Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1895-03-23
rYPEwRITERs.
Opinions of Them Dictated to One of Thorn
bv nm accomplished stenographer.

Opinions of Them Dictated to One of Them
by an Accomplished stcnographer.
More trash and nonsense are written
about typewriter girls by people who
do not understand what good typewrit-
ing is or how 60 dictate to typewriter
than about any other profession or any
other business in which either men or
women are engaged today. The fact of
the matter is that typewriting is worth
anywhere from So week up to $40 or
S25, which is sometimes paid as week
~ salary to expert typewriters who have
10 knowledge of shorthand.
1t is no unusual thing for typewriters
to earn ut folio work from dictation by
stenographers SO an hour and over, and
the finest experts are worth every cent
of that amount of money. Among stenog-
raphers 81 an hour is the ruling rate,
and for that 81 a good typewriter with
an expert dictator will transcribe from
80 to 40 folios an hour of testimony.
In some cases even 40 folios an hour Of
solid matter have been dictated. Forty
folios is two columns of The Sun, and
of the men who write about debating
to typewriters as though they knew
about it there are probably not half a
dozen in the country who can dictate so
much.
Many years ago the writer was en-
ployed as shorthand amanuensis by
George Alfred Townsend, well known
as Gath, F" who habitually dictated to
him in shorthand two columns an hour
and did it every day in the week two
hours a day for months at a time, in
dicating every full stop, semicolon,
quotation mark and paragraph. If
"Gath" dictates to a typewriter now
and has one of the best in the business,
no doubt he can dictate from column
and 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 incompetents
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
typeWriters in his business as an official
stenographer In view Of the many gibes
and sneers in which newspaper writers
indulge on the subject Of typewriter
operators Of the feminine gender, it is
matter of simple justice to say that the
women with whom he has been associ-
ated in his business have been without
exception we'll educated, refined, capa-
bic of doing rapid and accurate work,
who attended strictly to business and did
not waste time with frivolous remarks.
1t seems unfair to judge Of any bust
ness or profession by the weaklings en-
gagged therein, whether the work be
law, medicine, the ministry, shorthand
or typewriting, and any one who cannot
accomplish twice as much debating to
q good typewriter operator as with a
pen is unable to do that either because
he does not know how to dictate or be-
cause he has an inferior operator. 1t
took just eight minutes to dictate this
article to a typewriter who does not
claim to special EXPERIENCES and whose
charge was rs cents.
(The above was not altered in any re-
spect by the editor and the printers
wero requested to follow copy. The
reader may therefore judge Of the &C.
curacy both Of the dictator and the
typewriter. New York Sun.