The new System of Phonetic Short-hand, which we have partially developed in the following pages, is the result of a protracted effort to conform the system of Mr. Isaac Pitman to the beauty of its theory. A few persons of peculiar genius have mastered that system, and found its use of great service in all their literary pursuits. But while a few were able to relieve themselves of the intolerable drudgery of writing by its means, hundreds - we can say, in truth, thousands - were striving in vain to make the old system practically useful to them. We speak what we know. Nineteen twentieths of all the phonographers we have ever seen are of this number; and we are almost constantly in receipt of letters from all parts of the country which testify with emphasis to the impracticability of phonography, and express an earnest hope that some system may be found that can be applied to the common uses of writing. Besides, as a teacher of phonography for several years, we might give the result of our success, if more testimony were needed; but it is not necessary. When we awoke to the fact that we were attempting a hopeless task in trying to shove a system into favor burdened with the irregularities and complexities that characterize that system, we were surprised to find that most thinking men had arrived at the same conclusion long before us. And, when stimulated by a view of the necessity of some relief from the toil of writing, we conceived it still possible to work out the phonographic theory in a practical shape, we were more than pleased to learn that such men as the late Hon. Horace Mann had anticipated us here also, and indicated, with the usual clearness of his perceptions, the plain and practical plan on which success was certain. And others have from time to time urged the importance of a more rapid system of writing, not for the use of the verbatim reporter, but fur all the ordinary purposes of writing.

Tuttle Jan 5 '43