BREVIS. WRITING MADE BRIEF BY RULE AS EMPLOYED IN THE TELEGRAPHY OF MALLETT. NEW YORK: 1887. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1887, by E. J. MALLETT, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. RIGHT OF TRANSLATION RESERVED. PREFACE. This system of abbreviated writing has been devised with a view to its adoption in commercial and social telegraphic correspondence and the rapid transmission of press news. It is thought to be the first attempt to abbreviate writing in accordance with fixed rules which do not permit of any arbitrary contractions. It is the intention that any amanuensis shall be enabled by this method, with little practice, to rapidly prepare a telegraph communication from dictation. It is believed that young persons will endeavor to become experts in thus preparing "Telegram Cards," owing to the demand which may be created for this new attainment. The incentive for the use of such a form of writing is the outcome of the existence of a system of telegraphic communication, in which messages, like mailed letters, are prepared by the sender. The characteristic feature of this system is the embodiment of the ideas to be transmitted upon a self or automatic transmitting medium. These ideas are rendered tangible by being represented in certain code characters produced upon the transmitting medium, which is merely a card, the boundaries of which necessarily limit the number of characters that will cover it. To increase, then, the number of these code characters, some practically planned method of contracting the ordinary style of writing was desirable. In the condensing of words, it is indispensable that no possible chances should exist to cause ambiguity in their |