The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1896-10-09

HAillIlII!laIVbdl in an Office just like
''%';;::':jllEi Il man. She doesn't
GAS look the part.
A very chivalrous young lawyer said
the words as through the glass window
his eyes rested Oh the typewriter, the
click aud rocurrcnt bell stroke of her
machine beating like a pulse on the
quiet of the Office.
And there was something very incon-
gruous about the pretty girl in freshest
of pink muslins bending her glossy head
above practical machine made of iron
and steel.
"Yet women are successes as Office
assistants, else why should they be so
widely employed?"
"Ah, now you touch on the woman
suffrage question: said the lawyer.
"What l am going to say is one of the
strongest arguments in the culver of the
woman struggling to get the right for
her sex to put their bits of paper III at
the polls. pay that young lady just 81
less per week than l would give young
man doing the same work. She gets
&c. Before she came ] paid a man
$40.
"No difference in the work."
If any it is in favor of the woman, 1"
he said amiably. but as a typewriter
not knowing stenography So is all that
young lady would get anywhere. "
"What are her hours?"
From until 5 80 with enough time
in the middle of the day for her lunch
con. -
l had opportunity a little later to
talk to the pretty girl and ask her some
questions about her life-first of all,
why she had selected typewriting as q
profession.
81 heard it was very easy to learn, "
she replied while busily inserting a
piece of paper in the cylinder. "And so
it is The working of the machine is
explained to you III ten minutes. After
that the whole thing is only TO learn to
be accurate and rapid, which come from
practice only. "
''What are the pleasant things of the
profession and what the drawbacks:
What sort Of work do you like to do?'
Deliver me from figures, she said.
"There isn't girl earning her living
this way who doesn't simply abominate
copying figures-getting each one right
under the other, spacing just so, etc.
Lawyers briefs and abstracts are bad
enough, but they are child's play to the
other. That sort of writing one always
/ gets in the Office Of q commercial house,
/ sometimes i'll Offices The work that is
/ most in dornan5 ic 1itnToIv 1uprL FTbat,s
so easy and so interesting. just as soon
as l can am going to open an office NJ
town with two other girls, and we will
make specially of copying plays and
books"
"How much did it cost you to learn
how to use the machine?'
"That's the beauty of it-not cent
You see, if you use typewriter like this,
which is one of the newer makes. fht
manufacturers are only too glad to have
young women go into the offices and
learn how to use the machines, as this
helps to introduce them. The more type
writers who use this kind, the more sale
for it, of course. Often people engage
typewriters from the manufacturers.
That's the way got this place. "
noticed a novel on the young girls
desk, ore of the very ''lurid" sort, like
1.-THE Sundered Wedding Ring; or, His
Mothers Sin. " wondered just to what
extent pretty typewriters cultivated
their brains and whether there was amy
professional work needing less minC
than the mere verbatim copying Of
briefs from pen and ink into type?
Not long after was talking to lit
erary man about the copying of hi
manuscripts.
''Do you find the average Typewriter
Intelligent
II have met all sorts. But the sooner
typewriter realizes that little nigh
study will greatly improve her marke
value perhaps she'll devote some timt
to the rules Of spelling and punctua
tion," he replied YEARLY. "a grea
many young girls become typewriter
before they should be out of school
Then after working all day they Civ
their leisure hours up to Amusement
and novel reading of the flimsiest sort
They make "a great mistake, and some
body ought to tell them so. It's all wei
enough for red checked girl of II t
make So a week, but suppose she doesn'
marry and at 40 has advanced none ant
is worth no more? It's great pity"
"You can't get your manuscript
copied intelligentlyi"
ooh, yes, can. don't give mine il
pen and ink TO be copied by typewrite
who only understands the use of a ma
chine. have to have an assistant VIII,
understands stenography. There's
great difference here. Brains are re
quired for this study. 1t is most diff
cult But even among stenographers
who, of course, put their use of the ma