The Helena independent., 1893-11-20

TRANsCRIRING WITH GRAPHOPHONES
shall be kept up within few minutes OF
the reporting on the floor. Within an hour
of the adjournment of the house or senate
the reports are complete in the hands of the
compositors at the government printing
Office.
i Some Fast Talkers.
In the house the stenographer takes q
'eturn" of about one column of The Con-
gressional Record, which consists Of 1900
words. If the debate is lively, the reporter
may get his !, 200 words in from five to seven
minutes, but if there is a call of the yeas
and nays or dilatory 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 900 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 minute. He would talk
much faster but for the time which is
lost In his peculiar infection Of the
final syllables Of words. 1t 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 All easy, conventional style makes the
pencil of the official reporter fly at rapid
rate. ...i
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
a meeting point. Whenever member
takes the floor, the reporter runs down to
a 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 matter Of fact, many INTERCEPTED 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 he taken
down and what ignored. Now and then a
reporter gets into trouble by putting into
The Record an interjectcd remark, which,
the member making it claims, was IA purely
the remarks Of members who secure the
recognition of the chair should be taken
down, but th1 reporters can never tell when
member will be called to order for some
thing that he may have said without gain.
ins the recognition of the chair, and they
naturally desire to be ready to produce the
Objectionable words when called upon to do
30. Hence. as rule, they take everything
as it comes
Catching New Members.
When new congress meets and many
now faces are seen on the floor, the official
stenographers sometimes have difficulty in
identifying the men who make interjec
tions. In such cases they often indicate in
their notes "the man with the red beard, u
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 II 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.
The senate reporters work on a different
basis from those of the house. In the sen.
uta ono man the vat tpran Mr. Murrh,, b,lls