The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1902-08-09

sources, and as these same quotations
occasionally show striking differences
from the author, whose aid is invoked,
the knowledge Of English literature
alone, requisite in the reporter, is
something stupendous.
It is stated that within the past few
years several of the official stenogra-
piers of congress have died from sheer
nervous prostration.
In the house each reporter has only
to write at one time sufficient num-
Der of words to fill one page of the
Congressional Record; when he is re-
lieved by one Of his associates. Those
| who take the proceedings in the senate
are required to fill six pages of the
Record at each turn" amounting to
something over 5000 words and con-
Stunning usually about half an hour.
The work Of the congressional ste
nographer is divided into two general
lines-debate and committee reporting:
The house employs five reporters on
debates and two on committees, while
the corps of the senate, consisting of
five stenographers and an assistant,
perform both kinds Of duty. The Sc
nate. corps is under the charge of
Messrs. T. F.. Shuey and Edward v.
Murphy, who employ their assistants
at salaries allowed by. the appropria-
ton for each session of congress Of
$4,000. The house reporters are all
upon the same basis, and receive a
salary of $4,000 a year.
The position of congressional reporter
is practically for life, inasmuch as they
are dismissed only for cause and by a
resolution of the legislative body to
which they belong.
There is, perhaps, no other branch
Of shorthand work requiring such ex
pertness as that of taking down con-
gressional debates. The swift inter-
jectional remarks made sometimes
from various quarters at once, the
heated reply, the call to order, the
storm of protests, the sharp rattle
Of the hammer upon the speakers desk,
all occurring simultaneously are often
sufficient to distract the mere spec
tator; but when it is remembered
that every word of insistence and pro-
test must ] e recorded verbatim by the
reporter, and the babel of sounds rem
dered in their proper order and Sc
quence, it may be easily imagined that
the task becomes almost Herculean.
It is fortunate that the strain upon
each individual lasts but few min
utes, or, in case Of the senate reporters,
half an hour a. a time. AS soon as one
mans turn is done. he hurries below to
the room devoted to the use of official
reporters, and, his place upon the floor
being taken by one of his associates
proceeds to talk the STUFF into a pra-
phaphone. The record Of the sound CYL
inder is then transcribed by an aman-
uesis upon the typewriter, and 80 the
shorthand characters pass through the
shortest possible transition into clear
type. BY this method at least two
reporters always remain upon the
floor of the chamber, the one who is
taking down" the speaker and his
associate who is waiting to relieve him.
At the close of the days session, or
rather few minutes after, the type
written "copy" is arranged by an as
sistant in the stenographer's room, who
hands it to a messenger, and the latter,
mounting his bycicle, starts for the
government printing office, several
blocks away. Generally, it reaches
that office about 6 o'clock, though in
cases of night sessions, the last of the
copy may not be- delivered until /
o'clock a. m.
It is interesting to hear Mr.. Shuey tell
how the senate corps of stenographers
was established, and how it used to
have its headquarters In the office of
the Globe newspaper, on Pennsylvania
avenue, now occupied by another jour-
nal. In those days there were no type
writer's or graphaphones, and the re-
porters had to stay up until the "wee
sma' hours" transcribing their notes.
The paper of which the congressionl
reports formed the principal feature,
did not come out until IL o'clock. the
following day, and Of course, by that
time another session was 'on" In
fact, as Mr.. shuey said, the Globe was
more 'reltquary than ;atrecord.
1T was Richard. sutton. AN English
parliamentary reporter. who. had sat
beside Charles Dickens in the gallery.