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 trusted with secrets that hold success or failure for her employer. If you are the sort of girl who simply must tell some one everything you know, don't try to be a stenographer.

You have quickness of mind and movement. Without these you will find it difficult to take erratic and sometimes almost inaudible dictation without annoying your employer by questions.

You have good eyesight; or if you have any visual defect, it can be minimized by learning what is known as the touch system on the machine, and using glasses while at work. A stenographer or office assistant of any sort uses her eyes practically eight hours a day.

And of course your hearing is perfect.

Does this list of natural qualifications sound formidable? Then do not take up stenography, for as sure as you think any one of them unimportant, so surely will you drift into the rank of incompetents.

Perhaps you possess these qualities, or are willing to acquire them by study and practice. Then how shall you begin?

If you are attending the public schools of your city, and planning to take stenography a year or two from now, do not wait. If your school offers stenography as an elective branch, take it by day. If not, enter an evening class two or three nights in the week, and study