Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-08-26


were in the first place. that the type used
on page II were clean; on the others many
OF the small letters were clogged up. The
e and IS were especially bad. The ribbon
used for page II was not SO much worn as
that for the rest of the document, and the
writing was more uniform in color. The
latter fact was in part due to the superior
skill of the writer Of the single page. The
letters were In better alignment on that
and Were on bad dH onf Of their eae
sition. In page II the Il was accurately
conferred; in the rest 1t was to the left of
where 1t should be.
1.-The p was upright on the suspected
sheet, and leaned a trihe on the others. be-
ing turned in the bar. The one sheet also
those wSieh fooWed anS spafes When
asked why he believed that different per-
sons wrote the sheets. the expert said that
the operator who turned I out page seventeen
mer's touch was more uniform; none Of his
letters seemed to override each other, as
Was sometimes the case on the other pages.
His punctuation marks did not perforate
the paper. The indentations of his para
graphs were six spaces, against five Oh the
rest Of the document. He used three spaces
between his sentences; the others only two.
Inc nrst made space after q comma, the
second did not.
The Expert Sustained.
''The writer Of the bulk Of the paper was
less acquainted with the rules of punctua-
ton than was the other man. One man
always put a period and colon after the
words to wit; the other used only a COM
ma. For the figure l. in the paging of the
sheet seventeen. figure 4 was used:
was SO clear that the jury could hardly help
agreeing with the experts conclusions.
The quality OF uniformity is one in
which good typewriters may differ greatly.
Some strike harder with the right hand
than with the left, and thus stamp tl.eir
work indelibly. Others occasionally 'shad-
n lot tors fhaNt L.
holding the key down too long or by strik
Ing II sideways. Perhaps the idiosyncrasies
OF punctuation are the most trustworthy
ear-marks of all. The force of habit i'm
pels operators never to vary from their own
practice In given cases. Take the sentence:
When did you 60 there-MondayY One
man would put question mark after
there; another comma; still another a
dash. or a semi-colon, q comma and a DASH
a semi-colon and a dash might also be
used. A skilled man always follows his
one OF the most remarkable things in
connection with the individuality Of q
Typ VII is his sense Of feeling in touch
equals the sensibility of an expert piano
player. The machine, after a weeks usage,
justment the expert carries with him to all
other machines. Some like a loose and
others a tight adjustment and each wifi as
stoutly advocate the advantage Of their
ideas in this respect.
A Trick of an Operator.
ITO illustrate this point let me tell you
OF little incident that occurred up in our
club rooms not long since. One of the reg
uiar attendants ut the rooms was an ex-
pert stenographer and typewriter. He par
ticularly prided himself upon his speed and
accuracy upon the typewriter. While dis
GUESSING this point one evening several of
very well knew his ability was not over
rated by himself. The next day we took
the machine he always used and placed
the letter "a on the letter IS bar and the
latter letter on the formers bar These
letters. II Is hardly necessary to say, are
used about as frequently as any In the
brother expert endeavored to get the ad-
5ustment exactly in touch with the doc
tored one. In this he thought he succeed
THE next evening the discussion as to
accuracy and speed was renewed and we
made wager of an oyster supper that the
speed of one hundred words a minute for
ten minutes. We also knew he had fire.
ouently. done better work than that. or
gathered around the expert with our watch
es. 1t was agreed that every mistake was
to count as lost word. Like all experts
knew he was doing 1t perfectly. How the
Keys did hum His speed was something
AT the expiration Of ten minutes we took
the copy before the expert had had a
chance to see 1t and went over to another
table to count up. OF course the expert
followed US and was astonished to see his
work, 1t being full of mistakes, as we IN
tended 1t should be. While the expert had
his back turned the other machine was
substituted for the doctored one With
mistakes accounted for he had only aver
aged about S. words a minute.
He would hardly believe US when we
told him the result, but the evidence was
there and could not be impeached. He
went over to the machine, raised the car
rtage and examined all the letters. They
were correct. His face took on a puzzled
look. Then he began to write few words
and instantly his face frightened. With a
smile ne said:
" Boys, that was a good one. but I've
got you. You rang in a doctored machine
on me. This It not the machine the test
was made on and would you believe IL his
sense OF touch was so accurate that the
almost imperceptible difference in the ad-
noticed by him. We then acknowledged
the joke and we also paid for the oysters"