The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-06-28
SHORTHAND And NERVE, TOO.
4 STENOGRAPHER NEEDS BOTR
IN HIS BUSINESS.


When the Ono Fails Him in . Hard Case
the Other Sometimes Pulls Him Thro0Oil
Two Instances in PoiDt-Luck Also
Sometimes Helps Out the stenographer.
yes you're right, said the stenographer
( who has begun to grow gray with his years
| Of service; the work OF good stenographer
| is mighty hard But nerve counts In that
, business as we'll as any other.
! Let me tell you that there are very few
all-round good court stenographers. Some
| Of the best In the country are right here In
this city, but you can easily count those
that are able to keep up with the procession
when experts, DOCTORS alienists and other
people who can talk of strings Of Latin,
French and other strange words and terms
| get on the stand.
Il hadn't been in the business long before
was warned to fight shy OF expert testt-
| mony, technical hearings, commissions In
lunacy and such things. But by and by
l got 80 proficient that not much OF any
thing In my hw-office work stumped mo
and az mvs Ssfan to have pretty good opinion
Il knew French well, had enough Latin
to wade along in pretty deep puddle, had
! the law part of the business down as we'll
as nine out of ten and even little medicine
| in my head.
Il was doing regular law-office stenog.
rapher's work at the time. One day .
stenographer who was recognized as the
kingpin Of the trade here came to my offlco
and asked me il | would report for him
the hearing Of Wall Street case in one Of
fact that he had asked me was a piece OF
| fattery that tiokled me very much and,
seeing good chance to break into the inner
circle OF the stenographic fraternity, con-
sented on the instant
3Well, when l reached the court room
l was nearly scared out Of my shoes. There
were about seven lawyers on each side,
and they were all more than prepared TO
argue every phase Of a very hard case In
the most technical language.
a whirlwind. but stuck to nay work like .
Trojan and got every syllable down per-
fectly. Even when the fourteen lawyers,
more or less, talked pretty much all at once
and the Court put In questions and the
once in a great while, had everything
down right.
Then one Of the lawyers asked : long
question, rafting out his words like
Calling gun pouring shot, and all the other
OF the cannonade: I knew t was getting
it all down in pothooks all right, but sud.
denly one Of the lawyers requested that the
stenographer repeat the question.
Now. had that question down all right
and in such shape that was perfectly able
to translate 1t. but the suddenness with
which that. lawyers request was made
threw me clean OF my feet ! was COM
pletely ratified, to put 1t plainly. I knew
that il tried to read that question should
stutter and stammer and fail.
Il did have lot Of common sense left,
however, and l began to play for time in
which to cool down, II possible, and with
that idea in my head l began to turn over
the leaves Of my notebook, pretending to
hunt for the question | fumbled back
and forth as coolly--on the surface, any
way-as II 1 were the oldest hand In the
business at that sort Of game, but all tho
time I felt as II everybody in court was
looking at me. All Of a sudden the law :,
III withdraw that question Imagine
what deep breath Of relief l took!
There's another kind Of nerve that pays
In the business. had been doing some
summer work for one Of the big Philadelphia
law firms whose regular stenogrepher vas
on long vacation. / had stipulated that
l was to do nothing but Office business for
the lawyers. but one day there came up .
big case and the man they had expected to
do the. reporting, went back on them at the
Il had no idea what the case was TO be
| and when landed In the courtroom was
astounded. 1t was one OF those ticklish
lunacy commission hearings and the two
| DTu1Clpdl WllHcsSeS WcIc tflc UiS80ps 0iAOh-
lists in this part Of the country.
when those alienists got to work II was
all up with me One Of them In particular
nearly drove me crazy right theretn myseat:
HE hurled out a collection Of long -wtnded
that simply couldn't be recorded BY any
body who was not . wonder. But VIII en-
I was unable to get the whole word or phrase
down In shorthand made mark OF some
sort and kept up the bluf' In way ..,..
stenographers in the room and could So
| that they were looking at me with open
} eyes. Well, the hearing was over at last
( and packed up and went home.
THAT night I studied up enough OF the
subject to pick out the meaning Of the first
three or four pages, but when 1t came to
doing the rest of that job was simply up
| against it. There were whole pages where
could hardly pick out three words to page.
The next morning when J went 70 ne ne
said to the head Of the Arm:
When do you want that written outF
"He pondered for while and then said
| he thought there was no hurry and that !
might as we'll wait because tho case might
be settled out Of court and then there would
be no need Of the notes. told him that
plan was all right, but, for one thing. IL !
waited the notes would get cold and would
be unable to make them out. Then no
said to g. ahead and ,u WITT them 1%I h.,.
to lose my notebook or something OF the
sort, but I went ahead and wrote out W
tie Of the testimony and showed It to him:
Two days later went into the ONCE and
said that I was about ready to finish the
Job Why said he, I have Just received
word that the case Is settled and We sha'n1
need the notes. That too bad, answered,
because have nearly finished the thing.
"Then he asked me what thought would
be fair pay. Well, I don't remember the
exact figures but charged him for praoti-
cally the whole. business. And l got the
money There u always one thing to keep
In mind: Never lose your nerve.
MY very first lesson in that game wes
when was In tho habit OF going to Brook
lyn church every Sunday morning to re-
port the sermon for practice. usually
took seat rather far back "a 20 not to
be too conspicuous, but one Sunday there
happened to be big congregation there
to attend special service and I ives forced
to take a seat near the front.
Everything went along all right until
about the middle Of the sermon when In
turning my page over / rustled 1t rather
| perceptibly. The minister, who had not
seen me before looked down at me-. Isawa
wicked little gleam come into his eye,