Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-10-12
Getting On in the w.

| began my business, aver at the age
of IL. Like so many, many young wom-
en- obliged to find place in the business
world, | was utterly untitled and I'M
! prepared. The loss of fortune came sud-
denly, and | found myself forced to
earn a livelihood without any means at
my command whereby / might gain a
foothold on the ladder of success. L
looked over the field of my abilities and
was discouraged. Although | had re-
ceived what might be termed a good
general education, | was not natural
speller nor a mathematician. 1t was
certainly puzzling question for me 10
decide, but l must do something and
time was pressing, so / took up the study
of stenography and completed the course
| in two months, though it should have
taken from six TO eight. My first posi-
ton was at $3 a week. | was COM
PEELED to take dictation directly on the
machine, and il / made a mistake my
| employer would snatch the letter from
the machine and tear it 10 pieces in a
| terrible rage. In this position ! received
the training l should have had in Il bus
mess school. After three months of this
work, | took my second position, at a
salary of 81 week. The first thing [
| did in this position was to study the
needs of the business. | found that
speed was not so much a necessity Us
careful work, which was certainly for
! tunate for me. as / was quite devoid Of
speed. | discovered that the stenogra-
pher who had held the position before me
was in the habit of coming down about
| fifteen to thirty minutes after nine every
morning, which was annoying to the
head of the firm, so | made it a practice
to get to the office every morning at ten
minutes to nine and be ready for work
before 8 o'clock, although there was no
| one there to give me any special work to
| do. Whenever / was not busy,
studied a few words in the dictionary. to
know thoroughly their meaning and
| their spelling. / found before long that a
knowledge Of Spanish would be an adj
vantage, SO | studied that in the evening
| also took up French, and it was not
long before | could translate all the
! Spanish and French letters that came in
to the office. Then / took up an adj
vanced coursein English composition, and
l never permitted a letter dictated to
me TO go out with a grammatical error
| ia it. as far as | knew, if / had to re-
write the same, or reconstruct the entire
letter with the writer's approval This
gave me a certain standard Of accuracy
with my employers. When / first took
the position, | was the only stenogra-
pher. After several years, other stein
! i
placed at their head, with q gradual
raise Of salary until ! was earning eight
cen dollars a week. | had always made
/ il a point to keep busy with something,
no matter il it was only folding circit-
| lars. as | felt TO sit around idle would
certainly annoy my employer / never
appeared to be anxious to get away At
night, though undoubtedly I vas Just
as tired Of Office work as could be- but
| felt it was certainly to my interests Ia
| stay late, if necessary, and to stay viii
/ ingly.
When the vice president Of the firm
who had had charge of the advertising
/ for many years. retired from active
/ business. ! went to the president and
asked him if | could not help him until
some one else took his place. / wrote =
/ number Of letters that thought might b,
Z, advantageous to send out, ! answered al
] the Office correspondence and submitted
/ Il for his approval I id not wait to b.
I asked ] took the initiative and made th'
suggestions. even to writing 8 number %
| advertisements. and Il was this fact tina
led n my obtaining the position Of ad
] vertising manager, which position / havl