Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-27
WHY THE GIRL F PAINTED

A prominent lawyer of this city whose
clientele is so large as to necessitate the
use of every modern Improvement in the
mechanical conduct of his enormous BUSH
ness, has, among other appliances and as
sistants, several monographs in his office.
Into these machines he is wont to record
his thoughts whenever there is a rush and
all of his stenographers are busy. Any let
tiers he may wish to dictate at such times
are spoken into the machine, boy re-
moves and preserves the cylinder of record
and later a clerk takes it, places it in an
other machine, which she puts in operation,
and the words of the lawyer pour forth
in metallic verisimiitude transcribes them
with typewriter and has the letter ready
for signature at the pleasure of her en-
ployer
1t is a wonderful time saver, and has
been highly successful in the Office under
consideration, but mechanical accuracy
can, at times, come too near perfection.
There being no brain behind the machine,
it repeats merely what has been spoken to
it, and any inaccuracies of diction come
forth with the cruel candor of parrot
speech. Generally there are merely minor
corrections of language to be made, but oc-
casonally the legal man is called upon by
a puzzled typewriter to unravel mys-
FERROUS sentence or phrase which the faith
full monograph has repeated to her pre-
ciSely it was dictated to it by her en-
ployer.
Long familiarity with his moods. Ian
guage and tone of expression has made par
ticularly valuable very conscientious and
pa1nStaklng young woman operator OF q
typewriter in his office, and he has come to
depend upon her to unravel without assist
ance his most abstruse phrases when re-
peated to her by the monograph: Seldom
has she failed to sustain her we'll earned
reputation in this line, but it recently hap
nod hat .I,f I, I'D, IAf
for help.
THE judge" as he Is known to his asSo-
cfates in both business and social life, one
Sunday wandered afield during the season
when the golden rod blooms at it's best, and
had the misfortune to contract from it's
pollen, blown hither and thither by every
yagrant breeze, one of those severe colds
in the head generally known as hay fever"
By nightfall he had fully developed case
and by Monday morning he was even a lit
tie worse.
He was in a pretty bad humor when he
reached his office, and large pile of import
ant letters requiring his immediate personal
attent on did not Improve his mood. With
desperation in his manner he turned to his
monograph and started the mechanism. de-
termined to finish his lahors as quickly as
possible and escape. Letter after letter he
took from the pile and, with practiced eye,
grasped its contents and hurled his reply
into the receiver of the buzzing instrument
every rafting sentence beng indelibly
carved In the waXen cylinder by the sharp
AMI sensitive metallic point which respond
ed to the slightest atmospheric wave which
his vocal chords drove against the dia-
phragm.
He worked as never before and in an hour
had accomplished more than he usually &C
complished IN an entire forenoon The last
letter answered, he caught up his hat and
With the curt information to his secretary
that he was i'll and was gong home to stay
until he got WELL he left the Office
r1rn1i nod iE.y.
Who had never yet failed to unraveI the
lawyers most complex legal sentences from
the photograph and have the letters ready
Tor MS signature at his pleasure. Daintily,
yet WITH confidence, she picked up the ma
chine and carried it into her own private
compartment behind japanese screen.
She made her typewriter ready. placed a
nice, clean sheet of paper on the roller and
turned on the monograph. 1t began to
speak. Her hands were poised above the
keys and held there while the vicious ma
chine ratified on in what seemed to her to
| be a horrible conglomeration of poor En-
glish, Tagalog, Chinese and Russian
Her face a t first expressed inquisitiyeness
then wonder, then worriment. Her eyes
had IN them the look of a hunted deer and
her bosom heaved with an emotion toe, deep
Tor expression Yet the machine jabbered
on with fendish regularity, and the type
writer's hands remained in mid air not
| cnce responding to the g-accustomeG
hablt OF Interpreting the words in type ss
tney 1eu IN wave sounds on her ear Then
| for moment a look of desperation came
over her pale face. She dashed her hand
forward and touched the lever to stop the
hldeous racket. The last act had been the
Climax OF her emotions, and she gave one
despairing scream and tainted
Men and women rushed to her compars-
ment. They saw at once that she had lost
consciousness. and applied the usual rem
edies- She soon revived, and drea miIy
opened her eyes. In a moment the horror
of what she had heard required to her, and
she cried:
The poor judge is crazy The heat has
driven him mad! LISTEN"
She reached forward turned hack the
mechanism to the end of the cylinder, then
started the machine while her fellow toll
| ers listened. And this is what they heard
| Abrahab dowdigsuds adcubbady, deboid
| iva, jedtlebed. Referrig to your esteemed
| favor of recedate pubbitbe to assure you OF
| our codtldude eggsershuds i'd yoor behalf
! The batter is dow id the court oclabes ad
| cd its way to settlebet. Thugs habbidarrag q.
| cd accordingly ad precawshuds takudtowid
| we VIII lechoo hear frubbus assoodasbat-
tiers cubtoaclibax.
''Sidcerely yours