Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-08-10
miscellaneous.
DIFFICULTIES UNDER. WHICH SrESo-
GRAPHERs ARE OBLIGED TO LABOR

A great deal is said about newspaper
inaccuracy, and most of the complaints
are unfOunded, or are only based on frln-
ing errors, writesa New York correspond
ent. II is an affectation in many public
men, and a silly one, to discredit whole
sale the reports of their utferances- On
the other hand. the pretensiOns TO infalii-
bilfy by short hand writers are not borne
out by the facts. No stenographer alive
can take down verbatim the utterance OF .
rapid speaker. Take Beecher tor con-
spicu0us test. It is an object to him to
have the fullest possible reports made OF
his sermons, for the purpose Of issuing
the best Of them in pamphlets and books
He has during his long pulpit career
tried numerous experts and there Is no.
ton that Ellingwood, who has tor years
been his accredited reporter, is master
of the job. So far is it from
being so that two other rapid men are
EMPLOYED to make each separate
report, and from the work of the three
a copy is written out. But the fallibility
of this system is that all are likely to
fail simultaneously in the extremely rapid
passages. Like impu' sive speakers gen.
erally, Beecher speaks so slowly at times
that his words can all be taken down in
long hand, But for the next ten minutes
he will rattle away at rate that defies
stenographv. The other Sunday he was
AZ minutes delivering his sermon. One
of the most competent shorthand report
ers in the city took every word OF it that
he could get. and the total was about
5000 words. And that was not absolute
ly accurate. many sentences having to be
completed by guess work. Probably the
sermon entire would have made nearly
2OO0 words more. Beecher is so sensible
man that he recognizes the difficulties
of reporting, and never grumbles at any
thing which adequately reproduces his
sermons and speeches.
'.As rule" he says, 1.-THE reporters
make good hiatus in their notes SO well
that no violence is done to the sentiment.
Occasionally some blunderer has made
me ridiculous, but much Oftener.l imagine,
my language is improved by the misrep-
resentalion. ! do not assert positively on
this point for the reason that am unable,
when see sermon of mine in print, to
tell how nearly accurate it is. OfcOurse
can detect any departure from important
meanings, but can't recall my words to
any great extent"
Rev. Z. Heber Newton, the Episcopal
lian divine who is to be tried on charge
of heresy, asserted that some of the re-
port of the sermons that got him into
trouble were very unjust, but when his
own revision of them appeard in book
form the corrections were too trifing to
make any fuss about. The reporters are
now laughing at him. On delivering an
address before the Medico Legal Society
the other night. he was careful to furnish
them with printed slips. But il they used
them in blind confidence, they would have
published him AS saying: There is
need of no sensational touches to draw in
deep enough chair screws the darkness of
deviltry that insanity may inspire" They
took the audacious liberty, however, of
making chair screws read ''Chiaro OBJ
scuro."