The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-08


reSs, and, unless endowed with an in
domltable will, in the end will suffer
much disappointment and distress.
'One OF the best experiences "A student
can so through with is To secure a posi-
ton that embraces all kinds of dictation,
ana plenty fit. | recall a young man
who secured place with a wholesale
drug 1rm over in Baltimore. He was
only IL years old at the time and his
compensation about s. a week. The firm
mad a tremendous mail to answer daily,
ana the words used were necessarily out of
the usual run. Time and again the bow
wanted TO throw up the position, but his
father persuaded him to hold on. He did
so Tor three years, and at the end of that
time had really become an expert. Then
came his opportunity. A prominent man
wanted secretary and stenographer,
and was willing TO pay for a good one.
The bow entered the competition for tbe
place, and easily secured it through his
proficiency. The place paid 500 a month,
ana su6stantiated the keen foresight of
his father. That boy is now one Of the
best stenographers in Baltimore.
Although the principles upon which
shorthand Is founded are not hard to
comprehend, IL is quite another matter to
put them into application and become
really successful stenOgrapher Good
S.ACA SAouu AlACil 'AlhS ilUtlS, are more ire
quently born than made which is only
another form of stating that one must
possess certain faculties 10 an unusual
degree IN order to attain any considerable
success in either work The work of
taking rapid dictation in shorthand is
twofold. One must strain every nerve
to catch each word as it falls from The lips
OF a rapid speaker, and at the same time
he must have every 6Xpedient in short
inn TOW, 81 /,
TO that no time may be lost in jotting
down the correct characters to represent
the words which are being delivered
IL one stop an instant to recall
the best outline for an unfamiliar word
before it will be remem bered and trans
ferred to the note book the speaker will
probably be dozen or more words ahead
and the text of the speech hopelessly
lost. The only recourse when one gets
behind is TO drop the word and continue
with the speaker, ana trust to the mem
DRY or 10 reasoning TO supply what is
missing when the time comes to tran
scribe the notes. This course is adopted
by all the experts up at The capitol, but
they seldom lose a word. When they do.
through noise and confusion, they are
bright enough to substitute word that
VIII be perfectly acceptable TO the one
who has spoken.
WORK OF THE EXPERT.
81 have noticed that the older one
grows in the business the less attention is
necessary to be given to the mechanical
part of stenographic writing One be-
comes so thoroughly familiar with the
system that it is as though the writer was
for the time being transformed into an
automaton and made the necessary char
acters mechanically and without effort
as each word came TO his ear Then, too,
in special kinds of work. where short
hand is of value, such as court reporting,
certain words and phrases are so fire.
quently useu that very contracted char
acters may be used to represent them,
and afterward the eye readily
recognizes them without any
attention being paid to their
phonetic meaning. In other fields, not
ably in newspaper work, although am
told in this field the stenographic art is
very little used, now, the application of
shorthand writing is so varied that phras-
ing or contracting is impractical BILE TO any
great extent, for the reason that usually
no time can be lost in transcription. The
reporter who goes to political meeting
at which an important speech is to be de-
livered that is wanted verbatim, and
starts for his Office after il is is over,
with only an hour or two in which to
write out his copy, cannot take too many
precautions against illegible writing
Every minute lost at such times counts
triple against making Roadway, and the
reporter knows this fact thoroughly.
The great stumbling block to begin
ners is reading their notes after they
have once written them. In majority Of
the shorthand schools dictatiOn usually
never varies much from this form: My
Dear Sir: Your letter of the 18th instant
received, and in reply we beg 10 state,
etc Combining practice in writing and
reading shorthand to this class of matter
makes the student so familiar with the
outlines that i'll a short time he is able to
be graduated as full-fiedged 'stenogra-
pher' 1t is only when, in practical work,
he endeavors to take matter with which
he is totally unacquainted that he begins
to realize how much he has to learn, and
even though he may make some notes of
what is said, the chances are hundred
to one that when he comes to translate
his characters he will find himself in
dreadful middle.
There is much in common between
sending and reading on the telegraph and
doing the same with shorthand charac-
ters. One can soon learn TO send the
matter over the wire at hot pace, but
it takes great deal of practice to receive
it as rapidly. The same is true of short
can represent stereotyped characters and
business phrases in shorthand, imagine
that they are competent stenographers,
but there usually comes a sudden dis
agreeable dispelling Of the illusion when
a test in practical work is attempted.
ALMOST A TRAGEDY.
ITO illustrate to you how complicated
a thing shorthand is, let me tell you
story wherein one of the brightest men in
the force on the House side of the cap
itol figured as victim.
1t was several years ago, and at that
time he was private secretary TO one of
thhe highest officials on the Pennsylvania
railroad. The position was hard one,
and consequently paid big money. The
Official was something of wag, and one
day during the absence of the stenogra-
pher from his room for a short time he
deftly inserted several shorthand charac-
tiers among the latter's notes. When tho
stenographer returned to his desk the
official carcleSsly asked him TO read over
the last letter he had dictated The let
ter was long one ana full of technical
railroad phrases. The stenographer
started in reading in matter-of-fact way
and when he came TO the false characters