TRANSCRIPT OF SHORTHAND PLATES. W. W. OSGOODBY. (Author Phonetic Shorthand.) -Q.-Upon what part of his body? A.-The most severe were upon his shoulder, and along the spine, upon the right side. Q.-Was he conscious when you first saw him A.-O, yes, and complaining of great pain. Q.-You say there were burns upon his face? A.--Yes, sir, over the right temple. Q.-I suppose he was not able to give you any statement in regard to the accident? A. No, sir, I didn't inquire about that. Q. Did you have any one to assist you at that time? A.-Dr. Burnet was there, and my son. Q. Did you have any difficulty in removing the clothing? A.-Considerable; such work is always difficult, especially where the burns are so severe. Q. How long did it take you to dress the wounds? A. I suppose we were engaged two or three hours in attending to his wounds, and my son staid with him during the night. When I left him he was comparatively comfortable. Q.-Do you say you think there has been no improvement in his condition since your examination in July? A.-I do not say that; in some respects there has been improvement. I do say that he has not recovered the use of his arm, as any one can see. The burns on his back have caused the stiffness that you see, and which is fully as bad as ever. The difficulty with his hearing and sight are apparently as great as they were then. Q.-You wouldn't say that he has reached the limit of improvement? A.-I will say this: that in my opinion he will never be better than he is now. Of course, no one can answer such a question with absolute certainty- [We are very glad to present our readers this month with a sample of the shorthand notes and of the penmanship of one of the veterans of the profession, W. W. Osgoodby. The portrait accompanying is from a photograph taken for our especial benefit, and is an admirable likeness. Mr. Osgoodby has put the result of his years of practice into the form of a text-book (see review in vol. 1, No. 5, p. 172), and other books relating to the study of his system, and he is now bringing forth a most admirable speed book, which will be reviewed.—ED.] -It was a vacant piece of ground. Q.-When was it first occupied? A. To the best of my recollection sometime in about 1858. Q.-Were there at that time any railroad tracks in the vicinity of it, and if so, where? A. At that time the Ft. Wayne road was making its way down Beach street past this property. Q.-Will you state what the full corporate name of that company was, if you know it? A.-Well, as I understood then, it was the Ft. Wayne & Chicago Railroad. Q. Has that railroad changed its name since that time? A.-I think it has, sir. Q-What is the present corporate name of it? A.-It is called the Ft. Wayne & Pittsburg Railway CompanyPennsylvania Railway Company. Q.-Haven't you got that a ltttle mixed? A.-Well, the Chicago, Ft. Wayne & Pittsburg Railroad. Q. Haven't you got that wrong side to? A.-Pittsburg. Ft. Wayne & Chicago. Q. Is not that it? A.-Well, I suppose that is it; I never paid any attention to the way it was. Q.-Think a minute and see if you do not remember accurately? MR. DRIGGS:-Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne & Chicago Railway Company. MR. JEWETT:- -You admit that it is the Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne & Chicago Railway Company? MR. DRIGGS:-Yes, sir. THE WITNESS:-Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne & Chicago Railway Company. Q.-What use was first made of this property which I have inquired about? A. The first use of it was made by putting a switch or a track on it connecting it with the Ft. Wayne road for fetching coal from Pittsburg, I think, by a man by the name of Dixon. Q.-Then what was the first use, to your knowledge, that was made of the lots which I have called your attention to [Every Graham writer in this country has heard of the wonderful notes made by Mr. Flowers. It will be seen that he is a close Graham writer, and makes condensed notes. He has been out of the business for years (having now a large and growing practice in the Law) yet such a superb writer is he that, though using his shorthand so infrequently as he does, he made the notes given in the plate at an average rate of 207 words per minute, the matter being entirely new to him. Mr. Flowers objects to his portrait appearing, and we reluctantly refrain from presenting it.--ED. ABBREVIATIONS. Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God, and value it next to a clear conscience.-Izaak Walton. Wear your learning like your watch, in a private pocket; and do not pull it out and strike it, merely to show that you have one.-Chesterfield. "Do you dictate to a stenographer?" "No, I used to, but I do not now." "Why not? Wasn't it satisfactory?" "Yes, satisfactory enough, but I married the stenographer, and now she dictates to me." Angelina "What is the matter with your face? "But you said that a woman never threw where she looked." A little girl in Massachusetts, the daughter of a stenographer said, "Uncle Horace, seven and nine are sixteen, ain't they?" "Yes Fannie, why did you ask that question?” "Why, uncle, I was just thinking; I am seven years old now. In nine years more I'll be sixteen and then I will have to have a beau, and oh! how I dread it." She evidently had an older sister.- Omaha, Neb., Mercury. Stenographers for business houses are in good demand in this city, and the local supply seems insufficient. Young men and women here have the opportunity of studying under one of the most expert and successful stenographers in the country, and they could not spend their time to better advantage.—Salt Lake City (Utah) Herald. The case of the State for the use of Jones, Tilley & Knight, against the Board of Railway Commissioners of Missouri, was argued before Judge Slover this morning. The relators are stenographers who were employed in the complaint of Erskine et al. against the Chicago & Alton Railway on the Higginsville coal rate question. The road lost, but the Railway Commissioners have never paid anybody for attending. The relators wish an order against the railroad. Judge Slover withheld his decision, but indicated that he would sustain the relators. An official stenographer of the German Imperial Parliament has calculated the exact rapidity of speech of some of the most celebrated German statesmen. Rickert, a leader of the Free Trade Independents, he says, talks in a minute 153 words; Count Herbert Bismarck, 144; Singer, the Socialist, 121; Bamberger, the best known bimetallist among the Independents, 129; Stumm, the coal baron, 148.-Columbus (Ga.) Sun, The phonograph has been put to a new use. A clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Horne, of Larchmont, has preached his own funeral sermon in which had to come down to the figures of Bennett, Edwards & Pettit, and thus he enumerated his faults, eulogized his wife, burst forth into weeping and ended by giving out a hymn. The legend of the monastic corpse that rose from its bier to check and contradict the laudations which were being uttered by the preacher over the life just ended is thus, to some extent, made a fact. A literal voice from the grave has been heard at Larchmont, with what result in edification remains to be seen.-Davenport (Ia.) Democrat. Miss M. Jeannette Ballantyne, stenographer, of Rochester, N. Y., by solicitation of several parties at Seneca Falls, in the same state, has formed a class in Osgoodby's system of shorthand in that village, for Saturday afternoons. Dan Brown's shorthand school is now located in the Haymarket building. The A. B. Dick Co., who handle the Edison mimeograph, in such an enterprising way, have been refitting their spacious offices at 152-154 Lake street, where they display the perfect work of this copying device. Wm. C. Rider, formerly teacher of typewriting at the college of H. B. Bryant & Son, has, in connection with E. D. Clifford, opened a shorthand school at 196 La Salle street, to be known as "Chicago Amanuensis College." They will teach the Graham and Munson systems and typewriting on all the leading machines, and also give instruction in the use of the phonograph and graphaphone. The girls who write shorthand sharpen a pencil in a peculiar fashion. They usually begin about a third the distance from the end and slope it down. Their notes are faintly written, but they go over the surface rapidly, and as a rule grasp a pencil so firm as to press the index finger into the shape of a bow. Then they make long straggling notes, sometimes writing not more than three words to a line. Contrary to this is the court reporter, who, if he does not use ink and a fountain pen, makes notes with a pencil sharply pointed but cut low, and may get fifteen or twenty words on a line-often thirty. Long, stringy notes are not indicative of speed, because the time used in traveling over the paper amounts to a considerable item when words are being chronicled at the rate of 175 or 200 a minute. The man who sharpens a pencil in a slovenly fashion will generally be found with a habit of chewing the opposite end. Some say that one's thoughts can be brought into line more thoroughly and quickly by chewing on the end of a pencil.-Chicago (Ill.) Post. More & Dundas, court stenographers, began suit against Bennett, Edwards & Pettit, also court reporters, to recover $3,000. Plaintiffs secured a contract from the county to report the Cronin trial at the rate of $10 per day for attendance, 20 cents per folio for single copies, and 25 cents for two copies, and 28 cents for three copies or over. They went to work and subsequently, it is said, defendants offered to the county to do the work for $5 a day for attendance, 20 cents per folio for single, and 22 cents for two copies, and all other copies free of charge. As the contract with the county requires the work to be done at the lowest price, More & Dundas the former lost $3,000. The point made by More & Dundas is that defendants violated an agreement between them as members of the Chicago Law Stenographers' Association, by which members were not allowed to work below the schedule prices, and that plaintiffs were so working. A number of interesting questions will be raised when the suit comes up for trial. Inter Ocean.] The third international shorthand congress will take place this year in Munich, from the 5th to 12th of August, in connection with the centenary of the birth of Franz Xavier Galesberger, the founder of modern German shorthand. The gigantic bronze Gabelsberger statue will be unveiled on August 10, and there will also be an international shorthand exhibition. Mr. Henry Richter, of 52 Leadenhall street, London, E. C., will shortly issue an English circular on behalf of the German congress committee, and persons who are desirous of receiving that and future announcements, if any, are requested to communicate with Mr. Richter on the subject. [Shorthand.] Transactions of the Paris Shorthand Congress, 1889, is now ready and members of the shorthand society desiring copies should communicate at once with the secretary for France, Mons. A. Lelioux, 6, Bue Donizette, Antenil, a Paris. The price of the volume is 10 francs. [Shorthand.] Woodworth's College of Shorthand and Typewriting of Denver, Colo., has had such a phenominal growth in the last six months that he has been obliged to move to larger quarters, and on the 1st day of May will occupy rooms in the Masonic Temple, one of Denver's largest buildings, which has just been completed in the very heart of the city. Eight months ago he began with 15 pupils and now has about 70. He has, perhaps, placed more stenographers in position during that time than any shorthand school in the country, considering the length of time the school has been running. At the date of his last writing he had no less than eight calls for stenographers, some of which he filled from his school. Mr. Woodworth was teacher of shorthand in Eastman's National Business College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., for two years, where he won the reputation of being one of the best teachers of phonography in the East. He has done all sorts of court reporting and jobbing among the lawyers and real estate men, taking lectures, sermons and court reporting, even when out of practice on account of such continuous teaching. Mr. Woodworth is an expert on both the Remington and Caligraph machines, often taking dispositions direct on either. We predict for him continued success and look forward to the time when his institution will be known throughout the country as one of the best of its kind. Mr. Woodworth teaches the Graham system in its purity. He does not advertise any other system, though he is not biased in his opinion and believes there are several other systems, by the use of which stenographers are enabled to do verbatim work. He wishes people to know what to expect when they come to his school. The course is simpliresult in the shortest fied so as to enable the student to reach the desired time. WASHINGTON NOTES. J. J. McElhone, the shorthand chief of the House reporters, has been quite ill for several weeks suffering from nervous prostration. His friends devoutly hope that his illness may prove of short duration and that he may soon resume the duties of the position he has so long and so worthily occupied. It is extremely doubtful if he will be able to do so during this session, in prospect of the approaching hot weather and the exactions of the tariff discussion. A resolution was offered on the 8th inst. providing for the appointment of a substitute for Mr. McElhone, at the rate of $5,000 per annum. The veteran, however, will be retained on the rolls of the House. The tariff discussion which has just begun, will be much shorter than the discussion of the Mills bill in the 50th congress. The reporters have offered no protest against the brevity of the debate. They are efficient men, able to do as much work as any five shorthand men living, probably, but I dare say that they are not anxious for a repetition of the labors imposed upon them during the tariff discussion in last Congress. There is always a great deal of talk in both Houses of Congress and a great deal of unnecessary talk, too, as the talkers themselves sometimes admit, but there is a vast difference between the discussion of one subject for weeks and the transaction of general business. Ordinarily much time is consumed by the introduction of bills, the passage of bills, roll-calls, etc., but in a discussion such as is aroused by the appearance of a tariff bill. there is constant talk, talk, talk from the meeting of the House at 12 o'clock M. until the adjournment, and oftentimes a night session thrown in for good measure. In the discussion of the bill under the five minute rule, when a member is trying to say a half hour's worth in five minutes, I need not say that the reporter's work is lacking in the essentials of perfect comfort. When a man has an hour in which to talk, he settles down and tries to be 10gical and deliberate, fearing to hurry lest he will get out of something to say ere his time is exhausted. Under the five minute rule the reverse is true. Candidly, I do not want to report any five minute talkers. and generally I should say that the boys who get $5,000 per annum richly deserve it. A noisy court scene, which appears to a tyro in the reporting business to be an undutiable as well as an execrable affair, and makes even old court reporters "hustle" occasionally, is very mild compared with the tribulations of the congressional reporter. I want to The following appeared in the Congressional Record a short time ago: Mr. Butler. (to Mr. Reagan.) The reporter does not hear you. Mr. Reagan: I was notified that I could not be heard by the reporters. say in their presence and to the Senate that I shall not hereafter hold myself responsible, and I hope nobody else will hold me responsible, for the reports of my remarks in our debates here. I find in what I said yesterday, what I thought was very emphatic and very clear, and in close hearing of the reporters, some of it was so reported that I do not know how to revise it." Of course the reporter was not to blame but you could not make Senator Reagan think so. Anyone who has ever heard the Senator speak will readily understand the withering rebuke administered to the scribe as above. Every word he utters seems a chorus of villianous sounds, from the full grown gurgle down to the tiny gurglet, which would wreck any shorthand system or choke up a phonograph. He is the most inarticulate speaker in Congress. The following is from a recent issue of the Washington Post: SHORTCOMINGS OF STENOGRAPHERS. Business men now complain of the general incompetence of stenographers. What is wanted apparently is a standard school, where the actual speed and ability of stenographers can be tested and certified to by some acknowledged authority. As it is now, the greater number of stenographers make claims in the way of speed which they are not able to fulfill even in the most remote degree. Two-thirds of the stenographers, in answering advertisements, state that they can take dictation at the rate or 150 or 200 words a minute, and most of them place their speed on the typewriter in an airy manner at 75 words a minute. In point of fact there are very few expert shorthand writers who can reach this standard. The difficulty is not in taking the dictation, but in making a correct and intelligible transcript of the notes. The system in vogue in England works well. Pupils have to make a test of speed before a recognized authority in shorthand, and then a certificate is issued by Isaac Pitman explaining the exact ability of the writer to whom it is issued. The tests are exhaustive and carefully conducted, so that the ability of the stenographer has a fixed commercal value." The writer of the paragraph has a poor estimate of the "expert shorthand writer" but otherwise what he says deserves respectful consideration. |