Chinese Shorthand

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 10, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 50.

Chinese Shorthand

“Chinese Shorthand” is the name of a little book just published by the Pacific Press Publishing Company. Its author is Mrs. Julia A. Barrett, to whom the Lord gave the means and methods of adapting the Pitman system to the Chinese language; that is, so as to express its varied intonations and prolongations of sound, the only means by which certain words of dissimilar meaning are distinguished in the spoken language. Mrs. Barrett has, for many years, been a teacher in shorthand, and for years she has wrestled with this problem, ever seeking God for His guidance, that an easier, shorter way of faith might be opened to the millions of China. This little book tells, in brief, the story of her struggles, her buffetings from those who should have proved friends, and her final success. The work is practical, as Mrs. Barrett has demonstrated by teaching. It can be quickly learned; the Bible, in parts and in whole, and other books, can easily be printed in this new alphabet, and the millions of Chinese taught it much sooner than they could possibly learn to read their own language in the native characters. The system has been indorsed by Chinese scholars, by missionaries and teachers among the Chinese, and it seems to us that it ought, in God’s providence, to revolutionize missionary work among the Chinese and Japanese. Really, the book is the first in a series which would develop into a universal stenography. Besides the story of the discovery, the little book (a first reader, in fact) contains a table of phonetic characters, with corresponding sounds; the Lord’s prayer and several other selections in Chinese shorthand; explanations as to how to learn the alphabet, and the Lord’s prayer in both the stenographic and regular Chinese characters. The price is 50 cents. It is Mrs. Barrett’s desire that the profits accruing from the sale of this book shall be used to get out one more advanced, containing much more of the Word of God. Address, Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal.