Excerpt from The Silent Man: And Other Gems of Shorthand Literature Hold the world entranced with their skill and ge nius. The ability of the one is as far removed from the ability of the other as the humblest mo torman on the Boston elevated is from the presi dent and guiding Spirit of that vast corporation. Let me give you an idea of what is required of a court reporter. The average rate of Speaking which he must record word for word in his note book is one hundred and fifty words per minute. To be sure, this Speed is sometimes slackened to a hundred, but often increased to two hundred; and this average Speed must be kept up hour aft er hour under any and all conditions, with any and all kinds of language. The words of the Eu glish language, as used in ordinary speech, will average at least five letters to a word. These five letters in the ordinary long hand will require at least twenty distinct motions of the pen. The useful art of shorthand has condensed this to an average of three movements to a word. In other words, in order to write legible shorthand at the rate of 150 words per minute the writer must Skil fully execute certain characters requiring 450 dis tinct movements of the pen to a minute, and must keep this enormous Speed up hour after hour if need be. Often a whole day's work will consist of unbroken testimony. Those unfamiliar with our duties say the pay we receive is exorbitant. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.