The employment of stenographers in law offices is becoming more and more general; indeed, an office without this very modern appendage may be considered as behind the times. In his ability to expedite business, and to relieve the lawyer from the tedious task of writing, consists the value of the shorthand man; and his usefulness in these respects has not, I think, been overrated. And yet complaints have been loud and frequent that the phonographer does not come up to the standard which we have a right to expect; that his words ("outlines" he calls them) are not always correct enough to be legible even to himself, and that, in the main, his speed is not entirely satisfactory. Having considered the subject, and seen no other representation of it, I shall take upon me the duty of proving that these faults are due, in a large measure, to the lawyer himself.

The writer of this article is acquainted with a lawyer in the metropolis who has what can hardly be called a peculiar habitbeing the habit of so many others learned in the law. The counsellor in question has a few, but at times exceedingly important cases. Consequently, he can afford to turn over, in his mind, for a considerable length of time, the methods and means which he desires to employ. He apparently does so, but alas! arrives at his conclusions all at once. On Monday morning Mr. Legality awakens, and it must be supposed, for the sake of decency, that he then performs his ablutions, and thereafter partakes of the morning meal. He has, by continued, though irregular thinking, an idea in his mind of what he wishes to say, though he has not given the slightest attention, as yet, to its expression in words. He comes down into the office and there finds his stenographer. This person is immediately called into the inner room, and made to bear tortures which he endures like a martyr that he is.

The first sentences dictated run smoothly as a pebbled rill; but, after a few moments, his employer's ideas become more and more entangled, and, consequently, the latter must stop for long periods so as to put them into comprehensive shape. And so it goes on during the whole dictation, which is varied by orders to cross out that and insert this, until the whole presents any but an enviable appearance. And yet the attorney referred to has good ideas. What he should do is to consider before he dictates, not only what he wishes to say, but the manner in which he wishes to say it. This will make clear to himself just what he desires to put upon

paper. "Words are often not only the vehicle of thought, but the very mirror in which we see our ideas," says Professor Mathews, in his instructive book on Words, their Use and Abuse.

The stenographer, by the system of Mr. Legality, loses any speed which he may have; and should he leave his position, he would be practically useless in a large and busy office, to which it is to be hoped, he aspires. And yet many a man of briefs who is guilty of this fault regards stenographers as uncommonly slow concerning their advantages, and has no scruples against expressing his opinion to that effect.

Again, the speed attainable in shorthand is due, in a measure, to the general knowledge of the art possessed by the dictator himself. In the science of phonography, which is the system of stenography most in use, all familiar clauses or phrases are written as a unit. Take, for instance, the sentence-"It is claimed that the bill of particulars is deficient." No one can deny that the phrase it is claimed is not a familar one in law, or that the words bill of particulars are not often used together. But let the learned dictator (pardon the term) read in this wise: "It-is claimed that-the bill-of particulars-is deficient." It would then be necessary to write each word separately, resulting in a waste of time. The lawyer should remember that all familiar phrases and expressions and words always or often used together are written as one unit, and should be so read when dictating.

If the lawyers who have the dolorous habit of our New York friend will throw it off, they will be doing their stenographers a service. And if he, who before hath made such sad havoc among familiar phrases, will repent and mend his erring way, all will be well. The trials are worth making, and, if persisted in, will assuredly result in great improvements in the direction desired.

54 William Street, N. Y.

O. HERZBERG.

FIRST steps toward Nationalism are explained by Edward Bellamy, in the October Forum as national ownership of the telegraph and telephone; adding the parcels-express to the post-office business; national control over railroads, but not through a weak Interstate Commerce Commission; national control of the coal mines of the country, and municipal ownership of transit, light, water, and heat. These are all good things in themselves, whether they lead to nationalism or not, especially the abolition of the present Interstate Commerce Commission. It cumbers the path of progress.

THE BALTIMOREANS are a peculiar people. They love their city with a pious affection, and wherever they roam in search of health, wealth, or pleasure they always turn to Baltimore as to the Mecca of their heart. Yet, whenever three or four Baltimoreans are together, at home or abroad, they abuse Baltimore without stint, condemning its old fogyism, its lack of business enterprise, its want of intellectual culture, its exquisite appreciation of terrapin and canvas-back ducks, and its extraordinary distaste for literature and art. But let a stranger venture to suggest that Baltamore is no longer the first flour market of the world, that its wharves are no longer lined with the big ships from the East Indies, which made its Gilmors, Pattersons, Smiths, and others of former days merchant princes; let a stranger hint that Baltimore has no publish. ing house, no recognized authors, that its streets are hilly, its men small and its women no longer so beautiful as formerly, and he will raise a storm of indignation. But I (being "native, here") will be permitted to say that Baltimore still wants several things before it can truthfully be called the Paris of America or even the New York of the South.

A dozen or two years ago, Hepworth Dixon, after a visit to Baltimore, pronounced it the "least lettered of all the American cities." This raised a storm of indignation, and a coat of tar and feathers was unanimously voted to be the just punishment of the audacious Britisher should he again come this way. But, nothing was done to make Baltimore a more intellectual city-nothing was done to develop a native literature-nothing was done to encourage native talent. This magazine has fewer subscribers in Baltimore, where it is published, than in Texas, two thousand miles off. While the leading newspapers of the North and West have given it a warm and generous recognition, not a newspaper in Baltimore has hadwe will not say the courtesy-but the common journalistic decency to notice the only magazine published-not only in Baltimore, but in the whole South.

Baltimoreans are not popular in Baltimore. Let a man come here from the North, South, East, or West, or with an unpronounceable foreign name and an unintelligible foreign accent-and it will be soon discovered that he can pull teeth, feel pulses, put in eyes, or put them out far better than a native practitioner. In a few years, he will buy a house on a fashionable avenue, and load it with costly paintings and bric-a-brac, while the professional man who is "native here" is obliged to live in a modest house on a side street,

and is fortunate if his income is as much as the foreign practitioner pays to his butler or coachman.

Within the memory of men still living in Baltimore, the possessions of the ancient family of the Howards comprised all that portion of the city stretching from Jones' Falls on the east to Eutaw Street on the west, and south from Franklin Street far beyond the northern boundary of Baltimore. In the midst of this princely domain stood Belvidere, the stately home of the Howards, surrounded by a noble park. Belvidere was for many years the centre of a generous hospitality, when Colonel John Eager Howard and his beautiful wife presided over the mansion. Mrs. Howard was the daughter of Chief Justice Chew, of Pennsylvania. When Colonel Howard first approached the house of his future bride at the head of his regiment during the Battle of Germantown, he was received with a shower of British bullets. To Belvidere Colonel Howard retired after being twice Governor of the State and twice United States Senator, and here it was his delight to entertain his former companions in arms and distinguished strangers from the Old World. When Lafayette visited this country in 1824 a brilliant reception was given in his honor at Belvidere, at which were present the venerable Charles Carroll, of Carrollton; General Robert Goodloe Harper, and other eminent men.

The ground upon which the Washington Monument stands was given to the city by Colonel Howard in 1815. Some of the most elegant avenues, squares, and streets of Baltimore which are the centre and fashion of the Monumental City once belonged to the Howard estate. But the glory of this family has departed. A grandson of John Eager Howard and bearing his honored name was not long since discharged from the humble position of turnkey at the Penitentiary, within sight of the home of his ancestors; another grandson sought in vain the position of private secretary to the Mayor. They have a double claim to the gratitude of Baltimore, for they are also the grandsons of Francis Scott Key, the author of the "Star Spangled Banner." But blue blood is at a discount in these days of railroad kings and successful stock gamblers. -The No Name Magazine.

[Herein the village on the Delaware greatly excels, for every newspaper and magazine with any ambition after society favors has one or more pedigree editors whose grandfathers and even greatgrandfathers have been known as honorable citizens since the Revolution, and whose duty it is to praise the productions of the proper writers.-ED.]

The making of wills by most people may be said to be a thing that is unpleasant to do at best—indeed, so unpleasant is the idea associated with will-making that many neglect to make wills altogether and die intestate. Whimsical people, when they do make wills, usually produce characteristic documents. They rarely consult a lawyer, fearing, no doubt, that he might counsel them against doing what they intend. But whimsical bequests have sometimes served a useful purpose, and instances are not unknown of such bequests having been made by lawyers themselves. Here is a case in point. William J. Haskett, a lawyer, who died in New York some years ago, left a will containing this curiously worded clause: "I am informed that there is a society composed of young men connected with the public press, and, as in early life I was connected with the papers, I have a keen recollection of the toils and troubles that bubbled then and ever will bubble for the toilers of the world in their pottage cauldron, and, as I desire to thicken with a little savory herb their thin broth in the shape of a legacy, I do hereby bequeath to the New York Press Club, of the city of New York, $1,000, payable on the death of Mrs. Haskett."

A testator has considerable latitude given him in the expression of his wishes in his will, and as he is not afraid of libel suits in what he writes or dictates in such an instrument, he can be very caustic as well as very just. This is well illustrated in the following extract from the will of John Hylett Stow, an Englishman, which was proved in 1781: "I hereby direct my executors to lay out five guineas in the purchase of a picture of the viper biting the benevolent hand of the person who saved him from perishing in the snow, if the same can be bought for the money; and that they do, in memory of me, present it to a king's counsel, whereby he may have frequent opportunities of contemplating on it, and by a comparison between that and his own virtue be able to form a certain judgment which is best and most profitable-a grateful remembrance of past friendship and almost parental regard, or ingratitude and insolence. This I direct to be presented to him in lieu of a legacy of £3,000, I had by a former will, now revoked and burned, left him." If the lawyer named was present at the reading of that will his feelings may be well imagined.

An uncommon case of eccentricity on the part of an Englishman occurred something over fifty years ago. His will contained the following unique paragraph: "I bequeath to my monkey, my