The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-04-17
PROBLEMS FOR THEOSOPHISTS.
A New Literary Method Discovered by
an OPERATOR.

an Operator.
Great Falls, April lido you know
what she is saying?"
The Standard man and a friend were
watching a swift operator on the type
writer, and that was the question asked
by the friend.
We'll, if she were talking. / might
know what she was saying; or If /
looked over her shoulder 1 might read
what she Is writing about; but / can
hardly claim that L NOW what she is
saying"
The friend then explained that prior
to his present business he had been a
telegraph operator in a big Eastern
office, and that to him there was a Ian
guage in the clicks of the typewriter
entirely independent of the matter
which might appear on the paper in the
machine.
why" said ne, do you know that
when they, that is, the company. intro
duced machines into the office for the
operators to use in taking messages.
it vas almost impossible at first
for the old men at the rad to learn to
run them? 1t was. We had become so
accustomed to certain movements of the
fingers to indicate a letter that when
one of us sat down to a typewriter he
invariably found himself te~legraphing
on it instead of using ii as this girl is
now doing. / mean that when | started
to take a message and the first letter
was A / would invariably strike the
key marked "A three short, sharp
strokes. which in telegraphy make the
letter A. and so with every letter that
came in. OF course, the result, as IL
appeared on the paper when drawn
from the machine was rather confusing,
each letter appearing from two to four
times with perhaps a space put in here
n there which did not belong there at
all. After a time we got over that, but
it put an idea into my head. and / have
often amused myself with it since"
Let is see what thism machine is say
ing. and then you will understand bet
ter what / mean" And the friend pick
ed up a piece of paper and with that
peculiar expression of attention which
operators acquire he began to listen to
the patter of the types and to write.
The operator was actually writing a
lawyers brief in a civil case, and, like
all such documents. ii was filled with
the stiff ~phraseology which in law adds
dignity to a simple matter and makes
1t difficult of understanding. The ex-
operator wrote steadily. At last he
stopped his pencil and threw over his
manuscript. Here it is:
Legal intricacies multiply miseries.
DOM you believe it? ] say that man
annihilated is preferable to human
bondage. Why should some roll in
wealth while others have not enough
to secure a p%ittance of bread? Injus-
tice! The rich man dies and his body
is placed in a magnificent mausoleum.
while the poor man perishes without
the price of a bier 1.-THE ex-operator was
not sure whether this was bier" or
"beer") in his pocket. What shall be
done to right this? Ask yourselves"
why, that sounds very much like the
speech of a Herr Most" said the
Standard man.
v~- Il A. a.. -
curious part Of this u~ndercurrent comes
in. ] have not been able TO determine
whether the Geographic talk that under
lies the apparent writing is the essence
the true Interpretation. of the subject
matter, or whether 1t IN entirely uncon-
nected with 1t. i will say this, however:
IL the operator on the machine is a good
one. IL he or she keeps steadily at work
and carries in her head only the words
to be written. the telegraph writing
will be connected and logical. though IL
may be entirely antagonistic to what
comes out on the paper. But IL the ope-
rator writes one thing with her fingers
and thinks another in her head, the re-
suit is likely not only to become con-
fused. but her thoughts will appear in
the telegraphic reading instead of what
/ call the telegraphic essence"
As a result of the above conversation
a few experiments have been made
as many as time and circumstances
permitted-and what appear to be a
new n original literary method has
been evolved. There is some talk of
forming a syndicate and putting the |
product upon the market. but IL Is as
yet too early to state this definitely. |
The present trouble IL a lack of uni
form results. but that difficulty may
be obviated by more study.
The first experiment was the writing
of a number of pages from an United
States year boo Of agriculture, which ]