Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-11-16

eDSIer then, 90 tney, Mr.. Murphy ~
YES" be answered, musingly, II re-
member him very well. A very slow,
careful speaker, easy to report because Of
the extreme moderation with which he
spoke. Yes, l reported Webster and Clay
and Cass, and later on the great men who
took their places-Sumner and Seward
n all the others"
"DO you join in the often expressed
opinion that greatness has departed from
the halls of Congress, and that the states
man of to-day is a pigmy as compared
with that of a quarter of a century agO?'
"NO; on the contrary, l think that the
Congress of the United States, take the
members as a class. averages up better
now than it did in earlier DAYS. There are
not perhaps just now any Veyy greatminds
which tower up beyond all the rest, as
seemed to be the case with Webster and
a few others then and since, but take the
average statesman then and now, and 1
think that he of to-day bears comparison
very WE'LL"
Chow long has Congress been steno-
graphically repOItedf'
E'The Senate was first so reported in
1913. There were one or two attempts
earlier, but they were unsatisfactory and
soon abandoned. The present system
began in 1913 in the Senate, and about
1880 in the House, and has been continued
since"
''Will the present much criticised sys-
TEN, which permits members to revise
their speeches before publication, be
remedied, do you tbink?'
Doubtful, | think. There has always
been talk about it, but only talk. There
were efforts twenty-five years ago, per-
haps more, to have that feature elinli-
mated, and to have the debates printed
exactly as they occurred. l remember
that Hon. jefferson Davis was one OF the
most vigorous in d~enOuncing the system
permitting revision, and in urging that
the debates be printed exactly as they
occurred. And yet Davis was one Of the
fastest speakers of the Senate at that
time, and it would seem that if anybody
needed to revise his remarks, or the steno-
graphic report of them, it would be be-"
"Did he often do SOP"
mo. He scarcely ever looked at his
speeches in manuscript"
care the ablest men the ones most like
ly to revise and polish up their speeches p
mo, rather the reverse. As a rule the
men who stand cut most prominently in
the history Of the Senate were of such
habits of speech that there was little Occa-
sion for them to revise the reports of their
speeches. Webster, l said, was a slow
speaker and a careful me-. Seward
usually wrote his speeches beforehand
and committed them to memory, so that
often he did not require them to be report
ed at all, turning them over in manu-
script. This was not always the case,
however. l rembember on Il occasion
he asked me to come and take breakfast
with him and take q speech that he was
going to deliver On some important sub
ject. l did so, but when hesgot ready to
speak he said he desired to have his
speech taken again, as he would make
some changes from the original one. So
| ~ WOO ranOrfo6 nnd fhn mnnuCOpint firm
ished him, and when it was Returned l
found that it was neither the first nor the
second speech entlre; but a third one, en-
bodying portions Of both the others.
Seward was pretty careful about his sem
fences, and would often change a word
here or there to polish them up, as it
were. Sumner was rather a slow speaker,
and did not make many changes in his
speeches. Mr.. Chase, of Ohio, was
his speeches. Lincoln Well, L
never reported him, but know that he
was a very slow speaker. Douglass
was the opposite, a very rapid speaker.
Evarts? Well, everybody knows about
his long sentences. They are terrible. l
remember one in his speech on the i'm
parchment of johnson which made, l
think, 80 odd lines in the record. ] never
knew but II man like him, and that was
Bell, of Tennessee. No, there are not
many men now in the Senate who are
especially difficult to report. Mr.. Ed
munds is n of the fastest takers. You
would not think so to listen to
him. He speaks in a rather low
tone, a sort OF conversation
al manner, and rushes out his sentences
in a hurry. Ingalls, is a pretty fast
talker, but his enunciation is so distinct
and clear that it is a pleasure to report
him. Mr.. Beck is a very fast talker, and
will keep it up for hours, too. Logan is
about an average. Blaine? Well he is not
the most agreeable man in the world to
report. Fast at times, and sometimes
not so fast-a sort OF jerky way that is not
comfortable to the stenographer."
Mr.. Murphy, who has had this remark
able career as official reporter Of the Sem
ate for 35 years, eyer since the system Of
full reports was adopted, is a quiet, gen.
tlemanly appearing man of perhaps 50,
whose face u figure show the years of
hard, careful toll that he has bestowed
upOn his life work. He is one Of the hard
est working men in official life in Wash
ington, and, it may be remarked, draws
more money for his work than does any
officer of the government except the Pres
ident. He gets $4,000 per year for re-
porting the Senate. He must out of this
pay all his assistance; but it is estimated
that he nets about one-half the
sum paid for the services, perhaps
more. He lives in an elegant brown stone
front on c street, not far from the capitol,
keeps a handsome team, and enjoys life as
best he may when there is no session to
take his attention. When the Senate is in
session his hours are very long and labo-
rious. He, with one assistant, Mr.. Shuey,
reports all the debates of the Senate after
the morning hour has expired, turning
over their notes to assistants who trans
cribe them. This of itself is quite a re-
markable matter, as very few ~stenograph-
ers are able to read the writing of
others, though they write the same
system. Mr.. Murphy's brother, Mr.
Z. V. Murphy, who has been with
him ten years or more, reads mis- notes
readily, and in many cases reads them to
other stenographers, who, taking them in
shorthand, write them out for the printers.
All this, however, MIR. Murphy himself
revises after it is written out in long
hand, and, as the reports of the Senate
often make as much as sixteen pages of
the Record, it is easy to see that the task
is a tremendous one. To read, ever in