The Irish standard., 1893-02-11

with an extended account OF the opening
reception which promises to be great
success.
PHONETIC SHORTHAND.
Isaac Pitman, the Inventor Of Photography
is Honored by His Countrymen.
England, always eager to do honor to
her deserving children, celebrated, on
Jan. 4, 1893, the eightieth birthday OF
the Industrious and justly rem wned
Isaac Pitman, the author of the most
popular and eficaclous method Of writ
ing shorthand. If Cadmus is to have
the honor of humanity all down through
the ages for the paltry discovery of thir-
teen letters, what are we to do for the
benefactor who has made it possible to
transmit through the columns of the
daily press those long and intricate ag-
gregation of words with which the mem
bers of the British parliament and our
American congressm an, too, sometimes
minister to the consciences of their con-
stituents? Mr.. Pitman was honored
for his "life-long services in promoting
Righteousness, sobriety, knowledge and
TRUTH" and truly his career has been one
of ..unremitting energy and devotion to
public interest He was during the
early years of his manhood a successful
teacher, much interested in his profess
sion, broad and philanthropic in his in
stincts and strong always on the side OF
truth. His FIRST determination toward
the work which became the absorbing
motive Of his life was the result of a
stand N 4de "f,r conscience sake
He was occupied as teacher in an
Episcopal school when he became con-
v,.r5 to the Swelenborgian Faith, and
was obliged in consequence to give up
his position. He was always an indefa-
tigable worker and man whose crea-
tive power could not loog b. delayed
from fading lis natural oltlet After a
brief interval in which he conducted a
school of his own in Bath he settled in
where in rapid succession he
published treatises on q new method of
phonetic shorthand writing, started
photographic, journal, established a
printing Office to carry on the business
of phonographic publications, organized
photographic societies and struggled to
create a sentiment in favor of English
spelling reform. = -
His working day began at 6 o'clock in
the morning and ended at 10 at night
days of active and productive enc gy.
Notifications Of the Pttman system of
reporting are now in use in
most of the civilized countries of the
world. Germany has produced the only
other system of shorthand writing that
can in any sense be considered rival
The original feature of the Pitman sys-
tenn is that it is based upon the repre-
sentation of sound by written characters,
whereas The earlier system undertook to
words as they appealed to the
eye, working from the photography OF
the word, characteristic nominations and
so on.
Pitman also devised an alphabet which
he composed of such pen strokes as could
be made with maximum ease. The
German system, also phonetic, uses us
it's alphabet the shortest possible lines
without regard to the ease or difficulty
Of making them. These two system :, OF
some combination of them, are the basis
of all important methods of shorthand
in use to-day.
We are SO accustomed to think OF all
the various facilities OF modern life as
the evidences of our own superior devei-
opnent that it is likely to produce sur
prise when the truth is brought home to
us that any part of our swift. moving
machinery has been familiar to earlier
peneratious; and we are perhaps especi
ally inclined to consider as ours the sci
once which enables us to print speeches
and place them in the hands OF an eager
public long before the orators who de-
ivered them have been aroused from the
frst dreamless sleep of fatigue after
their delivery.
Yet history tells us that the Greeks
we're familiar with forms of abbreviated
writing; that Cicero's Grafton against
Catalina was taken down verbatim BY
paid notarii; that the first edition unau
thorizrd Of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" was
Rarbled and hopelessly confused by con-
scienceless shorthand writer's, and that
treatise on shorthand writing was dedl-
Gated to Queen Elizabeth.
Still, although the noble brotherhood
of stenographers has q line OF ancestry
Is long as can be boosted by any peer OF
the realm, the photographic system OF
invented by Mr.. Pitman has