Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-14

director in many business enterprises, and
trustee of Howard University. He was
largely interested in the commercial devel-
opment of the national capital. His son.
Mr.. E. Quincy Smith; his daughter, Mrs.
A. r. Holden, and his grand children, Mr.
Dyer Smith. Miss Dorothy Smith. Miss Enid
Holden, Master Randall Holden and Miss
Annie Holden survive the deceased. His
residence in this city was 1907 10th street.
Mr.. Smiths son is expected to arrive
here this evening. Until his coming no
funeral arrangements will be made. Mr..
Holden started for Connecticut this morn
ing.
Mr. Smiths career embraced a most i'm
portant period of national history. His
work as an expert reporter of debates at a
time when there were very few stenog-
rapherS in the country capable of taking
speech verbatim, brought him in contact
with nearly every important convention In
the country during the most critical period
of modern times. His wide experience and
his vast fund of "reminiscences of historical
events, of which he was an observer, put
the finishing touch to. an unusual career
and made his personality most interesting
and charming.
Four Score Years.
Mr. Smith was born in the town of
Washington, Conn, March IL, 1929, and up
to the day of his DEATH at four score
years, was an active, clear-minded financier
and a man of business, who gave daily at
tention to his numerous personal interests
and to the various Institutions with which
he was connected Until he was sixteen
years of age the boy was employed on his
fathers farm, and the only opportunity he
had to secure an education was three
months during the winter in the dis
trict school, His father a farmer, and
having the view of the relations between
father and his children prevalent at
baf awaited himself of &c
services at work on the farm long as
the latter lived at home.
But from an early period young Smith
was ambitious to obtain a thorough educa-
ton. and after finishing his days work as a
farmer he usually spent his time, until
the early hours of the morning, in study on
his own account, and in several instances,
particularly in higher mathematics, he
knew great deal more when the school
session was over, than did his teacher. At
terward he spent one winter in the town
academy. and the following winter-that of
1S46-47-in the high school at Winsted,
where he studied photography, or as 1t is
more commonly called nowadays, short
hand. Shortly afterward, was the Gus
tom among the New England young men
of that time, he went to Virginia and
taught school in the family of a planter
during the year or two following occa-
sionally teaching classes in photography
and awaiting himself of sermons, lectures
and other public speeches for the purpose of
practice.
Impressions of Visit.
In the spring of 1850 Mr.. Smith was on
his way home to Connecticut and stopped
off in this city to see his old teacher of
shorthand Henry E. Rockwell, who was
then on the reporting force of the Senate
| His Impressions of that visit are best told
| in an extract from a brief autobiographical
| sketch:
| Il remember very WE'LL" he wrote, my
| first visit to the Senate. l had never been
inside any legislative body before and the
| impression | had of the august presence of
| the conscript fathers of the country was
| such that l felt as If l ought to take my
shoes off my feet as l entered; These i'm
pressions. however, were considerably mod
| flied in the course of the day, during which
| l witnessed istcuff encounter between
| Thomas II. Benton of Missouri and Sena-
| tor Foote of Mississippi
| During his visit here Mr. Smith was en-
| ployed to assist the Senate reporters for the
| remainder of the session and the first
| speech he ever reported that went into
| print one by Daniel Webster the great
| expounder and defender of the Constitu-
| ton. Up to that time no verbatim report
| of the proceedings of the House of Repre-
sentatives had ever been made
Summary Of Days Happenings.
The reports which were recognized by
| Congress were published in the Congress
| sional Globe and were mainly summary
or each days happenings, although speech
es were printed in full when an obligine
member furnished the manuscript-in adj
| vance. During. that session, however Con-
| gress made provision for verbatim report
| ing of the House debates. and Mr.. Smith
| was one of the four selected out of twenty
| five by competitive examination to do the
| work. The successful four had a hard
| time and worked about fifteen hours a day,
but they stuck to it, and the reports, poor
| enough at first. gradually improved.
| Mr.. Smith spent the following summer
| that of 1851. in Richmond, reporting the
| proceedings of a convention to revise the
| state constitution. which had reference
| mainly to the status of slavery. All the
| great statesmen of Virginia were in attend
| ance, and the proceedings were lively, but
| as the convention was not approved by the
| people of the state the report made by Mr..
| Smith has never been published. During
| the session of 1866 Mr.. Smith was made
| official stenographer, the place being Great
/ ed for him. and held that position until
1875. when the work having told severely
on his health he resigned.
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