Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1915-10-07

ticed from a very early date.
Some histortans 60 80 far as to say
the words Of the 18th Psalm. "My!
ID the pen Of a ready writer
signiied the existence OF swift
writer's" or shorthand scribes. Let
this inference be as it may, Babylon
Ian excavations have produced rec
fords made many centuries before the
Christian era. which, when translated.
showed q contract made by a mer-
chant with a wise man" for the In
%struction Of the merchants son In the
art Of brief writing. This agreement
was quite similar to modern contracts
in that the merchant promised to pay
a certain amount at the beginning Of
the instruction, another instanment
when the boy had finished a certain
portion. and the balance upon the
boys attaining a certain speed.
In the first century a discourse by
Cato Uticensis, If we may credit
Plutarch. was taken down by short.
hand reporters. Marcus Tnllius Trio,
ia Roman slave brought UP with Cic-
ero, became Cicero's secretary after
securing his freedom. and aided great.
ly in establishing the o OF this
great orator by being always at hand
with his tablet and stylus to take
down his speeches. The famous
trial Of Catalina, So B. G., was report
ed by means OF the Tironfan notes.
Other patricians were quick to see
the advantage of having a shorthand
scribe, and many of them had their
slaves instructed in the art. Schools
Of shorthand were established in
Rome during the era Of the first EN-
perors, Augustus and Titus, them
selves being proficient in 1t, and e
one in the upper crust of Roman So
ciety had his private note-taker.
Many cases of s-tenographers hav-
ing been subjected to severe punish
ment for inability to transcribe their
notes are on record. The emperor
Seyerus is said to have incapacitated
his s~tenographer by commanding
that his finger erv be cut, because
he unsupported a case in the imperial
court. Another reporter who threw
his tablets at his lordship's head was
sentenced for contempt of court. to
be stabbed to death by his pupils
with their styluses.
In the second century we find the
term "semeographn photographic
character) in the writings of the
Greek orator, Flayius Philostratus.
Origen of Alexandria (185-254 a. d.
tells us that he noted his sermons
down in shorthand. Socrates says
that part of the sermons of st. John
Ghrysostom was preserved by the
same process. Aristotle's work on
the constitution of Athens, written
about 100 A. D., contains a large
number Of shorthand symbols, indicat-
ing that the art was In common use
up to that time. A fragment of an
inscription found on the Akropolis
at Athens showed the existence Of d
system composed of arbitrary signs,
as old as the fourth century.
S~uetonius attributes the first intro,
|duction Of shorthand into Rome to
Emius, about 100 B. c.. but no work
or saying of his written in short
hand has been discovered. Plutarch
and Eusebius credit Trio with its in
y~ention. Whether he deserves this
honor or not, the Tironian notes were
used to a greater extent than d
other. Undoubtedly the development
of medieval shorthand is due chiefly
TO Marcus Tullius Trio. born in Lat
sium. lob B. G.
The characters used were the let
tiers Of the alphabet, with modifea-
tons connected so as to admit OF,
great rapidity OF execution. There
is an old folio in existence contain
ing a collection OF 1900 Of these ar
lbitrary signs, S Q that the requirement
of the winged art in those days
must have beeH4a formidable task.
With the decline Of the Roman en-
pire the practice Of stenography de-
clined and seemed to fall into dis
use altogether, very little trace Of its
employment being found after the
fifth century until the seventeenth,
when a marked revival takes place.
We may later write q regarding