Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-04

1--WE earned $4,000 with that right
hand" said a former shorthand re-
porter, "and although haven't written
a pothook for profit for several years
I wouldn't be afraid to 60 to any city
in the United states today and start
life over again among strangers, II /
were fiat broke. Shorthand has been a
valuable staff for me, and 1 consider
It one Of the best requirements that a
young man can have If he's a top
notcher he need never want for bread
or angel food, either. I've Travelled all
over this country, and great deal out
of It, and 1 never saw the day when 1
couldn't turn up job and earn good
money.
THE practice of the shorthand craft
brought me many strange experiences,
too. About fifteen years ago l got a
notion to go west, packed my grip and
went to Frisco. The very next morn
ing after | arrived there l looked over
the papers and found the following ad
IN the want columns of the San Fran
cisco Chronicles:
'Wanted-A blind man wants a pri-
vate secretary who can write short
hand. Call at Chronicle office
L called promptly, was shown into
the private office of Mike DeYoung,
the proprietor of the Chronicle, and
after an examination of my testi-
monlals-although he didn't lay much
stress on them, by the way--he gave
me the job and sent me down to the
Del Monte hotel, at Monterey, with a
letter to the blind man, who turned
n ha I1,.Itt
York World, He wasn't blind, but his
eyesight was failing him and he was
under the care of specialists who
would not permit him to use his eyes,
which were constantly covered with
dark glasses. When 1 arrived at Mon
terey l found Pulitzer walking on the
hotel lawn, and recognized him in
stantly from the caricatures I'd seen
OF him in Puck, which at that time
was poking q great deal of fun at the
famous New York journalist.
He was one of the best bosses ever
had-a gentleman, every inch of him. a
good paymaster and a consderate
taskmaster.
William Randolph Hearst was just
beginning then to make yellow expert
ments in the San Francisco Examiner.
I remember one of his newspaper ex-
ploits which aroused a great deal of
excitement among the feverish Fris-
cans. There was considerable specula-
tion about that time as to whether any
grizzly bears we're left in the coast
range of mountains, and Hearst sent a
reporter down into the Ventura noun
tains and kept him there for three
months with orders to capture a live
grizzly and bring him to Frisco. He
got the grizzly all right and 1t was
exhibited from the Examiners plate
glass windows on Market street to
throngs of Californians for long time
pulitzer always showed the keenest
interest in Hearst and his newspaper
and asked many questions of the hotel
guests about his doings. He remained
on the coast only a few months and
then went to Austria to go under the
care Of a celebrated eye specialist
there.
81 went to Frisco and went to work
for man who did a general shorthand
business. He employed half dozen
reporters and sent them out on stenog-
raphic assignments all over Frisco and
the surrounding bay towns. He had
some queer customers too. He was a
spiritualist himself, and one of the first
assignmentS-and it was a corker-that
he gave me was to attend Seance and
report some 'spook' talk. 1 had to take
down all the talk from the other world
as it came from the mediums. There
was one favorite that my spiritualist
employer had among them who was
known as an fpspirational speaker He
was joe-dandy at a ghost spiel. He
would take up any old subject that the
audience might furnish him offhand,
go into a trance and then give us the
latest supernatural -deliverances upon
the topic. He had gift, too I can tell
you-he never seemed to stop for
breath, talked an hour at a time and
800 words a minute, using fine lam
.guage and diction, and of all the wrist
aching stunts that ever fell to my lot
that inspirational fellows graft was
certainly the most trying. I afterward