONEY.
They make great deal of money in big
cases and there have been trials here which
have paid the reporters $4,000 apiece.
Many Of the most expert typewriters of the
United States are here and there is little
black-eyed fellow who now acts as secretary
for Mr.. Robert Packe, the General Passen-
ger Agent for the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company here, who can take down 20 words
a minute on his caligraph, and 1 have my
self dictated to him at the rate of 5000
words per hour. He takes the dictations
directly on the typewriter and you get your
copy as fast as you dictate the words. Many
of the newspaper men OF Washington use
shorthand amanuepses and hardly one of
them now writes his correspondence out
with pen. He either dictates to the gra-
phophone, to typewriter or to q stenog-
rapher. or manipulates the typewriter him
self, composing as he goes along and rat
tling out his thoughts upon the keys.
And still the demand for stenographers in
Washington is on the increase. Every
month or two the Civil Service Commission
advertises for new stenographers and type
writers, and the business colleges of the
month. Good men never lack work, but the
efficient private secretary embraces many
more qualifications than the mere taking
down OF words from another mans mouth.
The best OF the private secretaries here have
on an average as much sense as their
masters They must, ii they serve Senator
or Representative, know all about the de-
partments and be able to look up pension
case or a land claim, to compose q letter or
to draft bill. Not few of them look up
the materials for their speeches, and some
EVEN WRITE THE SPEECHES
themselves. Many public men dictate their
speeches to their stenographers before they
deliver them, and the stenographer is sup
posed to put on the finishing touches and to
give back the complete oration In type
writing to his Senator. Most of the bureau
officers do not answer the most of
their correspondence themselves. A
chief will take letter and tell
his private secretary to write a nice re-
ply refusing or granting request, and the |
man is supposed to be able to put this in
form SO that the chief will not be |
of it. Certain classes of letters |
never meet the public mans eye. The Sec
retary understands, by experience, what is
to be done with the case and he answers it |
himself.
In this way the private secretary becomes
! very important man at Washington, and
the Office of Private Secretary to the Presi-
lent is fully as important as that of any of
he Cabinet Ministers. David Davis used
70 say that the salary of this place ought to
De at least 81, 900 a year, as the man was
practically the executive officer of the Presi-
lent, and in many cases did as much work
Is he did. Colonel Lamont was worth more
% President Cleveland than any of his Cab
net officers, and Colonel Halford does to-
lay fully as much work as any man con-
lected with the administration. The Pri-
rate Secretary to the President must be on
all at all times, and he is liable to beroused
rom his bed at midnight to counsel with
he President in regard to some important
Iispatch or diplomatic occurrence which re-
uires an immediate answer.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.
RENT OF BUSINESS ROOMS