Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-11-23
NEW SHORTHAND.
.e7uop OF ABBREVIATED WRITING
" ON THE TYPEWRITER.
A system which May he Readily Under
stood aud Pit Into Practice
In n Short Time.
rpbI,adelphia Timeal

written IN humans corresponding style
of photography, but the scheme
wouldn't work.
The speaker was an old shorthand
writer who had made O great many
"turkey tracks" on both sides Of the
Atlantic, and had considerable expert.
epce in the manipulation OF the type
writer on this side.
"Why won't it worka Simply for the
reason that some stenographers write the
system just as indistinctly as some write
long hand. They can read their own
notes perhaps but nobody else can. In
fact the deciphering of another mans
stenocraphic notes is always and under
all circumstances an undertaking not to
be lightly entered upon. There is only
one yay by which letters written in
shorthand can be availed OF without
further transcription, and that Is by
using the ordinary typewriter asa steno-
graphic-machine. Oh course no one
could report public proceedings IN such
manner. The silent, and perhaps
ouicker, work of the Faber is more Ell
fective in such cases.
"Take a trial, for instance. The
clicking of the machine would distract
the Jury and make nervous Judge mis-
arable. Ii does not matter 20 much as
far as the lawyers are concerned. They
do not know what nerves are. The OBJ
lection to noise, however, would not
obtain in the case Of Office work now
that people are become so accustomed to
the sharp percussion OF the wrlting-ma-
chine. / know there are existing sys-
TENS OF type steuography, but We want
something palmer than these even.
FIRST PRINCIPLE OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
1.-THE first principle Of photography
is 10 write entirely according to sound
TO discard all the eccentricities OF Eng
lish spelling. Thus the word caught
becomes 'kawt.' The next step Is to
omit the novels and recognize tho words
simply by their consonantal outline
then caught is written KIT IL you
can write thus, even in longhand, and
read readily what you have written, you
have advanced good long step on your
road TO the requirement OF the art OF
stenography. If you can do this with
typewriter you have still further advan-
tage -.
But tho science of winged writing
goes still ahead of this in the line OF alb
breyiation. 1t supplies what the old
school OF shorthand writers call 'arbi-
traries. and which the more modern Pit
nantes designate as 'logograms. or
signs for single words. The period dot
in my type stenography stands for the
definite article the The IoWer-case
"a stands for the indefinite article
or 'an. The experienced stenographer,
however. leaves out the articles, except
in such cases as his experience may show
them to be absolutely necessary. In cor
respondence it would perhaps be better
TO insert the article every time. ?wlll
very aptly suggest the word "questlon,
as WITS 2 what is the question. 'Ot IS
represented by az, the sound OF the
word as spoken being invariably 'oy..
"The letter b will represent 'be or
'bee tea q and, and see, as
leu 1 see YOU The capital Y will be
'yr.' and Will therefore constitute q To-
eogram for your The underscore will
by its position represent the word 'un-
der will represent 'on, the slantlng
dash being the Pitman Itch will do very
we'll for that character, and will be a
good logogram for each
There is nothing very difficult obout
this, is there - asked the man OF pot
hooks. and the reporter said very eau
tiously that he thought there was not
PRRFIxEs AND AFFIyEs.
"Well," continued the stenographer,
warming with his subject, "we now
come to the prefxes and ailixes. A dot
at the beginning Of word stands for
ICON or com A dot at the end of q
word will represent ing, as b., being,
A hyphen in the same position, ings,
as IT., ratings. O at the beginning OF q
word will suggest the prefix circum, as
Ofrns, circumference Do You under
stand the Pitman system /? asked he,
abruptly.
The scribe admitted that he did.
"Well, then, you doubtless recollect
enough to see that | am following that
system as nearly as the typewriter will
admit. L am trying to give you lar
but by no means exhaustive idea OF my
plan. will leave the prefxes, aflixes,
and symbols and come to the use OF the
ordinary alphabet. First Of all, IN short
hand there are no caps. Now the great
est possible assistance 10 the reading OF
shorthand notes would be q system that
would denote whether vowel preceded
| or followed consonant, more especially
an initial. This proposition has been uni
versally admitted, but mas never been
accomplished except by Mr.. Bell, the
telephone man, but his system though
very scientific is not practical for rapid
writing. Pitman's scheme only partially
admits of it in the case of and and
perhaps 8. Now it can be done on the
typewriter easily and every time by
availing Of upper and lower case. That's
my great idea.
THE USE OF CAPITALS.
"Let me explain to you. Suppose l
want to write the word Legitimate in
shorthand. The phonetic consonantal
outline is ljtmt. take down a sentence
as follows That is legitimate under
taking Now there is nothing to tell
me, except the context after the word
has become cold, whether it is
Legitimate or 'illegitimate. There
ale no double consonants in
shorthand. You see II mis-
take is made in this direction it is q
very serious one. 1t as wide apart from
the intended meaning as the poles are
asunder. 1t is as bad as leaving out the
word mot in O sentence, thus making O
positive instead Of negative. Such
mistakes as these are very common with
young stenographers, and they are to be
guarded against by the most expert
enced.
"In the early part OF the last session
OF Congress the transcript OF the notes Of
an official stenographer of certain COM
mittee caused great outcry. 1t was as
serted that the report was. in number
Of instances. contrary to the actual e1-