Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/24

 Please bear in mind that stenography is a trade, and you must work at it months, and even years, before you become an expert and draw the same salary an expert milliner or fitter does. There is no royal road to success in stenography simply because your parents can afford to pay for your lessons. By earnest study and practice you can advance yourself more rapidly than can any teacher or school in America.

Perhaps you have decided that you are what might be termed a "born stenographer." Then you possess the following characteristics:

You are accurate. Stenography is built on accuracy.

You have great power of concentration. Without that you will never master the mechanical side of stenography or develop the fundamental principles of shorthand.

You are neat. No employer of any standing will send out letters daubed with blots and blurs from erasing and rewriting.

You are a good speller and grammarian, and have a fair knowledge of English. If you cannot spell correctly writing longhand, how much more confused will you become when you have to transcribe stenographic notes? Neither is there time in a busy office for you to consult a dictionary.

You are close-mouthed. The stenographer of even a small and unimportant firm is often en-