The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1885-11-13
S5. WHOLE NO. S53
BOYS GIRLS


How Charles Dickens Learned stenog-
raphy.
The famous novelist started In life as
reporter. He learned shorthand by the old
clumsy methods that were the fashion In
ais time 1t was as serious business as
learning Greek and committing to memory
The whole Of the Had. But Dickens worked
ut it and stuck to it through thick and thin,
ill finally he mastered it. In later years hs
OCEAN, very wealthy, AMI the most re-
aowned story writer of his time. But he never
would havedons so if he had not worked just
Is harI at writing as he did at learning
ihorthand. Have some Of our boys and
girls though they would like to become
'tenographersl Here is how Charles Dickens
earned it. He says:
bought an approved schem, OF the noble
art and mystery Of steaography (which cost
me ten -and-six-psncs), and plunged into
sea Of perpexity that brought me in few
weeks to the confines of distraction.
The changes that were rung upon dots,
which in ons position meant one thing, and
In another position something else; the won-
derful vagaries that were played by circles;
the unaccou1tabl, consequences that re-
suited from .larks like fiy's legs; the tre-
mendous effect from a curve in the wrong
place, not only troubled my waking hours,
but reappearsd before me in my sleep
When l had CROPPED my way blindly
through these difficulties and had mastered
the alphabet" which was an Egyptian
temple in itself, then there appeared pro-
cession Of new horrors callei rbitrary
chara cters"-the most despotic characters
have ever known-which insisted, for in
stance, that the thing like the beginning OF
a cobweb meant expectation" and that a
pen-and-ink sky-rocket meant ''disadvan-
tageous."
When had fixed these wretches in my
mind, found that they had driven every
forgot them. Then, while | was picking
them up, dropped the other fragments of
the system In short, it was almost heart
breaking
He was very young at this time to be so
persevering He was a mere boy reporter
when at last b, got the thing learned. He
continues:
went into thu gallery of the house of
commons as parliamentary reporter when
! was a boy not Is, and / left it-I can
hardly believe the inexorable truth-nigh
thirty years ago; ani l have pursued the
calling of reporter under circumstances
Of which many OF my brethren here, and
my brethrens successors, can form no ade-
quate conception.
have often transcribed for the printer
from my shorthand notes important public
speeches in which the strictest accuracy
was required, AM a mistake in which would
have beeI to a young man severely COM
promising, writing on the palm OF my hand
by ths light OF a dark lantern, in post
chaise and four, galloping through a wild
country through the dead of the night at
the then surprising rate of fifteen miles an
hour.
The very last time l was at Exeter 1
strolled into the castle yard there to identify,
for the amusement Of friend, the spot on
which took an election speech Of my
noble friend, Lord Russell 1t was in the
midst of lively fight kept up by all the vaga-
bonds in the vicinity, and under such pelting
rain that remember two good-natured COZ
leagues, who chancsd to be at leisure, held
apocket handkerchief over my notebook,
after the manner Of a state canopy in an
ecclesiastical proce
have worn my knses by writing on them
on the old back row of the house of COM
mons, and have worn my feet by standing
to write in a preposterous pom in the old
house Of lords. where we used to be huddlei
like SO many sheep.