THE CHAMPION TYPEWRITER.

Lake County Press, Issue 2118, 17 May 1906, Page 7

THE CHAMPION TYPEWRITER.

I'.y MAK CAIUUNCJTON, .IKOUNED "QILLX OF TYTEWUI'I 10US." h'leelesl of horses, most rapid of runners, fastest of steainships— all have had (heir pnneg.xrists. So why not the swiftest of typewriters. Miss Mao ('a rringi on \ oting,' amiable prcltx— is to (lie keyboard what Lou hilloil is lo the trotting- turf, what \\. (I. (Jeorge is to the running turf, what I he Lucania is to the ocean champion and holder of the record. She has been crowned ipleell of typewriters in many nalioiial and international contests—at Chicago, St. Louis. Detroit, I'.ul'lalo and the recenl exhibition of her skill at the Ibisiness Show at the Madison Sipiare (larden w;is n phenomenal one. something never equalled in thai city. blindfolded the young woman wrote .",,""" words from dictation, correct l.\ punt! uat ed, capit aliled ami paragraphed. ;tt an average rate of sixty-l w 11 words a minute. Miss (ariingioii is a "long-dis-tance" operator—her maximum speed is not attained in the first few minutes. In the blindfolded contest at the Madison Square (larden .she reached (he remarkable speed of l'.'.", words ii minute after an hours work. Miss Carrington, who is now a teacher of Ivpewril ing in a business school at her own town, Springfield. [ Mass, has made a sexeti-xear study of typewrit ing. As illustrated in the recenl exhibition, her eyes play no pari in assist- ! ing her deft manipulation of the machine. Her natural gift, without which she might never have attained the skill she possesses, is a keen sense of \ location. This gifl has I n specialized in the education of her lingertips. Miss ('a rriitgl on 's cultivated touch enables her to write page after page without the slightest error. Thus typewriting heroines an artone feels il in wutching i he graceful swiftness of the movements of her hands oxer the keyboard—as great as the technique of a skilled pianoplayer. Of ivpew I*ll illg ill its present development and the methods of acquiring skill in ii Miss Curringlon hiis much of interest lo tell. "Most people have mistaken ideas as to speed in typewriting," she say.s "The contest in .New York helweeu expert operators were won with a speed of less than seventy-Cue words ii. minute. That is high s. d for continuous work on present-day niii chines." "Put have not U'M.l words it minute been writ i en '.'" was asked. "< )h. \ es, Hut I his 'record' has been made with selected words in a' sentence nisi one line long, and this: sentence is written oxer ami oxer again. This is prailhe for speed, hut doesn't prox e an,\ I hum as to I he actual accomplishment of the operator for real work. Here is such a sentence : ' I am not to sa.x ii is a sin to use I he pen lo aid il to a. dad end.' I can write thai at the rule of 13' Hi words a minute. Others can write it faster. "Now, le/re is a sentence oi another kind : 'Poor Polly <iueslzers. plum ply built, ardently and secretly plays polo.' Thiti sentence written on a typewriter is full of trips and i ricks in fingering. I can write it- at, the rate of texenly words a minute—after very long practice. "Many absurd claims are made its to speed by ordinary typewriter operators. Alter ten mouths in a 'business school' I won the gold medal of the school in typewriting xvith a record of fifty words ii minute— a. high speed for t he school. "The employment agencies in New York City require applicants lo write three letters of eigbl.x, nine!.'.-, ami one hundred words respectively. They must i ranscribe I he.se in short hand from dictation in I hrce minutes. Then they are allowed seventeen minutes for typewriting them. You .see here is ii speed requirement of fifteen lo twenty words a minute in operating the machine. Yet «tj per cent, of 1 he applicants—old stenographers, graduates from the schools— fail to fulfil this test. "The i ouch system was used by all the successful operators at. the NewYork contest. The lingers are quicker and more accurate than the exes and can be educated to do far better without their aid than it the eyes are trusted to help and guide the lingers. In the touch system all the lingers and the thumb are used. Miss Carrington knows how much the intelligent and expert stenographer and typewriter contributes to the success of her wen Ii hy employer, and resent s I he fact I lull . as their part of the proceeds, many of these young women in New York receive hut C2 Ss., ,r_:! or at most ,e t il \\ee' . Hut Miss Carrington w ill go to New \ oil, to earn K::<> a week. I ler story is truly a story of success, though she modestly doubts it, and is more concerned with the fact that a man beal her in the short-time, speed contest at, the Garden on the last night, of the MusineSS Show. I'.ul that is explainable, though not. by her—and xvijl not occur again. Miss Canine ton herself declares. "Jn that content/' says Aliss Car-

rington—she wrote 12,004 words in thirty minutes — "some force seemed to hind and hold my hands. Thesis speed tests are a great nervous strain. I was not conscious, though, of being out of condition to do my best when I sat down to the machine It uiis a strange feeling, lhough in the telling it does not appear rc- ■ markable. The half hour closed before 1 attained my speed." A wrong letter in a word counts against the operator in' these speed contests as live words deducted fro 111 the number she has written. Hut Miss Carringlon made no such errors. Mr. H. .J. (Jriflin, who was the y.uniii; woman's teacher in typewriting, witnessed her appearance in the contests in v \e\v York. "An ambition for success, a resolution to he 'first in something,' " he says, "has guided Miss Carrington to the acquirement of her truly remarkable skill. Then, of course, there was added to : that the willingness to work, and work hard. In the short speed rotiI (est at the (tardea she. failed because 'of luck of pract iee. I ler wonderful speed and perfect accuracy were shown in the longer ti contests 'l'd keep up to the lull eapni it.\ <>f iiis speed a t.\ pewrher should prart ice halt' an hour every day. That Miss Carrington has not done since she herself became a teacher. Next yea 1 she will come to New York prepared to exhibit the full possibilities of her remarkable faculty for operating a typewriter under every test. ; and condit ion." I