The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1884-04-04
A PROOF-READER' REVELA-
TVONS

One of the chief proof-readers of the gov
ernment a man who has looked over the copy
of the great men of the past decade and more,
gives me the following interesting facts about
their handwriting and the publication of their
speeches: "Most congressman" said he,
are very particular as to how their speeches
are printed in the Congressional Record.
They must have proof sent them, and they
often change words and ideas, SO that the
matter which appears in the Record is entirely
different from the words they uttered on the
floors of Congress. Most of the long speeches,
however, are written out before they are de-
liYered, and this copy is handed over forpub-
LEGATION. Some men like Bayard and Ed
munds make their speeches off hand and don't
trouble themselves about them after they have
been once delivered l don't think Conkling
ever wrote speech At least we did not get
it in his handwriting. Senator Blaine pre-
pared some of his speeches very carefully,
and they were well written. Once I remem-
Der he brought the manuscript to the Office
and finding that the foreman was not present
he cut it into takes himself and distributed it
among the printers On the foreman COM
ing in he said know what am about
am an old printer myself
Senator Voorhees, writes speeches on very
large sheets of printing paper, all of the same
size and neatly cut. He has used the same
paper ever since he came to Congress, and
his writing is not bad. Senator Call also
uses printing paper, but his hand is terrible
to read. He writes two or three letters of a
word and ends in a scrawl SO that half of his
words look alike, and none of them are legible.
Senator Beck gives the printers a good deal
of trouble, but he is a favorite because his
matter is largely made up of statistics and is
consequently fat
"Senator Logan writes decent hand, but
it is said his wife has good deal to do with
his speeches. She often came in times past
to look over the proof. She knew as we'll as
he what good speech should be, and would
correct to suit herself.
''Senator Sherman almost always dictated
his speeches to his private secretary, but his
copy was not good, 1t was interlined and re-
interlined. Sherman is very particular about
his expression, and not about the comfort of
the printer. Senator Anthony furnishes a
much better copy, and has his pages always
of the same size.
Senator Hawley trusts a good deal to the
printer. He said once; The printer is bound
to have his own way about the punctuation,
and there is no use in fighting against him. )
e =
very painstaking with his speeches before
they go to print. When he has a speech to
be published he brings a secretary to the
government printing Office, and the two stay
there correcting and re-correcting till they
get the speech to suit him.
When Senator Jones of Nevada, delivered
his big silver speech" the proof-reader
laughed as he spoke, she brought his secre-
tary to the Office with him. 1t was long
speech and it took think, $50 pages of the
Congressional Record. During the reading
the secretary ventured to advise some change,
when Jones turned to him and said Who
the ID is making this speech, you or me-?
Jones, they say, turned his whole salary over
to his private secretary. He did not do it to
have him write his speeches, know
Sam Cox prepares poorer copy than any
other congressman. He writes on pieces of
paper torn from envelopes, newspaper wrap
pers and scraps of all shapes and sizes He
pins these scraps together and thus sends them
in to the printer. His hand is hard to read,
and he corrects interwrites and re-corrects,
so that his proof takes more time than the first
manuscript.
as Sam Randall used to write his paragraphs
very frequently when he was in the chair
Tom Reed never bothers the printers, but the
average congressman makes trouble. The
worst men are those who don't know what
they want to say till they see it in print, and
some of them furnish terrible copy re-
member man named Brooks from New
York, who was here in 1868, / think His
writing was worse than Greeley's. The copy
looked as though it had been written with
rake. We couldn't decipher dozen words IN
it, and one of the boys took it to Brooks to
ask its translation. Brooks said, should