At the recent German Catholic congress, held at Pittsburg, Pa., the first four days of this week, an English "Pitman" stenographer took down seven columns of German matter and then gave it to an operator of the Postal telegraph company, who also was ignorant of German, and who sent it in German over the wires to Cincinnati, where it was received and handed to the compositors without a single error. This is certainly a triumph of skill.-Post-Express.

HE foregoing is a fair sample of the efforts of writers of shorthand to attempt to magnify their office-who, if we are to give them credit for honesty, must be possessed of a superadundance of Faith. Faith is a good thing. One doesn't need much of it to be enabled to perform wonders. Faith, even

as a grain of mustard seed, will remove mountains. What may we not expect, then, when we see a man possessing Faith as a Prize Squash?

But when a fellow wants to shine as a writer of fiction, why should he stop at the threshold? Just see how easily this writer might have enlarged upon his story-without stretching the truth any further-and have held. the world agape with a few more sentences:

The compositors in Cincinnati, who were also ignorant of German, set up the report in that language from a font of Russian type, so accurately that the proof-reader, who was ignorant of both languages, could not find a single error in the matter, and the subscribers of the paper, who were all equally ignorant, read the report at sight.

Such statements as these are not infrequently seen in the public newspapers. It often happens that some "graduate" takes it into his head to rush into print for the purpose of showing the dear public what a wonderful art he has learned. It is to be feared that the "professor" has stuffed such fellows too full, or that Nature was busy with her cabbages when they were born. We are told that the new telescope, now in process of construction for the Lick Observatory, will bring the moon within three hours ride from

Copyright, 1890. All rights reserved.

the earth; let us hope that all the lunatics may join the first excursion, and that the Selenites may have no telescope of equal power!

But perhaps the writer of this extract really did have this superabundance of Faith that I have supposed, and was imposed upon by some one else. Let us be charitable, and inform him in kindness that this "triumph of skill" was never accomplished, and that it will never be accomplished until the "celebrated" system of Banana Peanutto (date of celebration unknown) shall have fulfilled its author's anxious desires, but that, when that delightful day shall come, men shall be able to report the sound of an alarm clock, or the rumble of a railroad train, or the rattle of a park of artillery, or the confusion and hullabaloo of a street fire alarm, and to transcribe such reports "without a single error." In the meantime, let him have Patience, which is a necessary accompaniment of Faith.

Now, I do not for a moment deem it necessary to say anything to enlighten the readers of this journal upon the subject of the text given me by this man of faith, for such a journal should not be in existence if it depended upon the patronage of a class of readers who could invent or believe such trash; but I do wish to say a few words, with the hope that they may come to the notice of the great army of editors through whose carelessness or good nature it becomes possible for this rubbish to get into print.

To report one's native language with any reasonable degree of speed, it is necessary to use word-signs for all the more common particles of speech; it is necessary to use such contractions for certain classes of words; it is necessary to use expedients for the brief representation of prefixes and affixes; it is necessary to omit all silent letters; it is necessary to omit all vowels not essential to the legibility of word-forms; it is necessary to use various positions to indicate such vowels as are essential, and to save the time which would otherwise be required to insert them; it is necessary to distinguish, by difference of outline, or of position or vocalization, many words of similar consonantal formation, and that many words shall depend upon the context for their legibility; it is necessary to use phrase-signs, and these, to be legible, must have some relation to the grammatical construction of the language; it is necessary that every word with which the stenographer is unacquainted shall be written with such care that he shall be able to transcribe it without possibility of mistake. Many other things are necessary, and will occur to readers who are familiar with the subject, but I have mentioned enough to show that a stenographer is not a machine and that he cannot do the simplest of his work without constant and intelligent thought.

What is implied in the statement of the writer in the Post-Express? It is, that the stenographer "took down seven columns of matter" of which he understood not a word; that he did not use a single word-sign or con

traction; that he used no expedients for the brief representation of prefixes and affixes; that he omitted no consonant stems; that he inserted every vowel; that he abandoned the use of the phonetic principle; that he abandoned all rule of position; that he used not a single phrase-sign, but wrote each word separately; and that he heard with absolute distinctness every word and syllable, and every vocal sound! In fact, to enable him to accomplish such a feat, the stenographer must have dropped at once nearly every expedient of shorthand to which he had become accustomed, and which was necessary to him in reporting English speech, and he must have laid aside nearly everything he had gained as the result of long-continued practice! But this is not all; he must have abandoned, for the time, all the habits of thought which are necessary to a stenographer in the performance of his work, and which, I may say, are peculiar to the practice of the art; and he must have become a mere machine-nothing more, nothing less. No stenographer could report his mother tongue in this manner,- -certainly, not an unknown tongue.

And what further is implied in the statement I have quoted? That this lengthy report was transcribed "without a single error" would involve the absurdity that this wonderful stenographer became miraculously endowed with the ability correctly to spell every word contained in his report, using the accented letters peculiar to the German language, and inserting with unerring certainty every silent letter; to group the syllables into their proper relations, so that there should be no mesalliance or divorce among them; instinctively to punctuate his report, with proper regard to the sense of the language used; to insert capitals in their proper places, and in no other; and to paragraph the report in accordance with the various divisions. of the subject discussed!

Isn't it a wonder how many lies may be compressed into so brier a statement as that which I have quoted as the text of these remarks?

THIS is the teacher who taught the student who read the ad. that told of the book that Jack built.

M

SUGGESTIONS TO ISAAC PITMANITES.

BY S. LOUISE PATTESON.

ODERN tendencies are more and more towards individualization of character, and of the productions of thought, and it is not surprising that we frequently hear, in shorthand circles, the question: "Does it pay to mix systems?" And the fact is, whether it pays or not, it is done to a very large extent, because thinking men and women rebel against accepting and following "one-man ideas" and will not all adhere to them all the time. Lincoln used to say: "You can't fool all the people all the time." It is not likely that one man could evolve all the good ideas on a certain subject, another may evolve an idea or two, and, later on, a woman may evolve still another. In view of the facts, we, in this age of the world, can appreciate more keenly, perhaps, than has been the case at any previous time, the latent wisdom in St. Paul's advice to the Thessalonians: "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."

The efficacy of the system which an individual uses will naturally lead him in determining the question: "To 'mix,' or not to 'mix.'" Some systems afford better facilities for gaining speed than others, and, therefore, require less modification and lopping off.

Now a few words as to expedients adaptable to the Isaac Pitman system. It is an advantage, wherever possible, to discard the dot and use in its place the tick, either slanting, horizantal or perpendicular as the case may require. It can be joined both initially and finally, and thus enables the