Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1893-11-24

'~SN
TRANSFERRING WITH GRAPHoPHoSEA
the reporting on the floor. Within an hour
the reports are complete in the hands of the
Office.
Some Fast Takers.
In the house the stenographer takes q
gressional Record, which consists Of 1900
words. 1: the debate is lively, the reporter
may get his 1,20O words in from five to seven
minutes, but if there is a call of the yeas
and nays or d~ilatory proceedings he may
be an hour on duty. He knows BY his
notebook when he has finished his quota,
and the man who relieves him is ready for
the word to take up the debate where he
drops it.
There are many speakers in the house who
talk at the rate of 200 words a minute or
more, Mr.. johnson of Indiana being the
fastest talker, Mr.. Boatner of Louisiana
and Mr.. Catchings of Mississippi being
very close behind him. Ex-Speaker Reed
usually talks at the rate of about
$50 words a minute. He would talk
much faster but for the time which is
lost in his peculiar infection of the
final syllables Of words. It is not always
the speaker who appears to be talking rap
idly that causes the stenographer the most
trouble. The man who makes his speeches
with oratorical effect is easy to handle,
while the unpretentious speaker who talks
in a n easy, conventional style makes the
pencil Of the official reporter fly at a rapid
rate
The Thick Of the Fight.
Years ago the official stenographers Of
the house remained stationed at their desk
in front of the speaker, as the reporters Of
the senate do today. But now the table
assigned to the reporters is used merely as
q meeting point. Whenever a member
takes the floor, the reporter runs down to
q desk near him and thus literally works
in the thick of the fight. While he is bend.
Ing over his notebook the words of elo-
quence or bitterness are hurled to and fro
above him, and the gestures of the excited
orator appear to be in dangerous proximity
to his head. One sometimes wonders how
the official reporters are able to hear the in
terruptiOns which are made from all parts
of the large hall. The theory on which the
stenographers work is that if they are near
the member who has the right to the floor,
and he is able to hear interruptions and to
answer them, they will be able to hear also.
AS a matter of fact, many interjected re-
marks do not appear in The Congressional
Record, and one Of the most delicate parts
of the duties of an official stenographer is
to discriminate as to what should be taken
down and what ignored. Now and then a
reporter gets into trouble by putting into
The Record an interjected remark, which,
the member making it claims, was a purely
private observation. Strictly speaking, only
the remarks of members who secure the
recognition of the chair should be taken
down, but the reporters can never tell when
a member will be called to order for some
thing that he may have said without gain
ing the recognition of the chair, and they
naturally desire to be ready to produce the
Objectionable words when called upon to do
so. Hence, as q rule, they take everything
as it comes!
Catching New Members.
When q new congress meets and many
new faces are seen on the floor, the official
~stenographers sometimes nave difficulty in
identifying the men who make i~nterjec-
lions. In such cases they often indicate i n
their notes ''the man with the red beard"
or the baldheaded man in the second
row." or 1.-THE slim man from Nebraska"
Afterward they ascertain the name and
state of the member and write them in
their copy. In the senate the official re-
porters do not find it necessary to leave
their table, for the dignity and decorum of
that body are still well enough preserved
to enable them to hear all that is said from
that point.
Tn senate reporters work on a different
basis from those of the house. In the sen.
ate one man, the veteran Mr.. Murphy, holds
the contract for making the official reports,
getting therefor the lump sum of S25, 900 a
year, out of which he pays his assistants.
Mr.. Murphy has for many years made a
large income out of this contract, but at q
frightful expense of nervous force and
health on his part. There ha. long been a
dispute as to which legislative body gives
the official reporters the most trouble. The
reporters in the senate think their task the
harder, while the house reporters have ex-
actly the same view of their lot.
The facts appear to be with the house
men. 1t is true the roll calls and other in.
terruptions in the a do not take az
much time as in the house, and there is,
therefore, more debate, but in the senate
many speeches Of from two to six hours in
length arc read from manuscript, while
such time killing efforts are almost un-