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

many days Of the recent silver debate. and
though The Record made q bulky showing
it contained very little Of their work.
Difficult Work.
When the silver question was up in the
house and there were sessions at night as
we'll as by day, each OF the stenographers
took down IL or II columns Of The Record,
or about 1900 words. This was a pretty
big days work. and while taking the notes
was not so difficult he would have found
it impossible to transcribe them with his
OWL hand. AS soon rs the reporter finishes
his turn on the floor he goes to his room in
the basement and dictates his notes to q
typewriter operator or to a photograph,
from which it is afterward taken upon the
typewriter by young women operatives.
Not all Of the reporters use the phono-
graph, some preferring to dictate in the old
way, and one or two of the old fogies Of the
senate corps still write their matter out
with a pen, as they were taught to do in
the days when typewriters and phono-
graphs were unknown.
One of Che deliberations of official report
ing is the desire of members to revise their
remarks. The reporters take down the
speeches exactly as they are delivered, and
a large proportion of the statesmen like to
get hold of the copy and fix it up TO suit
themselves. Every one knows what Of
lenses are committed in the name of re-
vision. New speeches are written or old
ones so transformed that no one who heard
them delivered would be able to recognize
them in print. The only restriction thai is
placed upon a member by rule is that
IN revision he must not interject per
sonal matters. 1t often occurs when two
senators or members nave had a personal
alteration on the floor that by mutual
consent they ran 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.
y High Compliment.
Ex-Congressman Horn, in a recent public
address, paid a nigh compliment to the ofi.
cial reporters of the house. ut is a Won
derful requirement, that power of taking
down words as fast as they are uttered"
he said. Amid the jargons and wrangles
of congress, when half a dozen statesmen
were all on their feet at once, all yelling
like so many lunatics, l have seen these
wonderful men, with their pencils flying,
do their work so we'll that they would never
miss a single foolish utterance or skip q
single disgraceful word. AS typewriters
are the bane of poor spoilers, so these short
hand writer's 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 to think of it. |
know the usual way out of the trouble is
to get relief by abusing the reporter. |
make this confession, however, here to.
night. Up to date it is their accuracy that
has got me into difficulty. l have sui.
fered vastly more from their printing ex-
actly what l did say than l have by their
putting down what it seemed to them l
would better have said"
Webster's Reply to Hayne.
Official reporting of debates in the Ameri-
can congress began in 1s4s. Before that
time semioficial reports had been made by
contract with newspapers, and %stenogra-
pliers were used, but not to make verbatim
reports. They took down what they thought
was important and let the remainder 20.
Among the first official reporters in the
senate was Mr.. Murphy. then a boy of IA,
but a brilliant reporter, who had learned
his profession from Oliver Dyer in Phila-
delphia. A third of a century Mr.. Murphy
has been taking senatorial speeches, and he
is not an old man yet. In the house corps
David Wolfe Brown is the senior, having
been 25 years on the staff.
Two or three weeks ago when objection
was made in the senate to the reading OF
speeches Senators Hoar and Vest had a dis
cussion as to the famous speech of Webster
in reply to Hayne. The point was as to
whether that speech had been given to pos
terity as it was delivered, or whether it had
largely been made up afterward. No such
contention would have been possible if
there had been official reporters in the old
senate chamber. Mr.. Brown, the brilliant
veteran of the house corps. gives me the
facts about this speech of Webster and
shows that great oratorical effort to nave
been rescued from oblivion by a woman.
The story as Mr.. Brown gives it was told
to him some years ago by James Watson
Webb, the famous New York newspaper
publisher, who was a correspondent in
Washington in his earlier career. Webb
got the story from Webster himself in these
words:
An Interesting Postscript.
II had no idea of the importance that
would be attached to my speech in reply to
Hayne," said Mr.. Webster, and as / had
only meager notes of the speech. when my
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