The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-01-12
SHORTHAND WRITING.
Teats Performed by StenOgraphers in Re-
ports of Great Meetings.

Teats Performed by StenOgraphers in Re
ports of Great Meetings.
Chicago News.
"Some years ago, when l was on one of the
Cincinnati papeIs," said Mr.. John Richie. the
stenographer. to a reporter, as he gathered up
his notebooks and stepped out of the county
court last evening, Il performed what ! still re-
gard as my most notable stenographle feat"
What was that"
81 was assigned one night to make a verbatim
report of a lecture by the Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher. The train in which the distinguished
pulpit orator was to arrive CHANGED to be late
that night. The lecture, which was to have begun
at 8 o'clock, did not start until about 10;4o.
| saw at once that | would have to move hastily
to get the report ready before the paper went to
press, as it would be late before the speaker had
finished. How did | manage It'll Well. | pre-
pared a great number of small, narrow strips of
paper and a lot of larger sheets, about the size
OF ordinary copy paper. 1t was 12:45 when
Beeeher spoke his last sentence. Then | got six
men around me to transcrbe while | dictated
from my shorthand notes. | gave ten or fifteen
words to each man at a time, which they wrote
out on the narrow strips. and another man with
a paste-pot and brush arranged the copy in or
der ON the larger sheets. AT l:41 o'clock the lee
turo was in the hands of the compositors. and it
appeared complete in the paper that morning..
Yes, that was about the biggest thing ] have
done.
'.Do YOU remember the investigation of Judge
Blodgett by a congressional committed Per
haps you have not been in the city long enough.
Well. everybody, who has been around Chicago
long remembers it. One day during the pro
ceedings my stenographic notes made 256 pages
of solid t~ype-writting, or about nine columns of
reading matter in one of the blanket-Sheets.
A page of type-writing will average three hun
bred words, solid, or about two hundred and
fifty words of testimony where the paragraphs
are numerous. One that day | was through by
8 p. NJ. l had one assistant part of the time,
and never more than two. But | have Of
ten taken notes alone and single handed sufficient
to make 200 pages of t~ype-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 produced
four hundred papes of lOng-hand copy, trans
cribed from my notes. One page of long hand
will equal about n half page of type-writing. We
have type-writing operators who will turn out
ten pages an hour. In the recent Forsythe- Doc
little case, with one or two assistants, | averaged
from one hundred and fifty to two hundred
pages Of type writer copy each day, and fur
nished rto copies of the proceedings. And |
never 20 ned the whole night turning them
out. eitlet
"Since 1868 | have always managed a corps of
reporters in the presidential conventions. l re-
gard one of these national conventions as. the
most difficult kind of reporting that is done
worse even than congressional reporting. 1t isa
never-ending talk from the moment the conven-
ton opens until it adjourns, and at times the ex-
citement and confusion are stupendous. In the
Tilden convention at st. Louis five of lis
kept along with the proceedings each day, and
made five copies with the, stylus. We also did
the Garfield and Hancock conventions. We re-
corded every word. and they were all written up
and transcribed within five or ten minutes after
the adjournment each day. The. stenographer of
a great political convention needs a large and
varied fund of knowledge pertaining to public
affairs.
"You may say, in fine, that we do greater feats