PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. THE chief object of stenography is expedition. This is effected by the substitution of simple signs for the ordinary letters, by the omission of unnecessary consonants and vowels, and by the use of contractions and abbreviations. There are but nine simple signs. In our system they represent the letters c, d, l, m, n, p, r, s, t. The character for r is ingeniously contrived to represent two other letters. It is obvious that the rest of the alphabet must be formed of compound signs. Some authors have employed strokes of three degrees of inclination, at 70, 45 and 20 degrees respectively. It may be safely asserted that such characters, however distinct they may appear on an engraved plate, could never be denoted in practice with any tolerable precision. Others multiply signs by varying their thickness and length, a contrivance not introduced into this system. have had to do little more than hand over to an intelligent compositor my notes of Coleridge's lectures with some obvious corrections, instead of having had to write out the whole of them by a tedious and irksome process. Knowing the great advantage of short-hand, I say this not at all as a matter of complaint, or even of regret, but with a view to induce fathers of families to have their children taught stenography with as much diligence as they are now instructed in any other branch of learning. Only let us agree upon a system—let the simplest and the clearest be ascertained and preferred—and we may soon make this mode of recording thoughts or opinions in some sort compete with the rapidity of railroads and almost with the lightning of the telegraph.' I submit that the clearest and most simple is Mason's, which I have endeavoured to explain as plainly and as briefly as possible. It is now exactly 150 years since it was first laid before the public, and though since that time nearly 200 other systems have appeared, it still keeps its place, and is the system used by nearly all professional reporters. Many persons are de 1 Preface to Coleridge's Lectures on Shakspere. terred from commencing the study of the art because they fancy it is extremely difficult of attainment. This idea is altogether erroneous, for as Mr. Collier justly observes, it may be acquired by a very brief study. In a week a person may learn enough of it to enable him to make memoranda and extracts from books, and to use it for all purposes not requiring extraordinary speed. Such perfection indeed is not to be arrived at without much practice. No system of short-hand will in itself enable a person to take down verbatim a speech or a sermon. It can only be effected by continual practice and great manual dexterity, for the average number of words uttered by an orator is 120 per minute, or two words a second. Others pronounce 180 words a minute, and some even more. But even the power of making verbatim reports may by continual practice be acquired in a few months. Mr. Dickens has somewhat exaggerated the difficulties in the way of the learner, in the following passage which I transcribe for the amusement of the reader:-"I bought an approved scheme of the noble art and mystery of stenography (which 1 Gibbon's Autobiog. that me four and sixpence); and plunged into of perplexity that brought me, in a few Wyks to the contines of distraction. The changes that were rung upon dots which in such a position meant such a thing, and in such another position something else entirely different; the wonderful vagaries that were played by circles; the unaccountable consequences that resulted from marks like flies' legs; the tremendous effects of a curve in a wrong place; not only troubled my waking hours but reappeared before me in my sleep. When I had groped my way blindly through these difficulties and had mastered the alphabet, which was an Egyptian temple in itself, there then appeared a procession of new horrors called arbitrary characters; the most despotic characters I have ever known; who insisted for instance that a thing like the beginning of a cobweb meant expectation, and that a pen-and-ink sky-rocket stood for disadvantageous.1 When I had fixed these wretches in my mind, I found that they had driven everything else out of it; then beginning again I forgot them; while I was picking them up I forgot the other fragments of the system; in short it was 1 Mr. Dickens appears to allude to Mason's system. almost heart-breaking. *** Every scratch in the scheme was a gnarled oak of difficulty, and I went on cutting them down one after another with such vigour that in three or four months I was in a condition to make an experiment on one of our crack speakers in the house of commons. Shall I ever forget how the crack speaker walked off from me before I began, and left my imbecile pencil staggering about the paper as if it were in a fit? I was "This would not do it was clear. flying too high and should never get on, so I resorted to Traddles for advice, who suggested that he should dictate speeches to me at a pace, and with occasional stoppages adapted to my weakness. Very grateful for this friendly aid I accepted the proposal, and night after night almost every night for a long time we had a sort of private parliament in Buckingham-street after I came home from the Doctor's. I have tamed that stenographic mystery. I make a respectable income by it. I am in high repute for my accomplishment in all pertaining to the art, and am joined with eleven others in reporting the debates in parliament for a morning newspaper. Night after night I record predictions that never come to pass, professions * * * |