Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1910-09-30
%tional woman s-tenographer than we can
Some Who Make incomes.

salary of between 81, 900 and $4,000 a
year. The court stenographers make
from IS to $40 a day. A private secre-
tary to a federal official in Kansas City
has an income OF $4,000 a year salary
n extra fees
1T is the mother usually who regards
her daughters going to work as a
calamity. The father usually knows
the business woman's position better.
One man / know at the head Of a big
business and With d large income de-
clares his daughter shall have a bust
ness education after her college days.
lie desires her to have the accomplish
ments demanded by her position, and
he desires her to study domestic econ
omy, but he also wishes her TO be fitted
TO take care of the property She, as his
only child, will inherit. He regards a
business course, ste~nography II type
writing, as the best foundation for a
business career. And his daughter, who
is in school in Washington, will have
/ a business college, training alter she
has finished in Paris.
widows well provided for as well
as widows left penniless go to business
college. They want to learn how to
take care of their w business.
A great deal is expected of a stenog-
rapher who holds a good position. She
must be we'll educated, her appearance
n department pleasing and her man
ner dignifed. Upon these things de-
ponds much OF the tone of the office
in which she works. Business men and
firms prefer women stenographers, as
a rule, to men. They arc quicker, neat
er, more reliable. They are not so like
ly to learn the business and set up for
themselves across the hall. They are
trustworthy. The private secretary
(and that is the position the high sal
aired S~tgnOQF4nhpr 1GIla1U hOl1G) iS on
trusted with many valuable and i'm
portant secrets. In fact, she knows all
her employers business. There have
been some historic leaks in business
offices. betrayals Of confidence which
had results OF ~stupcndous moment, but
they rarely happened through a bust
ness
They call women the garrulous sex,
but the business woman never gets in
toxicated n talks too much. If the
general managers confidential right
hand man is 81 she will not be
blabbing his secrets around the club.
Talk about the deficient feminine
sense of honor. The business woman
holds her employers confidence as
sacred and wild horses Won drag them
from her. We will find. perhaps. that
like some other virtues which the home
has failed to develop in her, the world
has taught women honesty, loyalty,
reticence and general trustwOrthiness.
There are no limits to the Oppor-
tunities to which an humble beginning
as stenographer, at a modest salary,
may lead. Women are not, the world
is learning, lacking in business abil-
ity, even business genius. They have,
heretofore been lacking in business OPP
~portunity. Now many branches of
commerce, many professions, are open
Ing TO them as a result of their en-
trance in subsidiary positions 70 the
business world. Women Ste~nographers
In lawyers offices often develop a taste
for the Law n make a success in the
profession.
"A Kansas City girl who entered a
business college a few months ago to
learn typeWriting and s~tenography de-
veloped a phenomenal speed on the
typewriter in an incredibly short time.
The instructors regarded her as a mar
vel and when the representative
of a typewriter firm visited the school
with one Of the company's expert speed
writer's. employed to exhibit the ma
chine, they asked her to give an eXhi-
bition of speed, following that of the
professional. The typewriter company's
expert has a speed of abou 80 perfect
words a minute. in a 15-minute test on
new matter, that is, not one repeated
word. The Kansas City amateur who
ildu taken up the yDeNFlIeT only a rev
months before and had not yet finished
her course in the business school,. wrote
40 words a minute in a speed test of
Is minutes, repeating the same word.
The test was entirely unexpected and
the case was so unusual that the type
writer company's representative i'm
mediately offered her a position as Il
speed expert and exhibitor.
Of One Who Found Out.
This is a branch of the s~tenograph-
er's profession OF which she had no
thought when she entered the business
training school,. Yet it offers large sal
aries and many excellent positions.
Every typewriter company employs
speed experts as exhibitors and is on
the lookout for them constantly. or
course they are unusual enough to be
almost in the class of geniuses. Such
marvellous speed is a natural gift and
cannot be developed. The Kansas City
girl who awoke to find herself a speed
expert with the offer OF a large salary
had expected to begin her business
career as an officc giri-stenograptier
at a salary Of So a week.
THE typewriter speed champion of
the United States is Miss Rose Fritz OF
New York, who Is paid SIS, 900 a veal by
a typewriter company"
Il believed / was in hard luck when
my faJneF ) Hedltn ana business 1alled,
and / had to go to work TO earn my
WI living" says a Kansas City wom-
an, who is private secretary to the state
agent of an insurance company. Il
had heard that the poor working girl
has a hard time, and l didn't relish the
idea of being one of that class. l be-
moaned the fact that l had no talent
for any of the fine arts, no capital or
ability TO go into business for myself,
and no equipment, educational or 9TH
erwise. for any OF the occupations or
professions which / regarded as more
dignified and important as what / had
finally to make up my mind to take up,
s~tenography n typewriting. / had
had two or three years in society and
| had been brought up TO expect to go
on in that sort of existence as long as
l lived. / never asked myself IL I was
happy. I felt ] was doing the regular
thing-the sort OF things girls of my
class did and / followed what / consid-
cred my destiny blindly. AS a matter
of fact / know now that I wasn't happy.
l can look back and recall the misery
OF a position in which / and everybody
connected with me spent money we
couldn't afford trying to keep. up APP
p~earances. II was so much harder