Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-05
That Are Daily Becoming a Necessity
in ALI Business Offices, Despite
Their High Price.
A. TALK ABOUT THE TYPEWRITER.
Growth of the Tent Trade an Evidence
That Camping Out lis Getting Very
Popular in Pittsburg.
THE PREVAILING STYLES IN SHOES.
Odd Stories Picked Up by Reporters in Tours Of the
Twin Cities.

'Tt is not generally known" said gen.
-fIemen Yesterday well posted on the sub
feet, ''that the,typewriter machine Is the re-
suit Of a Pennsylvania mans inventive
genius, but such is a fact Mr. Densmore,
of Meadville, claims the honor Of being the
inventor of the machine, and in his labors
he was assisted by two practical printers,
sMessrs. Gideon and Sholes. The manu-
facturers of the original instrument employ
at their factory 1,QOO men, and turn out 600
machines a week. There are in Pittsburg
and vicinity over 1900 of this kind of type
writer. One of the first to leave the factory
was used in this city in 1877 by A, M. Mar
tin, who was then official stenographer of
the Orphans Court.
''These machines are now made for every
language in practical use in, the world, ex-
ceptiIg the Chinese, which.is entirely too
numerous as to characters ever to be sys-
tematized on a type machine. They are sold
and in business use in all parts of the world
A Rather Expensive Necessity.
'sThey are an expensive, necessary luxury,
as every business man will tell you-more
of luxury. of course, if sweet, winsome
little maiden manipulates the keys. They
cost on the average about 500 apiece, and
the cost of the maiden - well,
that can not be averaged In
some cases know where the man marries
his f1esh-and-blood typewriter the cost has
been enormous. Pittsburg hasn t had many
little romances of that kind. I do not
know why, as there are any number of
pretty, intelligent girls who are adopts in
the profession and who make a good living
by it. You find them in every Office you
enter, whether comm ercial or professional.
Out of 225 pupils instructed in Wood
street school of typewriting and steno-
grsphy last season, but 81 were gentlemen,
and with the exception of all are now
occupying positions.
"But to return to the inanimate type
writer and its cost. 1t rents for more
considerably more-than piano. Fifteen
dollars, if you pay in advance for three
mouths, and IS if paid and taken by the
month.
Bound Up in Red-Tapeism.
Besides the rental the restrictions and
the requirements with which one must COM
ply in renting machine are decidedly redS
tapeish The person renting must promise
to be on his good behavior all the time the
machine is in his possession; he must
neither bend nor break, nor hurt in any
way the feelings of the machine, either by
indifference to its desire for fabrication or
by endeavoring to pass language over its
keyboard too strong for its tender suscepti-
bilities. The latter point is the hard
est one to comply with-a fellow
feeling on the lubricating question makes
one wondrous kind, you know-as type
writers both animate and inanimate, are
subject to the pouts, occasionally, and the
language restriction is to he lsmented. In
case of any injury to the delicate machine,
proper redress must be made Immediately
by the temporary owner. Hence but few
rent a typewriter, if it is possible TO pur-
chase one, though one insurance company
here annually expends $50 because the
directors veto every appropriation for
machine purchase, but o. X unhesitat-
ingly the renting measure. Penny wise !
and pound foolish"