The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1884-04-02
J. THE Writing OF oasar VEN.
MANUSCRIPTS of Some of the Leading
American Statesmen.

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 &c
read, and he corrects, interwrites and recor
reefs, SO that his proof takes more time than
the first manuscript.
Sam Randall used to rewrite his naro.
graphs very FREQUENTLY when he was in the
chair. Tom Reed never bothers the mint
ers, but the average Congressman makes
trouble. The worst men are those who
don't know what they want to say till they
see 1t in print, and some of them furnish
terrible copy. l remember a man named
Brooks from New York, who wins here in
1868, ] think His writing was worse than
Greeleys. The copy looked as though il
had been written with rake. We could
not deeipher dozen words in it. and one
OF the boys took it to Brooks to ask its trans
lation. Brooks said ~ shonld think
you could make out the words from the
sense The printer replied: we don't
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 fifth Congress
made only one speech during session. and
that speech was o remark of two lines. He
came to the government printing office III a
carriage with secretary to correct it. and
at the close looked proudly around. and
said: well, guess that will do, won't
H.
What kind of copy do the Presidents
furnish ~ 1sEaa - 5zaa7 pa3 as.es
Much of the manuscript that comes
from the White House is written by secre-
taries. Arthur writes his messages on papt
fourteen by seventeen inches, large foolscap,
like some they use in the State Department
II is very plainly written. I set up some
of Andy Johnson's messages. They were
written plain and clear, but 1 think he die
iaied them. Hayes hand was rather pinch
ed aud cramped, Garfeld's was good, an
as to Grant, he usually wrote most of his
matter on manifold and did not call to cor.
fect it after he had it once prepared.
Attorney General Brewsters manuscript
is rs ruffied as his shirt front and hard to
read. Folger's may have been good once,
out it looks now like the characters ON O
Chinese teo box. George A. Boutwell, wrote
bad hand, but he usually dictated his
articles, and they came in the hand of his
chief clerk. Tom Corwins hand was n per.
feet scrawl. Window wrote very clear
and distinct hand, but Spinner's was exceed.
ingly crooked and hard to read His sigma.
ture was his best work"
= Who are the two worst writer's you have
,yer known ~
Judge La wrence furnishes, think, the
worst copy to-day. Reverdy Johnson was
he most troublesome in the past. law.
renee writes miserable hand. He makes
his figures indistinct and never abridges tn,
same name twice in the same way. He vii
fill sheet and then write all around til,
edges and back again until mind reader
could not deeipher it. Reverdy johnson
was always bad writer, but during Iii
latter days, when he was almost blind, hi,
copy became worse than the figures on Tia,
ObeIisk He would start at one corner d
the paper and write across to the other
covering the whole sheet with indistinc
characters like those made by u fly that has
crawled out of the ink bottle. - Washington
Correspondent Of The Cleveland Leader.