The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-03-12
IRl TIL ABOUT SHORTHAND
iNSoRvaTtON OFTEN ASKED FOR
CONCERNING SIENO6RAPHv.
Practically All systems Make Use of the
Same Material l. Learning shorthand
Without a Naster->peed and Lesihility
-tor' 'r'" al Newspaper Work.

Editors many inquire, like the fol-
ming;
tan you tell NE wha, is the best system Of
shorthand. Tan it be mastered without u
teacher, and III what time. Some people al
yert.Ns 10 teach II IN three months; can it be
harmed in that time. Is knowledge Of
shorthand he sssi-y 10 obtain situstion a.
q repJrte. al a newsYapers How are STEM
oyraphers pail. By answering these quss-
tons yea will greatly obliSe." etc.
ThFS,' .,av,;Iuil> have been submitted To Q
hieL I'll ,'rssial >tcu"srapher, who returns
th.se answers u them.
The systems most Nhlcly practiced hers are
-Ben." ftman's, Munson's, Isaac Rtman's
and Graha.n's, They are all much alike !.
practically they all make use Of the same ma
terial There are not few p~opt,, however,
who I'm 10 spend most II theis time IN try
ing 10 legoilst.ate that any one Il the above
systems IS vastly superior to all the rest; hut
that sort of talk il IN the main nonspnse and
the student w!ll do well To concern himself
little about Il. Each OF these systems has
turned out flrst-cliSs stenoGraphcrs, AMI there
ae equally good stcnographers who writs
other systems less generally known More
depends OH the man than On tho system.
Generally the pra tlctI stenographcr does
not adhere closely t. any one system, but ap-
proprIi.cs igsestlons from all
LEARNING SHORTHAND WITHOUT A TEACHER.
Shorthand can be learned by the aid Of
textbooks without q teacher, though, "
course, apupil is likely to make better progress
with competent instruction. IL this cannot
be obtained a." student should en,leayor 70
make the acquaintane Of some practical
stencgrapher, who will give him occasional
hints ami SO that he keeps on the RICH, track.
Most of the textbooks abound in too many
reiinemcnts and contractions. whereby few
scratches may lie made to represent whole
sentence, much to the delight Of the novice.
Tho only practical objsction to this sort Of
shorthand Is that such "notcs" are found to
have dozen different meanings when "coli,'
and perhaps none of them the correct one
Shorthand Is a compromise between SPEED
and legibility Tho beginner Is apt to pay
too exclusive attention 10 tho former and
should therefore h. warned not tolUthcr with
too many contractions.
The length Of time il Will take a lad to
teach himself shorthand depends, first, on the
sort of lad he is and second, on the amount
of time he can give to it. To master short.
hanl requires above all things patience and
perseverance,. A lad studying alone will
generally have to stick to il hard for couple
Of years before he can make it pay. A few
may DO able to master il in half the time
People WIN advertise that they can teach
shorthand thoroughly in three months should
not be believed
FOR GENERAL NEWSPAPER WORK.
A knowledge Of shorthand Is not necessary
To obtain situation on newspaper, though,
other things being equal, reporter who can
write shorthand il better equipped for gen.
eral newspaper work than reporter who can
not. As matter Of fact therr are not more
than dozen shorthand writer's regularly .n,.
ployed on all the groat New York daili,s To-
gether In Englania reporter must know
shorthand Most Of this work consists of yer
batim reporting. Here strictly verbatim
work Is not often required except for great
meetings. Tho most succe'ful reporter is he
who can hest present the Interesting points Of
a scene or speech in u readable, attractive
snaps. Tho American public docs nst care
much for nero verbiage.
Expert stenoyraphcrs who can take ta.i-
nony in court often earn handsome sums
But such cxpcrtness is ATTAINED only by years
of practice and great natural aptitude for the
work. Halfway stenographers are abun
dant in New York who are glad to work for
SIS week, often less A stcuographcr who
Is competent 10 attend Do the correspondents
of a railroad official or some man Of large A.
fairs usually gets from go 70 $50 week.
Of course If the stcnographcr is something
more than mere machine man and can do
other things well besides writing shorthand,
SO much the bcttcr aru his chances OF making
good wages
There Is no mystery about shorthand II
does not require any unusual amount OF
brains or any extraordinary powers Of nom
DRY to acquire IT, But it does require 10 DO
stuck TO lsrsistently There is no recreation
in learning it. II only half known II is
treacherous and worse than useless. Nobody
should take II up unless prepared to make
great sacrifices Of time and patience New
York Tribune