Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1905-07-21
WHY SHE TAINTED.

use of every modern improvement in the
mechanical conduct of his normous bust
ness has, among other appliances and as
sistants, several monographs in his Of
flee. Into these machines he is wont to
record his thoughts whenever there is a
rush and all of his stenographers are
busy. Any letters he may wish to die
tate at such times are spoken into the
machine. a boy removes and preserves
the cylinder of record and later a clerk
takes it, places it in another machine
which she puts in operation. and as the
words of the lawyer pour forth in metal
! lie verisimilitude 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 his Office under
consideration, but mechanical accuracy
can. at times. come too near perfection.
/ There being no brain behind the ma
chine, it repeats merely what has been
! spoken to it. and any inaccuracies of die
ton come forth with the cruel candor Of
a parrots speech. Generally there are
merely minor corrections of language
to be made. but occasionally the legal
man is called upon by a puzzled type
writer to unravel a mysterious sentence
or phrase which the faithful phono-
| graph has repeated to her precisely as it
was dictated to it by her employer
Long familiarity with his moods. Ian
Euage and tone of expression has made
particularly valuable a very conscien-
tiOus and painstaking young woman
! operator in his office and he has come
! to depend upon her to unravel without
assistance his most abstruse phrases
when repeated TO her by the phono-
/ graph. Seldom has she failed to sustain
her well-earned reputation in this line,
but it recently happened that she had
to admit defeat and cry for help
"The Judge" as he is known to his as
/ sOciates in both business and social life
! one Sunday wandered afeld during the
/ season when the golden rod blooms at
its best. and had the misfortune to con-
tract from its pollen. blown hither and
/ thither by every vaerant breeze. one of
those severe colds in the head generally
! known as hay fever BY nightfall he
/ had a fully developed case. and by Mon
! day morning he was even little worse
He was in pretty bad humor when he
reached his office, and a large pile of i'm
pOrtant letters requiring his immediate
! personal attention did not improve his
mood. With desperation in his man
ner he turned to his photograph and
started the mechanism. determined to
i-1 J., l,l,
and escape. Letter after letter he took
from the pile and, with practced eye,
grasped its contents and hurled his reply
into the receiver Of the buzZing instru-
ment. every rafting sentence being in
delibly carved in the waXen cylinder by
the sharp and sensitive metallic point
which responded to the slightest atmOs-
pherc wave which his vocal chords
drove against the diaphragm.
He worked as never before, and in an
hour had accomplished more than he
usually accomplished in an entire fore
noon The last letter answered, he
caught up his hat and with the curt in
formation to his secretary that he was
i'll ana was going home To stay until he
got well. he left the Office
Then came the accomplished type
writer who had never yet failed to I'M
ravel the lawyers most complex legal
sentences from the photograph and
have the letters ready for his signature
Daintily. yet with confidence. she picked
up the machine and carried it into her
own private compartment behind Jap
anese screen. She made her typewriter
ready, placed a nice, clean sheet of paper
on the roller and turned on the phono-
graph. II began to speak. Her hands
were poised above the keys and held
there while the vicious machine ratified
on in what seemed to be a horrible con
glOmeration of poor English, Tagalogue.
Chinese and Russian.
Her face at first expressed inquisitive-
ness. then wonder, then worriment. Her
eyes had in them the look Of hunted
deer, and her bosom heaved with an
emotion too deep for expression. Yet
the machine jabbered on with fendish
regularity, and the typewriters hands
remained in mid-air. not once respond
ing TO the long accustomed habit of in
terpreting the words in type as they fell
! III wave SOullilo vi mel tdl. 1 men IOI d
moment a look of desperation came
over her pale face She dashed her hand
forward and touched the lever to stop
the hideOus 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 com
partment. They saw at once that she
had lost consciousness, and applied the
usual remedies. She soon revived, and
dreamily opened her eyes In a moment
the horror of what she had heard re-
: Cured to her and she cried:
''The poor judge is crazy! The heat
has driven him mad. Listen!"
She reached forward, turned back the
, mechanism to the end of the cylinder,