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Which  System  of  Shorthand 
should  we  learn? 


by 

Enoch  Barker 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


WHICH  SYSTEM 


OF 


iSHORTHAND 


Should  we  Learn? 


BY 


E.    BARKER,    Toronto. 


REVISED     EDITION. 


' 


NEW    YORK: 

ISAAC  PITMAN  &  SONS, 

THE  PHONOGRAPHIC  DEPOT,  31  UNION  SQUARE. 


CONTENTS 


Introduction          ...                   ...  ...                  ...                     i 

SYSTEMS: — 

Modern  Phonography  ...                  ...                   ...          4 

The  Natural  System      ...  ...                  ...                   4 

The  Sloan-Duployan  ...                 ...                  ...         5 

The  Pernin  System         ...  ...                   ...                    6 

Simple  Phonography  ...                  ...                  ...         8 

The  New  Rapid              ...  ...                  ...                    8 

The  New  Standard  ...                  ...                  ...         9 

The  Gregg  System          ...  ..                   ...                  13 

Cross's  Eclectic     ...  ...                  ...                  ...       23 

Isaac  Pitman  v.  Variations  ...                   ...                  24 

Benn  Pitman         ...  ...                  ...                  ...        25 

Graham  System               ...  ...                  ...                 27 

Munson  System    ...  ...                  ...                   ..        29 

Various  Pitmanic  Systems  ...                   ...                   29 

Various  non-Pitmanic  Systems  ...                   ...        24 

The  Light-Line  Principle      ...  ...                  ...                 14 

The  Writing  Slope       ...  ...                  ...                            15 

The  One  Position                   ...  ...                  ..                   17 

Connective  Vowel  Arrangement  ...                  ...                   ...        19 

Curves  v.  Angles                     ...  ...                                      21 

Elliptical  Writing  Forms  ...                  ...                  ...        23 

Uniform  and  Universal  System  ...                  ..                   30 


Ulhieh  System  of    Shorthand 
should  uae  Iieat*n? 

By    «.    BARKER.    *—. 

DALLAS, 
INTRODUCTION. 

THIS  is  an  old  title  for  a  new  pamphlet.  Some  ten  years  ago, 
the  repeated  inquiries  of  students  and  others  about  the  re- 
spective merits  of  the  different  systems  of  shorthand  in  use, 
induced  me  to  put  into  print  my  own  convictions  on  the 
subject,  which  were  the  conclusions  of  nearly  half-a-century's 
study  and  experience.  The  demand  for  two  editions  of  the 
little  booklet  proved  that  there  was  a  place  for  such  a  publi- 
cation; and  now  that  these  are  exhausted,  the  demand  seems 
equally  strong  for  a  third.  But  the  complexion  of  the  short- 
hand  world  has  undergone  a  considerable  change  in  a  decade; 
systems  formerly  in  vogue  have  disappeared  from  public  view, 
and  new  ones  have  sprung  up  which  are  now  exciting  interest. 
For  this  and  other  reasons,  the  booklet  requires  to  be  almost 
entirely  rewritten. 

Less  attention,  or  none  at  all,  will  be  given  to  those  sys- 
tems that  may  be  counted  by  the  hundred,  but  which  have 
only  a  sporadic  existence,  and  show  no  prospect  of  ever 
becoming  anything  else.  They  may  be  used  as  illustrations 
jnly,  when  this  would  serve  any  purpose ;  they  would  be 
unworthy  of  serious  examination. 

It  is  pleasanter  to  speak  of  systems  than  of  their  authors, 
especially  when  need  is  felt  for  criticism.  If  this  is  not 
always  done,  it  will  be  because  the  two  cannot  well  be  separ- 
ated.  In  many  cases,  it  is,  "Touch  my  dog,  and  you  touch 
me."  More  than  ever,  it  is  my  desire  to  write  without 
personal  feeling,  or  unworthy  bias  of  any  kind.  Sometimes, 
however,  when  men  will  show  themselves  ridiculously  per- 
verse, and  regardless  of  other  people's  rights  or  interests,  it 
would  be  neither  human  nor  divine  to  manifest  no  displeasure 
towards  such. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  this  booklet  is  intended 

449599 


principally  for  North  America.  In  Britain,  there  is  at  the 
present  time  no  call  for  anything  of  this  character,  because 
the  question  in  the  title  above  is  not  asked,  but  one 
system  of  shorthand  being  in  actual  use  there.  But  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic,  the  shorthand  field  is  like  our  broad 
prairies,  glowing  and  bristling  with  an  almost  endless  variety 
of  flowers  and  weeds  in  wild  confusion.  The  question  is  with 
us  still  a  live  one:  would  that  it  were  otherwise  !  But  though 
the  two  countries  differ  so  widely  in  this  respect,  the  subject 
is  by  no  means  a  national  one,  and  patriotism  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  decision  of  the  question-  especially  that  spurious 
thing  miscalled  "  patriotism,"  which  consists  as  much  in 
ignorant  prejudice  against  everything  foreign,  as  in  loyalty 
to  the  institutions  of  pur  own  country,  and  which  chooses  an 
article  more  because  it  is  a  home  product  than  because  it  is 
the  best.  "  Can  any  good  thing  come  out  of  Nazareth?  "  is 
hardly  the  question  for  a  truth-seeker.  If  we  want  to  get  the 
best,  we  will  take  it,  whether  it  comes  from  England  or  from 
America,  from  China  or  from  Africa. 

Look  out  for  misstatements.  This  is  about  the  first 
piece  of  advice  that  is  needed,  but  it  is  too  often  the  last  to 
be  taken.  Even  in  the  higher  and  sacred  sphere  of  religion, 
there  was  need  of  the  warning  against  those  who  cry,  "  Lo 
here!"  or  "Lo  there!"  as  false  leaders  would  rise  who  would 
"  shew  signs  and  wonders,  to  seduce,  if  it  were  possible,  e\>  n 
the  elect."  If  such  things  could  exist  in  this  higher  sphere, 
it  should  not  be  hard  to  believe  that  they  might  exist  in  the 
humbler  sphere  of  the  shorthand  art,  and  it  is  not  surprising 
if  our  "  elect"  should  be  deceived  sometimes.  \Ye  need  not 
he  quite  so  pessimistic  respecting  human  nature  as  Thomas 
Carlyle,  who  spoke  of  the  population  of  Great  Britain — not 
that  they  were  worse  than  other  people — as  "  about  thirty 
millions — mostly  fools ;"  or  the  old  minister,  who,  after 
reading  the  passage,  "I  said  in  my  haste,  All  men  are  liars," 
calmly  surveyed  the  congregation  and  remarked, "  Had  David 
lived  in  our  day,  he  might  have  said  this  at  his  leisure." 
Still  it  is  both  safe  and  wise  for  us  to  believe  in  the  possibility 
of  deception  on  the  part  of  rival  shorthand  publishers,  and 
not  take  for  granted  everything  they  say  in  their  own  favor, 
especially  when  we  find  their  statements  in  direct  conflict 
with  one  another.  Had  the  Pitmanic  systems,  so-called,  been 
a  unit  in  America  as  they  are  in  Britain,  inferior  and  worth- 
less systems  would  have  had  no  better  chance  here  than  they 


have  had  there.  But,  sad  to  say,  many  have  been  brought 
over  here  where  they  have  flourished,  after  they  have  been 
killed  out  there  ; — not  because  they  had  not  liberty  in  Britain, 
for  there  was  no  law  to  prevent  them  :  but  while  the  Pit- 
manites  here  are  quarrelling  among  themselves,  and  so  divided 
that  no  united  movement  in  education,  in  the  press,  or  in  anv 
other  way  can  be  undertaken,  these  useless  methods  have 
every  freedom  and  encouragement  for  their  growth. 

Generally,  there  is  no  difficulty  in  detecting  misrepre- 
sentations. "  Do  men  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  or  figs  of 
thistles  ?  "  As  a  rule  they  can  be  detected  by  the  modes 
employed  in  propagating  them.  If  these  are  full  of  blow 
and  bluster,  trumpeting  their  own  merits  and  decrying  all 
others,  keep  on  the  watch.  They  will  have  some  gran- 
diloquent title,  perhaps,  such  as  "  Excelsior,"  "  Eureka," 
etc. ;  they  will  be  far  the  easiest  to  learn,  the  most  legible, 
the  swiftest,  the  cheapest ;  reporters  everywhere  will  be 
eagerly  catching  them  up,  and  throwing  away  the  old  thread- 
bare systems  ;  colleges  and  schools  by  the  score  and  by  the 
hundred  will  be  hailing  them  as  a  great  boon  ;  experts  in 
other  systems  will  be  investigating  them  and  be  over- 
whelmed with  delight ;  the  nobility  will  be  patronizing 
them  ;  those  too  prejudiced  to  examine  them  will  be  old 
fogies  and  away  behind  the  times ;  in  fact,  a  great  revolu- 
tion will  be  under  way,  and  the  old  methods  will  soon  be 
swept  away  !  If  you  see  a  system  announced  in  this  way, 
don't  get  alarmed.  You  may  be  sure  there  is  hollowness 
there  ;  truth  does  not  need  to  parade  herself  in  such  gar- 
ments. The  gaily  dressed  folks  are  the  dudes  in  society ; 
it  is  not  under  feathers  and  diamonds  that  you  look  for 
brains.  Letters  like  the  following  come  from  sensible  men  : 

"  I  enclose  a  letter  from  a  ...  writer.  Read  it,  and  then  pity  the 
poor  man,  and  a  little  later  when  he  gets  on  the  market  as  a  full  fledged 
college  proprietor,  your  pity  will  go  out  to  the  public  who  are  being  gulled 
I  am  rather  amused  at  his  reference  to  my  changing  systems,  or  getting 
left.  This  threat  of  the  coming  of  a  .  .  .  writer  has  hung  over  the 
heads  of  many  a  poor  man  like  a  nightmare.  I  consider  it  a  direct  thrust 
not  at  the  Isaac  Pitman  system,  but  at  the  many  Pitmanic  forms  which  are 
said  to  be  so  '  arbitrary  that  the  average  student  cannot  learn  them.' 
Two  of  these  new  systems  have  struck  this  town  within  the  last  five  years. 
They  lived  here  about  three  months,  and  the  parties  vanished.  Where  the 
Isaac  Pitman  system  is  taught  effectively,  and  there  is  a  certain  public 
sentiment  about  standards,  these  simple  'systems'  cannot  go.  Whtre  the 
public  is  ignorant,  they  will  swallow  anything." 

So  then,  vou  cannot  be  too  much  on  your  guard.     Do  not 


accept  superlative  laudations  without  testing  for  yourself. 
Remember,  too,  that  testimonials  are  cheap.  All  have  them; 
some  are  good,  others  otherwise,  and  you  must  judge  for 
you'rself.  Take  the  Master's  simple  rule  :  "  Ye  shall  know 
them  by  their  fruits."  It  will  be  my  part  to  endeavor  to 
show  you  the  fruits,  and  leave  you  to  decide  for  yourselves 
whether  the  tree  be  "  good  "  or  whether  it  be  "  corrupt." 

In  the  former  editions  of  this  pamphlet,  mention  was  made 
of  what  was  styled 

Modern    Phonography, 

for  which  there  was  no  little  rush  for  a  time  in  certain  parts. 
It  was  "  so  easy  to  learn  ;  "  one  or  two  months  was  sufficient 
to  gain  fitness  for  a  position.  It  had  no  shading,  and  no 
detached  vowels,  besides  other  wonderful  features,  the  most 
striking  of  which  was  the  stringing  together  nearly  all  the 
words  of  one  line  into  a  phrase.  On  asking  the  author  what 
one  of  these  sky-rockets  meant,  as  the  system  was  more 
easily  written  than  read,  he  replied  that  such  a  phrase  was 
"  no  good,"  and  it  would  be  "  fired  "  in  the  next  edition.  It 
was  fired,  and  so  was  the  whole  book,  the  very  preface  of 
which  was  a  plagiarism,  and  that  was  the  best  part  of  it.  So, 
of  course,  Modern  Phonography  needs  no  notice  in  this  edition. 
There  is  another  book  published,  entitled  : 

"  The  Natural  System  of  Shorthand 
Writing," 

by  August  Mengelcamp,  Stenographer,  1889."  An  extract 
or  t\vo  from  the  Prefaces  will  sho\v  both  the  aim  of  the 
system,  and  the  knowledge  of  grammar  and  composition  that 
the  author  possesses  : — 

"Other  points  of  merit  will  readily  suggest  themselves  upon  closer  ex- 
amination of  the  system,  above  all  its  comparative  great  brevity,  respectively 
speed  which,  owing  to  the  graphic  character  of  its  word-forms,  absence  of 
shading,  connective  vowels,  great  lineality,  etc.,  far  exceeds  that  of  any  other 
system  extant." 

"  A  good  pointed  pen  or  also  a  medium  soft  pencil,  are  equally  well  suited 
for  class  work.  For  speed  exercises,  a  lead  pencil  or  a  good  fountain  pen 
will  be  found  preferable." 

The  ideas  in  these  sentences  are  not  very  clear,  but  one  is 
not  so  much  surprised  after  reading  them  that  the  system  of 
which  August  Mengelcamp  calls  himself  ''  the  author,"  and 
to  which  he  gives  the  name  of  "  The  Natural  System,"  is 
really  "The  Roller  System,"  invented  by  Heinrich  Roller  of 


Germany  !     The  "author"  wanted  to  bind  me  to  give  him  a 
two-page  notice  in  this  pamphlet ;  but  this  is  quite  enough. 
Then  we  have  the 

"  Sloan=Duployan  Light=Line  System," 

which  appeared  first  in  Britain  under  magnificent,  yet  very 
suspicious  auspices.  There  lies  before  me  as  I  write  a  small 
pamphlet  clad  in  a  flaring  red  cover.  On  the  outside  of  the 
front  cover,  we  read  in  display  letters — "  THE  SHORTHAND 
REVOLUTION."  Under  this  comes  the  Royal  Arms — a  Crown 
surmounted  by  a  Lion.  Then  we  read  again — -"  Recognized 
by  His  Grace  the  Duke  of  Fife,  K.T.,  P.C.,  D.L. ;  The  Right 
Hon.  The  Earl  of  Pembroke ;  The  Right  Hon.  C.  T.  Ritchie, 
M.P.,  P.C. ;  Sir  Richard  Temple,  Bart,  P.C.,  G.C.S.I.,  C.I.E., 
F.R.S. ;  And  over  Forty  Noblemen  and  Members  of  Parlia- 
ment." There  are  some,  probably,  with  whom  such  a  pon- 
derous title-page  would  have  great  weight,  but  it  should  not 
take  very  well  in  democratic  America.  Because  people  belong 
to  the  gentry,  they  may  not  be  the  best  authorities  in  Short- 
hand Literature;  they  may  not  know  as  much  about  it  as  their 
butlers  or  boot-blacks.  It  is  a  common  thing,  as  we  all  know, 
for  the  underlings  to  give  testimonials,  etc.,  to  grovelling 
suitors  just  to  get  rid  of  them,  without  their  masters  knowing 
anything  about  the  matter.  But  we  ought  to  know  that  our 
beautiful  art  does  not  depend  on  blue  blood  for  its  nobility 
and  worth.  It  is  rather  a  friend  of  the  toiling  class.  After 
such  a  flaming  introduction,  we  are  not  surprised  to  read  a 
preface  like  this  : — 

"  Why  is  it  that  shorthand,  which  is  so  useful  and  essential  to  many  and 
so  beneficial  to  all,  is  acquired  (with  any  degree  of  efficiency)  by  such  a  com- 
paratively small  number  ;  and  of  the  many  who  have  fairly  left  the  starting 
post,  scarce  ten  per  rent,  have  ever  reached  the  wished-for  goal  ? 

"  The  secret  to  this  query  is  not  far  to  seek.  The  old  systems  have  been 
too  complicated  and  artificial.  They  required  for  their  acquisition  an  undue 
amount  of  mental  effort,  and  hard  dry-as-dust  practice.  They  took  years  to 
learn,  and  burdened  the  memory  with  multitudes  of  rules  and  grammalogues; 
and  were  illegible,  owing  to  vowels  being  omitted,  which  brought  about  a 
state  of  affairs  calculated  only  to  please  those  who  g'ory  in  unravelling 
mysteries. 

"  But  with  the  introduction  of  the  Sloan-Duployan  system,  all  these 
difficulties  are  done  away  with,  and  shorthand  can  now  be  learned  in  one- 
twelfth  the  usual  time.  It  is  no  fable  But  an  established  fact,  that  the  labor 
of  years  is  reduced  to  months,  and  a  few  easy  lessons  will  suffice  to  learn  the 
most  perfect  system  of  shorthand  extant.  Sloan-Duployan  shorthand  is 
the  system  that  not  only  promises,  but,  as  thousands  can  testify,  has  accom- 
plished this  transformation." 


There  is  a  lot  of  this — blather,  shall  we  call  it  ? — about 
the  "ingenious  devices,"  "the  great  and  incomparable 
services  of  Mr  Sloan,"  "  a  new  educational  era  commencing, 
the  results  of  which  had  been  hitherto  deemed  impossible  ;  " 
but  I  have  quoted  already  ad  nauseam.  The  usual  number 
and  style  of  testimonials  follow  ;  and  after  quoting  a  flatter- 
ing one  from  Newfoundland,  which  place,  in  the  author's 
estimation,  seems  to  be  the  hub  of  the  shorthand  universe, 
the  pamphlet  says  : — 

"The  above  clearly  shows  how  the  SIoan-Duployan  system  has  taken 
the  place  of  the  old  style  in  Newfoundland.  The  same  change  is  gradually 
taking  place  in  the  United  Kingdom,  but  of  course  the  transformation  will 
take  longer,  as  the  country  is  much  larger ;  nevertheless,  it  will  not  be  long 
before  Sloan-Duployan  has  triumphantly  superseded  the  old  style  in  this 
country  (Britain)." 

This  prediction  was  uttered  some  ten  years  ago  in 
England,  and  by  this  time  the  promised  transformation 
should  have  been  effected  ;  but  judging  from  the  quietness 
of  the  "Sloan-Duployan  Association''  (apparently  consisting 
of  one  member)  at  the  present  in  P'ngland,  and  from  reliable 
information  furnished  by  those  who  are  in  a  position  to 
know,  the  transformation  in  Britain  has  changed — like  some 
other  systems  that  we  know — to  a  transportation  to  our 
shores,  thus  to  increase  the  "confusion  worse  confounded" 
that  already  prevails  here.  But  for  this  I  would  not  have 
occupied  so  much  space  with  the  Sloan-Duployan.  It  is 
well  that  we  should  know  what  kind  of  immigration  we  art- 
getting.  The  strange  feature  of  the  whole  thing,  however, 
is  that  thePet'fiin  Monthly  Stenographer  charges  the  inventor 
of  these  "ingenious  devices,"  with  as  "  bold  a  literary  theft 
as  was  ever  perpetrated;"  and  savs  of  the  Sloan-Duployan 
text-book  : — "  It  was  an  exact  reprint  of  '  Pernin's  Practical 
Reporter,'  made  possible  by  the  absence  of  an  international 
copyright  law.  and  a  disregard  of  the  eighth  commandment !  " 

And  what  also  is  the 

"Pernin  System," 

so-called  ?  Its  text-book  acknowledges  that  it  is  not  original 
— at  least  the  basic  part  of  it  ;  it  admits  that  its  alphabet  was 
originally  brought  from  France  in  1887  by  Mr  Pernin,  but 
asserts  that  it  has  been  modified  from  time  to  time  until 
"but  little  resemblance  can  now  be  traced  between  the  two 
systems."  Mr  Sloan,  however,  retorts  by  saying  : — 

"  Mrs  Pernin  really  possesses  little  or  no  copyright.     Over  her  shorthand 


alphabet  she  prints,  '  Pernin's  Phonographic  Alphabet, 'but  it  is  the  alphabet 
of  the  Rev.  E.  Duploye.  As  regards  the  abbreviations  in  the  Pernin  method, 
we  have  a  letter  in  our  possession  received  from  M.  Duploye,  in  which  he 
states,  '  They  are  nothing  but  a  translation  of  my  work.'  " 

Leaving  the  twin  sisters  to  settle  their  own  quarrels,  it  is 
evident  that  neither  of  the  systems  is  original ;  they  are  both 
trading  on  the  fruits  of  other  men's  labors,  and  calling  by 
their  own  names  what  is  not  theirs.  But  the  Pernin  text- 
book is  equally  guilty  with  the  other  of  attempts  at  misleading 
by  such  statements  as  the  following  : — 

"  The  body  of  the  contractions  in  all  systems  but  the  Pernin  are  arbitrary, 
requiring  a  constant  effort  of  the  memory  to  keep  them  in  practice." 

"  One  system — the  Graham — has  a  dictionary  of  60,000  word-signs  to  be 
committed  to  memory,  besides  the  great  variety  of  other  arbitrary  contrac- 
tions upon  which  the  method  is  based." 

"  The  Cross  shorthand  employs  characters  to  represent  letters  instead  of 
sounds  as  in  Phonography,  and  uses  seven  positions  in  writing." 

"  Phonography  should  be  made  a  school  study.  Before  the  introduction 
of  the  Pernin  shorthand,  this  could  not  be  done,  as  all  other  methods,  on 
account  of  shading,  position,  memorizing  of  so  many  arbitrary  contractions, 
etc.,  are  entirely  too  difficult  for  the  comprehension  of  the  children." — 
Pernin's  Universal  Phonography." 

These  quotations  need  not  be  multiplied.  I  do  not  know 
any  system  except  perhaps  the  Gregg,  that  has  so  many  con- 
tractions as  the  Pernin,  and  these  are,  as  a  rule,  exceedingly 
arbitrary ;  that  is,  made  without  rule.  Anyone  may  know 
that  a  dictionary,  whether  it  be  a  shorthand  dictionary  or  an 
English  dictionary,  is  not  made  to  be  committed  to  memory. 
On  the  contrary,  teachers  of  the  Pitman  system  will  not 
allow  their  pupils  the  use  of  a  dictionary  until  they  have  nearly 
completed  their  course,  lest  they  lean  on  it  for  outlines 
instead  of  on  the  rules.  The  Cross  shorthand  has  only  five 
positions,  not  seven.  And  as  to  children  in  the  schools  not 
being  able  to  learn  shorthand  before  the  Pernin  came  into 
use,  the  writer  of  that  paragraph,  unless  exceedingly  ignorant 
of  shorthand  history,  must  have  known  that,  since  1848,  when 
Oliver  Dyer  taught  the  class  in  Philadelphia  High  School 
from  which  Murphy  and  McElhone  emanated,  children  by  the 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  have  been  learning  the 
Pitmanic  systems,  both  in  Britain  and  in  America.  If  the 
Sloan  crime  was  made  possible  by  a  disregard  of  the  eighth 
commandment,  these  statements  of  the  Pernin  text-book 
were  made  possible  by  a  disregard  of  the  ninth  command- 
ment ! 

There   was  also  a  form  of   the  Duployan   system,   alias 


Pernin,  alias  Sloan-Duployan,  taught  at  Truro,  Nova  Scotia, 
and  other  parts  of  the  Province,  under  another  alias,  that  of 

Simple  Phonography, 

by  Mr  S.  G.  Snell.  It  is  but  a  trifle  more  modest  in  its 
claims,  and  in  its  disparagement  of  other  systems.  These 
three  borrowed  systems  all  come  into  one  category,  the 
foundation  principles  of  which  will  be  explained  shortly 
under  the  head  of  "  Hobbies." 

This  would,  perhaps,  be  the  most  appropriate  place  to 
notice  the  McKee  group  of  systems,  as  the  peculiar  method 
of  introducing  them  to  the  public  renders  it  unnecessary  to 
refer  at  any  length  to  their  construction,  although  about  three 
pages  of  the  former  editions  of  this  booklet  were  devoted  to 
a  critique  on  the  construction  of  one  of  them.  Mr  McKee 
speaks  of  having  invented  "a  number  of  systems  "• — how 
many  he  does  not  say ;  but,  so  far  as  I  know,  only  two  were 
published,  the  first  of  which  was 

The  New   Rapid. 

In  a  letter  from  Mr  J.  G.  Cross,  author  of  an  "  Eclectic 
System,"  he  says : — "  My  publishers  years  ago  sued  the 
publisher  of  the  '  New  Rapid '  for  piracy  of  my  system,  the 
'New  Rapid'  being  mine  in  a  little  different  form.  In  the 
suit,  he  put  in  the  plea  that  mine  was  not  an  original  system, 
and  therefore  any  one  had  the  right  to  use  it.  Second,  that 
his  system  was  not  in  any  sense  like  mine,  and  therefore  was 
not  an  infringement.  Finally  we  beat  him,  and  he  put  out 
another  system."  Certainly,  the  resemblance  is  not  very 
close,  but  such  is  the  charge.  But  what  we  would  direct 
attention  to  particularly  is  the  inconsistency  of  Mr  McKee 
himself,  which  completely  discredits  both  his  systems,  ren- 
dering unnecessary,  as  has  been  said,  an  examination  of  the 
merits  or  demerits  of  the  systems  as  such.  In  the  preface  to 
the  "  New  Rapid"  text-book,  it  is  said: — 

"The  author's  former  work  on  shorthand  [what  was  that  ?]  has  met  with 
unprecedented  success,  and  proven  itself  superior  to  other  previously  existing 
methods.  But,  as  was  stated  in  its  pages,  it  was  not,  in  the  author's  mind 
the  ultima  thule  to  which  improvement  could  be  carried  ;  and,  living  in  a 
progressive  spirit,  we  have  sought  for  greater  advancement  and  improve- 
ment, and  are  happy  to  say  that,  in  '  New  Rapid  '  we  have  reached  the  goal, 
having  produced  by  far  the  most  harmonious,  complete  and  perfect  system  of 
shorthand  ever  devised." 

Then,  after  stating  the  seven  fundamental  principles  that  go 
to  make  up  a  perfect  system,  he  adds : — 


"  These  foregoing  requirements,  which  are  absolutely  essential  to  make  a 
perfect  and  complete  system  of  shorthand,  are  all  embodied  in  '  New  Rapid1 
Phonography.  .  .  .  Hence,  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  this  system  will 
open  the  eyes  of  the  stenographic  profession,  though  blinded  as  they  are  by 
the  intervention  of  the  old  systems." 

Now,  after  perfection,  what?  Though,  as  stated  in  my 
critique,  perfection  in  that  line  seemed  a  long  way  off,  yet  I 
was  not  prepared  two  years  later  to  find  perfection  super- 
seded by  another  system, 

The  New  Standard, 

which,  without  apology  or  blush,  is  introduced  to  a  credulous 
public  in  the  following  style  : — 

"The  great  advancement  that  has  been  made  in  all  the  departments  of 
human  activity  within  the  past  few  years  renders  the  systems  of  former  days 
behind  the  times  in  many  ways,  and  incapable  of  meeting  all  the  require- 
ments of  this  progressive  age.  ...  In  the  New  Standard  shorthand, 
we  have  a  method  which  is  equally  well  adapted  to  all  classes  of  shorthand 
work.  It  is  so  simple  that  all  are  able  to  learn  it ;  so  legible  that  all  are 
able  to  read  it ;  and  so  swift  that  all  are  able  to  write  it.  These  three  im- 
portant features — -simplicity,  legibility,  and  rapidity — are  the  three  cardinal 
virtues  of  New  Standard  shorthand,  and  it  is  the  securing  of  these  three  in 
such  a  high  degree  of  perfection  that  renders  this  system  of  shorthand  so  far 
superior  to  others.  .  .  .  This,  our  latest  work,  comes  as  a  settled 
standard,  in  which  every  writer  can  repose  with  confidence  in  its  unchange- 
ableness.  It  is  the  author's  ideal  system  .  .  .  and  the  completeness  of 
the  structure  is  such  that  the  foundation  must  ever  remain  the  same." 

Supposing  that,  between  the  litigation  of  Mr  Cross  and 
the  condemnation  of  the  author  himself,  the  New  Rapid  was 
no  more  to  be  heard  of,  it  occasioned  me  no  little  surprise, 
about  a  year  ago,  to  receive  a  letter  from  an  educationist  in 
Colorado  holding  a  public  position  (judging  from  the  headline 
of  his  letter),  speaking  in  no  mild  terms  of  rny  old  criticism, 
and  declaring  that  there  was  no  equal  to  the  New  Rapid. 
So  it  may  be  alive  yet  in  some  dark  corners.  If  so,  instead 
of  repeating  my  criticism,  I  would  simply  direct  its  adherents 
as  I  did  the  one  mentioned,  to  rub  their  eyes  and  wake  up ; 
the  author  himself  has  reminded  them  that  they  are  "  behind 
the  times,"  and  there  is  nothing  so  alarming  as  this.  And  if 
the  author  misled  us  before,  can  we  trust  him  now? 

The  question  naturally  comes  in  here — was  not  the  appro- 
priating of  the  Isaac  Pitman  system  by  so  many  modifiers  in 
this  country  an  act  of  the  same  character  as  those  we  have 
mentioned  previously — Mengelcamp,  Sloan, Pernin,Snell,  etc.? 
There  is  this  important  difference,  that  when  the  Isaac  Pitman 
system  was  first  propagated,  the  author  gave  it  away  in  his  . 
large-hearted  desire  to  bring  a  blessing  to  the  world.  He 


10 

gave  Pearl  Andrews  the  seed  which  was  brought  to  America 
and  planted  here.  Those,  however,  who  took  the  system  and 
made  their  own  changes  in  it,  publishing  the  whole  in  their 
own  name,  were  wronging  the  author;  and  that  was  no  small 
wrong  either.  The  copyright  at  home  prevented  a  like  fate 
befalling  the  system  there,  but  that  copyright  did  not  extend 
to  this  country;  pity  that  it  had  not  !  Mr  Benn  Pitman  says 
very  truthfully  : — "  If  ever  the  true  story  of  these  varied 
schemes  shall  be  written,  the  display  of  idiosyncrasy,  vanity, 
and  sometimes  of  shocking  dishonesty  that  will  appear,  will 
form  a  strange  chapter  in  the  history  of  shorthand."  He 
also  says  in  his  own  defence  "  The  text-books  were  mine, 
the  system  was  not."  And  again,  "  The  title,  '  the  Benn 
Pitman  System  of  Phonography,'  is  not  of  my  selection  ; 
and  personally,  I  never  use  it."  It  seems  to  me  that  ex- 
onerates Mr  Benn  Pitman — at  least  so  far.  But  no  one  else 
of  the  many  modifiers  have  said  as  much.  Theyhave  sever- 
ally, though  not  denying  that  the  system  is  Isaac  Pitman's, 
acted  as  full  proprietors  of  it; — have  changed  it  as  thev  liked, 
have  called  it  by  their  own  names — perhaps  with  the  addi- 
tion of  another,  and  have  copyrighted  what  they  could,  so  as 
to  retain  all  the  advantages  in  their  own  hands.  But  it  is 
a  question  whether  Mr  Benn  Pitman  should  have  assumed 
even  the  title,  "The  American  System,"  though  it  was  not 
he  who  gave  it  that  title  at  the  outset;  for  it  is  not  even  an 
American  system,  let  alone  being  the  American  system  ;  it 
is  an  English  system,  though  its  birthplace  is  a  matter  of 
inferior  importance.  Dr  Harris,  Commissioner  of  Education 
at  Washington,  was  found  great  fault  with  for  calling  the 
group,  "the  Isaac  Pitman  system";  but  he  was  right.  If  a 
man  either  borrows  or  steals  my  horse,  and  then  crops  and 
docks  it,  it  is  my  horse  still,  and  it  would  be  wrong  to  call 
it  anything  else.  All  the  "  systems"  are  the  Isaac  Pitman  ; 
>  others  can  claim  nothing  but  the  cropping  and  the  docking, 
and  that  they  are  welcome  to. 

The  peculiar  mode  of  advertising  some  systems  must 
be  here  noticed.  There  are  phenomenal  records  of  speed 
attained,  in  incredibly  short  periods  of  study,  which  it  is 
safer  to  disbelieve  than  to  believe ; — at  all  events,  it  is 
always  safe  to  question  and  demand  ocular  demonstration. 
I  have  seldom  or  never  tried  the  latter  plan  without  having 
to  discount  heavily  on  the  record.  "  There  are  tricks  in 
every  trade,"  they  say ;  certainly,  there  are  here.  One 


II 

could  very  easily  get  a  pupil,  who  was  perfectly  raw,  to  learn 
to  write  150  words  a  minute  with  any  system,  after  only  five 
minutes'  practice.  The  matter  dictated  may  be  very  familiar 
and  studied,  or  full  of  contractions  and  phrases,  such  as  the 
Gregg  phrase  for,  "  I  am  in  receipt  of  your  letter,"  which 
contains  only  five  letters — Im-r-le  (  an  n  might  follow  the  m 
in  the  same  line,  but  it  would  be  indistinguishable),  and  is 
joined  thus  o — ^_P.  Such  phrases  are  charming  in  their 
brevity,  and  one  could  be  written  consecutively  at  leisure 
some  forty  or  fifty  times  in  a  minute,  which  would  mean  a 
gait  of  from  280  to  350  words  a  minute.  And  you  could  learn 
those  five  letters  in  almost  as  many  seconds.  Sometimes 
dictated  matter  is  court  evidence,  in  simple  conversational 
language,  not  only  with  an  unusual  proportion  of  phrases,  but 
also  with  a  large  number  of  words  that  are  implied  without 
writing  at  all,  such  as  the  Q's  and  A's  for  Question  and 
Answer.  In  the  395  words  of  evidence  which  Mr  Dement, 
of  Chicago,  is  said  to  have  written  in  one  minute,  there  are 
no  less  than  forty-eight  words  of  the  Q  and  A  omitted,  besides 
others  that  are  implied  without  writing.  Such  matter,  too, 
is  very  easily  memorized,  especially  when  read  back  imme- 
diately ;  and  errors  are  not  so  easily  marked  as  when  a  tran- 
script has  to  be  furnished.  And  the  writing  is  illegible— letters 
omitted,  scrawls  resembling  anything  else  but  the  letters 
intended;  it  is  certain  that  no  one  however  expert — not  even 
the  writer  himself,  could  read  the  matter  if  unaided  by  mem- 
ory. It  is  not  a  test  of  writing  unless  others  can  read  it  also. 
Mr  Isaac  Pitman's  tests  are  certainly  the  fairest  of  those 
generally  used: — dictation  for  seven  or  ten  minutes  ;  matter 
perfectly  new  to  the  writer  and  of  an  ordinary  style  of  com- 
position, say,  a  speech  or  an  editorial ;  full  transcript  to  be 
furnished  ;  only  two  per  cent,  of  errors  allowed.  It  would  be 
a  still  fairer  test  of  the  writing  if  the  dictation  lasted  for  half 
an  hour,  and  the  writing  be  sufficiently  legible  for  a  stranger 
to  be  able  to  make  out  a  transcript :  or  if  it  were  left  to  lie 
for  a  month  or  even  for  months  until  perfectly  "  cold."  A 
test  is  really  nothing  if  the  writing  itself  be  not  capable  of 
being  read,  as  well  as  of  being  written  at  a  certain  speed. 

Then  we  have  statements  published  of  converts  from  other 
systems,  and  schools  rejecting  one  system  and  adopting 
another  \  these  have  to  be  sifted.  Of  course,  people  will  change 
from  system  to  system,  but  it  is  often  for  other  reasons  than 
a  preference  for  one  system  above  another.  Within  my  own 


12 

observation,  teachers  have  gone  for  situations  and  salaries 
instead  of  the  merit  of  systems  ;  colleges  have  added  systems, 
besides  those  used  in  the  colleges  ordinarily,  just  to  attract 
a  certain  class  of  pupils ;  and  many  have  professed  to  change 
when  they  never  had  anything  to  change  from.  In  the  list  of 
Shorthand  Institutions  furnished  by  the  Bureau  of  Education 
at  Washington  for  1890,  some  of  these  institutions  are  entered 
as  teaching  "  Any  modification  of  Pitman's  Phonography;" 
others,  "Graham's,  Pitman's,  Munson's,  Cross's,  and 
McKee's ;  "  others  again,  "Any  of  the  leading  systems." 
These  colleges  send  for  the  books  of  different  systems  perhaps 
merely  for  examination  or  trial,  and  immediately  they  are 
claimed  by  each  system  as  adherents  and  converts.  A  few 
years  ago  the  Pernin  Publishers  sent  me  a  list  of  the  colleges 
using  their  system,  and  among  the  rest  there  were  two  that 
I  knew  were  using  the  Isaac  Pitman  altogether.  On  enquiry, 
for  further  satisfaction,  I  was  informed  that  they  were  using 
none  but  the  Isaac  Pitman,  and  were  perfectly  satisfied  with 
it.  This  got  into  the  press  without  my  cognisance,  and  cost 
me  a  hair-pulling  from  the  "  Pernin  Stenographer;"  but  the 
only  explanation  was  that  one  of  the  colleges  had  some  time 
previously  ordered  some  of  their  books.  I  know  three  similar 
cases  with  another  Light-Line  system  :  and  such  cases  make 
one  suspicious  that  these  are  only  samples  of  many. 

The  little  experience,  too,  that  I  have  had  with  professed 
converts  from  the  Pitman  to  the  non-Pitmanic  systems,  is 
not  any  more  satisfactory.  I  have  come  into  actual  contact 
with  only  one  convert  from  Pitman  to  Light- Line— a  Pro- 
fessor of  Gregg  in  New  Jersey — who  kindly  wrote  out  for 
me  a  list  of  words,  by  way  of  contrast,  in  the  two  styles — 
the  one  abandoned  and  that  adopted.  Out  of  forty-one 
words  that  he  attempted,  twenty-four  are  written  wrongly 
in  the  Pitman  style,  showing  how  little  he  ever  knew  of 
Pitman.  I  give  a  few  samples  : — 

Gregg    ...          ...          ...    69  Sarah,  CQ_,   Supplant,          C.9^         Spinster. 

Pitman  (as  he  wrote  it)     \(        „  <).  ••  )        iL^f     etc.,    „ 

Pitman  (as  it  should  be)  o^        „  &  „  \>  „ 

A  former  well-known  teacher  and  vigorous  champion  of 
the  Gregg  system  in  an  advertisement  announces  himself 
as  a  "  Former  teacher  of  Isaac  Pitman's  shorthand," 
and  gives  two  samples  of  the  Isaac  Pitman,  one  to 


13 

ridicule  the  positions,  and  the  other  to  contrast  the  forms.  In 
the  former,  of  only  seven  words,  he  makes  three  errors— 
nearly  half  of  the  words  ;  and  in  the  other,  with  only  four 
words,  he  writes  one  as  no  Isaac  Pitman  writer  would  write 
it !  An  Isaac  Pitman  writer  might  have  known  better  after 
two  weeks'  study.  This  teacher,  too,  is  something  of  a 
poet  ;  probably  the  poet  laureate  of  the  Gregg  style,  since 
Mr  Gregg  honors  his  poem  of  six  stanzas  with  a  page  of 
his  text-book.  In  that  poem  we  have  this  couplet : — 

"  Oh !  why  should  a  shorthand  omit  all  the  vowels, 
And  leave  you  to  guess  if  'tis  tells,  tales,  or  towels  ?  " 

Here  again  these  words,  instead  of  being  alike,  are  all  written 
differently.  They  differ  more  in  the  Isaac  Pitman  than  in 
the  Gregg,  thus  : — 

Gregg  :  ^ — i    tells,     ,£ — -<    tales,    /&* — f    towels. 

I.   Pitman:         [  [^° 

So  much  for  those  who  have  left  the  Isaac  Pitman  for  the 
Gregg ;  if  they  are  fair  samples — they  are  the  only  ones 
that  I  have  seen  draw  a  comparison — then  inquirers  need 
not  be  alarmed  by  the  stories  told  by  converts. 

There  is  a  class  qf  systems  that  ride  special  HOBBIES, 
which  are  pushed  to  the  front  as  if  of  transcendent  importance, 
and  which,  it  is  claimed,  give  these  systems  an  immense 
advantage  over  the  older  ones,  especially  the  Pitmanic. 
Some  of  this  class  ride  one  of  these  hobbies,  and  some  ride 
more;  but  The  Gregg  System 

combines  them  all,   and  presents  them   thus : — 

"  (i).  No  Compulsory  Thickening'. — May  be  written  either  light  or  heavy. 

'  (2\  Written  on  the  Slope  of  Longhand,  thus  securing  a  uniform  manual 
movement. 

'  (3)  Position  Writing  Abolished. — Maybe  written  on  unruled  paper,  and 
in  one  straight  line.  ( 

"  (4).  Vowels  and  Consonants  are  Conjoined,  and  follow  each  other  in 
their  natural  order. 

"  (5).  Angles  are  Rare. — Curves  predominate." 

And  here  I  may  say  that,  when  examining  the  Gregg 
system  for  myself  some  ten  years  ago  now,  some  difficulties 
were  met  with,  which  I  lately  submitted  to  Mr  Gregg 
himself  for  an  explanation,  not  wishing  to  misrepresent 
his  system  when  reviewing  it.  I  sent  him  a  short  list  of 
puzzling  words — puzzling,  at  least,  to  me.  He  replied  that 
he  recognised  me  as  the  writer  of  the  pamphlet  "  Which 
System, "  and  by  way  of  banter  or  benevolence  (it  mattered 


not  which),  he  invited  me  to  investigate  the  system,  and 
offered  to  give  me  a  complete  course  of  lessons  gratuitously, 
which  offer  was  gratefully  accepted.  Having  completed  the 
course,  I  can  speak  with  more  confidence  perhaps  than 
before,  especially  as  Mr  Gregg  had  been  kind  enough  to 
answer  many  questions  that  were  submitted  to  him  aside 
from  the  regular  course.  \Ve  will  examine  these  hobbies 
as  briefly  as  possible  : — 

i.  The  Light-Line  Principle. — "  No  compulsory  thicken- 
ing;" that  is,  thickening  or  shading  any  letter  is  optional. 
But  the  lines  are  generally  light,  and  hence  the  name.  It 
was  a  beautiful  discovery  by  Mr  Pitman  that  the  consonant 
sounds  of  the  English  language  are  nearly  all  paired  according 
to  the  force  of  expression,  each  of  eight  pairs  having  one  light 
and  one  heavier  sound;  as  p,  b;  t,  d;  etc.  He  made  use  of 
this  beautiful  correspondence  of  sound  by  shading  the 
heavier  one,  thus,  \  \  p  b,  |  |  t  d,  etc.  The  systems  that 
object  to  shading  double  the  letters  in  length  instead;  thus. 
C  f~~  p,  b  (Gregg);  I  |  (Pernin).  The  objections  to  shading 
are  thus  stated  in  the  Pernin  Manual  (Introduction) : — 
"  Leading  stenographers  admit  that  this  alone  detracts  at 
least  25  per  cent,  from  rapidity  ;  besides,  in  rapid  writing,  it 
is  impossible  to  shade  accurately,  and  consequently  great 
illegibility  is  the  result."  I  do  not  know  who  are  these 
"  leading  stenographers  ;"  but  their  experience  differs  widely 
from  mine.  It  may  be  a  little  difficult  at  first  to  shade 
horizontal  letters  ;  but  there  are  not  many  of  these — only 
three,  and  these  not  the  most  frequently  used.  There  are  no 
heavy  strokes  besides  these  but  down  strokes,  and  it  is 
generally  more  difficult  to  keep  pupils  from  shading  these 
than  otherwise,  especially  with  the  pen.  In  writing  a  word 
for  me  (Trafalgar),  Mr  Gregg  unconsciously  shaded  in  his 
beautiful  hand,  not  only  a%down  stroke,  but  even  a  horizontal 
one ;  thus,  -g^-^ ;  or  abbreviated,  ^^  (Trafal.)  (The 
original  is  given  the  engraver,  that  he  may  produce  an  exact 
imitation.)  I  am  not  conscious  of  shading  less  in  rapid 
writing  than  in  slower  and  more  deliberate  writing,  and  am 
unconscious  of  either  loss  of  speed,  or  neglect  of  shading  in 
rapid  work,  and  cannot  but  feel  that  the  objection  is  a  mere 
bugbear  to  frighten  the  inexperienced.  Who  the  "  leading 
stenographers"  are  that  speak  of  a  loss  of  25  per  cent,  in 
shading  letters,  many  would  like  to  know  ;  that  assertion  is 


15 

certainly  stretching  a  point,  and  made  for  a  purpose.  But 
whether  there  be  a  loss  in  the  shading  or  no,  it  is  easy  to  see 
that  there  is  a  great  loss  in  the  lengthening  of  the  letter  in 
lieu  of  the  shading. 

First,  the  lengthening  process  requires  the  pen  to  travel 
over  a  good  deal  more  ground,  and  at  the  same  time  makes  a 
far  worse  zig-zag  motion  than  what  Mr  Gregg  complains  of 

in  the  use  of  "geometrical"  outlines.     Compare  xb      babe, 
(s>    brave   (Gregg),    with    X^     °Xi    (Pitman).        And  how 

awkward  it  would  be  to  have  two  or  three  double  letters 
strung  along  in  one  line,  even  though  horizontal,  as  d-d  ^^ 
in  dead,  m-m-n  — D — =_  in  mammon,  m-n-m-m  — o-o — => —  in 
minimum.  Probably  some  of  the  vowels  would  be  omitted 

in  these  words,  as  — o — ° >  though  we  cannot  tell 

without  a  dictionary  what  to  omit,  or  how  much  of  a  word  to 
cut  off  altogether  (it  is  Mr  Gregg's  empty  boast  that  the 
simplicity  of  the  system  makes  a  dictionary  unnecessary,  and 
yet  his  dictionary  at  the  end  of  his  text-book  grows  longer 
with  every  new  edition);  the  words  might  be  simply  mam  for 
mammon,  and  min  for  minimum.  But  Mr  Pitman  would 
never  allow  m-m  or  m-n  to  be  joined  in  one  line ;  he  is  too 
careful  about  legibility ;  the  Gregg,  however,  does  it  contin- 
ually, and  you  must  guess  whether  it  is  only  one  m,  or  m-n, 
or  m-m. 

Secondly,  the  Pitman  system  utilizes  the  double  length  for 
a  very  common  and  powerfully  abbreviating  scheme,  which 
advantage  the  Gregg,  Pernin,  etc.  lose  altogether,  namely,  the 
expression  of  the  whole  syllable  -ther,  and  its  cognates  -ter, 
-der.  For  instance,  ^ — <•  is  mother;  in  the  first  position  or 

above  the  line,  it  is  matter The  Gregg  uses  the  letter  th 

for  -ther,  which  therefore  is  ambiguous,  because f  maybe 

either  mouth  or  mouther,  ^  sooth  OK  soother.  Of  course,  as  the 
author  would  say,  the  context  would  easily  determine  ;  but  a 
system  is  lame  that  has  to  lean  much  on  the  context.  We 
sometimes  get  the  sense  of  a  sentence  only  by  going  some 
words  beyond  the  doubtful  word,  and  then  have  to  back  up 
and  repeat,  losing  time  and  bungling.  And  the  Gregg  has  no 
sign  for  -ter  or  -der,  so  that  matter  would  have  to  be  written 
in  full  — T$^  or  contracted  to  mat  — tf,  which  makes  ambiguity 
again.  The  Gregg  leans  on  the  context  continually. 

2.  The  next  hobby  is  the  one  slope—"  The  Slope  of  Long- 


i6 

hand."     This  is  peculiar  to  the  Gregg  system.     The  Pernin 
does  not  use  it.     MrGregg  says  (Preface  to  First  Edition): — 

"  I  believe  that  the  trend  of  shorthand  progress  is  towards  a  more  complete 
identity  with  our  ordinary  longhand  writing,  whic-h  in  its  adaptability  to  the 
hand  embodies  the  wisdom  of  ages." 

But  what  about  the  vertical  method  of  longhand  which  is 
now  so  strongly  contended  for  by  many  educationists,  and 
so  largely  practised  in  schools  ?  What  about  the  physical 
argument : — 

"  A  Belgian  doctor  has  been  making  observations  in  the  schools  of  Liege 
on  the  effect  on  children  of  the  upright,  as  opposed  to  the  sloping  style  of 
handwriting  He  finds  that  fifty-eight  per  cent,  of  the  children  who  are 
taught  vertical  writing  have  their  shoulders  in  the  normal  position,  as 
opposed  to  thirty-two  per  cent  of  those  who  are  taught  the  sloping  style  " 

It  is  easily  conceived  that  the  effect  of  sitting  with  one  side 
to  the  desk,  as  is  usually  done  in  sloping  writing,  with  one 
shoulder  elevated  and  the  other  drooping,  might  become  a 
permanent  deformity,  and  might  even  cause  curvature  of  the 
spine.  But  we  may  pass  that  by.  Mr  Gregg  thinks  that 
the  habit  of  sloping  in  longhand  makes  it  easier  to  slope  in 
shorthand.  Of  course,  this  has  no  application  where  the 
habit  of  vertical  writing  has  been  acquired  ;  in  such  case, 
vertical  forms  in  shorthand  would  be  the  easiest.  But  what 
does  this  amount  to,  if  other  points  of  much  greater  import- 
ance are  involved?  Whether  a  certain  form  be  harder  or 
whether  it  be  easier,  matters  little  ;  the  great  thing  to  look 
after  is  to  get  the  best.  Lazy  folks  alone  will  prefer  the 
'  easiest. 

But  here  is  a  strange  inconsistency  again.  While  Mr 
contends  so  vigorously  for  the  one  slope,  almost  half 
the  letters  of  his  alphabet  have  no  slope  at  all,  but  are 
horizontal,  and  two  letters  slope  in  the  opposite  direction  to 
the  one  contended  for  namely,  ^  "^-.  ng  and  ngk.  This 
makes  really  more  than  half  of  all  excepting  the  little  straight 
and  curved  dashes  r  and  /  ,  that  have  not  the  longhand  slope! 
One  cannot  but  question  sincerity  in  such  a  case.  But 
supposing  all  were  of  the  one  slope,  there  would  be  these  two 
difficulties: — 

a.  So  many  strokes  running  in  the  same  direction  would 
cause  them  to  collide  and  intersect  continually,  and  thus 
make  illegible  forms.  How  can  you  join  J  _/and  /  (up),  t 
or  ^  tli  (up),  and  put  either  of  the  small  circular  vowels 
between  ?  How  much  better  when  some  have  the  opposite 
slope,  such  as  "V 


b.  With  so  little  variety  to  choose  from,  the  alphabet  is 
necessarily  very  limited.  There  are  twenty-four  simple 
consonant  sounds  in  the  English  language,  and  Mr  Gregg 
has  only  eight,  long  and  short,  on  the  writing  slope, 
except  the  little  dashes  mentioned  ;  then  he  has  six  hori- 
zontals, two  letters  sloping  like  backhand,  and  one  dot, 
making  twenty-six  in  all.  In  the  two  diagrams  of  the 

Pitman  forms,  H-^  0*y>  twenty-four  distinct  letters  of 
uniform  length,  light  and  heavy,  can  be  contained.  You  see 
the  contrast  at  once,  and  the  advantage  the  Pitman  has. 
Mr  Gregg  has  spoken  more  wisely  than  he  has  acted  when 
he  said  in  his  preface  :  — 

"  It  is  almost  needless  to  say  that  a  faulty  allotment  of  the  alphabetic 
characters  would  have  entirely  nullified  in  practice  the  value  of  the  natural 
principles  which  form  the  basis  of  the  system  " 

His  faulty  alphabet  nullifies  the  value  of  the  whole  system. 
It  is  as  though  a  building  contractor  was  required  to  con- 
struct a  building  with  a  scanty  allowance  of  material,  and 
some  of  this  too  short  and  gnarly.  He  will  have  an  un- 
finished building,  and  a  poor  one  at  that.  When  we  come  to 
examine  the  Gregg  vowels,  we  find  them  worse  still.  But 
we  have  no  more  time  for  the  one  "slope;"  does  it  not  seem 
to  be  a  mere  fad? 

3.  The  next  hobby  is  "Position  writing  abolished."  What 
is  meant  by  position  writing  is  this.  The  Pitman  system 
has  three  positions  in  which  short  words  may  be  placed, 
so  as  to  distinguish  them  without  inserting  the  vowels  ; 

thus,  ..LT.    ..I  __    and    .\  ......  without  vowels,  are  the  same  as 

L_  L_  L_!  (talk,  take,  took)  with  the  vowels.  The  objec- 
tion to  this  method  is  thus  expressed  by  the  "poet  laureate  " 
already  mentioned  :  — 

"  Oh  !   Why  should  a  shorthand  fly  hither  and  there  ? 
To  write  so  in  longhand,  you  scarcely  would  dare 
This  form  written  sky-high,  the  next  one  below, 
You  bob  here  and  there  like  a  bear  in  a  show. 
'Tis  all  far  from  natural,  take  this  as  a  sign  — 
They  write  one  position  in  Gregg's  modern  Light-Line." 

And  the  same  poet  illustrates  it  in  this  manner,  which  is 
more  ludicrous  than  true:  — 

I  nice. 

say    it          not 
must  is 


i8 

Well,  he  is  certainly  humorous.  But  it  is  rather  "  phunny  " 
for  an  old  "  Isaac  Pitman  teacher"  (as  he  declares  himself) 
to  make  three  mistakes  of  position  in  this  short,  simple 
sentence,  as  has  been  observed  before.  Had  he  known  more 
about  position,  his  objections  to  it  might  have  had  some 
weight.  We  will  now  compare  the  two  systems  in  correct 
form,  and  you  can  see  for  yourselves,  even  if  you  know  not 
a  letter  in  shorthand,  which  "  bobs"  most:  — 

Gregg  :   Q—r    QI    S  __    _p  x  Pitman  :  ^    ^    "^  x 


In  this  case,  the  Gregg  forms  do  not  happen  to  be  the  sloping 
ones,  except  the  short  dashes;  but  even  then  it  cannot  be  said 
that  any  of  the  Pitman  words  are  "sky-high,"  though  they  are 
in  different  positions,  three  of  them  in  the  first  or  highest  ; 
and  the  line  is  not  quite  so  straggling  as  the  poet's  imagina- 
tion pictured  it.  But  suppose  we  take  a  sentence  where  we 
have  some  of  the  sloping  letters  in  the  Gregg  style  ;  say  the 
line,  "  You  bob  here  and  there  like  a  bear  in  a  show." 


Gregg  :    o     *        ^    ^    ^  v_p    .    £ 

Pitman  :   n     N^       S^     '       )     (^     '      \^  ' 

Now  by  drawing  lines  along  at  the  points  that  the  letters 
reach  above  and  below,  it  is  easily  seen  which  system  bobs 
most.  No  one  can  say  this  is  not  a  fair  comparison,  for  the 
extreme  positions  are  represented  in  Pitman,  and  it  would  be 
very  easy  getting  worse  words  in  the  Gregg  style  than  are 
represented  there.  The  fact  is  this  :—  In  the  Gregg  writing, 
not  only  are  lines  used  to  write  upon  just  as  in  other  systems 
and  a  rule  for  placing  letters  with  respect  to  that  line,  as  the 
rule  says  —  "The  first  consonant  (except  S  when  followed  by  a 
downward  stroke)  rests  on  or  starts  from  the  line  of  writing" 
(Gregg  text-book)  ;  but  these  lines  of  writing  require  to  be 
further  apart  in  the  Gregg  than  in  the  Pitman.  By  actual 
measurement,  comparing  the  brief  reporting  style  in  Pitman's 
Phonetic  Journal  with  the  same  style  in  the  Gregg  system, 
there  are  eight  lines  of  the  former  to  seven  of  the  latter  ;  in 
the  exercises  of  the  two  Manuals  there  are  five  of  the  Pitman 
to  four  of  the  Gregg  ;  and  in  the  blank  note-books  gotten  up 
by  Mr  Gregg  for  pupils,  five  lines  occupy  as  much  space  as 
seven  or  eight  of  those  used  ordinarily  by  Pitman  pupils.  I 
don't  think  we  should  therefore  hear  any  more  about  the 
Gregg  system  using  no  lines,  or  having  no  "  zig-zag;  "  or  of 


19 

the  "  bobbing  "  that  the  poet  sings  so  sweetly  about.  It  is 
a  pity,  however,  to  spoil  the  poetry. 

4.  But  the  great  hobby  is  "  The  Connective-  Vowel  A  rrange- 
ment."  That  is,  the  vowels  are  written  in  with  the  con- 
sonant strokes,  instead  of  being  detached  as  most  of  Pitman's 
are.  Here  comes  inconsistency  again  :  — 

a.  These  systems  all  leave  out  many  of  the  vowels,  though 
boasting  of  their  being  inserted  between  the  consonants, — 
the  Gregg  especially.     Many  of  the  words  are  as  bare  of 
vowels  as  Pitman's,  without  the  position  method  of  Pitman 
that  indicates  the  vowel  sound,  and  here  they  lose  in  com- 
parison.    Got   is   written   with  g-t  ;  progress   with  p-r-g; 
patronage  with  p-t-r-g,  etc. — no  vowel.     Awkward  vowels, 
such  as  &>  are   generally  omitted,    and   o   is   changed   into 
o  a  ;  thus  the  Gregg  text-book  says  :  "  In  writing  might,  for 
example,  it  will  be  sufficient  to  write  mat,  as  'it  mat  (might) 
be,'  '  in  ma  (my)  opinion.'  '      (Sec.  59.) 

b.  The  great  argument  for  inserting  the  vowels  is,  that  it 
is  not  required  to  lift  the  pen  in  making  them,   and  thus 
speed   is  gained.     Whereas   the   fact   is   that,   in    both   the 
Gregg  and  the  Pernin,  many  of  the  vowels  themselves  are 
not  complete  without  lifting  the  pen  ;  in  Gregg,  eight  out  of 
twelve  of  the  simple  vowels.     Thus,  d —     d —  Psalm,,  same ; 

^^  ^^^  red,  read ;  c^"  f^  awed,  owed ;  L_^  L_^  full, 
fool.  Pernin  has  two  such  vowels,  or  rather  diphthongs  : 

— <4-  9-  trite,  trout.     And  both  of  these  systems  have  even 

consonants  requiring  dots  beside  the  strokes  to  distinguish 
them  as  >  2,  J.  (up)  th  (hard),  6  ha.  They  say  that  these 
dots  and  dashes  can  generally  be  omitted;  but  they  cannot 
be  omitted  and  be  as  legible  as  Pitman's  writing  when  his 
dots  and  dashes  are  omitted.  Look  over  a  page  of  reporting 
style  of  the  two  different  systems,  and  see  which  has  the 
most  dots  and  dashes  for  which  the  pen  has  to  be  lifted. 
This  argument  seems  but  a  hollow  pretence. 

c.  But  the  loss  of  time  in  writing  the  inserted  vowels  is  the 
great  objection  to  the  plan.     Mr  Gregg  says  : — 

"  In  the  body  of  a  word,  it  is  usually  as  easy  to  include  a  circle  as  to 
omit  it,  and  it  frequently  happens  that  by  taking  away  an  angle  that  would 
obstruct  the  continuous  movement  of  the  pen,  the  circle  actually  increases 
the  speed,  with  which  an  outline  may  be  written." 

Did  Mr  Gregg  ever  try  that  ?  If  he  did  he  will  probably 
be  compelled  to  come  to  a  different  conclusion.  You  can 


20 

write  more  forms  in  a  minute  with  the  angle  alone  than  you 

can  with  the  simplest  circle  added,  i.e. — more  of   I than  of 

J —  .     But  Mr  Gregg  is  very  careful  to  say  nothing  about  the 

more  complicated  vowels  and  diphthongs  :  —c x   roll,    oL 

fine,  — ,T"  mouth.  Pitman's  easy  forms  for  these  are  "/" 
ba.  _4-.  There  is  a  great  loss  of  time,  on  the  whole,  in 
writing  the  inserted  vowels. 

d.  The  great  difficulty  with  these  connected  vowels  is  that 
it  is  a  perfect  impossibility  to  devise  a  sufficient  number  of 
forms  to  meet  the  need.  Mr  Pitman  tried  it  and  gave  it  up 
long  ago.  Mr  Gregg  is  still  sweating  over  it,  and  trying  to 
get  new  forms  for  ie,  io,  ea,  etc.,  etc.,  by  putting  "  wheels 
within  wheels,"  dots  in  circles,  such  as  &r  science,  to  dis- 
tinguish from  &r  signs;  ^_9-  lion,  to  distinguish  from  ^J£- 
line,  etc.  One  can  imagine  what  would  be  made  of  these 
little  curlicues  in  a  150  or  200  gait.  But  the  idea  of  at- 
tempting to  represent  some  dozen  and  more  of  these  diph- 
thongal sounds  by  connected  vowels  is  preposterous.  My 
correspondence  with  Mr  Gregg  commenced  by  asking  his 
help  in  writing  such  words  as  Ohio,  oyez,  Oivhyhee ,  on  the 
connective  vowel  principle — one  of  the  bases  of  the  system. 
There  being  no  consonant  forms  for  h,  w,  h,  there  was 
nothing  to  connect  the  vowels  with.  I  was  told  that  I  knew 
nothing  about  the  system,  and  was  trying  to  write  difficult 
words  before  I  knew  even  the  principles  ;  and  then  came  the 
kind  offer  of  a  gratuitous  course  of  lessons,  which,  as  said 
before,  was  accepted.  As  my  teacher  had  not  at  first 
answered  my  questions  and  given  me  the  outlines  I 
asked  for,  when  the  point  was  reached  in  the  lessons  that 
bore  upon  these  questions,  I  repeated  them,  only  to  get  a 
severe  castigation  for  "desiring  to  find  out  what  cannot  be 
done  with  Gregg  shorthand,  rather  than  what  can  be  done 
with  it  ;  "  he  asserting  that  he  had  never  heard  of  the  word 
"  Owhyhee,"  and  could  not  find  it  in  the  dictionary;  that  the 
system  was  equal  to  writing  any  word,  even  Owhyhee,  and 
he  wanted  to  know  whether  it  was  "necessary  to  sneeze  in 
pronouncing  it !  "  He  then  gratified  me  with  this  explana- 
tion :  "  All  that  the  stenographer  has  to  do  is  to  write  the 
signs  for  the  sounds  as  they  occur,  vowels  and  consonants 
following  each  other  in  natural  order,  and  draw  a  line  under- 
neath to  show  they  are  connected,  thus  :  ^Ojt  O-:ch\'licc, 


21 

vy_^,    oyer,     ^_^     Oyez,     ~$__0^,    Ayah,     <_5$.     O'Hara. 

"This,"  Mr  G.  continued,  "will  no  doubt  commend  itself 
to  you  as  being  more  natural  than  the  Nominal  Consonant 
plan  of  the  Isaac  Pitman,  which  always  appeared  to  me  a 
very  arbitrary  expedient."  I  had  simply  to  assure  Mr 
Gregg  that  I  had  no  intention  to  offend ;  that  I  was  investi- 
gating the  system  at  his  invitation,  and  certainly  did  desire 
to  know  both  what  the  system  could  do  and  what  it  could  not 
do ;  that  I  thought  he  was  anxious  to  show  what  it  was 
capable  of,  and  should  have  been  pleased  to  receive  my 
questions;  that  "  Owhyhee "  was  one  way  of  spelling 
Hawaii — once  the  common  way — and  was  to  be  found  in  an 
Atlas  before  me — -one  of  the  latest  published ;  that  the  same 
name  in  sound — Owyhee— was  a  familiar  name  in  Nevada 
and  the  West,  and  should  have  been  in  every  dictionary,  as 
it  was  in  two  of  mine ;  that  reporters  had  no  time  for 
sneezing,  especially  if  they  had  to  write  the  letters  all 
separate  and  add  to  them  a  connecting  stroke ;  and,  finally, 
that  Isaac  Pitman  does  not  use  the  Nominal  Consonant  with 
such  words,  as  he  has  plenty  of  real  consonant  forms  for  the 

purpose,  'as  &f*  Owhyhee,  2^  Oyer,  £^  O'Hara,  7*   Ohio. 

This  is  not  a  mere  pleasantry,  but  a  simple  illustration  of 
the  hollowness  of  the  pretensions  that  insist  on  a  "  One 
Slope  "  that  robs  the  consonant  alphabet  of  strokes  for  h,  w, 
and  y  on  which  to  hang  the  dependent  vowels  so  often 
occurring;  and  that  insist  also  on  a  "Connective-Vowel" 
idea  where  the  vowels  cannot  be  connected,  but  that  in  the 
attempt  to  do  so,  the  vowel  alphabet  is  impoverished  to  such 
an  extent  that  about  half  of  the  vowel  and  diphthong  sounds 
of  the  language  cannot  be  expressed.  It  seems  to  me  a  fad,  a 
farce,  a  hobby — and  a  wooden  hobby  at  that — only  for  child's 
play.  There  is  another  of  these  hobbies  in  the  Gregg  system 
that  must  be  little  more  than  barely  mentioned  : — 

5.  "  Angles  are  rare,  Curves  predominate."  Why?  Be- 
cause "curves  are  written  more  easily  and  more  quickly." 
Sometimes  they  are  ;  sometimes  they  are  not.  /""  — ^  (up 
strokes  used  for  /~  _/  )  are  no  doubt  written  more  easily  than 
and  — / ;  and  Q  (^  more  easily  than  what  they  repre- 
sent /}  [_/  .  But  the  difficulty  is  that  you  will  have  to 
depend  on  the  letters  or  words  of  the  context  to  know  what 
these  outlines  are — always  a  lame  expedient ;  for  instance, 


22 


/^"~  is  f-n,  d-n,  t-m,  d-m  in  -V^  contains,  condense,  contemns, 
condemns  ;  but  it  is  only  d  or  t  in  ^3  flte^y,  ^^  active.  The 
same  stroke  written  downward  is  sometimes  g,  but  generally 
b.  This  makes  difficulty  in  reading,  and  illegibility.  But, 
in  some  cases,  a  curve  is  much  harder  to  write,  and  slower 
than  an  angle  ;  as  ^L_  ^  f-m,  f-r  are  much  more  difficult 
than  1  —  and  <L.  To  make  such  as  the  former  with  any  kind 
of  grace  requires  a  good  deal  of  that  training  of  the  hand  that 
Mr  Gregg  calls  drawing.  But  we  cannot,  and  need  not  dwell 
longer  on  this  peculiarity. 

Taking  these  five  hobbies  together  as  the  Gregg  system 
attempts  to  do  (none  of  the  other  systems  takes  them  all), 
the  foundation  is  unsound,  and  the  whole  superstructure  suffers 
in  consequence.  By  insisting  on  these  hobbies,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  whole  alphabet  is  impoverished  to  an  extent  that 
forbids  some  of  the  most  important  qualities  of  a  good 
shorthand;  and  what  is  infinitely  worse,  the  awkward  at- 
tempts to  connect  unnecessary  vowels  forces  out  the  many 
and  beautiful  expedients  of  the  Pitmanic  varieties  for 
abbreviating  words  by  hooks,  circles,  loops,  halving,  etc. 
Instead  of  using  a  simple  circle,  larger  or  smaller,  for  s,  sr, 
ns,  STV,  in  different  positions  ;  or  a  loop  for  st,  str,  nsf,  nstr  ; 
instead  of  a  hook  for  /,  r,  n,  f,  and  -tion  ;  instead  of  halving 
a  letter  to  add  t  or  d  ;  —  instead  of  such  simple,  yet  powerful 
and  ever  recurring  expedients  as  these,  these  light-line  and 
connective-vowel  systems  are  obliged  to  write  all  these 
letters  out  at  full  length,  or  —  what  is  even  worse  —  behead, 
or  betail,  or  disembowel  the  words  in  order  to  obtain  the 
needful  brevity,  until  they  are  so  maimed  or  murdered  as  to 
be  unrecognizable.  S  and  t  {r  /)  make  a  poor  joining,  so 
the  t  has  to  be  omitted,  and  mus  is  written  for  must,  mos  for 
most,  bes  for  best,  etc.  ;  t  and  d  cannot  be  written  distinctly 
after  r  and  /  (/  ^  t,  d,  -  *>  —  ^  r,  /),  and  so  these  are  left 
out  altogether  and  hold  becomes  hole,  port  becomes  pore,  etc. 
Omissions  are  necessary  everywhere.  There  is  one  lesson 
on  the  "  Omission  of  Words,"  another  on  the  "  Dropping  of 
Terminations";  another  on  the  "Omission  of  Consonants," 
and  a  parallel  one  on  the  "  Omission  of  Vowels."  Then  we 
have  more  than  a  dozen  "  Joined  Prefixes,"  all  of  which  are 
distinguishable  from  the  single  letters  only  by  the  context  ; 
and  two  dozen  or  more  "  Disjoined  Prefixes,"  and  a  goodly 
number  of  "Compound  Joined  Prefixes,"  and  "Irregular  Com- 
pounds," while  Pitman  needs  less  than  half  a  dozen  prefixes 


23 

altogether!  We  have,  in  like  manner,  the  "Joined  and  Dis- 
joined Affixes,"  with  their  "Compounds,"  and  some  twenty- 
one  "Analogical  Abbreviations,"  which  is  only  another 
species  of  Affixes  and  Prefixes.  And  thus  the  words  are 
mixed  and  mangled  (take,  for  example,  >  interested,  in  com- 
parison with  Pitman's  simple  connected  "f  with  just  as  many 
letters') — until  the  beautiful  promises  about  "  not  lifting  the 
pen,"  "  vowels  and  consonants  conjoined,"  etc.,  are  forgotten. 
And  all  this  confusion  simply  because  of  riding  these  hobbies  ! 
Is  not  that  about  riding  them  to  death  ?  As  said  before,  these 
illustrations  are  mostly  drawn  from  the  Gregg  system,  be- 
cause he  makes  rather  more  use  of  these  methods  than  Pernin 
or  any  other  of  the  so-called  "  Light-Line"  systems;  but  it 
can  be  easily  seen  how  they  would  all  be  affected  alike. 

Cross's    Eclectic    Shorthand 

has  a  hobby  of  its  own,  which  the  author  styles  the  "  Chiro- 
graphic  Ellipse,"  and  explains  thus  : — 

"  In  writing,  we  constantly  employ  two  forces,  viz. :  the  protective  and  the 
retractive.  The  projective  force  of  the  hand,  acting  on  the  pen,  carries  it 
upward  and  forward,  corresponding  to  the  centrifugal  force  acting  upon  the 
spheres.  The  retractive  (orce  carries  the  pen  backward  and  downward, 
corresponding  to  the  centripetal  force  in  its  action  on  the  spheres.  These 
two  forces  combined  must  produce  elliptical  outlines,  all  outlines  evolved  in 
the  act  of  writ'ng  being  more  or  less  affected  by  the  two  motions.  This  is 
espec  ally  true  in  rapid  writing,"  etc. 

Mr.  Cross  certainly  goes  to  a  high  source  for  his  theory ; 
but  we  imagine  most  people  would  say  that  "an  ounce  of 
practice  is  worth  more  than  a  pound  of  theory," — especially 
such  theory.  Ellipses  lying  in  five  directions — two  sloping 
to  the  left,  two  to  the  right,  and  one  lying  horizontally — with 
five  straight  lines  in  the  same  directions,  form  the  basis  of 
his  alphabet.  He  abhors  perpendicular  strokes.  The  con- 
sequence is,  as  a  practical  man  will  observe  at  first  sight, 
that  the  sloping  letters  written  so  nearly  in  one  direction, 
and  the  curves  taken  from  the  longer  sides  of  the  ellipses 
being  so  nearly  straight  lines,  they  cannot  be  distinguished 
except  written  very  slowly  and  carefully,  as  his  diagram  will 

show: — ///'  (I)  ^^  \\A  \\\  Another  weakness  which 
is  quite  as  evident  is  the  use  of  five  positions,  thus: —  -^^- 

Both  of  these  defects  tend  strongly  to  illegibility.  A  third 
weakness  leading  to  the  same  result  is  the  use  of  six 


24 

different  lengths  or  sizes  of  the  same  character  to  represent 
different  letters  ;  and  the  author  advises  thus  :  —  "  Practise 
the  following  exercise  until  you  can  preserve  the  relative 
sizes  when  written  rapidly  __  __  _ 


o  o  0    jo!  d  d 

etc."  It  is  very  evident  that  these  would  require  a  good  deal 
of  practice,  both  to  write  them  with  the  needed  distinction, 
and  to  get  a  keen  eye  to  observe  the  distinction  when  written. 
The  Pitman  systems  allow  no  such  indistinctness  between 
letters.  This  Eclectic  also  uses  the  connective  vowel  plan 
to  a  certain  extent,  but  with  no  better  success  than  other 
systems  that  attempt  the  impossible.  The  awkwardness  of 
joining  such  outlines  as  the  alphabet  contains  cannot  but 
make  clumsy  forms,  which  retard  the  writing  as  well  as 
interfere  with  legibility.  The  huge  number  of  prefixes  and 
affixes,  with  the  method  of  dividing  syllables,  is  also  a 
peculiar  and  objectionable  feature  of  this  system,  of  which 
contra-ct,  conce-al  are  ordinary  specimens.  But  we  can  go 
no  further,  and  there  is  probably  no  need  to  do  so.  You,  my 
reader,  can  form  a  fairly  correct  idea  of  the  system  from 
what  little  has  been  said. 

There  is  no  need  at  this  date  of  dwelling  upon  such  systems 
as  Lindsley's  Takigrafy,  which  is  more  like  an  abbreviated 
longhand  than  shorthand,  and  is  very  little  in  use  now;  nor 
the  Scovil  system,  nor  Towndrow's,  which  are  not  phono- 
graphic but  bitterly  anti-phonetic,  and  which  are  not  pushed 
now  ;  nor  Gabelsberger's  system,  of  German  origin  and 
adapted  specially  to  the  German  language;  nor  the  Script, 
though  an  attempt  was  made  to  introduce  it  among  us,  after 
a  dismal  failure  in  Britain  ;  nor  the  Eureka,  the  author  of 
which  publishes  two  systems,  which  he  has  tried  to  foist 
upon  some  of  our  school  authorities  on  this  side  of  the 
"  pond,"  but  happily  in  vain.  No  wise  man  would  wish  to 
spend  his  time  and  money  in  chasing  after  Will-o'-the-wisps, 
when  he  has  light  that  is  evidently  more  real  and  reliable. 

Isaac    Pitman    versus    the    Variations. 

The  Isaac  Pitman  was  first  published  in  England  in  1837. 
It  was  brought  to  this  country,  as  said  before,  by  Mr  Pearl 
Andrews  in  1846,  and  published  in  the  form  that  the  system 
then  had  reached.  Webster  soon  after  published  it  when  at 
a  little  more  advanced  stage.  In  1852,  Mr  Benn  Pitman, 


25 

brother  of  Isaac,  brought  it  to  this  country,  and  disseminated 
it  in  the  still  more  advanced  style  then  existing  in  England. 
This  is 

The     Benn     Pitman 

of  the  present  day.  He  says  of  it  later: — "Up  to  1857, 
there  was  but  one  form  of  Phonography  used.  All  suggested 
changes  in,  and  additions  to,  the  system  were  amply  dis- 
cussed by  the  general  body  of  phonographers,  and  were  by 
them  either  rejected  as  worthless,  or  concurred  in  as  being 
in  the  direction  of  progress,  and  tending  to  the  best  develop- 
ment of  the  system."  That  is  very  true  ;  and  what  was  true 
of  Mr.  Isaac  Pitman's  method  then  is  true  still ;  as  the 
improvements  up  to  1857  were  "  amply  discussed  by  the 
general  body  of  phonographers,  etc.,"  so  has  it  been  with  all 
the  later  improvements,  but  Mr.  Benn  Pitman  was  not 
willing  to  follow  any  further.  It  is  true  that  some  others, 
like  Mr.  Benn  Pitman,  objected  to  these  further  changes — 
and  there  always  will  be  objections  to  changes ;  but  the 
"  general  body  "  moved  on  :  and  now  which  is  more  likely  to 
be  correct  ?  To  prevent  divisions  in  such  cases,  Mr.  Isaac 
Pitman  was  obliged  to  copyright  his  system,  thus  rendering 
impossible  in  Britain  those  inroads  upon  it  that  have  pro- 
duced such  an  unfortunate  effect  in  America,  upon  not  only 
the  Pitman  system,  but  upon  the  art  of  shorthand  in  general.* 
This  system,  also  now  claiming  the  title,  "  The  American 
System  of  Shorthand,"  therefore  lacks  the  many  improve- 
ments that  have  been  made  in  the  Isaac  Pitman  (pure)  during 
the  past  half-century.  It  has  still  the  old  vowel  scale  of  the 
Ninth  Edition  ;  that  is,  the  e  of  that  edition  in  such  words  as 
pea  is  ah  now,  as  in  pa  ;  and  /  short,  as  in  pit,  is  a  now  as  in 
pat.  This,  of  course,  reverses  the  positions  of  words  con- 
taining these  vowels,  making  quite  a  gain,  as  most  phono- 
graphers have  thought,  in  both  speed  and  legibility  (see 
Preface  to  Munson's  first  edition).  Then  the  Benn  Pitman 

still  retains  the  old  forms  ~^     f~    S  for  w,  y,  and  h,  instead 
of  being  put  to  better  uses  for  -rer,  -Ir,  and  y.  The  "  Irregular 

*  The  copyright  of  the  Twentieth  Century  revision  of  the  Isaac  Pitman 
system  is  secured  by  the  publishing  in  America  of  the  "  Shorthand 
Instructor,"  and  all  rights  reserved.  If  ordering  through  a  bookseller, 
special  attention  should  be  called  to  the  fact  that  worthless  piracies  of  old 
editions  will  be  refused,  and  only  those  bearing  the  imprint  of  Isaac 
Pitman  and  Sons  will  be  accepted. 


26 

Double  Consonants"  of  the  Benn  Pitman  have  also  now  been 
superseded  by  others,  in  the  interests  of  simplicity  and 
harmony  ;  while  the  newer  duplicate  forms  for  f  and  th  in 
conjunction  with  the  liquids  /  and  r,  which  greatly  increase 
legibility,  brevity,  and  ease  of  execution,  are  entirely  lost  in 
the  Benn  Pitman.  The  initial  sway  circle,  too,  adopted  in 
1888,  which  produces  the  simple  forms  ^  P  °\  *")  for 
sweep,  sweet,  sweeper,  sweeter,  etc.,  and  such  convenient 
phrases  as  Q^  p  °)  for  as  we  have,  as  we  do,  as  we  say,  etc., 
displace  the  much  longer  forms  of  the  older  system.  The 
doubling  of  straight  letters  for  -ther,  etc.,  is  not  only  more 
in  harmony  with  the  like  treatment  of  curved  letters,  as  ^/ 

surrender,  printer  (like  (^  slander),  but  makes  easier 

and  briefer  forms  ;  this  is  lost  in  the  older  Benn  Pitman. 
There  are  some  other  changes  ;  but  enough  has  been  said  to 
give  any  one  an  idea  of  the  nature  of  the  difference  between 
the  two  systems.  In  the  face  of  the  fact  that  these  changes 
have  been  made  after  careful  tests  ;  that  they  have  been 
adopted  by  the  general  consensus  of  experts  ;  and  that  they 
have  stood  the  severest  trials  in  actual  practice,  it  seems 
idle  for  a  comparatively  few — and  these  parties  mostly  inter- 
ested in  propagating  their  own  systems — to  protest  that 
these  are  not  real  improvements.  Is  it  reasonable  that  any 
new  invention  of  mortal  should  stand  still  for  half  a  century? 
Or  that  the  great  majority  of  practical  business  men  would 
hold  on  to  poorer  methods  while  better  ones  were  within 
easy  reach  ? 

But  there  is  a  greater  difference  between  the  Isaac  Pitman 
and  the  Benn  Pitman  than  the  mere  construction  of  outlines. 
There  is  really  no  comparison  between  the  amount  of  short- 
hand literature  in  the  two  systems  respectively.  The  Benn 
Pitman  has  a  monthly  publication,  containing  only  a 
few  pages  of  phonography,  the  rest  being  in  common  print ; 
it  would  pay  to  publish  it  as  a  mere  advertisement  of  the 
system,  whether  its  subscription  list  would  support  it  or  not. 
But  no  one  has  ventured  to  publish  a  pure  Benn  Pitman 
Phonographic  periodical  simply  in  the  interests  of  general 
literature,  or  as  a  paying  speculation.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  organ  of  the  Isaac  Pitman  system,  The  Phonetic  Journal, 
has  a  circulation  itself  of  about  33,000,  and  is  a  weekly. 
Then  there  is  Pitman's  Shorthand  Weekly,  having  also  a  large 


27 

circulation,  and  filled  with  general  literature,  all  in  shorthand. 
Besides  these,  Isaac  Pitman  writers  can  have  the  choice  of  half 
a  dozen  monthly  Phonographic  periodicals,  stored  with  inter- 
esting reading,  disconnected  altogether  from  the  Pitman 
propaganda,  and  some  of  which  have  been  paying  invest- 
ments for  decades  ! 

And  while  there  is  nothing  worthy  of  the  name  of  a  book 
published  in  the  Benn  Pitman  style  of  shorthand,  some  two 
hundred  standard  literary  and  religious  works  in  the  Isaac 
Pitman  style  are  put  within  our  reach,  from  the  Bible  and 
Pilgrim's  Progress,  down  to  works  of  history,  science,  bio- 
graphy, romance,  novels,  etc.  These  facts  show  plainly 
enough  the  superior  advantages  of  the  Isaac  Pitman  student, 
as  well  as  the  brighter  prospect  of  this  system's  becoming  in 
time  the  universal  one. 

Most  of  what  has  been  said  about  the  Benn  Pitman  system 
applies  to  what  is  generally  known  as 

The    Graham     System, 

called,  however,  by  Mr.  Graham  himself,  "  Standard  or 
American  Phonography."  It  is  as  old,  within  a  year  or  two, 
as  the  Benn  Pitman  ;  and  like  it  also,  has  undergone  no 
change  since  its  first  publication.  It  has  the  same  old  con- 
sonants and  vowels,  also  double  letters  ;  and  it  lacks  all  the 
improvements  that  the  Isaac  Pitman  has  made  in  its  onward 
march  the  last  sixty  years.  It  started  out  with  a  few  new 
devices  of  the  author's,  such  as  a  large  hook  on  a  certain 
side  of  straight  letters  for  the  termination  -five,  which  makes 
an  inconvenient  outline  when  an  initial  hook  happens  on  the 
same  side,  and  which  cannot  be  used  with  curves.  Its  rules 
for  halving  letters  in  the  addition  of  d  and  t,  with  the  excep- 
tions, are  numerous  and  complicated,  leading  to  ambiguity, 

such  that  the  single  outline  ^  without  vocalization,  would 
represent  broad,  brought,  bride,  bright,  and  breed.  In  fact 
the  complaint  about  his  numerous  rules  and  exceptions  is  so 
general  that  a  number  of  modifications  of  the  system  have 
appeared  in  the  direction  of  simplifying  it,  and  especially  of 
reducing  the  size  of  the  Manual.  It  has  no  more  literature 
than  the  Benn  Pitman,  and  perhaps  not  so  much  as  it. 

These  two  have  been  the  leading  systems  in  the  United 
States  since  they  came  into  the  field,  and  so  far  they  have 
kept  the  lead.  Both  claim  precedence  ;  and  the  methods  on 


28 

which  they  base  their  claims  show  how  easy  it  is  to  manipu- 
late figures  to  prove  just  what  we  like.  Mr.  Jerome  B. 
Howard,  the  acting  propagandist  of  the  Benn  Pitman  system 
since  Mr.  Pitman  himself  retired  some  years  ago,  bases  his 
claim  on  the  tabulated  list  of  Educational  Institutions  where 
shorthand  is  taught,  as  furnished  by  the  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion at  Washington  for  the  year,  June,  1889-90.  To  show 
how  poor  a  basis  this  furnishes  for  an  accurate  estimate, 
schools  are  mentioned  where  not  only  two,  three,  four,  five, 
and  six  systems  are  taught,  but  "any  of  the  leading  systems," 
or  "  any  modification  of  Pitman's  ;" — schools  with  15  teachers 
for  23  pupils  ;  and  to  offset  this,  one  teacher  for  510  pupils. 
A  pretty  well-known  Academy  of  Houston,  Tex.,  returns 
four  Benn  Pitman  teachers,  and  no  pupils,  and  none  as  ever 
having  graduated  from  the  school.  The  Graham  publishers 
base  their  estimate  on  the  list  of  "  Official  Court  Reporters 
of  the  United  States."  This  list  is  very  partial,  including 
only  30  States  and  Territories  out  of  50,  and  wholly  exclud- 
ing some  of  the  largest  cities — such  as  even  Washington  and 
Chicago.  We  know  of  one  case  where  returns  were  sent  for 
publication  in  this  list,  namely  from  Rhode  Island  ;  but  for 
some  unknown  reason,  these  are  omitted. 

On  such  unsound  bases  as  these,  is  it  any  wonder  that  the 
estimates  widely  differ?  The  Benn  Pitman  statistics  reckon 
34.7  per  cent,  of  teachers  to  Graham's  i6'8  per  cent,  or  747 
to  363  ;  while  the  Graham  method  of  reckoning  gives  that 
system  48  per  cent,  to  Benn  Pitman's  12  per  cent.,  or  a  pro- 
portion of  305  to  77 !  If  the  respective  parties  do  not 
manifest  a  sufficient  sense  of  shame  to  induce  them  to  with- 
draw such  data  and  conclusions,  we  may  well  blush  for  the 
fraternity.  Instead  of  withdrawing  them,  however,  they  are 
making  matters  worse  by  publishing  them  to  the  present  day, 
as  if  the  conditions  of  a  decade  ago  were  the  same  still.  In 
the  Benn  Pitman  statistics,  the  Isaac  Pitman  comes  fifth  in 
rank  ;  and  in  the  Graham,  it  is  put  fourth.  They  now  make 
no  allowance  for  the  fact  that,  up  to  1890,  when  the  Bureau  of 
Education  published  the  list  of  teachers  and  taught,  the 
Isaac  Pitman  system  had  no  business  representation  in 
America,  but  was  left  to  the  mere  accident  of  immigration  ; 
but  since  that  date,  when  the  firm  of  Isaac  Pitman  and  Sons 
opened  a  house  in  New  York,  and  the  Copp,  Clark  Co. 
started  an  Agency  at  Toronto,  the  system  has  been  extend- 
ing by  leaps  and  bounds,  as  evidenced  by  reports  from 


29 

Colleges,  by  its  exclusive  adoption  into  the  High  Schools 
of  New  York  and  elsewhere,  by  the  fact  that  some  of  the 
most  influential  and  widely  circulated  papers  (such  as  The 
Christian  Herald  and  the  American  Boy — the  former 
with  a  weekly  circulation  of  about  300,000)  have  published 
courses  of  Isaac  Pitman  lessons  in  them.  Whatever  the 
Benn  Pitman  and  Graham  statistics  amounted  to  ten  years 
ago,  they  cannot  speak  for  to-day,  either  for  the  Isaac 
Pitman  system,  or  for  other  systems,  some  of  which  have 
faded  or  died  out  altogether,  and  others  have  improved  in 
circulation. 

The    Munson    System 

has  probably  ranked  third  among  the  "  variations  "  in  public 
patronage,  since  its  Hrst  appearance  not  long  behind  the 
Graham.  In  some  respects,  especially  in  the  newer  vowel 
scale  of  Isaac  Pitman,  and  the  large  initial  /  hook  on  curves, 
it  was  in  advance  of  its  compeers  when  it  first  set  out;  but  it 
has  been,  like  them,  languishing  ever  since.  It  has  some  pecu- 
liarities of  its  own  that  the  author  and  his  followers  thought 
valuable,  but  they  have  never  gained  a  wide  acceptance,  and 
only  served  to  make  another  division  in  the  ranks.  Mr. 
Munson  publishes  no  organ,  and  comparatively  no  literature, 
which  itself  would  be  sufficient  to  account  for  the  limited 
constituency  of  Munson  writers. 

It  is  needless  to  more  than  name  Longley's  Eclectic,  The 
Burnz  System,  The  Osgoodby,  The  Thornton,  The  Barnes, 
Eames'  Light-Line,  The  Moran,  The  Dement,  The  Day, 
The  Gilbert,  The  Allen  ("Universal"),  The  Watson,  The 
Scott- Browne,  The  Bishop  ("Exact"),  The  Haven,  The 
Beale  ("  Simplified"),  The  Robert  F.  Rose,  and  I  know  not 
how  many  other  modifications  and  remodifications,  variations 
and  deviations,  of  the  Pitman  family.  Each  author  is 
perfectly  confident  that  he  has  made  improvements— more 
confident  than  others  seem  to  be;  one  thing  is  certain,  how- 
ever, namely  that  each  "  improvement  "  helps  the  confusion, 
and  weakens  the  general  cause.  If  this  be  the  fruit  of  liberty, 
there  is  reason  to  fear  that  too  high  a  value  has  been 
attached  to  it  when  so  much  blood  has  been  shed  on  its 
behalf.  If  any  of  these  derived  systems  had  really  improved 
the  original  in  its  principles,  then  there  would  be  less 
occasion  for  departing  from  the  principles  and  adopting  con- 
tracted forms  or  arbitraries  in  their  stead.  But  the  fact  is 

449599 


30 

patent  that  the  pure  Isaac  Pitman  has  a  much  smaller  list  of 
contracted  words  than  any  of  these  variations,  and  yet  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  none  of  the  latter  has  stood  severer  tests  of 
speed  or  legibility  than  the  parent  system.  Not  one  of  them 
has  done  the  same  amount  of  difficult  work,  or  has  been  so 
carefully  and  fairly  attested  by  formal  official  trial.  About 
thirty  persons  have  now  carried  off  the  Isaac  Pitman  silver 
and  gold  medals  for  writing  at  a  speed  of  from  200  to  250 
words  per  minute,  for  seven  to  ten  minutes,  perfectly  new 
matter,  and  transcribed  before  examiners,  free  from  any  grave 
errors.  Higher  rates  have  been  attained  for  shorter  tests, 
and  the  writing  read  off  at  once,  and  not  written,  and 
specially  selected  matter ;  but  I  have  never  known  any  per- 
formance that  has  surpassed  or  even  equalled  these,  by  any 
of  the  so-called  "  improved  "  Pitmanic  systems,  and  certainly 
none  by  the  non-Pitmanic  ones. 

No  argument  is  needed  to  show  the  importance  of  having 

One    Uniform,    Universal    System. 

Personally,  I  would  like  to  be  a  writer  of  the  system  that 
seemed  to  stand  the  best  chance  of  reaching  that  desirable 
position.  And  were  I  occupying  a  post  in  which  I  had  any 
influence  upon  the  schools  and  colleges  of  a  country,  I  would 
use  that  influence  in  securing  the  introduction  into  these 
institutions  of  that  system  which  had  the  best  prospect  of 
gaining  the  precedence  ultimately.  From  the  facts  presented, 
you  may  judge  for  yourself,  and  I  think  very  easily,  which 
system  has  the  advantage  in  this  respect.  What  superior 
opportunity  has  the  Benn  Pitman  to  climb  to  the  top  every- 
where, taking  into  account  its  construction,  its  amount  ol 
literature,  or  its  constituency  ?  \Yhat  the  Graham  ?  \Yhat 
any  other  of  the  varieties  of  Pitman  ?  What  chance  has 
Gregg,  Pernin,  Cross,  or  any  of  the  non-Pitmanic  systems  to 
v  drown  out  the  practice  and  the  literature  of  Isaac  Pitman,  or 
even  the  Benn  Pitman  or  the  Graham  ?  The  chances  of 
success  on  the  part  of  any  but  the  one  of  these,  to  my  mind, 
seem  slim,  but  you  may  see  it  otherwise  ;  form  your  own 
judgment  and  act  accordingly.  Looking  at  the  subject  from 
my  standpoint  of  long  experience  and  a  somewhat  wide 
observation,  and  seeking  to  be  divested  of  any  prejudice,  it  is 
a  beautiful  vision  that  confronts  me: — one  system  of  short- 
hand writing,  ever  growing  in  efficiency  through  the  combined 
wisdom  of  practical  experts,  for  at  least  the  whole  English- 


speaking  race,  having  its  origin  in  one  continent ;  and  its  in- 
dispensable handmaid,  the  typewriter,  springing  to  its  assist- 
ance from  the  other  continent,  both  combining  to  carry  their 
rich  blessings  to  aid  in  the  education,  commerce,  and  religion 
of  humanity  generally  !  May  this  vision  soon  become  a  reality ! 


DR.    WM.    T.    HARRIS. 

(Formerly  Supt.  of  Schools,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

The  Commissioner  of  Education  of  the  United  State.-:,  said  in  his 
Riport  of  1893  :— 

"  It  will  be  seen,  in  the  chapter  giving  the  statistics  of  instruction  in  Short- 
hand in  the  United  States,  that  the  system  mainly  folio-wed  is 
that  Of  Isaac  Pitman.  Few  inventors  within  the  last  two  hundred  years 
have  been  so  happy  as  he  in  discovering  devices  that  have  proved  useful  in 
practice,  and  at  the  same  time  called  forth  universal  admiration  for  their 
theoretic  perfection." — Extract  from  '•'•Circular  of  Information  No.  7" 
(Washington,  D.C.),  1893. 


COURT  REPORTERS'  ENDORSEMENTS 

OF 

ISAAC    PITMAN'S    PHONOGRAPHY. 


te^"*  The  highest  authenticated  record  for  ten  minutes'  continuc 
writing  from  new  matter  in   any  system  is  held  by  an  Isaac  Pitma 
writer.     See  particulars  in  "  Pitman's  Shorthand  and  Typewriting  Year  Book." 

Superior  to  any  other. 


"  I  have  been  a  practitioner  of  the  Isaac  Pitman  system  for  many  years,  and  believe 
it.is  superior  to  any  other      Although  lam  personally  acquj  in  ted  with  many-  fast  and 
accurate  writers  among  the  users  of  the  various  Pitmanic  systems,  I  regard  this  fact  as       ^p 
an  endorsement  for  the  Isaac  Pitman  system,  because,  'imitation  is  the  sincerest  form  of        Wjt 
Mattery.'    I  can,  however,  truthfully  say  that  I  am  not  acquainted  with,        ** 
nor   do  I    know  of  by  reputation    (excepting   two  veteran  Gurney    writers),   a 
single  rapid  and  accurate  writer  who  is  not  a  Pitmanic  follower.    It 
does  not  follow,  of  cour:-e,  that  such  dp  not  exist,  but  I  do  know  they  are  not  conspicuous 
in  this  vicinity.     I  am  a  firm  believer  in  the  orthodox  manner  of  teaching  and  practising 
Phonography  as  laid  down  in  the  authorized  text-book  of  the  Isaac  Pitman  system,  viz.  : 
'  The  Complete  Phonographic  Instructor,'  and  am  decide  lly  of  the  opinion  that  any 
serious  departure   therefrom   will   only   produce  harmful   results."  —  Frank  D.  Curtis, 
Official  Stenographer,  U.S.  Circuit  Court,  New  York  Citv. 

Compelled  to  Abandon   L«ght=Line. 

"  For  the  past  twenty-three  years  I  have  be.-n  an  official  court  stenographer  writing 
the  Isaic  Pitman  system.  In  addition  to  court  work,  I  have  reported  verbatim  political 
meetings  lor  the  Press  and  a  n  imber  of  Conventions  both  in  Canada  and  the  United 
Stales.  All  the  High  Court  stenographers  in  Ontario  use  the  Isaac  Pitman  or  modifi- 
cations of  it.  My  assi-tant  in  court  work  can  easi  y  read  my  notes,  and,  with  her  assis- 
tance in  dictating  my  notes  to  typewriter  operators,  I  have  transcribed  a  trial  of  over 
i,  300  pages  of  foolscap  in  five  days.  I  have  yat  to  meet  the  court  reporler  or  rapid 
stenographer  who  uses  a  '  light-line'  system.  I  have  met  several  whj  started  out  with 
such  systems,  but  were  compelled  to  give  them  up  and  adopt  the  Isaac  Pitman  in  order 
to  do  fast  work."  —  Wm.  C.  Coo,  Official  Court  Reporter,  London,  Ont. 


32 


TEXAS          The  system  of  To-Day. 


"  I  learned  the  Pernin  system  nearly  five  years  ago,  and  used  it  in  office  work  with 
rather  indifferent  results.  I  was  offered  the  position  of  court  reporter  here  in  Detroit, 
some  three  years  ago,  and  found  that  the  Pa-nin  system  was  about  as  good  for  reporting 
as  longhand,  and  hen  I  could  not  read  it.  I  finally  took  the  advice  of  a  young  court 
reporter  here,  and  learned  the  Isaac  Pitman  system,  and  I  wish  to  say  that  I  do  not  think 
there  is  a  system  m  existence  that  can  compare  with  it.  •!  certainly  think  it  is  the  system 
of  to-day."— L.  B.  Caldu-ell,  Detroit,  Mich. 

Equal  to  every  Emergency. 

"  I  find  the  Isaac  Pitman  system  equal  to  every  emergency,  both  as  to  speed  and  legi 
bility.  It  is  a  notable  fact  that  the  entire  English  stiff  of  the  Canadian  House  of  Com- 
mons, numbering  six,  are  all  writers  of  the  Ii-aac  Pitman  sjstem,  ard  that  eight  out  of 
the  eleven  English  Official  Stenographers  in  Montreal  (including  the  Superior  and  Police 
Courts/  are  writers  of  this  system.  I  believe  the  '  Shorthand  Instructor'  the  most  satis- 
factory text-book  yet  published." — C.  F.  Larkin,  Official  Stenographer,  Superior  Court, 
Montreal,  Canada. 

Wasted  no  Time  on  Modern  Fads. 

"  I  hav.i  been  engaged  in  official  court  reporting  Lir  fifteen  years.  I  have  never  used, 
nor  desired  to  use,  any  o:her  system  than  the  old  original  I-aac  Pitman,  the  only 
system  found  worthy  of  notice  in  the  great  Encyclopedias.  A  circle  can  be  made  no 
rounder — a  square  can  b<*  made  no  square  • — a  perfect  system  of  shorthand  can  not  be  im- 
proved up  >n — therefore  I  have  wasted  no  time  on  modern  fads  and  fakes." — John  Y. 
Mardick,  Official  Steno  ^rapher,  Charleston,  Mo. 

Is  more  Legible. 

"  Although  a  writer  of  one  of  the  '  modifications  '  of  the  I^aac  Pitman  system  I  claim 
that  the  use  of  the  later  and  Improved  Isaac  Pitman  vowel  scale  (used  by  all  Britis-h 
phonographe  s  since  it*  introduction  in  857)  gives  me  a  better  differentiation  of  outlines. 
For  instance,  with  the  present  Isaac  Pitman  vowel  scale  I  can  at  once  (without  the- aid 
of  context)  disti  >guish  between  at  and  out  ;  see  and  saw  ;  laivs  and  lease  (construction  of 
the  laws  or  const- uction  of  the  lease)  ;  fall  and  fill ;  by-laws  and  bills,  and  hund  eds  of 
other  words  wh'ch  I  need  not  mention  at  this  time.  I  adopt  many  of  the  Isaac  Pitman 
principles,  for  instance  adding  dr,  tr,  and  thr  after  the  final  hooks,  by  lengthening  the 
stems." — Mr,  Robert  S.  Taytor,  Official  Court  Reporter,  St.  Paul,  Min. 

High  Speed  with  Legibility. 

"  The  Isiac  Pitman  system  is  an  admirable  one.  Avoiding  alike  the  cumbrous,  e'e- 
mentary  fulness  >>f  some  systems,  and  the  grotesque  and  illegible  brevity  of  others,  it 
strikes  the  happy  medium  ;ind  combines  theoretical  perfection  with  entire  practicability. 
This  system  can  be  written  at  a  great  speed  without  sacrifice  to  legibility — an  invaluable 
quality  in  court  work,  where  note-;  have  to  be  read  months  and  even  years  after  they  are 
written." — Harold  Eyre,  Official  Stenographer,  Municipal  Court,  New  York  City. 


NO     HIGHER     INDORSEMENT. 

Isaac  Pitman's  Shorthand 

OFFICIALLY    ADOPTED    BY    THE 

NEW   YORK   HIGH    SCHOOL    OF   COMMERCE, 

AND 

GIRLS'    TECHNICAL    HIGH    SCHOOL. 

(Under  Control  Board  of  Education). 

"Destined  to  be  the  two  leading  commercial   educational  institutions   in  the  United 
States."  —  N.Y.  Commercial  Advertiser. 


01  C 
AT 
LOS  ANGELES 


20th   Century 


EDITION    OF 


ISAAC  PITMAN'S 

Shorthand  Instructor. 

This  work  is  a  new  presentation  of  ISAAC  PITMAN'S 
system  based  on  the  accumulated  experience  of  the  past 
sixty  years,  and  includes  many  valuable  improvements  which 
appear  for  the  first  time. 

Cloth,  gilt  lettered,  276  pages.     Price  $1.50. 

"  I  am  de'ighted  with  the  Twentieth  Century  Edition  of  the  '  Instructor.'  It  is  terse, 
compact,  and  comprehensive.  In  short,  it  is  multum  in  parvo.  Chapter  XVIII.,  on 
'  Disyllabic  Diphthongs '  should  be  extremely  interesting  to  professional  shorthand 
writers,  because  in  theological,  scientific,  and  medical  reporting,  they  encounter  words 
with  comparative  frequency  in  which  there  are  more  vowels  or  diphthongs  than  there  are 
consonants,  and  such  words  are  difficult  to  decipher  by  the  bare  consonantal  outlines ; 
hence  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  shorthand  characters  to  designate  the  diphthongs  is 
very  essential.  The  vari  us  sections  devoted  to  'Advanced  Phraseography  '  illustrate  in 
a  clear  and  striking  manner  to  what  extent  one  may  phrase  in  accordance  with  sound 
principles,  and  not  adopt  a  slipshod  method  of  phrasing.  These  sections  deserve  special 
stress,  and  should  be  hailed  with  delight.  In  Chapter  XXXVII.,  your  admirable  elucida- 
tion of  the  principles  of  intersecting  words  deserves  the  highest  commendation.  Inter- 
sections are  time-savers,  and  they  can  be  applied  to  almost  any  form  of  commercial  work 
or  professional  reporting,  To  sum  up  :  Judging  from  my  familiarity  with  other  systems, 
I  think  the  majority  of  those  who  write  the  Isaac  Pitman  system  will  agree  with  me  when 
I  say  that  you  have  produced  the  greatest  and  best  one  volume  text-book  on  shorthand 
that  has  ever  been  published." — William  Whitford,  Medical  Stenographer, Chicago,  111., 
Official  Stenographer  for  The  Medical  Age,  The  Medical  News,  etc. 

"  In  its  present  form  it  will  considerably  modify  the  difficulties  for  the  student  who 


rectmg  some  of  the  awkward  outlines  which  were  necessary  before,  by  the  introduction  of 
rules  similar  to  that  in  Paragraph  82.  I  welcome  these  changes  as  fully  in  keeping  with 
the  advance  of  the  times."—  JV.  T.  Jackman,  Teacher  of  Isaac  Pitman  Phonography, 
I  'nii'ersity  of  Vermont,  Burlington,  Vt. 

"'A  Ne\v  Shorthand  Instructor '  has  been  issued  by  Pitman  and  Sons,  entirely  revised 
and  improved,  designed  for  class-work  or  self-instruction.  This  Twentieth  century 
edition  presents  the  accumulated  experience  of  over  sixty  years,  and  the  student  has  the 
benefit  of  that  array  r.f  data  which  has  made  the  Pitman  shorthand  publications  standard 
authorities  wherever  they  have  been  introduced." — School,  Official  Organ  of  the  Public 


..herever  they 

and  High  Schooh  of  New  York  City. 


NEW    YORK: 
Isaac  Pitman  and  Sons,  Publishers,  31  Union  Square. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


3AN1 


*  7 

AUG  I*  1950 


MAY  2  6 


Form  fe9-25m-9,'47(A5618) 444 

9.  it  is  taught  in  tne  Commercial  High  Schoo 
New  York  City,  Brooklyn,  and  other  large  citi 

10.  The  U.S.  Commissioner  of  Education  (Dr.  W. 
Harris)  says :    "  It  is  the  Best   system  and  o 
which   forms  the  basis   for  a  hundred  or  mo 
modifications." 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY •™£Wt 


A    000  564  835     7 


j 


if  J7