The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1914-10-15
STENOCRAP HER !.
ANTIQUITY

1
4 One of'rthe drawbacks attending
the effort of desultory readers tc
form, an impression of thes mode OF
life In antiquity srthe disposition OF
writer's who attempt their enlighten
ment to unduly emphasize particular
instances, a practice which leads to
| exaggeration. Another equally seri
Gus is that which underlies the as.
sumption that the absence of evidence
converting methods of doing things
should be taken to imply that they
we're not adopted. This latter pro.
pensity Is responsible for great deal
Of misapprehension regarding 2i.the
ancients and has caused their accom-
plishments to be greatly moderated.
An anomaly presented by the mod
ern judgment of the peoples of an
tiquity is the disposition to concede
superiority to them in what might be
termed the superior attainments OF
man, while denying to them the abil-
ity to do commonplace things except
| in the crudest manner. We conceIe
without question that their artistic
genius has not been approached by
moderns, and that their great think
ers and writer's have not been rival
ed in our own times, but are prone
to believe that the races that pro-
duced great sculptors and architects
and philosophers whose ideas we are
content to work over, we're mere
children when 1t came to practical
matters. ~
There Is perhaps no more sigma
misconception concerning ANTIQUE peo
pie than that involved in the assump
ton that they were incapable Of per
fecting a photographic system. We
are told that shorthand was known
to the Greeks as early as 400 B. G.
and that In the early centuries Of the
Christian era and in the Middle Ages
systems we're devised whereby words
could be expressed in shorthand. but
those who have discussed theil mat
ter learnedly have left it to be I'M
piled that even the so-called notes
of M. Tullius Tiro,. the freedman OF
Cicero, while they were undoubtedly
alphabetic in their origin lacked some
thing, the implication being that they
could not have been employed as ell;
fectuaIly as. the modern systems.
And yet the Classics are full OF
illusions which suggest that no mat
ter what may have been the defects
of shorthand, regarded from q mod
ern standpoint, the stenographers OF
antiquity must have been very expert.
In one Of Horace's satires he takes q
fling at q brother poet who would Of
ten, as a great feat, dictate zoo vers-
es in one hour standing in the same
position. Horace says Lucilius OF
whom he spoke, was verbose and too
lazy to endure the fatigue OF wriuns
He NAV have been sorry poet, out
the stenographer evidently knew MS
business.
In considering the subject 1t Is
easy 10 fall into the error OF assum-
ing that an approach to perfection
was only reached in the days OIL VI
zero. but there is no other proof thah
the lack of evidence that shorthand
was not widely practiced long before
Cicero and Caesar, came on the
scene. The critical historians have
taken the liberty Of assuming that
the speeches Of generals addressed 10
their armies, and the talks made py
: m ha ssadors. which are invariably
presented by Livy as II he were auot
inp verbatim, were simply put .ih.o
the mouths by the Roman annsH.,
IN, there "a no reason whatever io'
.ucn an assumption. except the intrin
.,c evidence Of similarity OF sVier
Tnsra certainly we're shorthands cap
ttsn
~ ~ taking down a speech ana the
sameness may be attributed 70 N'
having the same sort oil liberty do
moaern stenographer who, II he Is an
expert instinctively edits the man ne
reports. ,h
ant whether Livy wrote the speech
es with which his history Is hper'
allv supplied or not, 1t Is toieraoiy
certain that at very early perioo
speeches were reported and that he
nse of shorthand was very common
in Rome for several hundred years. 50
common, indeed, that 1t became nee
essary to regulate the price Tor teaeh
ing II to the large number who TOOK
up stenography as a profession just
how extensively the stenographef
was used In the ancient business
world it would be difficult to say;
OF