Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-03-03

TO the machine and turn ou5 very fair copy
when occasion demands. 1t has amused
me sometimes TO dictate my notes back to
the man from whom / had taken them.
he being able to operate his own machine
faster than l could.
To give a few facts and figures that
have come within my personal knowledge.
The apparent speed of an operator is very
misleading. a beginner VINO thinks she
clicks along right lively is pretty apt to
find when nrst she takes up actual work
that she only does six or eight folios an
hour And one of the most efficient oper-
ators in the Interior Department building
whose chief is tireless in his praises of her
work stated to me that she did not think
her speed was in fact over twenty folios
per hour, although people were constantly
dropping In to watch her fingers fly.
The truth is that exaggerated state
ments regarding speed are SO common that
an operator is almost forced to eXaggerate
TO keep up with the procession. AS the
lady just referred to said to me: Il never
say how fast l can write People can see
for themselves that l write rapidly. but IL
j were to say / wrote twenty folios an
hour they would at once rank me among
the operators who claim that speed" The
ordinary price in Washington is six cents
per folio zone hundred words for one copy.
The rate of speed for copying is usually
from eighteen to thirty folios per hour,
very few operators exceeding the speed
last given. From dictatioE, before
stated, the speed would be considerably
greater. But even the slower operator,
turning out eighteen folios. makes (when.
as the article last quoted observed, she
has the work to dol SloS per hour, aud
she of thirty-folio speed makes s1.s0. Rut
an operator is seldom kept uninterrup:edly
at work week after week. so her year S
earnings cannot be figured up from those
of an hour.
| l do not know the yearly income of a
single operator in Washington, but from
what many of them say judge that they
regard $1,000 net as good year. or course
they could often get that or more In the
| departments. and many fine operators do
| give up their work and take clerkshios-
not always to do typewriting. But the
| great charm of being in business for our
| selves is that we are independent; We don
| have to toady to a possibly disagreeable
| chief and his underlings: We can say what
we think if that is any pleasure; AMI we
| do not fear losing our places. Then, too.
! our experiences are usually pleasant; We
seldom meet discourteous treatment
| The Men We Work for.
A word as to our employers. They may
| not differ from other peoples employers.
| but they have at least not been written
| thread bare as we have One man die
tates the most confidential work imagin-
| able and never says a word about your
| not mentioning it; while another brings in
matter that might be scattered broadcast
without anybody taking the trouble to read
| 1t, and wants you to keep 1t under lock
| and key. not to read it to another operator
lest 1t be overheard, and finally to destroy
every scrap of the original copy-al OF
| which you really do, since that IS MS
desire. And yet another man tells you
frankly that he likes to dictate his con
fidential work to you. because ne tnluks
| you have too much professional honor &c
| mention it, and he is sure you are toe
| stupid to understand IL anyway.
| one man wants all the assistance you
can give him. asks if his points are clearly
stated, insists upon having you under
| stand them all, and is grateful for any
change suggested. Another tells you tina
his copy is exactly as he wants IT. in whicf
case you follow the copy even II IL goes
out of the window, as 1t generally does
| However, we operators make no boast o.
the changes we make. partly because !
mortifes a man to learn that his copy wa:
incorrect. and partly because We do some
times find man who seriously objects z
any change. When we get hold of this class
we meekly change back to the old reading
however ungrammatical, and say that ou
correction was oversight, or a type
eral words will be left out. and we hav'
to use our own discretion about filling II
the hiatus. If our guess is correct the in
sertion is never noticed.
| Very likely the man who brings pen cop.
as clear as copper plate will apologize 70
his ilegible writing and bad copy. Will
another will bring in the most peculia
handwriting. in pencil. on an uncommon
| I.
cut to pieces generally. and be panied an'
perplexed If it is not all read correctly.
They Get bad Copy.
1t Is a fact that an operator sometime
gets copy that the writer himself is un
able to read, and has to make it out tn
best she can. For the reason that the op
orator thus often has to take the law int
her own hands we do become somew ha
dictatoriaL That perhaps is the one com
| mon trait peculiar to us. A gentleman wa
| recently heard to say, on leaving the offic
) of a Washington typewriter, that mis-
; Blank was a nice operator. but you ma
) to let her do the work according to her owl
} ideas"
: The universally among our employer
r of scruples about Sunday work is remark
, able. At least. when We refuse to work o.
Sunday, they say they don't believe in
either except In cases of the direst neces
( sity such as the present one. of COURSE
1 never knew but one man who worked o
; Sunday without any excuse whatever. an
! he always wanted to know what apolog
you could make for living IL you wouldn
work on Sunday. The operator has her
, been spoken of as "she." and the employ
. err as he for the reason that by far tn
greater number of the operators are We
p men and 90 per cent of the employers mer
| While il is more gratifying to us Wome
: to think that this preponderance OF our Sc
. in the business is due to preference ia
a u.s. on account of our greater aptitude, al
r curacy, invariable beauty or what not, VI
| the great number of ex-typewriters anon
( business men, lawyers, &c, is sufficient I
. give color to the theory that one reaso
i for our preponderance is that men grow OF
: Of the business into something better Will
v we stay in 1t. L.