Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1876-09-28
Short Hand.
RUTLAND, Sept. 25. 1876.

| NutGOT IIuC6CkTtG H6FUGU
Your editorial in the HERALD of this
date recalls to my mind some investiga.
tons I made few pears ago into the
history and practical value of steno-
graphic writing, and in which | came to
a conclusion Numerically opposed to
your declaration that it is ''only within
the last twenty five or thirty years that
sign writing has been reduced to prac-
tical basis and been made wholly useful. I"
A thousand years before the Christian
Era, the Psalmist refers to the ability of
Jewish scribes to rev ords as fast as
the lips could utter them, in his declara-
ton: "My tongue is the pen of a ready
writer" Plutarch describes the Greek
signs and Roman notes as consisting of
little marks, so brief and expressive that
certain writers were able to take down
the orations of Cicero as delivered in the
Roman Senate, and the fame of the
freedman Tyro, arose almost wholly
from his skill as verbatim reporter of
the great orations of his day. Seneca
improved the system of Tyro, and intro
fuced it into the public schools as use
full branch of liberal education. Again,
we find in one of the epigrans of Mar
tial, written nearly two thousand years
ago, this couplet i ,5.1l ..--..-1l t.......
Though fast q speakers words may how
The tongue is for che hand too Slow r.. :.
This epigram is also confirmed by
some lines of the poet Ansonius, in
which he praises an expert notary of the
time of the Emperor Gratian - j. s... rs
30, wondrous arti though from nay lips f..
The words like pattaring hailst0nes fall,
Thine. ear hath caught them every one, 9
Thy nimble pen portrayed them all.
MY words no sooner, are pronounced
Than on thy tablets. they appear So Ass-
Myimind G9nsot keep "a utal pace 80,
Perhaps this poetry may not be of q
high order, and the translation may not
do justice 10 it, but it points unmistaka-
bly, to the fact that many centuries be-
fore Pitman, Graham, or even Phinehas
Bailey had lived, sign writing had been
reduced TO a practical basis and made
wholly useful, and doubt lot that it
would be 8 safe venture to bet upon the
systeme OF the old Hebrews, Greeks and
Romans as being at least as practical
and philosophical as the boosted phQlet-
ic nonsense used 81 rhe present day to
destroy correct oFthograpby of our
language. J. q. b.
We fear ".J, C. B failed to read our
article carefully. for we did not claim
that sign-writing, or stenographing, was
of anything like recent origin. In fact we
disavowed it. Our article intended to
relate to the origin of phonetic writing.
The distinction between the general
term Stenography for al kinds Of short
hand writing, and the term Phonogra
ply for specific kind of Shorthand
writing, must not be lost sight of. Per
haps we cannot better explain ourselves
than to quote Webster
ftenoaraply, (close writing Using
abbrevlations or characters for whole
words.
Ph0n0graphy, (souLd wriIing)- "A rep
resentatI0n of sounds, each by its dis
tinctive characters.
When we said it was "only within
the last 90 or 30 years, etc., we should
have said phonetic writing instead of
''sign-writing." Certainly phonetic writ
ing revolutionized stenography, for how
ever we may vaunt of the celebrity of the
old nations in that respect, their systems
could by no means be compared with
the strides made in the art in later cen
turtles. -. C. b." omIts to give the bal
ance Of the, at best, fragmentary history
of the pre servation of CicerO's works,
because we are told that il required, to
record the oratiOns, four or five ready
writers who afterward compared their
check-notes with each others, and 10
tnat way secured q report. Whether 1t
was then a verbatim report or was re
vised by the author, We know not. In
these days, however, no reporter Of eE.
perience aud standing in the profession
needs a check note reporter ct his side
in order to correctly secure the utter
ances of the most voluble of speakers
The highly eulogistic lines quoted by
81. G. B." may possibly have been
drawn from a heated Imagination, and
the poet have fallen into poetieal
license, and spread himself" to see
what he could do. Yet, seriously, how
ever true they may be, and however ex.
pert may have been tbs old writers,
our original assertion is not all shaken
that Phinehas Bailey, was the originator
of phonetic shorthand aoriting. ED.
Herald Fl. I'll. ...~..:-.--.s