SELF-TAUGHT STENOGRAPHER,

OR,

STENOGRAPHIC GUIDE;

EXPLAINING

THE PRINCIPLES AND RULES OF THE ART OF SHORT-HAND WRITING,

ILLUSTRATED BY APPROPRIATE PLATES AND EXAMPLES.

COMPILED AND IMPROVED FROM THE LATEST EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS,

By E. B. BIGELOW, STENOGRAPHER.

LANCASTER:

PRINTED BY CARTER, ANDREWS, AND CO.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1832, by Erastus B. Bigelow, in

the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.

PREFACE.

ALTHOUGH short-hand writing has come into disuse, by prejudices consequent upon voluminous, intricate, and expensive treatises heretofore published, and its true merits have been undervalued, the author of this system flatters himself, that, by his perspicuity of arrangement, he shall overcome all obstacles from this

source.

Few persons know the advantages of this art, and the facility of acquiring it, otherwise it would be more generally used; and serve to enrich the common-place book of thousands, who now write by long-hand in hours, what they could record in minutes by the practice of short-hand. In the compilation of this work it has been the sole design to adapt it to the use of private learners, and to illustrate and exemplify the whole theory by rules and engravings, so as to place it within the reach of every individual, without the expense of personal instruction: all of which is compatible with its simplicity. For in this system the novelty of writing consists merely in the active manoeuvring of a few simple but significant signs. These signs have been carefully selected, and their respective powers so distinctly defined in the following columns, that any person may readily qualify himself without a teacher to record the language of a public speaker, word by word, so legibly as to be read distinctly at any subsequent time.

Although the value of shorthand can never be duly appreciated, except by those who investigate its principles, still those must be wilfully prejudiced and sceptical who will not acknowledge its utility as a labour and time saving art; especially when the time necessary to its acquisition is reduced to a few hours of individual study, and the expense brought within the pecuniary means of all.

See Directions.

West Boylston, Dec. 16, 1831.