The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1898-10-11
THE TYPEWRITER GIRL TALKS.
She Takes the Publlc Into Her Conf.
dence and Tells Tales Out of School.


-work hard? Well. 1 yust guess. Oh.
no, Il is not the machine that makes
me tired. 1t is the bad grammar"
The typewriter girl took another bite
into her sandwich. edged an opponent
GALL neighbors you do not know at a
lunch counter are opponents) away to
make room for bookkeeper friend and
continues:
"Why, don't you know the average
business man hasn't enough education
TO write his own letters? believe that,
more than anything else, has been the
great cause OF the success and good pay
OF the genuine stenographer-ty typewriter
girl. He needs grammar and he rents
u living one.
bah! I'm not talking about such
small fry as your regular Sc and 81 a
week girl with apologies TO her SUI
perior who has been out of work, and
takes anything that comes along), but
of your we'll educated, high school grad
uate. SIS n week girl Chats mel, and
she's worth every dollar of IL. Strange,
isn't II, that a man should think that
an excellent use of American Anglo
Saxon is beneath his notice, when he
eagerly perfects himself in every de-
partment of mathematics and business
forms? oh, good English is not neces-
sary TO the transaction OF business and
figures are? That sounds just like
bookkeeper-all they know Is about fig-
ures. Isn't money figures. isn't time
money, isn't wasted time lost money?
And there you are.
"Now, il is the duty Of the regular
SIS a week girl to correct such dicta-
ton; il is a matter tacitly understood,
but never, under pain Of death, men,
IA low
And / wish you would see the time
that takes. Why, i spent half this
morning over one letter which, every
time / had IL corrected only got me
more hopelessly mixed up in my efforts
To maintain the sense that i knew was
aimed at, and yet not depart too FAR
from the dictator r's-ur--involved style
TO awaken distrust i'm the breast OF the
recipient Take il back to him? Why,
girlee, he would only involve me more
the first few times. After that, L
would be charged with being TOO pret-
ty-ahem! otherwise incompetent-and
advised TO take plenty OF time and
look up another position. In the time
l spent on that letter could have writ
ten 10 others of average length.
"Then, when il was done, Ii took ex-
actly four pages folio. where IL should
easily have gone on a page and a half
If less diffuse and more TO the point
OF course, ] don't care. My sl5 week
is sure.
"Now so much for the loss Of time
and money to the business man by H.
literacy. That is not the only cause
there are others. There's the cigar in
the mouth. My head employer inva-
riably dictates with the wrong end or
a Perfecto between his lips. mumbling
and choking along, as III he had the
quinsy. / have, with burning cheeks
Ii. afs oil N
word. and to spell all proper names
only to find them perfectly familiar to
meas Smith, which his cigar trans
forms to Murph-I, OF course, adding
the necessary ~ till sort of tele-
pathic doubt assails me. There are
two cigar dictators in our office.
"But all these are nothing to the
bashful young man. who has TO repeat
every single sentence he dictates two
or three times. so that he takes longer
to give your letters than a green hand
would require TO write them on the
machine. And he always ieaves you
with a deprecating smile. and i sup
pose / don't open my mouth quite wide
enough?' oh. but he does then, and
you get the covert sneer full in the eye.
so to speak. and can't even say back.
No, you ought to go to a dentist or a
school of elocution.'
Now, that's only one office out of
thousands, and / have only given you
four out of a possible eight dictators
not one of whom is perfect and only
one passable. and he the illiterate one
How much money in the course of a
year do you suppose that firm loses by
paying me for balancing those official
imperfections? can write 70 good let
ters a day. I sometimes do not get 20
written, going steadily, and when a
sudden flood comes they must pay me
for overtime.
This is SATURDAY. afternoon, and
am going to be paid double for over
work-they're good hearted, IL imper-
feet, bless their little hearts. Ia. ta.'
And the typewriter. with CAV little
wink slipped away.-N. Y. Herald.