Arizona republican., 1903-09-11
THE ANCIENTS' SHORTHAND
Cicero Had a Good System of Stenog-
 raphy in Use.

Washington.-"It was eminently proper that we should place a tablet | over the grave Of Thomas Lloyd. the first official stenographer to the Amer ican congress-" said a veteran of the shorthand art. "and I have been deeply interested in delving into ancient his tory to find out when and where shor't hand reporting was first introduced. Even before the days of printing presses Cicero used q system of short hand reporting, called the Tyronean method, from Tyro, q freedman. who was one of Ciceros best writers. That even at that early date systems of shorthand writing-stenogra phy-came into general use for certain purposes, and the me thods were very effective, We may infer from a passa ge in Hor- ace. who. when addressing short hand writer. says: You write in such a manner that you will have no oc- casion in four whole years to ask for another sheet of parchment
 CAESARS PUBLIC DOCUMENTS"
 Julius Caesar, bidding for populari- ty in his first consulate. caused the proceedings of the Roman senate to be published daily, and these reports were taken down by trained writers. who were called tabulaIii. being what we today style shorthand reporters. These reporters were probably only rapid writers. using the ordinary characters. These reports were revised and edited before their exposure to the public eye. and were then circulated even in the distant provinces-just the same as the Congressional Record is now sent to T bers of our congress. Prior to this time the great annals of the lawmakers were written on tablets and placed in q room where they were accessible to the public. The people had to go to the newspaper it was not delivered at their homes as now. This room was a general reading room. or the order of the peridical room of the congressional library. Why the ancents had no print ing presses it has been difficult for stu dents to solve. Cor they had the mater ial for making them. and paper and parchment for printing. and then. as TOW. there was a heavy and growing demand for reading matter It was rot until the material for writing hanged that there was much progress made in the matter of spreading the rews. The Dacalogue Was written up cn tablets of stone: the Athenian rec c:d, now known as the 'Parian Chron- icle, was engraved upon tablets of marble. and next We find inscriptions cn thin plates of metal and on the broad leaves of certain plants. on sheets formed of woven t7Xture. from the bark oi trees, and on tae skins of animals. These heavy and .cumbrous volumes were as difficult to hanG'n as the iron money imposed upon the Spartans.
 GARDEN SEED POLITICS IN ROME
 "Ciceros efforts were the first to send out publications. and his short hand reporters were the beginning Of the stenogra pilic art. without which We could not get along very well in this age Of newspa pering. C:cero's plan on- iy called for the taking down and copy ing of the proceedings of the senate by educated slaves. and these copies were sent out. Cicero worked on the same plan of gaining popularity as do the statesmen who send out the Con gressional Record. public documents. and garden seed. and he was unques.- fiona bly, q pretty shrewd politician.
 ''Att:cus. 6 R;man bibl.ophi.ist. train- ed a large number Of slaves to the especial duty Of transcribing alone. There were five readers for each 100 trained writers in different apartments anC 5G0 copies Of short poem O. small book could be produced rapidly and al little cost. less by far than the boasted powers of the press with all our modern appliances in the art of printing. These shorthand slaves could produce in twelve hours 800 copies 0: d poem equal in extent to Tennysons 'Enoch Arden and it's accompanying poems. and for this work they received one pound of kind of common corn each. with a small allowance of wine. This kind of feed would not SC with sten- ogra phers of the present day"