The Weiser semi-weekly signal. (Weiser, Washington Co., Idaho) 1904-1911, 1904-06-04
CHAMPION FAST TALKER
Railway Clerk In Baltimore
Claims This Honor.
PREPARED TO DEFEND THE TITLE

Lloyd Conway Says He Can Pro-
nOunce "Understandably" $4,000
Words an Hour-Gave a Remark-
able Exhibition of Rapid Reading,
Hns Voice of wonderful Range.
81 claim the championship as the
most rapid talker in the world and am
prepared to defend the title against
all Corners"
This is the def launched by Lloyd
Conway of Baltimore, says a CORE
spondent Of the Philadelphia Press.
The terms of the contest are to be ra-
pidity of utterance, clearness of pro-
nunciation and endurance.
The claimant to this unique honor is
a clerk employed in the auditing de-
partment of a prominent railroad. He
declares his ability to correctly and
"understandingly" speak $4,000 words
an hour, ten hours at stretch and to
maintain this speed for ten consecutive
days AS side statement Mr.. Con
way says he has reached the superla-
tive speed Of 65,040 words for one
hour, a high water mark of 1854
words minute or eighteen a second.
Mr. Conway is no crank seeking no
toriety. He simply says that nature
has endowed him with a gift which
has been cultivated. His duties in the
office are, in the main, to call off bank
checks, payrolls, bills of lading and
the hundreds of documents that must
be checked over by the auditors clerks.
When this work was assigned to the
young man he resolved to make a spe-
cialty of the work. He has demon
strated that his gift has a practical
side, for he does the work of three
men-that is, he calls off three differ
ent sets of vouchers with sufficient ra-
pidity to keep three expert clerks busy
checking, and his fellow clerks say he
will not average one error a month.
On the night of Feb / last Mr.. Con-
way gave an exhibition of his powers
to a party of professional men, and
the result of his performance was the
issuance Of his sweeping challenge.
He had taken from the Office a large
number of Cancelled pay checks, each
one Of which was written by a differ
ent hand. From throat that swelled
and receded with marvellous motion
the words came like bullets from q
Maxim gun. At first 1t was utterly
impossible. except to the three clerks
from the railroad Office, familiar with
his work, to distinguish a word. BY
degrees, however, the ears of the
novice listeners became attuned, and
before Mr.. Conway had finished there
were few in the room who could not
follow him. His performance, includ-
ing the handling of the checks, occu-
pied exactly six minutes and seven
seconds, or over $40 words per minute.
MIR. Conway next picked up a book
printed in long primer type-one of In
lectures for the reason, as Mr..
Conway frankly admitted, that the
orator used but the simplest words. |
In the thirty minutes of the test Mr..
Conway read fifty-five and one-half |
pages of 447 words each, a total of
24,S0S words, or S27 per minute. Dur
ing all that rapid fire of agnosticism
Mr. Conway never faltered and his
voice was as strong at the close as
when he began.
Mr.. Conway, who is a performer
upon violin and organ of ability, |
astounded his hearers by demonstrate |
Ing that his voice had a range of just |
one note short of four octaves. Seat |
ing himself at the organ. he struck the |
f below double G. Then, like a sub
terranean rumble. came from his chest |
a corresponding note. In succession
he followed the notes past three oc-
taves and then on up to q fat
In appearance, Mr.. Conway, who is
thirty years old, conveys the impress
sion that he is of rather a delicate CON
stitution, but that suspicion does not
attach to his lungs.