The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1884-04-10
REVELATIONS OLA PROOF.READER.
The Copy Furnished by Senators, Repre-
suntatives. and Presidents.

Governments, man who mas lOokeu
over the copy of the great men of the
past decade and more, gives me the fol-
lowing 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 Con-
gresstoadl 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 delivered, and this copy
is handed over for publication. Some
men, like Bayard and Edmunds, make
their speeches off-hand and don't trouble
themselves about them after they are
once delivered. I don't think Conkling
ever wrote speech. At least we did
not get it in his handwriting. Senator
Blaine prepared some of his speeches
very carefully, and they were we'll
| written. Once, L remember, he brought
the manuscript to the Office, and, find
ing that the foreman was not present,
he cut it into takes himself and distrib-
uted it among the printers. On the
foreman coming in he said: Il know
what l am about; am an old printer
myself
Senator Voorhees writes his 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 wiring is
not bad. Senator Call also uses print
ing paper, bat his hand is terrible to
read. He writes two or three letters of
a word and ends in 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 favorite because his matter is
largely made up of statistics and is con-
sequently 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
proofs. She knew as well as he what
good speech should be, and would cor
rect to suit herself.
Senator Sherman almost always die
tated his speeches to his private secre-
tary, but his copy was not good. 1t
was interlined and reinterlined. Sher-
man is very particular about his express
sion, and not about the comfort of the
printer. Senator Anthony furnishes
much better copy, and has his pages
always of the same size.
Senator Hawley trusts 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. Senator
Lamar is of different make. He is
very painstaking with his speeches be-
| fore they go to print. When he has q
speech to be published he brings sec
rotary to the Government Printing OF.
| flee, and the two stay there correcting
and recorrecting till they get the speech
to suit him.
when Senator Jones, of Nevada, de-
livered his big silver speech, the proof
reader laughed as he spoke, "he
brought his secretary to the Office with
him. 1t was a long speech and it took,
/ think, $50 pages of the COngresSiOTl-
al Record. During the reading the sec
rotary ventured TO advise some change,
when Jones turned to him and said:
who in the d i is making this speech;
you or me?' Jones, they say, turned
his whole salary over to his private Sec
rotary. He did not do it to have him
write his speeches, l know"
How about the members of the
| House,"
sam Cox prepares poorer copy than
any other Congressman. He writes on
pieces of paper torn from envelopes,
newspaper wrappers 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 recorrects,
so that his proof takes more time than
the first manuscript.
@Sam Randall used to rewrite 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. 1 remember 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 o. rake.
| we COuiuu utCipucI - uOZcu WOIhS III
it, and one of the boys took it to Brooks
to ask its translation. Brooks said, L
should think you could make it out by
the sense The printer replied: We
doat see darned bit of sense In it
"Some of those Congressman are
very particular. Some write applause
so often that they might as well buy
rubber stamps with the word marked
ON them to save time. One member of
the Forty-ffth Congress made only one
speech during a session, and that speech
was remark of two lines. He came
10 the Government Printing Office in u
carriage with secretary to correct it,
and at the close looked proudly around
and said: well, 1 guess that will do,
won't it?"
"What kind of copy do the Presi-
dents furnish ?"
Much Of the manuscripts that comes
from the White House is written by
secretaries. Arthur writes his messages
on paper fourteen by seventeen inches,
large foolscap, like some they use in
the State Department. 1t is very
plainly written. 1 set up some of Andy