I HAVE a new stenographer — she came to work to-day, She told me that she wrote the latest system. Two hundred words a minute seemed to her, she said, like play, And word for word at that! — she never missed'em! I gave her some dictation — a letter to a man — And this, as I remember it, was how the letter ran: "Dear Sir: I have your favor, and in reply would state That I accept the offer in yours of recent date. I wish to say, however, that under no condition Can I afford to think of your free lance proposition. I shall begin to-morrow to turn the matter out; The copy will be ready by August 10th, about. Material of this nature should not be rushed unduly. Thanking you for your favor, I am, yours, very truly." She took it down in shorthand with apparent ease and grace; She didn't call me back all in a flurry. Thought I: "At last I have a girl worth keeping 'round the place"; Then said: "Now write it out — you needn't hurry." The typewriter she tackled — now and then she struck a key, And after thirty minutes this is what she handed me: "Deer sir, I have the Feever, and in a Pile i Sit And I except the Offer as you have reasoned it, I wish to see however That under any condition can I for to Think of a free lunch Preposishun? I Shal be in tomorrow To., turn the mother out, The cap will be red and Will costt, $10, about. Mateeriul of this nation should not rust N. Dooley, Thinking you have the Feever I am Yours very Truely." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PORTRAIT OF A BABY by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET MOUNTAIN FARM by MALCOLM COWLEY IMAGINARY ANCESTORS: THE GIRAFFE WOMAN OF BURMA by MADELINE DEFREES SISTER MARIA CELESTE, GALILEO'S DAUGHTER, WRITES TO FRIEND by MADELINE DEFREES CLEAR AND COLDER; BOSTON COMMON by ROBERT FROST IT JUST SO HAPPENS by JAMES GALVIN TO MARY CHURCH TERRELL - LECTURER by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON |