Omaha daily bee., 1896-12-19
EXPERIENCE OF TYPEWRITER
Peculiarities of People Who Come to Have
Letters Written.
ONE MAN GETS HIS ePsTlts MIXED
women Very seldom Dictate Letters
Prcfcrring to Keep Their business
from Outsiders - Profitable
Occupation for Women. !.

| "Do we meet queer people? Well, yes, l
think we manage to get our share of them, "
said the pretty typewriter at one of the lead
ing hotels
"You see" she continued people who
travel very much are, as a rule queer set
of people, and as my business brings me In
contact with all classes, naturally l should
know something about them. Now, there's
a man sitting over there, for instance. He is
quite wealthy and makes this his home He
writes a great many letters and I've seen
him sit there at the table and spend an
hour or more working on letter which 1
| could typewrite for him in five minutes.
He's not inclined to be stingy. for he spends
money literally, but l guess he doesn't want
| any one to know his business.
! That gentleman standing over there" she
said, pointing to a man who from his dress
| and appearance took TO be New Yorker
"is one of my best customers, besides he is
| business from start to finish. He travels
| for a St. Louis house and always stops here
when in the city. When he arrives and
looks over his mail he pulls up a chair and
dictates n dozen or more letters steps into
the barber sho0 and comes back in half an
hour to find his letters written and all ready
to mail as soon as he aftiXes his signature.
pen and ink. as people used to do before the
war, it would take him at least half day.
AS it is he attends to his correspondence
in less than half an hour and has the bal
ance of the day to attend to business"
you have a regular scale of prices, !
presume?'
ooh, yes, we charge so much for each
letter, or SO much for the time occupied, ac-
cording to the amount of work"
"Do you ever meet people who consider
the charge unreasonable"
Very seldom. Occasionally we meet a
person who thinks we are staying in Ne
braska for our health, but the majority do
not complain"
do you ever have occasion to write letters
for women?"
mot often. They usually prefer to write
their own letters, but there's one woman
who stops here when in town who is a eau
tion. She represents an eastern paper and
travels throughout the west She comes up
to my desk, dictates an article, goes out
for an hour or so and when she comes back
she Is ready with another. She writes the
poorest hand of any woman | ever saw and
If she was compelled to send in her own
copy / don't think there's a printer in the
United States who could set up half-column
article without wasting half day at the
job
"odd characters come in occasionally,
suppose?'
SOME ODD CHARACTERS.
"Wel yes Just a few days ago, when
was rushed with a lot of work. an old
couple came in and occupied seats over
there. l didn't suppose they wanted any
letters written, so kept on with my work.
They were evidently from the rural district,
for, after sitting there for half an hour
watching me ntently, the old gentleman
arose and said to his wife: Conc, Hannah,
let's go. That woman may know how to
sing, but she doesn't know half as much
about playing the piano as our Eliza does
The wife replied that it wasn't a piano,
but one of those typewrites.' Coming up
ana looking over my shoulder he said:
Beg pardon, but I'd like to see what
you're doing l informed him that was
engaged on private business, but If he'd
like to dictate letter I'd be glad to type
write it for him. He took a seat and told
me what to say, which l took down in short
hand. When he stopped and | asked him if
that was all he looked at my notes and
said: You don't think my Eliza could ever
read that letter, do you?' | soon had the
letter written so that Eliza could read ii
and when he and his wife had read it aloud
several times he remarked: I'll bet Eliza
VIII think we're putting on style sure enough
when she gets that letter. Wouldn't be
surprised if she didn't show it TO her Sun
day school class, eh?"
You write some very funny letters at
times, do you not?"
oh, Yes, some are very amusing. l was
writing letter yesterday for a drummer
to his best girl. 1t covered just sixteen
pabtS, anu llle man COulu naTuly wait until
| had finished, so anxious was he to mail it,
About an hour after he had posted the let
ter, he came around and wanted to know
what | did with my notes. l told him I
destroyed them as soon as my book was
tull. He begged me to let him have his |
notes, saying he was afraid some other fell |
low would see them and would write to his |
girl OF course let him have them and
By the way, tomorrow is Thanksgiving, |
isn't it? That makes me think of a funny |
thing that happened about this time last |
year, and as the man is now in South Amer |
lea, guess he won't object to my telling |
the inc story. He was very handsome, mid |
dle-aged man, and travelling for a New York |
mouse. He reached Omaha few days |
before Thanksgiving, and had no sooner |
opened and read his mail which was waiting
for him than he came to me to get me to
write some letters. The first was to his
wife, who lived in some little town over in
Iowa, / think 1t was He told her he had
lust reached Omaha and was surprised to
ind letter from the house, ordering him to
Grand Island at once on some very i'm
portant business. He was awfuly sorry
this had happened. he had anticipated
eating turkey at home and spending the
evening romping with the children. He
complained OF being very tired after his long
trip and asked her to excuse the short let
ter, promising to write long one in few
days. AS soon as | had finished taking
this letter, he dictated another lowell say
to Carrie at Lincoln. He started out by
nhuitoS dS MY dearest Darling, ana |
said how delighted he was to get her let
ter inviting him to spend Thanksgiving
with her, which invitation he would gladly
accept. He referred to the nice time they
had had when he was there last and asked
her If she remembered the buggy ride and
the nice supper afterwards. He dictated
quite long letter. for | know | had to re-
main after regular office hours to finish it.
When he had finished the letter he remem-
bered that he hadn't given her kiss so |
inserted postscript and-'Carrle' got the
kiss! When l had finished writing the
letters he asked me to address a couple of
envelopes, which l did, he putting the let
.ers in the envelopes and mailing them.
MIXED THE LETTERS.
"The next afternoon he came rushing up
% my desk, telegram in one hand and a
etter, with special delivery stamp on it.
n the other He asked me If / had the
notes OF those two letters, as he wished
o know what was in them. l got out my
'ook and commenced reading the letter he
lad dictated to his wife, when he stopped
ne, saying: L know all about that one;
ts the other one | am afraid Of / COM
neneed reading the one to Carrie and got !
IS far as where he referred to the buggy
ide and supper when he stopped me again,
aging: 'Mercful heaven! I'm lost! I'm
ruined man! He handed me the telegram,