New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-08-31


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| The Photographic Wonders OF Congress.
There are two systems of short hand
| writing in reporting Congress-, says the
washington correspondent Of the Chicago
pitch OF completeness rs 70 merit especial
| notice.
The system ef short hand reporting in
| the Senate has become by long y ars' train
; ing entirely uniform, so that each reporter
can read the others note with perfect ease.
This is not true of probably any other band
OF shorthand writer's in the country. Every
shorthand writer may be taught the. same
general system of writing, but the practice
| Of his profession introduces so many per-
sonal peculiarities of the writer's sbbrevia-
tions, known only TO himself, that it is
generally accepted fact that the average
| shorthand writer can not accurately
read the writing Of any of his aseo
ciates. The Senate system has for y. ars
! constantly weeded out anything of personal
peculiarly, and has maintained q strict ad-
terence to the Pittman system, in such ac
| curacy OF detail that the copy Of the one is
always open print to any Of the 0thets. The
Senate has for . long time been reported by
| three Murphy brothers aud one assistant.
Last December one of the Murphys died.
and all last winter the Senate was reported
| by the three men remaining. The reason of
this vas that it is impossible undera short
time to fill the vacancy. A man has to be
trained for the position. The chief, D. +.
Murphy, has an excellent writer in training,
and hopes within two years or more. to
make him worthy. member of the famous
quarter. In general, the elder Murphy takes
| the greater part of the notep, and in turn
gives his notes to some of his associates to
| read cut more slowly in the retiring rom
tn inf nd r<.F oh No
ultimately have to do all the transcribing.
In the House there are five reporters, who
receive = salary Of $1,000 a year for their
services. They each have a separate sys-
TEN Of writing, and GOULD no more read one
another's ROtes than they could translate
sauscrit They work independently of one
another, "goes" of twenty minutes each,.
ate the elder Murphy is paid So, 900 ye ar
in bulk for reporting the Senate, and he
regulates the salaries of those under him.
The pay is very good, notwithstanding the
fact that the cost of transcribiDg has to
come out Of the general fund paid them, as
they are free to work for whom. they please
during the vacations Of Congress. Very
few Of them, however, do much. The ab-
sence of the wear and tear of exciting de-
bate leaves them in such flabby condition
that they do little but stagnate during
vacations. -.
There'is the most intense rivalry between
the stats Of the Senate and the House; and
each is convinced that his side of the Capitol
is the hardest to Care for. The Sena'e re-
porters claim that the conversational tone
employed in the Senate is the hardest to
follow, while the House reporters claim that
the noise and scenes. Of confusion over there
go cOmplicate matters that none but the
highest order Of repol torjal talent could
meet with any success: The Senate men
retort by pointing to the pages of the
record, where it is true they average more
matter than the House men, willie they
charge that the House upon nprOarious &C.
casions is mo- ever much more than half re-
ported. This would not seem at all wonder
tut to anyone at all cOnversant with the sit
uation. In the first place, the hall Of Repre-
sentatives possesses very bad acoustic prop
critics.. Then there must be taken into con-
elderatiOn the fact that q reporter must bear
in mind the names and faces of over 300
men. Of which probably One-half' have no
distinguishing feature of originality. When
the confusion reaches it's highest, some
err: at the top Of their voice, and dozen or
SO talking all at once, one can realize some
Of the difficulties that surround the con
gressi0nal reporter charged with the duty
of furnishing verbatim report.
In spite OF the jealousies between the two
bodies, it is quite generally conceded that
D. F. Murphy, of the Senate, is the best
not IN the whole world. This man has re.
ported at the rate of 300 words minute,
and made copy that could then accurately
be read by any of his brothers. This would
seem like the greatest possible feat of re-
pOrtOrial skill, but there is another feat told
of the elder Murphy, that has never been
equaled. The bare repetition of this story
in private circlee, by the writer, has earned
him q character for r0mancipg entirely un-
deserved, for it is borne out by the state
ment Of officials of high position who Wit
messed the feat, and who ever knew officials |
of high D0sition to lie! ANY one can see |
after this how absurd and unjust it would |
be to doubt the story.
Some time ago certain Indian chief |
came on here with pack of red beggars
at his back to smoke pipe with the great |
the frontier people near his reservation. As |
the STORY goee, the chief is represented as q
Choctaw. The Choctaw language is fully /
as complicated in it's wonderful range OF
gutterals as any OF the 6arbarous frontier
dialects. The noble Cboctaw chief made !
several speeches in the couRcil at Washing
ton. The elder Murphy was present at one
Of these councils with friend. This friend
had often discussed with Murphy the beauty
IF photography, the art OF transmitting
sounds into tranelatable shape upon paper
Murphy had always insisted. that highly
trained photographer should be able to re-
port any language, whether he understood
{ or. not, from the mere following of the
,cale of its vocalization. The friend se-
'iously doubted this, and at the council
hslenged ne MURPHY to report the he chGctaT
,peech. The Choctaw language, when
iuently expressed, 10 combination of l.
Ounds represented by chicken eating
,orn of from board. and the moaning and
,rowling of sick terrier. Murphy was
little dashed at the proposed experiment,
,ut he showed no hesitation. He took out
lis note book and dashed after the crazy
um bling from the Choctaw's bowels. After
he confusion of the first moment Murphy
ucceeded admirably in catching every in
lection of the Indian voice, and when. Mur
hy read his notes TO an interpreter, so |
learly were they taken that the interpreter
vas able to easily translate them go that
he report thus made corresp0nded with the
fficial Interpretation. +,
There are sad cynical people who believe
b nothing that never occurred before who
ay that Murphy had q combination with !
be interpreter to sell his friend, but this
tory is rejected with scorn by the trusting
eople, who have a confidence in the sub
me advancement Of the noble art Of phon-
graphy.
Cuba.
Modesto Oiaz, the gallant Cuban leader,
making things lively for the Spanish |
roops in the eastern department. of tho
land. He captured several large estates
ecently in the Aeighborhood Of Guanta-
anna. They were guarded by small parties
.trOops, but these were easily brushed out
f his path by Diaz. and in some instances |