Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-08-11
Tor the wheeling IntelIigencer.l
Reporting in the o. s. Senate.


Of the Senate corps Nothing is said Of the re-
porting Of the House, because at that ii me was
not aware of the precise manner in which it was
done. The statements herein contained were
made from personal observation and perfect ia
miliarity with the facts. Conceiving that it
might interest some of your readers to know
just how the debates, which theyperuse with so
much satisfaction, are prepared, | copy this pa
per for your columns, supplying from memory
some omissions and adding an occasional obser-
walton.
The reporting corps for the Senate consists of
three persons-Mr. Sutton, and AIessrs Murphy.
Mr. Sutton is chief, that is, he has the contract
for furnishing the reports; buttbe Mcssrs. MUIR
ply do all the actual reporting. In fact, one of
them-the elder brother, of whom ar. Riyes
has said that ''neither the habitable world nor
the world inhabited can produce his equal
doesfa the greater part. So much reporting,
/ by so limited number, has never before been
done.
When sitting commences, the younger Mr..
Murphy takes the chair and writes during the
morning hour, generally until special order is
taken up-his turn being from half hour to
an hour. The heavy debate now coming on,
Ihe resigns to his brother, who is equal to
any emergency. This gentleman will write
as long as circumstances may require, with
wonderful ease and accuracy. He sits in
his chair, Immediately in front of the v. P.'s
NS9HA1 visa sSiSub HIS OlQG
eyes, and intellectual countenance He recog-
Dizes every speaker in the chamber by his Tone
and with wonderful quickness of ear catches
every remark, however low or indistinct. He
sits there hour after hour, while that indefatiga
BILE pen flies over the smooth sheet and arrests
the winged ords for which nation and the
lworld are waiting. No flood of eloquence over
whelms him. Like the pouring rain which is
frozen as it falls upon the sheeted snow, the
/ torrent of words is transfixed upon the snowy
pages of his notebook by the magic pen of
Phonography. No colloquy is too quick for
him. No interruption can disconcert his prac-
tlced ear or distance his electric fingers. "Mr
President" from half dozen Senators is noted
| And when debate has followed debate, and ma
tons TO adjourn have been made and lost and
debates and motions have followed again, till
| honorable Senators declare themselves quite
overcome with incessant talking, and are send
ling Oft for lunch, and slipping out into the re.
treshment room to partake of sundry decoctlons
to keep the spirits up by sending the spirits
aown-our reporter, who has sat there all the
while, every power concentrated, every faculty
engaged, and who has written as much as they
all have talked, without rest and without re-
| freshmen, writes on without lagging, SEEM
lngy as fresh as when he sat down hours be-
fore.-And thus, from day to day, one of the
/ greatest triumphs of the age is witnessed by the
gaping crowd in the gallery and the cabling
4 body in the chamber, with Indifference The
reporting system is triumph of art, science
and intellect. Few ofthose who sit in the gallery
OF the Senate, and look down upon its deliber-
atoms, and read in the next morning s Globe a
detailed report of which their memory furnishes
but shadow, are aware that the labors of the
reporter, faithfully performing his duty, are
| worth more to the people of the U. S. than
! half dozen such islands as Cuba can or ever will
4 be. They do not consider that this intellectual
| teegraph-the talking pen-by which the
speakers words delineated to the eye with
| rapldity of thought, is the result of combining
the best system of writing in the world, with
fine talents and years of labor and practice
that what they think very clever performance
Is an extraordinary feat no less of mind than of
myers. Nor does it occur to them that the
system OF writing here employed, is destined
soon to become the vehicle of communication.
wherever the English tongue is written.
Meanwhile the younger brother, who took the
morning turn, has gone off to the reporters
room, and is reading or debating, his notes to
two or three Photographic writer's. He reads
them OIL as readily as he would a newspaper,
pausing occasionally to give the less practiced
writer's time to write every word carefully
They, in turn, copy their notes in longhand for
the printers, writing i'll a clear, bold style, on
every other line, for dtstinctness, and to give
room Tor necessary corrections. When the
shorthand writers have each been supplied
with turn" of notes, he dictates to long
hand writer, or in his absence, copies the notes
himself. Thus four or five are engaged at the
same time in transferringth the photographic notes
into English. Having exhausted his own turn
of notes, our Junior reporter now procures a
bundle from his associate occupying the chair.
These he dictates as before; and so during the
rest of the day: one takes the notes in the SEN
ate chamber and sends them to the other, who
dictates them to the shorthand and long-hand
writers. The manuscript, as it is thrown off,
is inspected, corrected and punctuated by Mr..
Sutton, who is always present during debate-
Or after sitting, in case the debate has been
heavy, all hands turn into work, when the man.
uscript is corrected by Mr.. Murphy, who thus
reports all day and works frequently more than
half the night. In either case the manuscript,
as fast as reviewed, is sent to the printers; so
that before the reporters sleep the entire debate
has left their hands and comes out in next morn.
ing's Globe
One of the most remarkable features OF this
reporting, is the ease with which one reporter
reads the notes of another. This result is due
to Photography, the only shorthand legible to
any other than the writer. The strongest argu-
nent in favor of Photography as a universal
shorthand, its perfect legibility not only to the
writer but to others, is established triumphantly
by the reporting practice in Congress Nowhere
else has it ever been as thoroughly tested, and
SO fully vindicated. Notes taken at the rate of
frequently over 200 words per minute, and read
with the ,,.I,<,