Standish High School - Crimson Rambler Yearbook (Standish, ME)

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THE TWIN ARTS The origin of shorthand is largely a matter of conjec- tureg its evolution has extended over many centuries. It would be possible to quote voluminously. from various authorities to prove that the Romans were indebted to the Greeks for the art of shorthand writing. We know that in ancient times the Greeks had Uquick writersn and nwriters by signs.n The art is said to have passed from Greece to Egypt, when Alexandria was virtually a Greek colony, and thence it was carried to Romer Some historians point to the frequent journeyings of Cicero, accompanied by his faithful secretary, Tiro, to Alexandria, and suggest that the latter became acquainted with the Greek form of quick writing and carried it back to Rome. It is a plausible theory, and there has been much controversy over it between the French and German shorthand historians and writers on historical subjects. Definite and indisputable evidence of the use of short- hand in the form of characters before the Christian Era is recorded by Plutarch, who mentions that in the debate in the Roman Senate on the Catilinian conspiracy, 65 B. C., the orations of Cicero and Cato were reported in Sh0Pth90d. Plutarch attributes to Cicero the inven- tion of shorthand, but there is no doubt that the credit for orieinetihg the first system of shorthand known to us belonrs to Tiro, who vas a freedman of Cicero. Like many slaves of that time, Tiro was highly educated, and, on receivinr his freedom from Cicero, he adopted two-thirds of his master's name and became known as Marcus Tullius Tiro. In reportinr the Roman Senate, it is said that Tire stationed about forty shorthand writers in different parts of the Curia, who wrote down on their tablets what they could. Some of the stenoaraphers were trained to take down the first parts of sentences and others to write the closing words. Tue transcripts were afterwards pierced together into connestsd discourse. The writing was done on tablets that were covered with a layer of wax. The edges of the wax tablets were raised to allow their being closed without injury to the writing. The tablets were fastened together at the corners, thus forming a kind of book, and as many as twenty tablets could be so fastened. When the book consisted of two tablets only, it was called a diploma, and the official appointments conferring public office were in that formg hence our word Udiploma.W The Roman shorthand characters were called notae and the shorthand writers notarii, from which our modern word A nnotaryn is derived. The instrument used for writing was a stylus, which was about the size of an ordinary

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In 1787 a petition was made for a school house and sixty pounds was appropriated for that purpose. In 1848, by an act of the state legislature, an academy was established. The first principal was Thomas Talbot. The oldest house in town, for erly possessed by Enock Blake, at present is owned by Rufus E. Gray. On the same day when news was received of the battle of Lexington, two beautiful trees were planted, one by Ephraim Jones, the other by Squire William Thompson. These trees now stand in front of the houses owned by E. W. Dolloff and Ethel Nelson respectively. Here is recorded an event of interest connected with the Narrett homestead. In the war of 1812, when it was thousht Portland would be taken by the British, the money from the banks was transported from there to Standish and kept in Person Narrett's parlor. Six yoke of oxen were employed to hawl the coin, and its weight was so great that extra care was taken to strengthen the foundation of the house. The locks that were put on the doors at that time still remain. The struggles and successes of our ancestors should inspire us to he' sr living in the present. Winifred Marean '36 Horses were first brought to America by the Spaniards. Cortes brought horses to Mexico and it is known that De Soto abandoned a large number near Texas. Indians took very read ily to horseback riding and the horses used by them were des cendants of the Spanish animals. Before the advent of rubber, bread crumbs were used to erase pencil marks. ' '

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pencil, the point being of ivory or metal, with the othev end flattened for the purpose of smoothing the wax after a record had been made and transcribed, so that the tablet might be used again. The word nstiletton was derived from stylus, and that deadly weapon, which has figured'so'frca quently in Roman and Italian history, was but a develope ment of the writing instrument of the early Roman scribes. The world is indebted to Tiro and his followers for the transmission to posterity of some of the finest gems of literature and some of the most effective orations of Roman civilization. References to the use of the Tironian notes are to be found in the works of Cicero, Horace, Ovid, and many others. With the rise of the early Christian Church and the demand for an exact record of the utterance of the religious leaders of the day, the teaching and practice of the Tironian notae received a new impetus. 'Some writers have express- ed the belief that the Sermon on the Mount was reported in shorthand by St. Luke. They base this assumption on the fact that shorthand was then a very fashionable and highly prized art and that it is reasonable to suppose that St. Luke mastered it. Whether this be true or not-- and it is susceptible of proof--there is little doubt that St. Paul dictated to his stenographers, Tychicus andCnesimus, his Epistles to the Colossians. Nearly all the great Popes and divines of the early church either wrote short- hand or employed shorthand writers. Pope Clement I, in 96 A. D., divided Rome into seven districts and appointed an official shorthand writer for eachg hence official reporting dates back to the second century. Pope Gregory the Great fPope from 590-604 A. D. I in the dedication of his famous Homillies mentions in his writings that he frequently availed himself of the services of shorthand writers. Both St. Augustine C554-450 A. D. J and Basil the Great C329-379 A. D. J made use of shorthand. St. Basil was the greatest leader and orator of the Christian Church at a critical period of its history. Julius Caesar was a writer of shorthand. As evidence of the dynamic energy of Julius Caesar, historians frenuently mention that in composing his famous Commentaries he dictated to six stenographers at one time. Doubtless She method employed was that used in reporting the Roman enate. Augustus oetavianus ces B. C.--14 A. D. J, the first and the greatest of the twelve Caesars, was an accomplished writer of shorthand. It has been said of Augustus that he was in the public service for the longest period of any statesman of ancLcnt or modern times, but the most strik- ing tribute paid to his genius is contained in the epigram- matic statement that UAugustus found Rome built of brick, and left it built of marble.