Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1879-04-15

writing have failed. With this view
some bad systems have been slightly
improved. and some good ones spoiled
by tinkering. Expert shorthand writ
ing, however, depends more upon thu
method of writing it and the attention
and judgment of the writer than upon
the system. In other words. good re-
porter would work about as well with
one system as with another, and very
rapid stenographers sometimes use very
clumsy systems.
Besides the stenegraphic inventions
that have been published there are pro.
baby hundreds of others in actual use
that have never been recorded in books.
For instance, the leading official repor-
ter of the House of Representatives in
Washington writes a style that nobody
but himself can read. Many years age
an extraordinary system was invented
and used by an Irish reporter in Dublin.
He was paid handsome salary for re-
porting the May meetings. sort OF
yearly convention of Protestant clergy
men in ireland. He claimed-and his
notes seemed to proveit, for they locked
like the continued repetition of one char
acter-to be able to write, or rather out
line, any word in the English language
with single half.circle. The mystery
probably lay to some extent in the Pc
culiar ruling of his note book, which
had five lines for the vOwsls, as in
Meats system, with the addition of
shorter lines of different shades between
and probably other peculiarities known
to himself only. He followed the most
voluble orators with ease, and read
his notes fiuently. He was q good
natured fellow. and often came to the
rescue of young newspaper reporters in
their hopeless struggles with rapid speak
ers. He lived and died an cid bache-
lor, and his invention died with him.
In stenography Americans take the
lead. The Congressional reporters at
Washington are the best who write the
English Language. In the editing of notes
some of them May possibly fall a trifle
behind the gallery men" of London,
but in turning out heavy and difficult
work with absolute accuracy they are su.
perier to the Londoners. Some of them
have held their positions for over twen-
ty years. Many exciting scenes in Con-
gress have been photographed. as it
where by these men. 1t is interesting
to watch one of them at work.
With his arm extended, and only
his fingers resting on the paper, he
actually writes from the shoulder. In
this way he looks like the leader of an
orchestra, and appears to conduct the
whole proceedings with thres-pointed
pen for baton. Cool in the heat of de-
bate, he seems hardly ever to look at
the paper before him. His eye wanders
about the Senate chamber, closely
ynfn MS To-
while he snatches the words as fast as
they flow from the lips Of the speaker,
occasionally stopping to pick up an ul-
answered interruption and always catch
ing up again with ease. Constantly
travelling with the current of debate, he
cares nothing for storms or rapids, for
he knows that he can skilfully guide his
little vessel through them all and lose
nothing. But let it not for one moment
be imagined that anybody who learns
shorthand can do this. Expert steno-
graphers have always been, and proba-
bly, always will be extremely rare.
The verbatim reports of the Beecher
trial seem to have created sort of pho.
nographic fever among the young men
of this country, who have caught the
impression that they have only to pass
through the tangled jungle of stenogra-
ply to reach the road to fortune. Here
they are mistaken. The novelty of the
thing has worn away, and to certain
extent it is becoming d-fashioned. On
the press there is no demand for it.
journalism of the present day has gone
beyond the old fields where stenopraphy
was mine from which materials for the
newspaper column were dug out. That
mine is worked NO longer. Constantly
treated to spicy paragraphs, rich stories,
and choice articles of every description,
served up with the freshest news, peo-
pie have become epicures in their daily
reading, and would now be sure to pass
by unnoticed the old-fashioned solid CO.
lumns of dry speeches. Besides, at the
present time we really have no great
orators whose speeches, if reported,
could compete for a moment in the
struggle for space with the lively arti-
cles of our daily papers. Modern elo-
quence ia thrown aside to make room for
more interesting or more valuable mat
ter.
Possibly in the future, wonderful ora
tors may spring up whose words will be
priced by the public and the press, but
before that time arrives Mr.. Edison or
somebody else may introduce a new
kind of phonograph, by.means of which
we can send boys to meetings for speech
es, just as we send them now to the
| Post Office for q letters.-N Y. San.