72 The Newspaper Wot Id, literature, has shared with her the greater prosperity of the nineteenth century, and from the floor of the House of Lords to the tiniest Vestry, the reporter of to-day is an honored and welcome visitant whenever deliberations of public importance are in progress. Much has been written about the reporter's vocation from every point of view, and it would be difficult, if not impossible, to say anything new on a department of journalistic enterprise which has been so voluminously treated. In his daily work the reporter of to-day is brought into contact with every phase of modem life, whether political or personal, whether dealing with our amusements or our sorrows. In the morning he may be investigating the details of some revolting tragedy, at night he may be sitting in judgment at the theatre on the latest farcical piece. Broadly speaking, however, his work may be grouped into three divisions, namely, shorthand writing ; condensa- tion ; and description — it is in one or other of these direc- tions that he is called upon to exercise his abilities. Few, probably, however ignorant of Press work, in the present day hold the belief that ability to write shorthand forms a reporter's only necessary qualification. Yet pos- sibly a word of warning may be still necessary to the tyro, and it cannot be better conveyed than by quoting two sentences from Mr Thomas Allen Reed. "It is of very little use," he says, " to take shorthand notes if you don't know what to do with them when taken. They are, after all, but the raw material — necessary indeed to the manu- factured article, but not the article itself."(^) The introduc- tion and growth of the practice of shorthand writing by reporters of the Press would form an interesting subject of inquiry, though only a few words can be devoted to it here, before passing on to consider the practical uses of shorthand to the reporter. The art has been practised by I. " Reporter's Guide," 2nd edition, page 33.
