The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-10-23
GOOD TYPEWRITERS SCARCE.
YET HIGH SALARIES ARE PAID
TO THE EXPERTS.

The supply Of expert typewriters and
stenographers falls far short OF the de-
mand. Yet expert stenographers and type
writer's can easily command salaries OF
from $40 to $50 week, 30 wonderfully has
this field OF work broadened since the
pretty typewriter OF ten or fifteen years
ago stepped into business Offices and routed
men clerks in the same line.
The work has gradually taken the place
Of the teachers position which used to be
the goal of many girl. Commercial
schools are filled with pupils In stenography
and typewriting, while in some offices
apprentice girls pay as much as $3.50 for
the privilege Of learning the technicalities
Of the trade.
But, as in 30 many other fields OF labor,
the great complaint of inefficient work
goes up from the downtown offices and
the uptown shops. Great corporations.
banks. large estates and business interests
of many kinds are unable to get first class
workers in this field.
The trouble seems to be that the expert
stenographer, as soon as she attains posi-
ton commanding q large salary, at once
aspires to have her own office and employ
girl clerks. Within the last ten years hun
"
throughout the city and each seems to
prosper.
A meeting OF flnanciers took place in a
Fifth avenue hotel q week or two ago and
the services OF an expert stenographer were
required The hotel stenographer was not
deemed competent for the task and tele-
phone message was sent to the Office OF ono
OF the largest Of the typewriting manu-
featuring concerns.
The name OF young woman whose Office
is in the neighborhood Of Fifth avenue was
sent over the telephone to the waiting
millionaires, but when the young woman
was told that she would be requiredg to
leave her own Office she answered that 1t
would be impossible, as she had to attend
to her own work.
A fee was offered her 80 large that it caused
her to accept. She had carte blanche as
to bringing her own machines and an assist
ant II necessary. A cab was sent for her,
and in an hour she was installed in one OF
the state apartments taking rapid notes.
She was not the typically beautiful and
blond haired stenographer Of fiction. but
very businesslike and plainly gowned
girl, who was complete master Of the work
assigned to her. The bankers and railroad
magnates were simply dumbfounded with
the ease and clearness with which she
understood and almost anticipated her task,
which when submitted in manuscript proved
to be work OF art in Its perfection Of form,
cearness andneatness Of execution.
For two days the young woman worked
for fee written in three figures each day,
and then she declared with regret that
she would have to send one Of her clerks,
as her own Office work was in need Of atten-
ton. The fee was doubled in order to
retain her services.
When her weeks work was concluded,
two offers Of employment at 500 a week
were made to her. But she refused and
went back to her own business ven ture,
which she fancied gave her more indie
pendenoe.
The trouble with the beginners in ste
biography, and with many OF the clerks who
keep their places chiefly because Of the
smallness OF their salaries, seems to lie
In the fact that they lack general intelliA
gence, although In many casea they are
we'll -ersed In the technical part Of the
work.
Perfect typewriting requires almost as
much precision, care and practice as piano
playing. Carelessly written work shows
at once in the imperfect shading Of the
ink, heavy in some spots and light in others,
in the uneven, struggling appearance Of
the letters, the imperfect spacing and
other defects which the eye Of the expert
detects at once.
Badly made erasures and corrections,
orookedly placed sheets OF paper. unclean
type. at once record themselves in the
work Of the careless operator; but these
plumbers are not 30 serious as bad spelling,
the improper placing Of capital letters,
deficient OF profuse punctuation and the
writing Of proper names with small letters.
~Ht 1ta loa ff,,tn in fha
Of many Of the young women clerks who
offer themselves confidently to business
houses.
The meaning Of ordinary words is abso-
lutely unknown to some OF these girls,
who think they can be intrusted with affairs
Of a large business house. Careless work
is not so much the fault as an entire alb
sence Of information about rules that every
public school pupil ought to know before
passing out Of the primary department.
tain even fairly competent help said one
OF the woman partners In q successful up
town Office where general public work
is done.
wo Ssn sSa a psy eFS raet eG sar Gs
but the results are very trying.
Even the very ordinary. work OF en-
velope addressing Is bungled>>by young
women apparently intelligent and con-
eCiontl0uS. Iertalnly mo0ern eQuCatlOn
does not fit girls for business life, and it Is
hard to imagine what young woman who
at 20 cannot address an envelope properly
would excel at.
when we try TO employ expert help we
find that girls who can command $40 week
or more prefer to hold positions in private
Offices. The imperfect work done by girls
who claim to have three or four years, OK
perience with the typewriter Is one Of the
trials Of running ones own establishment.
Another oreat full trial to the stenog-
rapher who branches out as a proprietor
Is the slowness Of many firms and individ-
uals in paying bills. find on inquiry that
this does not apply to the work Of stenog-
raphers alone, but to all professions In
which women work for a living.
"Dressmakers and seaInstresses are kept
months waiting for their money, and even
servants are left unpaid for a year in some
cases But in our line Of work 1t is es-
peoially trying.
"We can ask no deposit, for the reason
that 1t IL not the custom to do 40. We put
in our own materials and time, and IL we
dare to ask for payment on delivery of
work we are told that the work must be
looked over