Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-06-07
TYPEWRITERS.
Opinions About Them Dictated to One
of Them by an Accomplished Stem
OnPRnher.

Opinions About Them Dictated to One
of Them by an Accomplished Stem
OgrRpher.
From the New York Sun.
More trash and nonsense are written
about typewriter girls by people who do not
understand what good typewriting is or how
to dictate to a typewriter than about any
other profession or any other business in
which either men or women are engaged to-
day. The fact of the matter is that type
writing is worth anywhere from IS a week
up to $40 or s25 which is sometimes paid as
a weekly salary to expert typewriters who
have no knowledge of shorthand. 1t is no
unusual thing for typewriters to earn at
folio work from dictation by stenographers
two dollars an hour and over and the finest
experts are worth every cent of that amount
of money. Among stenographers one dol
lar an hour is the ruling rate; and for that
one dollar good typewriter with an expert
dictator will transcribe from thirty to forty
folios an hour of testimony. In some cases
even forty folios an hour Of solid matter
have been dictated. Forty folios is two col
umns OF the Sun: and, of the men who
write about debating to typewriters as
though they knew about 1t, there are prob
ably not half a dozen In the country who
can dictate so mucn.
Many years ago, the writer was employed
as shorthand amanuensis by George Alfred
Townsend, well known Cath" who ha-
bitually dictated to him in shorthand two
columns an hour, and did IL every day in
the week two hours day for months at a
time, indicating every full stop, semi-colon,
quotation mark and paragraph. II Cath"
dictates to a typewriter now and has one
of the best in the business, no doubt he can
dictate from a column and a half to two
columns an hour of original matter and the
writer knows of no other man who can do
that OF course, there are plenty of incom-
petents, who pose as typewriters and who
bring the business into discredit by their
poor work. For many years the writer has
been thrown in contact with expert type
writers in his business official stenog-
rapher. In view of the many gibes and
sneers, in which newspaper writers indulge
on the subject Of typewriter operators of the
feminine gender, II is a matter of simple
justice to say that the women with whom
he has been associated in his business have
been without exception well educated, re-
fined, capable Of doing rapid and accurate
work, who attended strictly to business and
did not waste time with frivolous remarks.
or profession be the weaklings engaged
therein, whether the work be law. medi-
cine, the ministry. shorthand or typewrit-
ing, and any one who cannot accomplish
twice much debating to a good type
writer operator as with a pen Is unable to
do that either because he does not know
how to dictate or because he has an inferior
operator. 1t took just eight minutes TO die
tate this article to a typewriter, who does
not claim to special experiences and whose
charge was twenty-five cents.
CThe above was not altered in any respect
by the editor, and the printers were request
ed to follow copy. The reader may there-
fore judge of the accuracy both Of the die
tator and the typewrite-)