The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-06-21
A Thousand St. Paul Women
Live by Pounding TypeWriterS

enables the stenographer to make any
kind of an old hook" or character, and
be able to tell what it was meant for
when it comes to transcribing notes. A
Stenographer, for example, might take
notes at a speed of $50 words a min
| ute. who had been long employed in a
law office or wholesale clothing house.
| who would be completely "stumped"
| in drug house, steam heating plant
| or some other business, where I'M
heard-of technical words and terms
! were used. When the StenOgrapher
hears a word or phrase which conveys
no meaning to their mind. and for
which the context affords no explana-
ton, their only hope lies in accurately
written, partially vocalized short
hand, for which not one writer in a
hundred is equipped The reason is
clear. After writing all day regarding
the business of one establishment, with
it's stereoptyped words and phrases,
they are in no humor for keeping in
practice with the word of words
which obtain in every department of
business. Indeed, shorthand itself is
founded wholly on the supposition that
people are going to talk according to
the customary forms Of speech. This
does not mean properly constructed,
grammatical sentences but ordinary
conversation. To illustrate; "The en-
gineer hung monkey wrench on the
! safety valve and opened the throttle"
Now, whether. that sentence means
anything or not. the writer has a few
| connecting words to guide him in
| transcFibing his notes. But if the die
| tatOr' had said, at the rate of 100
words a minute, safety valve, opened,
monkey wrench, and, engineer, a." the
writer would be handicapped unless he
had made his notes carefully and
'chucked" in an occasional vowel to
light his way. It should be stated for
the benefit of laymen that the voWels
are not written in shorthand, but are
indicated by the position of the char
acters; that is, whether they are on,
above, through or below the line of
writing. But in rapid writing positions
are often lost sight of by inexperienced
writer's, and they are compelled to de-
pend on their characters. the knowl-
edge they have of the matter dictated
and intuition.
No System Is Complete.
For the consolation Of all shorthand
writer's, male or female. it may be said
that no system of shorthand writing
ever. yet devised is efficient. They all
fall short of being what every Stenog-
rapher would like to have them. short
er and more legible. But they are not
and are not likely to be. The stenog-
rapher who can write 200 words a
minute, and read it, Of miscellaneous
matter, is a mighty scarce individual.
So scarce. in fact, that not one in TO-
600 would bet on his ability to per-
form the trick for a days writing. OF
course he might do it in an ordinary
lawsuit, but supposing the case was
one Of malpractice, comprehending
hundreds of medical terms, anatomical
words, where the context sheds no ray
of light, the most finished writer would
have to concentrate hard to get an ac-
curate report.
Court stenographers, the best in the
business, of course, perpetually lament
the inadequacy Of all shorthand sys-
TENS, and to find a real court reporter
who would not pay money to be able to
write twenty-five words minute
faster would be to find a curiosity.
There are writers, it is true, whose
accuracy is something wonderful but
the best of them will occasionally get
stuck" on their notes, even when they
have the Stenographic characters hon
estly written. In fact it is one thing
to write shorthand and quite another
thing to read it, and so oddly is this
talent of reading shorthand disposed
that many 'typeWriters are employed
by court reporters who can scarcely
write shorthand at all who can read
shorthand notes with amazing ease.
Such typewriter is an invaluable
assistant to the reporter who is often
1OSI III d CduS1GQ sentence WHICH ne IS
unable to make clear even when he
''has it" perfectly straight in his notes.
Average Stenographer Is Lax.
A st. Paul young woman who has
been an amanuensis for ten years has
stenographer. She receives a salary Of
$S5 per month, and is employed in rail-
road work. She says:
''The average young woman doesn't
know anything about either shorthand
or typewriting. They know the theo-
really practiced. Most of them are
graduates of schools, and after quitting
the dedication class of the SchOolroom
they have never written a line except in
an office where they were paid for it.
This is very bad. Every shorthand
writer should get down and write mis-
ceLaneouS stuff at least an hour a day.
1t is hard, know. but there's no telling
when first-class position might be
offered them, and where would they be
then? This thing perpetually hap
pens. Many girls are working for Sc
and SO a week who every now and then
hear of a good paying position, but
they dare not apply for it because they
know they are not competent to fill it.
IF shorthand writer's would only re-
member that, after all, their business
is largely mechanical, they would get
on better. But while 1t is mechanical,
the operator, the writer, must not be
so. 1t requires some education, some
knowledge Of affairs, of business, to
intelligently transcribe a business let
ter from shorthand notes. There is
scarcely a stenographer in the country
who could not greatly improve by ten
minutes study a day. Many cannot
spell orcrectly, and no first-class firm
will employ stenographer who is de- !.
ficient in this respect. Many stenog-
raphers have no idea Of punctuation,
and content themselves with making a
dash after every turn in a sentence,
ignoring commas, semicolons and
even periods. This is atrocious, and
there Is no excuse for it. Let the
young woman who writes shorthand
note the punctuation in her newspaper,
or novel-watch every line she reads
and in time she will catch the idea.
And in the matter of paragraphs they
make ridiculous mistakes. A man may
dictate business letter to friend,
and follow a straight business state
ment with something about his friends
family, or his own, and the stenog-
rapher will run 1t altogether. It ought
to occur to the most thoughless writer
to make a period and commence at
five" when the subject matter Is COM
pletely changed.
Touch Typewriting.
Every typewriter operator should