GENERAL NEWS

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 31 January 1913, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS

( THE STF.NOTYPE. j The stenotype—a small machine designed to disprace shorthand writing'— the use of which has been successfully been demonstrated in iNew-York —is similar to an ordinary typewriter and lias twenty-three keys. The working of it is based on phonetic spelling. Several letters can be printed by .striking one key, while it is possible to strike two keys with one finger. The twenty-two keys represent seven consonants and every Combination' of sounds used in speech, together with about 150 standard abbreviations—the sole code that, the operator must master. With the machine a opeed or 180 words a minute,has been obtained. The machine is mot being gold to the general public, the sale being restricted to students of business schools qualified as competent operators in order to keep the device from becoming 'a drug on the market. BAG-TIME INVENTOR. That there are fifty different ways of dancing the "Turkey Trot" is one of those principles of 'life on which .Mr Mason of the London Hippodrome, ■ is prepared to stake his honour and his dollars (says the "Daily Mail"). Mr Mason is the dancemaster specially imported from New York to teach .principals and chorus how to more in harmony with rag-time music in the forthcoming -Christinas revue at tho London Hippodrome. He admits having been the first man to toll New Yorkers about the "Turkey Trot," ■and'he made it clear to them that life 'had not been Worth living before its discovery. He i* not jealous of Columbus or Amerigo Vespucci-; they discovered continents. He discovered the "Turkey Trot," and invented for the benefit of continents "The Bunny Hug," "The Ballroom Crawl," Tho Snail Drag," and other such joys. There is a caste, ho says, among these i things, and while Mr Mason is quick , to. point- out that "The Boston" is ( 'merely the aristocrat of a riotous •family, .he hastens to add that "The New York Squirm" is a disgrace to its relations.