United States or Kuwait ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Why," cried he, "they look like a stenographer's word-signs." "Good!" said Ashton-Kirk. "And that, my dear fellow, is exactly what they are. There, scrawled erratically in dripping tallow, is a three word sentence in Benn Pitman's phonetic characters. It is roughly done, and may have occupied some minutes; but it is well done, and in excellent German. I'll write it out for you."
At the moment when we must present him to our readers, Pitman was in his studio alone, by the dying light of the October day. There was a thinning on the top of Pitman's head, there were silver hairs at Pitman's temple. Poor gentleman, he was no longer young; and years, and poverty, and humble ambition thwarted, make a cheerless lot.
Wrinkle have high old times. Even if I went to board somers else I'd come here an' set of an evenin' to hear him talk. He drives off every spell of blues I have. He is the beatenest man to get off jokes I ever knowed, to be as old as he is. Wrinkle p'inted to Pitman's own cow an' said, 'I wasn't lyin' to you, Sam; thar she is. He was laughin' just now an' said he had a joke in store for Mr.
If you'd like to hunt them up for me you're very welcome." With which, for the moment, over the difficult case, they faced each other helplessly enough. And she added to it now the sharpest ache of her despair. "He knows about Murray Brush. The others" and her pretty white-gloved hands and charming pink shoulders gave them up "may go hang!" "Murray Brush ?" It had opened Mr. Pitman's eyes.
"You was determined to trade me off, and you went at it like I was a horse you was trying to get rid of for more than he was worth. Well, what else did you say?" "Why, I told 'im about your awful struggle against adversity; about the hold old Welborne had on you; about your mother and aunt being helpless on your hands, and about how you wanted to add to it all by helping Pitman's bound boy.
The packet consisted of four note-books, quite crowded throughout with those giddy shapes of Pitman's shorthand, whose ensemble so resembles startled swarms hovering in flighty poses on the wing. They were scribbled in pencil, with little distinction between thick and thin strokes, few vowels: so that their slow deciphering, I can assure the reader, has been no holiday.
Like you, I meant to be an editor some day, but also, I trust, like you, I felt that it would be convenient, if not necessary to start by being a reporter. So I began to study shorthand, teaching myself by Pitman's system. When, after infinite pains, I had mastered this mystery, I began to look out for an opening on the Press. I had no friends in journalism, not the remotest acquaintance.
As you pass along the one street of a pitman's village, you will see the father reading a Chambers' Journal or a cheap religious magazine at the door of his cottage while smoking a pipe, and nursing a child or two on his knee; and through the open door, a neat four-post bed and an oak or mahogany chest of drawers bear witness to his frugality.
"Yes yes; I do mind him." "Then what's the matter with his at least rallying ?" "The matter is that, being ashamed of himself, as he well might, he left the country as soon as he could and has stayed away. The matter is that he's in Paris or somewhere, and that if you expect him to come home for me !" She had already dropped, however, as at Mr. Pitman's look.
When Johnnie's drunk he'll tak a knife, And threaten sair to hae my life: Wha wadna be a pitman's wife, To hae a lad like Johnnie! Yonder's Johnnie coming noo; He looks the best of a' the crew! They've all gone to the barley moo, To hae a glass wi' Johnny. So let's go get the bacon fried, And let us mak a clean fireside, And when he comes he will thee ride Upon his knee sae cannie.
Word Of The Day