Wichita eagle., 1888-07-01
SHORTHAND WRITERS.
eOMETHlNa NEEDED BESIDES QUICK
FINGERS AND WITS.

The Rocks Upon Which the Shorthand"
Exporter May split-Dimculties Which
Arise When Notes Arc to Be Tran
scribcd-Ludicrous Errors.
Now, why win you only get Eve men in 100
to reach 40 words tand those words In COM
mon use, minute, only four in 100 to touch
the verbatim speed ine ehey being limited to
the higher range Of familiar speedy, and
only ons In 100 to be equal to any require
ment OF speed or style of speech, technical or
classic, as well as general or popularf Tie
answer is, that you may combine dexterity
Of finger and mental quickness, however
great, and then you viii fail to reach the full
stature of an expert verbatim reporter unless
you have read, marked, learned and inwardly
digested volumes upon volumes Of tho anne
stores Of learning from which the speakers
you are to report have drawn their supplies.
For example, you study shorthand, and at
last, after eighteen months of Industrious
practice, by dint Of dictations read to you
from the daily newspaper or some handy
book, you time yourself, and find that you
can actually get down 80 words minute,
and transcribe it correctly. Now you are
happy, and You will go to the nearest editor
write shorthand and take down speeches
literally"
Suppose the editor believes you, and you
are engaged as shorthand reporter. Then
suppose your first assignment is to give q
column report Of an historical lecture. You
attend, and the lecturer begins with a few
comrnonplaces, which you find yourself quite
able to get down. But now b advances into
the heart Of his theme. He Is talking of the
events that led up to the American revoh,-
ton, and he drags in the names Of the lead
ing men in the different colonies who stirred
up the spirit of Independence and paved tho
way for 1776 He mentions their places Of
residence, IN Virginia, or New York, or Della
ware. or elsewhere. and quotes from their
letters extensively. You follow him In short
hand, and you think you have got him. But
when you 90 back to the Office you open your
aote book and discover that here are dozens
OF names Of men and places that you never
heard of before, because you have never
given any time to reading up the ante-revo-
tuition history Of these United States. In that
case you may write out your notes after q
fashion, but how the lecturer will stare when
he reads 1t; and what letters the editor will
get after he publishes it; and how soon, after
you have made one or two meSses Of that
kind, you viii be sized up as good for Office
work, dictation, and the FIVE for a quarter
brand of public meetings, but ON important
work no good whatever.
Stenographic skill alone can take down
words, but it requires the something more
which we cali general intelligence to write
them out properly That general intehi-
gence is only possible to the man who has,
as Bill Nye would say, ''oiied up his
thinker" with oil drawn in liberal quantity
from standard hterature Of all kinds The
lecturer On the ante-revolution period will
perhaps talk Of the Townshend acts Of 17eT,
Of Governor Sharpe, Of Maryland, and Gov
ernor Montagu, of South Carolina, and their
proclamations in the name of the king; then
be will go on ami tell what such American
leaders as Gadsden, Laurens, Rutiedge, Lynch
and Pincla1ey did about it.
But assuming that you have given no
careful reading to the history of that period,
how can you transcribe your notes, no matter
how faithfully they were taken, SO as to save
yourself from grotesque errors Of spelling, if
OF nothing worses Your notes say 'Gov-
ernor Sharp" but will you omit that final
'os' Very likely you will, because you don't
know any better. Will you write it out
Governor "Montagu," or "hlontaguer' VIII
you write 'Lagnens," as it ahould be, or
Lawrence" as 1t should not bel VIII you
surely spell Pinckney with the &C" before
the "ks" VIII you write 'sRoutledge," or
"Rutledges' If You are without any pre-
vious reading on this subject you are just as
likely to write these names one way as the
other.
Illustrations might be multiplied without
end. Go and try to report one Of Joseph
Cooks lectures without enough previous read
ing to give you an idea Of what he is talking
about, when he quotes from the leading
English, German and French philosophers,
and see where you will come ont Go and
report some after dinner speeches Of Asociety
of scholars and let there be few Latin QUO
tations, and you may get them down as they
sounded to your ears; but if you have never
taken course of Latin, Let us see how you
are going to traosoribe it. The old story of
the bali educated reporter who took down
the famous quotation, Anxious Plato. arnicus
Socrates, sed major verdtas," and then, never
having gone with CHsar through the Gallie
wars, Transcribed it, II may cras Plato,
may cuss Socrates, said Major Verrytus.
and who later inquired whether this Mai
Verrytus was Of the regular army or the
volunteers, was probably an invention; but
things just as absurd have happened It
will always be true that stream can rise no
higher than its source; that what you have
never heard you cannot know, and that
what yuu don't know you can't tell anybody.
Tho Boston newspaperowner who threatened
to discharge his editor because he bad used
the ~crd oblivion" which he took to be q
word unfit for the family circle, was not e.
pecially stupid He bad never been intro
duced to the word oblivion" before, and at
first sight it had nasty look to hun; that
was all-James W. Clarke in The Writae.
THE pAccDAS OF JAPAN.
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