Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-01-14
FEATS In SHORTHAND.
A Reporters Endurance Tested.
Rapidity With Which Stenographers
Handle Trials and the Proceedings
Of Great Political Conventions.

"Some years ago, when was on one
of the Cincinnati papers," said Mr..
John Richie. the stonographer, to a
gathered up bis notebooks and stepped
out OF the county court, II performed
what still regard us my most notable
steuographic Att
What was IN t?n
II was assignee pne night to make n
verbatim report lecture by the
kew. Henry WAY Beecher. The
train in which the \ >tinguished pull
pit orator was to arrN CHANGED 10 he
late that night, The sctue, which
was to have begun ut 81 lock, did not
start until about l0:I5. aw at once
that l would have TO move hastily To
get the report ready before the paper
went to press, as IL would be late be-
for the speaker had finished. How
did | manage ii? Well, prepared
n great number of small, mar
row strips of paper, and
a lot of larger sheets,
about the size of ordinary copy paper.
Ii was l2i5 when Beecher spoke his
last sentence. Then j got six men
around me to transcrihe while l die
tated from my shorthand not.s.
gave ten or fifteen words To man at
u time, which they wrote out ON the
narrow strips. and another man with
paste-pot and brush arranged the copy
in order on the larger sheets. Al LAO
o'clock the lecture WAS in the hands OF
the compostors, and 1t appeared
complete in the paper that morning.
Yes, that was about the biggest thing
II have done.
I'm -Altt Urn.
ton of Judge Blodgett by congress-
ional committee? Perhaps you have
not been in the city long enough.
Well, every body who has been around
Chicago long remember 1t. One day
during the proceedings my steno-
graphic notes made 256 pages OF solid
type writing. or about nine column of
reading matter in one OF the blanket
sheets. A page of type-writing viii
average 800 words, solid, or about 30
words of testimony where the para
graphs are numerous. On that day
was through by p. III. | had
one assistant part Of the time, and
never more than two. But 1 have
often taken notes alone and sihgle-
handed sufficient to make : o pages of
type-writing, and would always be
through early in the evening. since
The Typewriter has been introduced
we can make five copies about as easy
as one by using carbon paper. Day
after day / have produc d 400 pages of
| long-hand copy transcribed from my
notes. One page of long-hand viii
eluai about Il huli-page OF
type-writing. We have type
writing operators who will turn out
ten pages an hour. In the recent For
| th-Doolittle case, with one or two
assistants, ] averaged from $50 To 200
pages of type-writing copy each day,
and furnished three copies of the pro-
ceedings. And ! never consumed the
whole night turning them out, either.
"Since 1868 have always managed a
corps OF reporters in the presidential
! conventions. / regard one of these
/ national conventions ~ the most diff
ficult kind Of reporting that is done
! worse even than congressional re-
porting. 1t is never ending talk
! from the moment the convention
opens until IL adjourns, and at times,
the excitement and confusion are stu
pendous. In the rilden convention at
ST. Louis, five of us kept along with
the proceedings each day, and made
five copies with the styles. We also
did the Garfield and Hancock conyen-
tons. We recorded every word and
were all written up and transcribed
within five or ten minutes after the
adjournment each day. The stenogra-
pher of great political convention
needs large and varied fund of
knowledge pertaining to public affairs.
"You say in fine, that we do greater
feats in reporting here in Chicago
than can be shown in any other place
in the country"
"Why?"
"Because the business requires IT,
In the courts we often have testimony
in foreign lingo among witnesses.
Sailors, board OF trade men, and
women are the hardest TO report YER
batim--they are the greatest takers.
An Eastern paper speaks of a noted
stenographic feat in the case Of a re-
porter who averaged l07 pages Of type
writer copy a day during trial which
lasted twenty-iour days. furnishing
three copies of the report each day.
We would consider that n very easy
snap here. In fact, we would pro-
nounce man n 'chump' who could
not do better.p