The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1906-03-16
TWICE A WEEK. 81. so A YEAR

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In addition to this, she knows that
no matter what sort Of place she takes
or how long shc stays in it she can
never rise to be anything but q sten-
ographcr. She may be very intelli-
gent and capable woman, but no mat
ter how much she gets to know about
the business she will still have to sit
and take letters from the dictation
OF some cigar smoking assistant man.
ager who perhaps knows good deal
less about it than she.
Poorly Trained Stenographers.
One hears constant complaints on
the part of business men of the care
lessness and unreliability Of stenog-
raphers, and,, although there are in
New York thousands upon thousands
of conscientious, hard working, cap.
able girls, who earn great deal moro
than they got, yet it is undoubtedly
fact that there are thousands upon
thousands of stonographers who are
not worth their salt. But there is no
telling what they might be if they
were properly educated and prepared
for their work, and then sufficiently
paid for their services and treated in
n proper, business-like manner.
The trouble just at present seems to
be that n girl is forced out into the
world before she has any weapons
wherewith to fight it, or even defend
hnrcnIf Hr,,O, Sl.,
through the public school which, good
ness knows, teaches her little enough,
than she is sent to IL business college
for three or six months, and is then
considered fully equipped to earn her
living. Thcreupon business man,.
who wants to get his work done for
next to nothing, engages her rs steno-
grapher; and then he finds that tho
work is done badly he feels himself
immensely injured and bitterly voices
his complaint from the housetop.
:. This sort of thing might be par
donable if it existed only among FAM
lilies that really could not afford to
give their daughters better alvant-
ages; but such is not the case, r.
know of one man who is q college pro-
fessor drawing Il good income; whose
daughter, aged II, is stenographer
! in downtown Office on Il salary of
81 Il week.
Daughters of the Well To Do Who
Work.
And such eases are not ut all rare
the ranks Of stcnographers are not by
any means recruited exclusively from
poor families. 1t seems to be the ae-
ceptcd thing just now among all class
es, except the very rich, that as soon
as the daughters are equipped, be it
ever so poorly, to earn livelihood
they arc sent out to do so, and tho
fathers who brought. them into the
world consider themselves thence
forth freed from all responsibility.
Girls, too, are impatient to got out
and "earn their own living,' for Of
course, the father and brothers arc
earning much less than they would be
doing if there were no women in the
business world, and hence the girl
feels that it il as much her duty as it
is her brothers. to start out and sup
port herself. A person who does not
20 about among business Offices can
have no idea Of the immense numbers
Of women that are employed in them.
know Of one publishing house on
Twcnty-third street that does n fairly
large publishing business. In the com
bincd departments Of this place, with
the exception Of the shipping depart
ment, there are three males employed,
the publisher himself, the business
manager and the Office boy. The rest
Of the work is done by about forty
women, who work there day after
day for S., So, So, So and perhaps as
high as $l2 week, and the two wo-
men who oversee them got $15 each.
Woman's Rush Into Business.
do not intend to enlarge here upon
the. great social problem that this
condition Of affairs entails, nor on the
sort Of preparation, physical, mental
and moral, that it is giving to the We.
men who arc to be the wives Of this
generation and the mothers Of tho
next. What [ have aimed to do in
this article is merely to cnumorate tho
q l..