cities a girl is compelled to start at five dollars a week, no matter what her ability; but even here there are opportunities for advancement, which depend entirely upon the girl.
In a few offices the phonograph has replaced stenographers, but it has not yet come into general use, nor does it promise to do so. The girl who transcribes phonograph records does not need to know stenography. Her employer, at his leisure, dictates his letter to a sensitized phonograph record. The phonograph machine is then set beside the operator's typewriter. She starts and stops the dictation or alters the speed at her will by means of a pedal. Both ears are covered by receivers such as telephone operators use. They are exactly like those employed in the penny arcades when you listen to phonograph music.
The operator, concentrating on what comes to her over the wire, transcribes this directly on the typewriter. This work requires perfect hearing, remarkable powers of concentration, and quick wit to separate sentences and to punctuate, in case the man dictating does not furnish paragraphs and punctuation. In this work men have been more successful than women, who generally find phonograph dictation nerve-racking. The salary paid is about the same as that for general stenographic work, $15 a week.
The girl who wishes to use stenography as
