Freeport High School - Clarion Yearbook (Freeport, ME)

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THE OLARIQN 1bietorQ M Ebortbanb The history of shorthand may be traced to the time of Julius Caesar. He had many noble thoughts to record, so he wrote his thoughts in shorthand himself and had one of his stenog- raphers transcribe them later. 'ily ro was a shorthand man and a erackerjaek, too. He was so good at shorthand writing that he was made a Hi-l'C0H12l11H by Cicero and employed to report speeches in the Roman Senate. As the great Caesar ascended the Ii0St1'lllll and addressed the forum on some important busi- ness, Tyro, or some I'I0!lH'lili as they called them, would sit near and with his stylus scratch on wax tablets signs which he after- wards transcribed into Latin. The poet Quintus Ennius had a scheme of abbreviated Writ- ing with eleven hundred signs! .lt was something like the Chinese language. And Uassianus, Bishop of Brescia, is re- ported to have thrust upon his students of shorthand several thousand additional arbitrary signs. This was in 63 B. C., when they had no pencils, ink, or pens. Fountain pens were unheard of. Pans tilled with wax formed the notebooks of the speed writers of llonie, and toriuous implements were the only writing instruments with which to inseribe the wax tablets. In the Middle Ages many who wrote shorthand were burned at the stake because their signs were thought to be wicked. The people thought it was Black Magic. VVhen the great Renaissance of liearning was brought about. shorthand eaine into its own once more. Tymothe Bright, Doc- tor of Physics, was the first to publish a system in modern times. His book, The Art of Short, Swift, and Secret VVrit- ing by Character, appeared in 1588, dedicated to Queen Eliz- abeth. 4'Father of Modern Shorthandn is the title by which he is honored. His shorthand was planned for the reporting of sermons. Metcalfe in 1645 engraved in his textbook the Ten Commandments and a representation of the l,ord's Prayer. Beneath his portrait a poem appeared, testifying to the use to which he intended his system to be put. One had to learn long lists of strokes, curves, straight lines, curlicues, to translate the thought of the orator into symbols which would be re-written in longhand. Signs, related and unrelated, were employed. A circle rep- resented thc globular aspect of the world and a dot to indicate 20

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LITERARY he chaneed to think of Mrs. Morse. The cards in her case had been those of Mrs. J. Fred Morse. Might this not he some relative of hers. He questioned Grandma hut got slight satisfaction, although he did think he caught a glimmer of understanding in her eyes at the mention of Boothsport. Finding no clue he departed. He took the letter to his pri- vate office, where he sat debating as to whether he should open it or not. Opening another's mail is a, serious otlense in the Civil Service and the postmaster was well aware of the fact. Never- theless, he reached a decision and, steaming the letter open, he extracted the contents. The letter was hrief and read: '4Hamden, Ohio, Nov. 19- llear Fred: As much as I hate to say it, we can find no traee of Mother. VVe have advertised and called the police on the ease, hut no results as yet. If you find a clue, wire at once. Yours, Tom. As the man finished reading he jumped to his feet and started in search of Grandma again. Mrs Morse, he began, when she answered the door, Udo these names mean anything to you? Tom, Fred, llamden, Boothsport ? and he seanned her taee intently for any glimmer of recognition. Slowly Mrs. Morse repeated them after him, t'Tom, Fred, Hamden,-7' her voice trailed off into a whisper as she sank to the doorstep. Quickly, the postmaster lifted her and carrying her into the house, placed her on a divan. However, it was only a faint from which Grandma soon revived. As soon as she could collect herself, she said rather hesitat- ingly, I know, it all comes back. Tom and Fred are my sons and I was living with Tom when-when l ran awayf, she tin- ished with a feeble smile. Telegrams were sent to the 'fhoysv to announce the glad news, and that night two sad-faced men were again smiling. Vvhen Tom came to take her home, Grandma asked, lVhat will you do to me? When the hahy runs away, you put him to hed. Tom only took her in his arms for answer. Dems REID, '29. I9

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LITERARY the where. NVords and phrases were represented by arbi- trary signs. ln the phrase, ueven at the right hand of God, the character g represented God , two lines represented even, being of even length, right hand was expressed by the signs for Woven, being placed o11 the right hand side of g. Samuel Pepys penned his tanious Diary in shorthancl. No doubt he did not think that the eharaetcrs would be deciphcred a hundred years later and printed in plain English so that all who would could read. The famous narrative of Charles IPS escape after the battle of lvorcester was taken down by his sec- retary from the dictation ot' his king. Delving into the history of this country we iind nlany leading statesrncn, clergyinen, heads of universities and nien of great learning among the users of shorthand as a personal accomplish- nient. It is reported that Thomas fleliferson, 'llenjaniin Frank- lin, and Elbridge Gerry, three of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, were writers of shorthand. N ea1'ly all of the early Harvard University presidents including Henry Dunster f1640-1654j and the famous Jonathan Edwards, president of Princeton University, were expert writers of shorthand. Many books have been written and published about shorthand, its history and practice. The first known history of shorthand was published in 1736, by Rev. Philip Gibbs and is called An Essay Towards the Eurthcr linprovenicnt of Shorthand. In 1816 there was published the Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of Shorthandn by Jaincs Henry Lewis. Wllhe History of Shorthand Writing was published in England. lin 1884 Mr. Julius Ensign Rockwell prepared for the Hu- reau of Education in Washington a circular entitled The Teaching, Practice, and Literature of Shorthand, and in 1893 he prepared Shorthand Instruction and Practice. Many systems of shorthand have been established in schools and colleges, but the system used in flick of the high schools in the country is the Gregg system. It is written along the line of ordinary longhand, in a natural, easy, flowing manner in which drawing shaded characters play no part. Pitman Shorthand is also used in some schools. Isaac Pitnian Wrote a History of Shorthand, which was originally published in the Phonotypic Journal for 1847. History proves to us that aiknowledgc of a system of abbrevi- 21