368 HARRY E. BARBOUR 



only a small number were sold. People were not merely 

 indifferent, but were antagonistic. But the typewriter had 

 a usefulness which was not to be ignored; among the first 

 to recognize this fact were court stenographers, who found 

 that with the aid of the typewriter several copies of the 

 record could be turned out at once with neatness and dispatch. 

 Lawyers, having the advantage of the machine thus brought 

 home to them, soon began to adopt it for private use. Courts 

 of law, which for centuries had required all papers to be sub- 

 mitted in handwriting, began to require such papers to be 

 typewritten; and to-day the handwritten legal document is 

 the exception rather than the rule. The large business 

 houses, having an extensive correspondence, being always 

 ready for improvements and time saving methods, were 

 next to adopt the typewriter, and the commercial world in 

 general soon followed their example. The work of the type- 

 writer was its own best recommendation, as typewritten 

 letters and papers were spread throughout the country 

 there was awakened a general interest in the machine and its 

 work. It began to find its way into every branch of business 

 and professional life; authors and newspaper men have 

 adopted it; telegraph companies have made it a part of their 

 equipment, for so rapidly can messages be transcribed that 

 the receiving operator can not only keep pace with the sender, 

 but can maintain speed so great as to bring about the abbrevi- 

 ation of the telegraphic code. In fact, there is not a single 

 business or profession in which the typewriter has not estab- 

 lished its usefulness. 



The use of the typewriter for miscellaneous correspond- 

 ence became general in all the departments of the govern- 

 ment, except the department of state, during the early 

 eighties; it was first used for instructions to diplomatic and 

 consular officers of the United States by the department of 

 state, in April, 1895. The official communications of the 

 department to diplomatic officers of foreign countries ac- 

 credited to the United States continued to be handwritten 

 until May, 1897. Ceremonial letters addressed to sovereigns 

 are still handwritten. 



