CIVIL SERVICE RULES AND REGULATIONS RELATING TO STENOGRAPHY AND TYPEWRITING.

Following is in substance the rules and regulations of the Civil Service Commission, approved February 2, 1888, so far as they relate to examinations in stenography and typewriting for positions in the classified department service.

EXEMPTIONS. The following are exempt from examinations under the rules of the Commission: one private secretary or confidential clerk, of the head of each classified department, and of each assistant secretary thereof; and also of each head of bureau appointed by the President.

APPLICATION.-The applicant must not be under 30 years of age, and among other things, must state under oath that he is a citizen of the United States, that he does not use intoxicating beverages to excess, that within the year next preceding his application, he has not been dismissed from the public service for delinquency or misconduct, and that his condition of health and physical capacity are such as to fit him for service. In addition, he must procure the certificates of three other persons verifying his statements. Politics, of course, is not supposed to cut any figure in the case. If the application is satisfactory to the examiner, he then proceeds with the examination.

EXTENT OF EXAMINATION. For places in the service having a salary of $900 or under, per annum, the applicant may pass in stenography, or typewriting, or both, and take in addition, arithmetic, copying, penmanship and orthography,

For places of $1000 per annum and upward, stenography, or typewriting, or both, and in addition, orthography, copying, penmanship, arithmetic, bookkeeping, elements of English, letter-writing, geography, history, and government of the United States, or as many of these branches as the examiner may see proper to include.

Shorthand and typewriting are not included in the regular "copyist" or "clerk" examination, of course, and are merely supplemental or special. TYPEWRITING. The time allowed for this examination is three hours, and the work is divided into four parts: 1. Tabulating, or arranging in tabular form, certain data given in the question. If the work is executed in 20 minutes, credit of 100 will be given in the grade; if more time is consumed, certain deductions are made. 2. Transcribing a rough draft. If the transcript be made in 15 minutes, credit of 100 will be allowed in the grade, and deductions made if more time is consumed. 3. A test of the applicant's knowledge of the use and adjustment of the machine.

4.

A dictation exercise for speed. If 65 words per minute are written, 100 will be allowed in the grade, and "for every word in speed less than 65 words per minute, one will be deducted from 100 down to and including 56 words per minute. For a speed of 55 words per minute, a grade of 90 will be allowed, and for every word in speed less than 55, down to and including 35, a deduction or three-fourths of one from 100 will be made. For a speed of 34 words per minute, a credit of 74.50 will be given, and for every word in speed less than 34, a deduction of one-half of one from 100 will be made.

STENOGRAPHY.

"This examination consists of two exercises in dicta

tion, to be written by each of the competitors in stenographic characters. He must then transcribe into longhand. One of the dictation exercises is a selection from a speech, and the other is a letter, the two exercises containing not less than 300 words. The transcript will be compared with the printed text from which the dictation was given, and, under the rule for marking the copying exercise, charges will be made for the omission, addition or substitution of words, and for errors in spelling. Under the rules for marking exercises in dictation, charges will be made for errors in punctuation and capitalization.

For a speed of 150 words, or more, per minute, a grade of 100 will be given. For a speed of less than 150, and not less than 80 words, two and one-half will be deducted from every 100 for every five words less than 150, any number of words less than five being counted as five.

For a speed of less than 80, and not less than 65 words, three and onehalf will be deducted from 100 for every five words less than 80, any number of words less than five being counted as five.

The time allowed for the shorthand examination is one hour. GRADE FOR SHORTHAND AND TYPEWRITING. A weight of 2 is given to stenography, and a weight of 1 to typewriting. The general average of all eligibles, who stand upon the register in stenography and also upon the register in typewriting, will be ascertained, and the general average of each eligible in stenography multiplied by two, the product added to his general average in typewriting, and the sum divided by three. In this manner a general average of those who are eligible in both stenography and typewriting will be ascertained.

APPOINTMENT.-If the applicant passes a satisfactory examination, his name and grade are entered on the register of the commission, and future vacancies in the departments are filled from that list of competents, those having the best grade taking priority in appointments. At the expiration of a certain period, not less than a year, if no appointment has been received by an eligible, he is dropped from the register, and must begin de novo, in case he still aspires to a department position. The appointments are for a probationary period of six months, at the end of which

time they are made absolute, or the probationer is permitted to retire to private life.

REMARKS. From June 16, 1886, to June 30, 1889, there were 69 male stenographers examined by the Commission, of whom 32 passed and 37 failed, During the same period, 19 female stenographers were examined, of whom 2 passed and 17 failed. It would not seem from these figures, that the better class of stenographers desires, in any degree, to possess positions in the departments at salaries ranging even as high as $1,800. I am informed that thoroughly competent writers are hard to secure in the departments, but that there are a few thousand always on hand who can squeeze through with 80 or 90 words a minute and make numerous errors transcribing the matter. The Civil Service Examination, though decidedly

easy for any one at all fit to take a moderate dictation, has had the effect of fanning out the writers of the poorer class, who once beset the departments. They do not care to subject themselves to such an ordeal as a grade of 75 would require.

There is another phase of the matter worth considering. Possibly shorthand writers find more encouragement in positions elsewhere. Likely thousands of men and women who write shorthand today do not expect to do so always, and consequently prefer to work where they can keep their eyes open for a sudden dash into opulence. A department position is the same yesterday, today and for the next twenty years, and promotion beyond a $1200 to $1800 position practically out of the question. In other cities stenographers may prospect on a moderate scale, perhaps make something out of a corner lot occasionally, or patronize a savings bank or building and loan association. They have little opportunity to look into anything else, or to hope for anything else, while filling such a position as that of department clerk or amanuensis. That, however, does not explain why 37 applicants out of 69 fail to pass under the Civil Service Rules.

Washington.

L. E. GREENE.

REAL CAPITAL FOR LADY STENOGRAPHERS.

Many young ladies chafe and fret because they have no capital with which to commence business. By capital they usually mean money; but I think it will be admitted that there are other things almost as potent which any beginner may have in abundance.

The young lady who seeks advancement through the channel of office. employment, say in the capacity of stenographress, will come to recognize a good many kinds of capital which are not always apparent to a casual observer, but which count in the race.

Take, to begin with, the mysterious ability the truest ladies any of us know have of always dressing neatly and with taste, no matter what their

incomes are. There is little necessity for wearing in an office a dress which costs more than three or four dollars; and this may be kept so neat, so whole -may be so well fitting, so tasteful, that it serves as a key to the inner qualities of the wearer. It tells whether she is a slouch or a queen. You

have noticed that some women look far better in a three dollar dress than others do in a twenty dollar one. When you find out the reason for this, and can do the same thing yourself, you have one form of capital which you can ill afford to lose the ability to command respect and to forbid distasteful comments on your appearance.

Notice, always, the tastes of your employer as regards the order and arrangement of the office, and try, quietly and deftly, to idealize those tastes. You need not become an office boy in order to do this. Your presence in an office ought to have an influence on its appearance and neatness, and it will have if you will see to it that everything is kept in quiet order and where it may be had instantly when wanted. It will be easy for you to see to it that your own desk is never littered with papers or scraps, or turned inside out. You have seen the desks of young ladies in offices which resembled, somewhat, second-hand stores. I have one in mind now that is always as far removed from any suggestion of neatness or order as possible and that young lady does not have the respect of a single employe of that office. She is retained because she is a relative of the manager, and, poor thing, she can't get anything to do elsewhere. She gets her personal mail

at the office, and reads and answers it there, carefully scattering the scraps torn off the envelopes on the floor. Her hat is as likely to be found on her table as anywhere, and her rubbers are adventurers. She forgets her veil and gloves when she goes out. She does not polish her shoes, nor button them regularly, or in full. The seams in her dress are usually sprung. She borrows and loses all the lead pencils in the office. Still, she has what people call a good education, being a convent graduate, and able to converse in French and Spanish. As an office worker she is scarcely worth storage

room.

Chicago.

W. D. SHOW ALTER.

CHICAGO NOTES.

A. L. Davison received the work of the county for three months upon the following bid: Per diem, $5; per hour, $1; transcript, one copy, 35c per page; each additional copy, 5c per page. The bids of the other reporters, with one or two exceptions, were at the regular rates, ie., $10 per day; $2 per hour; 50c per page. One of the exceptions was the bid of the editor of the Shorthand Review, W. E. Carson, whose bid was $5 per day ; 75c per hour; 150 per page. The extreme cheapness here offered did not seem to

strike the county officials with much force. They desired good work, and the acceptance of this bid must have seemed to them too much of an experiment.

Mr. Davison has been cited to appear before a committee of the Law Stenographers' Association to defend his cut of rates.

A disgruntled member of the profession got himself interviewed the other day by a Herald reporter. His efforts to build a house out of a few sticks caused considerable merriment. His mathematics resemble those of another member of the profession who lost thousands of dollars on a horse race by not having the money to bet upon it. Our grumbling brother will feel better when La Grippe leaves town.

J. Clayton Youker, (who, by the way, was the writer of "Rhine Memories," which appeared in our January number), came down the other morning with his hat on the back of his head, and having about him in great profusion the air of one who had found a gold mine already pigged for the market. He added to the force of his exalted position by whistling in rather a high key, "My Country 'tis of Thee." No wonder though --it's a boy.

ASSOCIATION NEWS.

CHICAGO STENOGRAPHERS' ASSOCIATION.

The eighteenth regular meeting of the Chicago Stenographers' Association was held in the lecture room of the First M. E. Church block on Thursday evening, Jan. 16, and was well attended by members, visitors and newspaper reporters. Mr. Isaac S. Dement presided, and, in the absence of Secretary Foster, Henry Borst was elected temporary secretary. The chairman of the entertainment committee, Mr. Wm. P. Bullard, reported that all the members of the committee had been assigned to the various duties of providing for contributions or lectures by stenographers of national renown and other public men, for recitations, essays, comic readings, instrumental and vocal music, etc. After the transaction of routine business there was a short recess for social chat. Then Mr. J. R. Price gave a graphic recital of "Dangers of Borrowed Plumes," and "Darius Green and his Flying Machine." That his efforts were highly appreciated was fully demonstrated by the tumult of applause at the close of each recitation, to say nothing of the less explosive but nevertheless hearty laughter continually manifesting itself during the entire time he had the floor.

Mr.

Mr. Dan Brown amused us greatly by reading a very neat and humorous bit of satire on "The Shorthand Student," how he looked frowningly upon all the rest of creation and strutted about pretending to take down speeches and sermons at the rate of 175 words per minute, but in reality writing about 35 and working hard at that. The piece contained numerous other hits which must be heard to be appreciated. The whole piece of 500 words was written in shorthand on the back of a small card. Henry Borst next read a short paper on "The requirements of stenographic speed," holding the view that it was erroneous to say that only the nervous temperament was capable of producing the swiftest stenographers. He argued that a general blending of the temperaments was more desirable, and in fact, that the results showed this to be the case, namely, that the speediest reporters were those who were endowed with a combination of the motive, vital and mental temperaments. The music for the evening had to be dispensed with, owing to the fact that several of the ladies who were down on the program were unavoidably detained elsewhere. We hope to hear from them next time. Altogether we had a most enjoyable evening, and it