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07031_Field_TCUM T596.txt
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1996-04-10
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917b
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The comments of Robert Lincoln O’Brien, writing in the
Atlantic Monthly in 1904, indicate a rich field of social material
that still remains unexplored. For example:
The invention of the typewriter has given a
tremendous impetus to the dictating habit. . . . This
means not only greater diffuseness . . . but it also brings
forward the point of view of the one who speaks. There is
the disposition on the part of the talker to explain, as if
watching the facial expression of his hearers to see how
far they are following. This attitude is not lost when his
audience is following. It is no uncommon thing in the
typewriting booths at the Capitol in Washington to see
Congressmen in dictating letters use the most vigorous
gestures as if the oratorical methods of persuasion could
be transmitted to the printed page.