Thibodaux minerva. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 18??-1858, 1856-04-19
FLOR the Minerva
For the Minerva
Photography is the Latest Improvement
in Short Hand Writing

For the Minerva
Photography is the Latest Improvement
in Short Hand Writing.
1t has been made a question with some whether
the voice is a natural or artificial medium for the
communication of thought. But be this as is raay :,
none will deny that it is universal but not an
exclusive medium 70 say nothing of the language
fawning and fury, the hand, the pen, among al
people who have other than Evolutionary history,
comes in for large share Of mental mediumship.
In truth, it becomes the sole medium when those
to be addressed are not within earshot; removed
by the lapses of time or the distances Of location.
of the importance of writing a medium for
the communication of thought; of its Importance
as an irstrumentaiity for the accumulation and
transmission of thought, there can be no doubt
when we reflect that but for it man wcre to-day,
but rude, wild savage, with little more than an
animal development; his social condition and re-
lations, laws, and religion, Of the lowest, the very
lowest, order.
Long and dark was the infancy of man. Long
did he roam savage; preying upon the weaker
himself prey to the stronger ere he learned to
use this sine qua non OF progress; and rude in
deed were the first essays Of the hand in its at
tempts to chronicle and accumulate thought and
make it portable and everlasting The historic
paintings of the ancient Mexicans and the dark
hieroglyphics Of Egypt are good specimens Of the
first efforts of thought struggling for more endu
ring life through the mediumship Of the hand. The
history Of man prior to this belongs to the ire
deemable past; except where the open of Inspira
ton" rolls back the turbid waves of oblivion to
give utterance to the voice of God.
At length Cadmus gave to Greece sixteen letters
which, instead of standing as signs Of things, and
of the relations and actions and qualities of things
as all pictorial idealogc, and hierogrlyphic writing
must do-stood as signs of vocal actions, as signs
of the ultimate sounds of words, and by their use
speech, the very language Of the soul, that had
hitherto "died on the ear" or died away in the
distance was caught up, and by the magic of the
pen fixed upon the tablets that knew not the
treacheries of the memory. Now thought in all
which the volubility of the tongue had learned to
express by SOUND; by the use of sixteen signs for
the sixteen sounds which it was discovered entered
into the composition of Greek then spoken,
could be expressed by the pen, papyrus and parch-
ment, were made the valuable repositories of hui
man story and Of human knowledge.
In the shape of these sixteen letters variety Of
form, to express variety Of sound, seems to have
been the object aimed at; and ttle if any, thought
bestowed on simplicity of form to facilitate
tion either in these or in the letters subsequently
added to the Greek alphabet, or indeed in the let
ters of any of the numerous alphabets that have
since sprung into existence. Perhaps should say
that script alphabets Of more modern origin are an
attempt to remedy this evil. But constant fear
of departing too far from the form Of the original
letter has still left the pen so much more to do in
the expression of thought than the tongue, that
where the letter can be used the former is inyari
ably omitted, and every one looks upon writing as
sort of drudgery, from which he would gladly
escape, if possible.
various devices to reduce the labor of it. A most
common one is that of abbreviations-one, two, or
more letters put for the whole of long words and
phrases; of which every department that has much
use fog the pen has its peculiar set besides those
common to all. All feel the oppressiveness of this
labor, and each does what he can to remedy it.
But there was another want closely allied to this
and printing to the same result. Writing, howev-
err cumbrous, answered the purpose of the student.
But it was soon seen that under the force of ex-
element the orator could speak the scribe never
did, never could WRITE and want was felt for some
means to catch the torrent of imprisoned elo-
quence, and fix it on paper; as the slow, toiling
scribe secured the more slowly evolved thoughts of
the student; some Franklin, with his paper kite,
to catch and secure that electricity which was
shaking senates and rocking the foundations of the
most stedast thrones with its terrific peals-Some
means by which the pen of the scribe might keep
pace with the speaker.
Of the efforts made to satisfy..this want we know
nothing except when some Cicero incidentally tells
us that he has something Of the kind. The only
of those early times that has decended
to is that of Tyro dated sixty years before Christ
The next we hear of is that of j. Willis, in 1907.
Since that time about seventy-fve different systems,
which, with their various notifications, probably
exceed one hundred, have been given to the world,
principally by English authors.
We may, at some future day, indulge our own
pen in a description or some further allusion to
some of these, but for the present must be content
to say that in 1887 Isaac Ptman, school teacher
in England published his first edition of system,
Of which the grand central idea was, the briefest
Ineligible representation Of vocal actor, subse-
quently called Photography, or voice writing. All
other systems are more or less idealogc and arbi-
trary, representing ideas and words by suggestive
symbols or specific characters. Photography
all this, and sought only the briefest
possible; intelligent representations of the ultimate
elements of words. 1t went to the root of the
matter, and took hold Of first principles
Itisquite natural to suppose that such system,
designed to meet the wants of language copous
ss tho Enol;sh would ho in ito fret ;ncont;on Ia