Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-22
CONFESSIONS OF A PUBLIC STENoeRAPHER
People She Encounters and the Strange ses Comedy
Tragedy Which She RattIes OF Her keyboard
Tlmes

There is no class that has a better
opportunity to see the diversity of the
masculine mind and the pecuiarites
OF mau In general than the women
designated as public stenographers. ."
This is especially true Of the profession
in Washington. for here gather all sorts
and conditions of men and OH every
variety Of errand
A man In town for perhaps one day
desires the services of an expert stem
ographer and is directed by the hotel
clerk to certain building. where he
Will find Miss So-and-So. He enters a
neat, artistic office and is confronted
by a busnesslike young woman sitting
I'm front Of her typewriter. lie dictates
the letter and receives sheets of care.
fully written, correctly spelled COPY.
Or, perhaps, the document is lengthy
legal affair, and is taken down i'm short -
hand. AS each sheet on the stem
ographer's pad is filed with pot hooks
aud dots 1t is turned over to another
woman, who transcribes quickly and
accurately; and by the time the last
page of notes is taken the typewriter
document is ready for the c, arts.
But the life of a public stenographer
is many sided; sometimes pathetic,
sometimes ridiculous always interest
ing.
A Washington woman who has been
in the business for fifteen years-in
fact, the pioneer aomng the women of
the profession who have public offices
was commenting OH her experiences
recently.
81 have done every imag aginable variety
of work, and / have done many things
which | never could have imagined" )"
she said,
From Novels to Love Letters
81 have written proceedings of eccles-
iastical bodies and rules for procedure
for cock fights; descriptions of prize
fights and endless battles of the tongue.
1 have written applications for every
office under the sun-at least every
office within the gift of the president
and have written, though not often
designations from Office. l have written
business contracts of every description,
poetry by the yard, statistics galore,
newspaper jokes, comic operas, novels,
plays, sermons, obituary notices, de-
scriptons of weddings and proceedings
for divorce; tiresome tariff documents
unnumbered, and arguments OH both
sides of every question under the sun
until, as to my own belief, 1 hadn't the
faintest idea where ! was at. have
written pages in many languages, Ger
man, French, italian, Spanish, and dia-
lect stories which were not in any
known or unknown language; ghost
stories, and blood-and- thunder stories
by the ream. Yea, all these have L
written and more, too.
Love letters? Lots of them, and l
don't mean my own, either. And three
separate times l have written letters
for men breaking engagements of mar
H., l.
dictated by educated men who presum-
ably considered themselves gentlemen.
Every one of them unhesitatngly gave
me the name and address of the lady in
question.
Poured Out His Soul
"The first was an editor of a paper.
He dictated a lot of editorials and busi-
ness letters and then one to his lady
love, releasing her from her promise of
marriage and assuring her of the
highest sentiments Of love and esteem
and hopes for her future happiness.
THE next case was more thrilling. A
wild-eyed man came rushing into my
office and said he had some very private
work. He walked up and down the
floor and poured out his soul in bitter
anguish to the fair and false one. 1t
was deeply touching / assure you--the
interspersed with the click of the type
writer and the sound of the bell at the
end of each line | believe he said this
was the ninety-seventh letter he had
written, and If she did not answer this
one he would consider all was over be-
tween them.
NO. was a rosy-cheeked college
10y, wroth with his lady-fair There
were several pages Of cutting sarcasm
at her conduct, and when the letter was
finished l said: OF course, you wish to
sign this yourself?'
mo he replied Sign it on the
machine. and then there's a postscript
on the other side And this was the
postscript: Il could not write this letter
myself so l have dictated it to a stem
ographer over the telephone In case
she survived the fact of being Tilted by
a typewriter. there was the added sting
that the telephone girl had an ear in
the transaction!
I've had some funny experiences