New-York tribune., 1901-11-03
THE DEBT TO SHORTHAND.
OLDER METHODS AND THE PRESENT
ONES
ANNIE RUSSELL.
From The London Standard.


Between the days when David COpperffeld
was informed that learning stenOgraphy was ac-
counted equal To the acquisition of six languages
and the publication the other day OF the I"tIl-
tieth Century Edition" of Pitman's Shorthand,
great deal has happened David. it will be re-
nernbered gave half a guinea for his instruction
book and when he had got it he was plunged
into a Of perplexity which brought him TO
the verge of distraction \ "PhonoSraphlc
Teacher can be bought for Sixpence. and
the may be acquired in three months OF dlll-
gent application by any Intelligent schOolboy- II
Gurney's system. long SO highly esteemed
and even now not extinct that Dickens used IN
the gallery Of the House OF Commons; but IT
was probably not more difficult than its rival
invented by Samuel Taylor, or than the carrier
method OF Byron There We're many previous
systems; the Romans, We know, were acqualnt-
I'd with abbreviated writing. while the use OF
shorthand for reporting in England goes back
well into the time of Queen Eliza beth, when
men yet had leisure and inclination to read long
sermons
In one particular at least. literature owes
heavy debt to of these old forms of stenog-
raphy. for Samuel Pepys wrote his Diary IN
Thomas Skeletons shorthand. which was pup
Iished as far back as 1920 Had it not been for
the welcome obScurity of character" as SkeI-
tons predecessor, Bright called MS invention,
the famous secretary to the Admiralty might
not have found time to make his entertaining
jottings-certainly he would have lacked effrOnt-
| cry 10 write down some of them in plain words,
| even had there been no fear Of Mrs Pepys be-
| fore his eyes. The older systems have now no
| more than antiquarian interest, even TO the
expert since they were all rapidly ana finally
| beaten out of the field when the late Sir Isaac
| Pitman devised what he at 1rSl CaIleu StriIu-
graphic Soundhand," now so familiar under the
name OF photography The pr1nclple upon
which il was constructed differed radically from
| that of its predecessors Where they mad fol-
| lowed the spelling of words. Pitman worked
solely by their sound. Sixty years have elapsed,
Vet the excellence of his method Stdn+S out in
brilliant contrast even To the many rivals that
have been introduced during the second hair
Of that period PhonOgraphy made shorthand
an elegant and graceful art, which, instead OF
| being known merely TO a few score newspaper
/ reporters is now written by hundreds Of thou
sands of people Of all conditions 1t began. IN
| deed. that revolution in the work OF business
| offices which the typewriter mas competed
! Like all other systems. II has been accused on
| uIegibiIity but when its simple mathematical
| forns-Iines and curves. circles. dots and hooks
I-are written with any surety OF hand, tney are
as readable as print. and much less trying To tn
eyes than the page of a German book. Phonetic
| shorthand is n fixed quantit,< 1t Is con-
stantIy being unprecedented. those VINO
| learned ii five and twenty years ago. or even
| more recently find that alterations have been
| made for which they often fail to recognize any
| necessity and which hardly add TO leSlplIltE
| PepyS tells us how he rallied Coventry q Sten"S-
| rapher of his time. upon his invention of long
| marks for sentences in divinity which he IS
| never like to make of" We find elaborate
| lists of similar phraseOgrams. on which much
the same criticism may be passed in this
| twentieth Century Edition of Pitman- Tech
| nicaIitieS apart, however, the world mas reason
| to he grateful to photography 1t has called
forth a shorthand literature, which no rival ever
| did. The Bible and the Prayer Book are pub
| lshed in shorthand. together with much of
| Shakespeare and Dickens, something of Scott
| and MacauIay. and classics like "Gulliver.'
| "Robuson CrusCe" and The Vicar of Wake
| field ." to say nothing of Bret Harte. DR.. Conan
| Doyle and Jules Verne.