Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1894-02-03
SMART BUSINESS WOMAN.
Deftness and Tact Fit Many for Cont
 dential Petitions

l houSew0rk as one, and now there are.
 over three hundred. It is the fashion l to credit all this to the increasing liber-
 aHty of thought and the long agitation
 for so-called s'woman's rights , Per
 haps some of it is due thereto, but sure l ly most of it is the natural result of
 that industrial and commercial devel-
 opment which has created so many ean- l ploypents in which deftness, refined l taste and delicacy of touch are of far
 more value than mere physical strength.
 If you doubt it, consider this con
 trast: France, ia which the Salic law prevails from throne to cross roads
 post office, and the political rights of
 women are not even so much as men,
 toned, employs more women in clerical
 and indpstrially technical ways than
 any other country, while those new states, in which political distinctions are almost or quite abolished, employ few or none. Dfe more advanced the civilization the less advantage has mere muscle and the more have quick ness of thought and dehcaey of touch. Ffhhce makes her money by producing aFticles of taste and Beauty. Wyon1- ing, Washington, etc, make theirs by telling trees anddigging ores, by ranch ing and rearing cattle.
 With good men pay is the determin- ing factor in grading employment. With women the. neatness of the work and the opportunity to maintain good personal appearance are at least equally potent. In stenography all three con- ditions are satisfied The pay is fair, the work is clean, the finest costume is not too good for it, the eyes and com plexion are not injured. It is pre-em- inently a Womanly work.
 And deal of intellect may be put into it. But it is there that we hear the usual complaint A woman stenog- rapher, we are told, studies until she gets a position and can fill it fairly well, and thereafter it is all routine with her. She does not strive to ac- quire general information which would greatly increase her value to an author or editor. She does not, say the critics, even interest herself in others of her profession. Ask any man in that line who the stars of his profession are, and he will at once name you such men as Isaac A. Dement,, who won at recent contest by writing over 250 words. minute for five minutes, or Fred A. Ire land, who can take the fastest talker in congress and never miss a word, or George R. Bishop, of the New York Stock exchange.
 Ask woman stenographer as to her sisters, and the usual answer is Well, l don't read the stenographers' journals now, and 1 really can't think of any just at present. :" Evidently the esprit du corps has not yet been created There are, however, several very smart stenographers of the fair sex, and in New York they hold some very desir- able positions. Perhaps the most noted one now is Miss Minnie Minton Dyke, private secretary of the city's building commissioner She is petite Masx chusetts girl, who began the study of stenography but three years ago and had quite the full average of trials and disappointments in getting a good posi- tion.
 One of the objections oftenest urged against her was that she looked too young for the place, which is very nice saying indeed to lady in society, but a trifie hard on stenographer. After doing odd pieces of work her first engagement of any length was tc assist Ollie Sumner Teall in political campaign. She then opened an office of her own and finally became private secretary, as aforesaid, to Commissioner Anthony Grady. She loses no oppor- tunity to add to her general informa- ton and is graduate of the Womens Law school, an institution where most of the teaching is done by evening lectures. She is now a sort of assist ant commissioner, and has a stenog- rapher to whom she dictates letters, attending thus to much business she formerly took in dictation from MT. Grady.
 Commissioner Hans Beattie also had a lady for private secretary when he was at the head of the New York street cleaning department. Miss Cynthia Westover made quite reputation in that position and is often quoted as fine example of what such a semi official should be. In truth, the office of private secretary requires happy union of many qualities, most of which we have been taught to consider pecu. liarly feminine. One must have deal of tact ability to catch an idea with out requiring too many words in set ting it forth, and especially if there are many callers must the secretary have the talent to say something to all and yet leave none with any phrase that may afterward be quoted against the principal,
 Mrs. John A. Logan is credited with having trained her own private secre- tary for several years, and as she had good subject to start on the result is admirable. In her home there is very retired but comfortable and well-light- ed room where Mrs. Logan does her work, and the ornament and pride of that room is Miss Edith Marshall.
 Miss Marshall is 2 rather slender and