The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-08-01
REPORTING FORTY YE.ARSAGO
How Newspaper Work Was Done in the
Early Days Of Telegraphy.
Interesting "reminiscences of an 0ld-Time
StenOgrapher, Who Reported Speech by
D.~nlel Webster, in Drenching Rain.

II suppose am the oldest stenographer in
this part of the country said J. J. Henderson,
agent in this city of the Adams Express Com
pany. when say stenographer mean it. for
photography, the system of shorthand writing
now current, had hardly been introduced when
I learned stenography. OF course, it has been
many years since practiced it. was living at
Buffalo, and began learning it in 164S, being
taught by friend who advised me to learn it,
Mr.. Hincks, who, at one time, was q reporter
on the London Times. He afterwards went
TO Washington and was on the Congress
sional Globe that mausoleum Of national
speech-makers. In 1850 I got an engagement
20 report in the Canadian Parliament. That
was in the stirring times of Mackenzie and
Papineau. came back to Buffalo the same
year. then got place as a reporter on the
Buffalo Courier at the munifcent salary Of So a
week Little or no attention was paid to local
matters In the papers then. and my services
not being in demand even at So week, / went
into an Office to study law. About the 7th or
9th Of June 1851, President Fillmore, with his
Cabinet, started on tour through the United
States. A telegram came from Thurlow Weed
TO the editor of the Express, saying that Daniel
Webster, then Secretary Of State, would speak
st Buffalo, and he wanted verbatim report of
the speech. Word came to me, and I said
would take IT, The President and Cabinet ar
rived. Mr.. Webster spoke in the courthouse
rain. N. K Hall, Postmaster general,
held an umbrella over me while I
took Mr.. Webster's speech. Solon Robin
son, of the New York Tribune, was
the only other stenographer there It was not
difficult to take the great orator. A rapid long
hand man could almost get him verbatim, so de-
liberate and measured were his periods. can
repeat the opening sentences of that speech to-
day. Ny notes were soaked through, and had
TO dry them before they could be transcribed
The telegraph was very little used in that day,
and the speech Of the greatest American of his
time, instead of being put upon the wires. az in
this day is done with the utterances Of much
smaller men, was put into the mail, and sent to
the Albany Journal, and there published two
days after it was delivered. This report resulted
in my going upon the Journal which was then
conducted by Thurlow Weed. l. did not remain
long. but returned to Buffalo"
I'm 1852. when went back to Buffalo" con-
finueN Mr.. Henderson, I'VE had the Morse line
Of telegraph from New York to Buffalo. and also
the House line. From Buffalo west were the
D'Reily and Speed lines, operated in opposition
TO each other. The Associated Press was then
In the hands of Craig e. Co., Of New York.
They furnished all the Western newspapers, but
their reports never went west Of Buffalo to the
lake region, though they sent reports to Pitts
burg. which came on west to Cincinnati and St
Louis.
1.-THE O'Reily and the Speed lines having each
but one wire running through pretty wild
country from Buffalo to Toledo, with no railroad
communication between those points, it was
difficult to keep the lines up, and they were fire.
S Xses The Ss"I press sMO of Cleveland, Toledo
Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee and other
points were solely dependent on these
two opposition lines for all market and news re-
ports Grain merchants had for years relied
upoE private dispatches on which to conduct
their business, and those were so unsatisfactory
that the grain-dealers of those cities asked me
to furnish them with daily report OF New York
and Buffalo markets and ocean steamer news.
This / did for a compensation of twenty five
cents for each city, in addition to teleeraphic
charges and they wouldn't pay any more.
This arrangement worked SO satisfactorily
shat the newspapers of those cities relied solely
on those telegraphic dispatches for their market
reports. Mr.. Stewart, then managing man on
the Chicago Tribune consulted with Rufus
King OF the Milwaukee Sentinel. and with the
Milwaukee Wisconsin, Detroit Tribune, Toledo
Blade, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland
Register They agreed to authorize Mr.:
Stewart to employ me to furnish
the papers with a daily report of news, which
had TO be in the telegraph Office before o'clock
In the evening What do you think of that in
these days, when telegraphic news runs nearly
all nightl He agreed to pay me ST. week from
eaeh newspaper for my services. / began some
time in the middle of the summer of 1852. The
first week sent dispatches by the Speed line; the
wires were down between Buffalo and Cleveland
for two or three days, and the newspapers failed
to get their report. Then the ORely line was
tried, and 1 was soon in trouble with that.
Both lines were so anxious for the bust
ness that they allowed rs to fix our
own rates Of compensation. The first weeks
experience with the O'Reily line was no better
than that with'the Speed line had been. On my
compensation of dollar week the Cleveland
Leader cut me off 90 cents a week for two weeks
on account of the wires being down, although /
had prepared and placed the matter in the tele-
graph operators hands. / have letters in my
possession now from Emery Cobb, who was
then general manager of the telegraph Office in
Chicago. in which he says that he has been to
the Chicago Tribune Office day after day to col
lect my six dollars for six weeks service, but the
Tribune says it hasn't the money to pay. That
reads little strange now, when the Tribune is
paying out hundreds of dollars for specials at
nearly every cross roads in the Northwest"
sIn those days the telegraph Offices did not
send reports to the newspaper Offices by mes
senger boys. In the Buffalo Office, when the re-
port came the newspaper reporters came and sat
down and wrote it, while the telegrapher read it
from'the. paper. Matt Buell. was an operator at
Buffalo. and we thought 1t surprising thing
when he would drop the paper for minute or two
and read by sound. He didn't dare stay away
long from the paper, however. for fear of losing
something. AS late as 1857. when President
Buchanan's message came over the wires, / re-
member that l. With reporters of the other pa
pers, sat in the Buffalo office and took the mes
sage as the operator read it to US from the paper
machine. In that day they didn't think of
writing ont the report for the newspapers We
took the message as he dictated it, sending two
sheets at a time by prentice to the newspaper
Office"
Comnlied with the Renniremanfs