The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1892-03-23

IN houses
Z ~ UR Washington
VI correspondent says:
4 ~ dramatically the
Cm1i House is not
SL4 failure; that Is TO
Z%77 say, the grammar OF
NMElsl IN the Fiji tvs econd
HNf/!i:l:@ Congress Is not as
|t<zz :5,sssA bad as might be ex-
9S1ITflIIiIE8S pected. The House,
vllIllN Jul g43&1M as a rule, Is curl
Gus constructor OF
DHIDNrkJIy false syntax, and it
MIH}WW Is only question
--ZG3 of degree as to how
T1- Tm@muHTr ar tn rules of
lnIpl1l vwmI. Of grammar are to
m- I1FtE kbe violated and all
WHHhGE. ,IJl order and prece-
uN Nnp " dents shattered.
But In the matter Of diction, to the
surprise of all mankind, the present
House is far in advance Of its immedi-
ate predecessor. Strangers in the gal
leries have watched with wonder the
lightning like speed Of the stenograph-
ers taking down speeches which are
being made for the benefit OF the con-
stituents OF Buncombe County. They
have listened to members whose words
lap like shingles on roof and whose
sentences are telescoped worse than a
railroad collision, and have marveled at
the skill of the stenographers who mako
such speech appear verbatim in the
Record OF the following morning.
But all this is as nothing compared
with the Skill diplomacy, and discretion
which has to be exercised by those same
stenographers to get these speeches ar
ranged In grammatical form. The sup
position the country around may be
that Congress, as it furnishes the laws
and the presidents in all parliamentary
matters, might be accepted as authority
on grammatical construction, and that
the standard diction as well as the law
of the nation might be found in the
House, but as a matter OF fact civil
service reform, sound currency and
ethics Of craftsmanship Gas badly treat
ed as they are) are not as grossly as
saulted as is the English language-the
currency Of speech. Every dialect that
the nation knows is exemplified in some
member of this assemblage Of states
men.
AS general rule the intelligence Of q
Congress might be estimated by its
speech. If this test were to be applied
to the present Congress, 1 have the
word of the stenographers for it, this is
far above the average. Some Of our
ablest statesmen, however, have been
very rugged in speech, and therefore it
will not do in every case to let Con-
gress be judged by its grammar. The
stenographers tell me that the Fifty
first Congress was conspicuous for poor
grammar. Freely translated, the short
hand reports of the Fifty-first Congress
VIC ha nv
be that this Congress has not gone far
enough yet for fair comparison, but up
TO the present point very fair record
has been produced in the construction
OF English sentences. The gift Of CAB
has been bestowed freely upon the gen.
tlemen in whose hands or upon whose
tongues rests the fate Of this great and
glorious country temporarily. Yet
should report of one day s proceedings
in Congress be printed in the very Ian
guage of the House 1t would make Gu
rious and very interesting reading.
Comparatively few oven of the most
learned and intelligent men in Congress
follow a perfect diction in debate. The
stenographers make a report of every
word and almost every sound that oc-
ours upon the floor though great deal
OF editing Is done before that copy is
sent to the printer. If in the mornings
Record the grammatical construction is
accurate, it is due to their careful super
vision, and 1t is curious what tact and
diplomacy has to be exercised to bring
this about The report Of a speech is
generally submitted to the member de-
livering it for revision, il he desires, but
corrections Of grammatical construction
are seldom made by members them
selves, and often it would be impossible
to get the consent of member for a
correction of an obvious error. Usually
the stenographer makes these correc-
tons in TRANSPORTING his notes, and it is
not infrequent for a member to notice
the correction and take exceptions to
it, insisting upon being correctly report