THE HAND-BOOK OF STANDARD OR AMERICAN PHONOGRAPHY. BY ANDREW J. GRAHAM, A. M. Author of the Standard-Phonographic Series, consisting of the Little from 1853 to 1893, devoted principally to NEW AND REVISED EDITION. (First Edition 1858.) New York: ANDREW J. GRAHAM & CO., 744 BROADWAY. NEW LIBRARY Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1893, BY ANDREW J. GRAHAM, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. COPYRIGHT, 1886, BY ANDREW J. GRAHAM. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States PREFACE. This revised edition of the Hand-Book of Standard or American Phonography has been prepared mainly because the plates from which preceding editions have been printed are so worn that repairs are no longer practicable. As new plates were necessary for this and future editions, I have taken advantage of the opportunity to make such changes in the presentation of the principles of the system, but without altering them, as I have considered would be an improvement. In the Preface to the first edition I said: "A Standard system of shorthand for the English language must combine the following characteristics : I. It must be capable of representing with accuracy the sounds of the English language, and of the principal languages quoted by English writers and speakers. II. It must secure considerable speed of writing, with ample legibility, so as to answer all the purposes for which longhand is employed. III. It must secure, for reporting purposes, ample speed of writing, without illegibility. IV. Order and simplicity must be observed in every department." During the thirty-five years that have passed since the first publication of this work, thousands of phonographers, who have learned the art from it, have demonstrated that the system of shorthand it teaches complies with every one of the above-mentioned requirements. Having perceived, before presenting the system to the public, that it complied with the obvious standard principles of a system of shorthand, and that its learners would not be subjected to the necessity of frequent and harassing changes, I named it Standard Phonography. In contradistinction to the Old, or English Phonography, and in honor of my Country, I also called it American Phonography. It should be said, however, that the great majority of the writers of this system are inclined to call it the Graham system, or merely "Graham"; and this tendency of naming comes no less from plagiarists from the system, who come with ridiculous pretences of "improvements" on "Graham." Although for thirty-five years this system has been fully tested by many of the most expert reporters in the world, in no instance, so far as I have been able to learn, has there been any complaint from such experts of any lack of completeness in the thoroughness and perspicuity of its presentation, or of adequacy in its brevity and legibility. On the contrary, I have received thousands of testimonials from all parts of this, and from many foreign countries, expressing gratitude to me for the benefit the writers had received from my works. It has been demonstrated this year (1893), by carefully compiled statistics, that more than one-half of the EXPERT reporters in the United States write the Graham system, and that the remainder are divided among more than twenty other systems, so-called. These facts, then, clearly prove that the STANDARD quality claimed for the system, in its title, is neither exaggerated nor boastful. As it is probable that a great majority of the purchasers of this and subsequent editions will be those who are not familiar with the old edition, and therefore unable to discern the improvements in this one, I will here briefly state some of the principal points of superiority of this edition. First.—By taking advantage of my process of phonographic engraving (called Stereography), I have greatly increased the number of illustrations in the text, and enlarged the Reading Exercises, so that, in this respect, this revised edition is a great improvement upon the old one, which was itself, in that and in all other respects, superior to any other shorthand text-book. Second. By placing each Reading Exercise at the end of the lesson to which it belongs, instead of all of them at the end of the Compendium, more convenience is secured when referring to the text to which they relate; and by means of the "sentences" which are introduced in Exercise II, and continued through all the others, the interest of the pupil is kept keen by finding that he can make practical application of the principles and wordsigns as fast as he learns them. Third.—I have almost entirely dispensed with the chapters on Phonetics, in Part I, because I have found that pupils can be taught to read and write phonography with but slight knowledge of the phonetic principles on which it is based; and because I have extensively used in this edition my system of Phonographic Nomenclature (devised over thirty years ago), which is a very effective aid in teaching and in learning phonography. Fourth. The Brief Phonographic Dictionary, which is appended to the General Index, will be found an especially useful addition to this work, although it cannot take the |