The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-25
The study of stenography.

New York Sun.
Now you've got the whole thing in a nut
shell, from personal observation" said the
young man in charge to the reporter.
you've seen one woman out of seven who S
up to the work she undertakes to do. The
proportion, however as started to say, is
smaller than that. About one shorthand
writer in ten, among men as well as women
I am talking of the people looking for
works. efficient and worth having around.
The rest. as 1 said, are folks who have
only half learned the business. When you
hear, as you often do, from inferior, I'M
employed stenographers that the shorthand
business is overdone in this town, and that
shorthand writer's, especially those in the
amanuensis class, are expected to work for
little or nothing, you can just put that KIND
of talk down as pure nonsense. you'll OFTEN
hear this class of alleged writer's OF short
hand say, Six or eight a week is about the
limit for stenographers in New York now
adayS.' Don't you believe word or It. I've
got list here now of employers who have
asked me to get competent stenographers.
men and women. for them. They offer from
SO to $50 a week. l send these employers
not send them the kind of stenographers
who are always harping on the six-and-
eight-a-week proposition, / keep a separate
and distinct list of people who are willing
to work for the inferior salaries, but want
to say between you and me, that the people
who work for the inferior salaries are worth
just what they can get. An amanuenSlS
stenographer who can't command $10 week
at the very lowest is not worth office room
in my Judgment. There's just as much of
demand for competent stenographers as
there ever was, and the salaries paid to
efficient stenographers and typewriterS are
If anything, a trife higher than they were
five years ago. That capable young woman
whom you saw here while ago, doing her
work up to the handle, belongs properly to
the S25 a week class, and she'll draw that
right q shorthand
until some sensible fellow that wants a
good wife comes along and marries her:
I've got places within the past couple or
months for fully two dozen clever young
women stenographers at salaries ranging
from $1S to S25 week, and they're jewels
of the purest ray serene to have around an
Office too. OF course, I find employment for
people who are willing to donate their daily
services for salaries two-thirds less, but
don't call these young men and women
stenographers. They're simply learners who
think they're shorthand writers. The aver
age salary paid to tirst-rate women stenog-
raphers in this town is as high as the
average salary paid to tirst-rate men
stenographers. and ] should say that that
average is about S18 week
''There's no good reason why any man or
woman who undertakes the study of short
hand should be content to take second or
third rate job at the business. The second
and third raters. however. are people who
don't possess sufficient industry to go to
work seriously and systematically to master
Stenography. They don't study hard enough.
You can't learn shorthand by looking over
a manual fifteen or twenty minutes a day,
and going to a teacher once week, any
more than you can learn how to play on
the violin in three months. Shorthand is
not so terrifcally hard to get the hang Of
at that. Any man or woman OF ordinary in
teligence who is willing to go at it Sc
riously and studies, say, three or four hours
a day for a period of six months. can be-
come a good amanuensis stenograp her and
be fit. at the end of that time. to go into
any business or professional mans office
and render him good service. IT is the people
who SLOUGH through a stenographic alpha
bet, who begin to take dictation after they
have been at 1t for about two weeks. and
who then present themselves at business
houses for shorthand employment who nat
urally fall into the inferior classes. A BUSH
ness man ! know came In here raging the
other day He had hired, on his own hook
young woman stenographer whom he took
at her own valuation. He had a lot OF back
mail to work up and he spent an entire
day In debating replies TO his letters to his
new employe. When the girl tried to read
her shorthand notes she was stalled. She
couldn't read EN- at all, nor could the best
stenoaraDher on earth read them. The busi-