Another was a skilled stenographer, who could write I forget how many
hundred words a minute; and when I told her there were no minutes in
which I could dictate as many words as that, even if I wanted to, and
that there would be many minutes in which I should not dictate any words
at all, she said she was afraid that if she fell into a dilly-dally,
poky way of working it would impair her skill, and it might be
difficult, when she left my employment, to regain her previous
expertness. She was quite willing, however, to engage with me, and
thought that if I would try to dictate as fast as possible I might, in
time, be able to keep her nearly up to her normal standard.
A third one was willing to write longhand, and to work as slowly and as
irregularly as I pleased. I gave her a short trial, but her writing was
so illegible that I could not discover whether or not she made mistakes
in spelling. I had, however, my suspicions on this point.
The fourth applicant I engaged to come for a week on trial. She
exhibited no prominent disabilities, and I thought she might be made to
answer my purpose; but as she possessed no prominent capabilities, and
as she asked me to repeat almost every sentence which I dictated to her,
I found it very tiresome to work with her, and I punished Walkirk by
making him act as my under-study on the third and fourth days of her
engagement.
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