spell, but it insists upon showing up, in the most glaring manner, every orthographical error that is perpetrated by its operator. "Why do you make so many mistakes in your exercises?" asked a teacher, and the innocent pupil replied, "I don't know how it is, sir, but that machine of mine doesn't spell a bit correctly." "My boy," said another teacher, "do you know that your spelling is bad—atrociously bad! It is useless for me to attempt to teach you shorthand and typewriting until you can spell well." "I'm sorry to know that, sir, but I can't help it." "You can't help it, eh? Why not?" "Because, sir, bad spelling runs in our family, sir—my grandfather couldn't spell!"
This kind of excuse will never be accepted anywhere. It is absolutely necessary that the stenographer should be a good speller. He must learn to spell or abandon all hope of becoming a stenographer. Too many young people take up the study of shorthand and typewriting without the primary qualification of a fairly good knowledge of the English language. Is their failure to be wondered at? The average business man may not know shorthand and typewriting, but he knows when his correspondence is correctly spelled, and will seldom put up with bad spelling for long. We heard of an instance where a young woman by her prepossessing appearance and the kind interest of friends obtained a position. Her employers soon discovered
