Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-02-10

typewriter must. necessarily. be injurious.
Tor It's consequences Invariably are to in
duce round shoulders, thrown-fn chest ana
II followed regularly for a few wears. the
evils attendant on the malforraafio u-tich
follows Then the sitting all day. which is
oecloedly injurious to the system is anoth-
er handicap TO be overcome and looked out
lor. With the exception of STOPPING there
ooes net appear to be any remedy 90 rniti-
gate the evils Of type-writing as an emnloy-
nent. 1t takes a person of excentIonsiiv
Strong VIII power 10 prevent oneself from
falling into these ruts -'
The STOPPING Position.
IN conversation with a lady EXPERT "a
Gently an Evening Star reporter asked her
II there was no way to fix the machine so
'hat she would not have 10 stoop, and she
rephed that it was almost an impossibility.
Continuing, she said:
NO one Knows the evils OF sitting before
d typewriter all the livelong day better than
4 DO. 1t is much worse than sitting at n
desk, as the 1ean-over' is more decided
irIequehtly catch myself bent up almost
IKE 1ack-knife as a result of close atten-
-. .lon 10 the work being done and a desire
70 40 IL quickly. We cannot get at the
work near as well sitting upright and II
we are 10 do copying from stenographic
uo'es tne stoop Will be still more marked
.ne pencil used In the work is generally
haru one and the light mark obtained
tnereIrom hard TO make out The COPY or
the note book must be under the ewes and
WIN WIN the Keyboard high, the arms would
pecone very tired. and at the end of n
day be almost paralyzed. III Won win no.
&c an expert typewriter at work You will
llno mat her position is closely proppes
a assainst the machine. with hands working
ainhost straight up and down. II have a
org 1oo on hand / generally take that posi-
.ion. ana, with a soft pillow behind NV
pack, am good for six hours continuous
Moih. III secure the work and cannot
70 to q
quit the business"
w nat class Of work do you consider the
, ISL. 70 perform. letters, dictation or q
iarge repetition job?" inquired the reporter
Dictation far above everything. IL is
reahy delight to copy after a good talker,
anI d nsst-ciass typewriter has only the
a a,Dpo n ana paper to look after in that case
anu everything moves as smoothly as we'll
olleo machinery. Letters are also easy. IL
tney are different but preserve me from
goins over circular letter, say about 900
idea that to secure a tyneuriting iob q,
s,,,etIia I ietter Is one OF the softest jobs
imaginable. but Il Is emphatically the re-
,n ease go, IaK about the bad effects of lean
ing over machine continuously for sew
erai hours, they are 30 per cent under the
evils produced by repetition work.
Repetition Work.
Let me cite a case In point / recently
secured job OF writing about 200 letter.
from local relief committee. the onlv
oinerence being the insertion in each letter
the different district in which the recipient
hved- The letters ran something like this:
Lear SIR; You have been appointed q
MEMBER OF subcommittee for the twenty
fourth district to collect supplies ana money
Tor the destitute. Communicate with me
at once as TO your acceptance &C. &c'
ran over something like nrty-seven OF
those letters in one day and worked myself
10 complete standstiIl When 4 started
\ Ham
ana after completing five or six L had the
context down to a nicely. IRON that num-
Der up to thirty 4 secured a high rate or
speed, but then 1 commenced 10 fail on
in my work ana when 4 got into the rortles
would rest several minutes between each
letter. The quick movement OF the eyes
ana fingers became automatic IN their &C
ton and the mind refused to follow with
the words OF the letters and as a conse-
quence L found my work all jumbIed up.
frequently my eyes would close ana my
myers continue the work alone. After COM
pleting the nifty or letters 4 turned the
job over to an assistant.
Il know OF a similar case happening IN q
large typewriting Office UP near the treas
letter calling for five thousand copies
Everything went along smoothly the first
day and then the trouble commenced They
would work on it some days only an hour
and then began to skip the DAYS and IL
was several weeks before the job was nm
isheo- Several OF the young ladies en-
ployed in the oftice gave It up entirely ana
went away completely wrought UP 10 a
pitch of intense excitement The lady that
runs that office told me she would never
give her employees another job OF that char
acter. Besides II is OF no special value any
way. The art OF printing in these DAYS
has reacae1 such perfection and all the
standard typewriters are so closely fmi-
tated that il is only necessary 10 MI IN the
names and addresses on the printed letters
and only experts In typewriting can tell
the difference.
To Avoid Nervous Excitement.
This question of nervous excitement as
a result of repetition work on the type
writer is not new to us. OF course. we have
a great deal Of copying to do, and keep
from six to eight girls engaged all the time,
but / never allow any of them to make
more than twenty-five or thirty copies OF
the same letter. 1 then take the girl who
is doing this sort of work and switch her
on to something else. and give the repeti-
ton work TO another, relieving each In
turn. until the entire force has had a try
at the circular and IL is completed.
I have frequently lost employees on &C
count Of the monotony Of the work, but
that was before ! discovered the danger Of
continuous repetition work. They made all
kinds OF excuses. none Of which / was will
ing TO accept, so i let them go. Then I
thought the matter over one day when 1
was overcrowded with work. and L sat
down TO run of those relief COMMITTEES
CuCulafs- AIler Qolng the circulars Il start
ed home to dinner, and when began to
read the paper that relief letter was on
every nne 1 couldn't see anything else,
couldn't think OF what was reading, and
when / reached the dinner table there was
that letter staring at me out OF the bottom
OF my plate. The next day when i reached
the office after a restless night inaugural
ed the rotation plan of handling repetition
work and find IL works charmingly
have been told OF several instances
where young women We're placed I'm infrm-
aries. where they spent several weeks re-
covering from nervous prostration brought
on by making hundreds OF copies of any
one letter. Ii is too much for a man and
Is killing on a woman. One OF my en-
ployes told me recently that she would
rather run sewing machine and stitch
shirts at cents apiece than undertake -
make 1000 copies of any one letter"
Ii nad TO BE Done.