Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1888-07-26


On the staff Of Mr. Murphy in the
Senate are his brother Edward v Muir
piy Theodore r Shney, II. J. Genslar,
and y. p Lloyd, besides those who rem
der temporary assistance
These report IS earn from 81 500 TO
s1N00 q 81 on. cord ng 30 their rxport-
ness, and Mr. Murphy IS paid $50. 900 a
geas in gruss, for doing the work Of the
session and paying bis assistants. The
mest rapid speaker of the Senate Is Gen.
llawley Who disarnsas some $50 words
minute. and greatly bnihars +" tile boys
NeNt 10 order of velocity come Plumb,
Beck Vest, ana Jones Of Arkansas.
The easiest Senators 20 report are In
gals and Morgan Both Of them speak
deliberately, arteulate carefully, and
construct their sentences dramatically.
The bette noir Of reporters is Reagan, Of
Texas.
For the first time. machinery is being
this year introduced 10 supplement the r.
porter. Our illustration represents An
drew Devine, one Of the most expert Of
the House corps delivering to the
graphophunc the burden Of his notes as
rapidly as he can speak When ne has
finished, the wonderful little thing will
repeat leisurely the lesson it has learned.
and this will be copied out for Public
Printer Benedict in long hand by some
man or woman who has, very likely,
no training or ability beyond the ability
TO write down slowly what is echoed
back The machine viii thus record n
speech or miscellaneous proceedings at
the rate Of two or three hundred words IA
minute and win afterwards carefully
artieulate them to a long-hand writer al
rate as slow as thirty or forty words
minute, exactly regulating its utter
ance to the capacity of the clerk to trans
eribe. By the use OF one Of these little
machines a banker or merchant can die
as he can talk, and then hand il over
to any ordinary long-hand writer TO copy
and post the letters The graphophone
tate replies to his morning mail as fast
is destined to DC one. Of the greatest
labor-saving machines Of modern times
Beides Mr.. Devine and Mr.. McrJ-
hone, the official reporters Of the House
are Messrs. John H. White and ID. VI
Brown. Since the death Of Nj. j. k. Ed
munds- Mr. Z. ID. Easton, an effective ana
brilliant reporter, has taken his place.
ana I've, too, has introduced the graphic
phone as his chief assistant II is under
stood that next winter graphophOncs viii
pc universally used by reporters to un-
twist the tangled controversies Of Con-
gross.
The easiest men to report in the House
are Speaker Cerlisle always cool and in
clslve, and q perfect senteEce-maker),
Judge Kelley, Buchanan, Phelps Reed
McMillin, Burrows, and Randall, except
when, as usual the latter gets his gram
mar badly mixed
The most difficult members to report
are the two Breclxinridges, Cabot Lodge.
Butterworth. Cox, Laird, Taulbee and
Boutelle. The three last named are
dreaded by the reporters because they
always make row. when they get
the floor. Like Blaine and Ingalls,, they
create sort Of electrical condition Of
tho atmosphere which stirs everybody
up. Payson, Of Illinois, like Morgan in
the Senate, is what the reporters call
a glider" That is, he talks about
twice as fast as he seems to talk But
the learned Senator from Alabama is
greatly his superior in the 81 mmetrical
construction Of sentences.
Reporting in the House is much more
difficult than in the Senate Each re-
porter must know by name and by sight |
every one Of the 325 members, and when
half dozen men are struggling for the
door and talking at once he must often
cross long and noisy distances, accom-
plish the feat of catching and crediting
to the right man all he says When I
are rapidly made, and
utterances and extlamations
eXcltedly overlap each other. this is an |
exceedingly difficult thing to do.
1T is not necessary to say that the men I;
who thus report the debates OF Congress
are men Of high intellectual training
Some Of them are scholars in a broad
sense. It is essential that they should
be able instantly to make good grammar
Of bad, turn metaphors hind side before,
and inside out, correct dates and names, l
recall poetry, verify quotations from
modern languages or classics, remember
obscure Bible texts, rehearse chronicle /
gically the deeds of the heroes of an
iquitv and Of mythology, reverse inverted 1
climaxes, transform awlzwardncss into
grace and. in abort put good speech