The Wichita daily eagle., 1893-11-17

"kEk
TRANSFERRING WITH GRAFHoPHONEs.
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
compositoys at the government printing
Office.
Some Fast Takers.
In the house the stenographer takes q
''turn" of about one column OF The Con-
gressional Record, which consists of 200
words If the debate is lively, the reporter
may get his l. 200 words in from five to seven
minutes, but if there is q 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
tho 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 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
tho 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 an easy, conventional style makes the
pencil Of the official reporter fy at rapid
rate.
Tho 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 a member
takes the hoor, 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-
auence 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 il 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 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 purely
private observation Strictly speaking, only
the remarks of bers 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
80. Hence, as a rule, they take everything
Is il comes
Catching New Members.
When a new congress meets and many
new faces are seen on the floor, the official
stenographers sometimes have difficulty in
identifying the men vino make interjec-
tions. In such cases they often indicate in
their notes the man with the red beard, y
or the baldheeded man In the second
row." or ''the slim man from Nebraska :"
Aftervard they ascertain the name and
state of the member and write them in
their copy Ia the senate the official re-
porters do net find ii necessary to leave
their table. fdr the dignity and decorum Of
that body are still well enough preserved
to enable them TO hear ali that is said from
that point.
The 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 50 600 a
wear, out OF which he pays his -ssisi ants.
Mr.. Murphy has for many years made a
large income out of this contract. but at a
frightful expense of nervoU, force and
health on his part. There la, long been a
dispute as TO which legislative bouy gives
the official reporters the n,cst trouble The
reporters in the senate think their task the
harder, while the house reporters have ex-
acily the same view OF tneir lot
The facts apbear TO De with the house
men. IL = true the roll calls and other in
ttrTU oilOus III s44t -StIas- VIZ HV~ s~.hS ~
much time as IN the house, and there :,
therefore. more debate, but IN tie senate
many speeches of from two TO SIX hours IN
length are read from manuscript. while
such tine killing efforts are almost un-
known In the house OF course when SET
ator or member speaks from manuscript
the official rerorrers l-aye nothing 70 DO tut
take down the inserlections- using the
speakers manuscript for the speech Itself
In this way the reporters OF the senate
found ,hey had very little to 90 du-s1g
many DAYS Of the r,-9enr silver debate. and
though The Record made a bulky showing
it containcl very little of taeir WORK
Dishsalt Work