The Progress., 1893-11-18

! known IN the house. OF course when n sen
atOr or member speaks from manuscript
the official reporters have nothing to do hut
take down the iutericctiOns, using tn,
speakers manuscript for the speech itself
In this way the reporters of the senate
found they had very little to do during
many days Of the recent silver debate, ana
though The Record made n bulky showing
it contained very little of their work.
DimcuIt Work.
When the silver question was up in th,
house and there were sessions at night a.
well ~ by day, each of the stcnographcr,
/ took down l3 or II columns of The Record
or about 5000 words This was pretty
| biz days work. and while taking the notes
/ was not so difficult he would have found
| it impossible to transcrbe them with ms
/ own hand. As soon a. the reporter finishes
| his turn on the floor he goes to his room in
the basement and dictates his notes to u
typewriter operator or to a phonograph,
from which it il aftcrward taken upon the
typewriter by young women operatives.
Not all of the reporters use the phouo
graph, some prefcrring to dictate in the old
way, and one or two of the old fogics of tn,
senate corps still write their matter ont
the days when typcwriters and phono-
graphs were unknown.
One of the deliberations of official report
ing is the desire of members to revise their
remarks. The reporters take down the
speeches exactly rs they are delivered. and
"A large proportion of the statesmen like to
get hold of the copy and fix tup To suit
themselves Every one knows what of-
a
vision. New speeches are written or old
ones so transformed that no one who heard
them delivered would bc able to recognize
them in print. The only restriction that is
placed upon a member 10y rule is that
in revision he must not interject per
sonal matters. II often occurs when two
senators or members have had n personal
alteration on the floor that by mutual
consent they arrange to have all reference
to the quarrel cut out of The Record. In
this way the hot dispute between Sena-
tors Carey and Wolcott a few days ago
was kept out Of the official reports.
\ High Compliment.
EX-COngrcSsman lIorr, in recent public
address, paid a high compliment to the Off
cial reporters of the house. 1T is a won
derful requirement, that power of taking
down words rs fast rs they are uttered"
he said. Amid the iargons and wranglcs
of congress- when half "A dozen statesmen
were all ON their feet at once, all yelling
like so many lunatics, ! have seen these
wonderful men, with their pencils flying,
do theirworl< 80 well that they would never
miss u single foolish uttcrance or skip
single disgraceful word. As typewrtors
are the bane of poor spoilers, so these short
hand writers are the terror of public speak
ers TO have them come in and take down
in cold blood just what a fellow does say
aye, there's the rub. It's enough to make
ones blood curdle even 10 think of it, [
know the usual way out of the trouble il
to get relief 10y abusing the reporter /
make this confession, however, here to-
night. Up to date it is their accuracy that 4
has got me into difficulty. have suf. /
fered vastly more from their printing cx.
actly what did say than | have by their
putting down what it seemed to them
would better have said"
Webster's Reply to Hayne.
Official reporting of debates in the Ameri,
can congress began in lS4s. Before tha5
time semioflicial reports had been made by
contract with newspapers, and stenogra.
piers Were used, but not to make verbatim
reports They took down what they Thoughts
was important and let the remainder 20
Among the first official reporters in the
senate was Mr.. Murphy, then boy of II,
but brilliant reporter who had learned
his profession from Oliver Dyer in Phila.
lelphia. A third of n century Mr.. Murphy
mas been taking senatorial speeches, and he
IS not an old man yet In the house corps
nl fp RrnNXn 10 ha hax %
been p years on the staff.
Two or three weeks ago when objection
was made in the senate to the reading Of
speeches Senator's Hoar and Vest had dis.
,ussion rs to the famous speech of Webster
n reply to Hayne. The point was rs to
whether that speech had been given to pos,
erity as it was delivered, or whether it had
argely been made up afterward No such
contention would have been possible il
here had been official reporters in the old
enate chamber Mr. Brown, the brilliant
eteran Of the house corps. gives me the
acts about this speech of Webster and
hows that great oratorical effort to have
'een rescued from Oblivion by a woman.
The story as Mr. Brown gives it was told
o him some years ago by James Watson
Webb, the famous New York newspaper
WHO was correspondent IN
Washington in his earlier career Webb
ot the story from Webster himself in these
gords:
An Interesting Postscript.
IL had no idea of the Importance that
Tould be attached to my speech in reply to
iayne," said Mr.. Webster, land as | had
My meager notes of the speech, when my
s &HA|z,1z2: s ~ &2 +: =