Still Transcribing

Ginny and I spent much of the weekend still studying and changing William F. Short’s 1854 diary from manuscript text into typescript.

My daughter Jennifer said, “You people really need cable tv”!

Her idea of fun is a bit different from ours.

We puzzled long and hard over one entry that has us stumped. In spite of every trick we knew to enhance the text, we finally admitted defeat. I’ll mark that entire half page as illegible and leave the mystery of its pages unsolved..

This dairy resonates with me in that so many of Short’s entries could well be ones that I could have made myself.

I’ve never heard anyone use the word before but every reader in any generation understands what Short meant when he wrote that May 29, 1854, “Felt very Mondayish”.

By the same token, even if we have not seen an eclipse, we all understand, “I am so glad Friday night has come! Saw the grand eclipse”.

And we all have boring days when we, like Short, say, “Nothing of special interest”.

Or we understand the feeling of worry when Short wrote, “My mind is greatly occupied about the future. Lord, direct me aright”.

And, like Short, we’ve all had bad days, “This has been a day of great toil and weariness to me. Was greatly tempted. Made some good resolves. Hope to keep them. Lord help me”.

And every male reader knows exactly what Short is talking about when his diary records, “In the evening called on Miss Connor. Had some temptations, but was sustained. Oh, I want to be more holy”.

I like editing old diaries because as the writers record the things uppermost in their minds, they often strike a cord inside me. Their thoughts often echo things I’ve thought about myself.

Short’s concerns resonate with honesty. In his confusion and conflict over which girl to marry, he prays for direction no less than 22 times in these few pages.

And at times his words reveal a heart-hunger for God that virtually all of us could well have written down ourselves:

O Lord, I will praise Thee. My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation. Suffer the tempter to have no power over me. My heart, my life, my all be Thine. Nor would I divide the gift. I will keep back no part of the price. Unloose my tongue to tell my (illegible) of the cross—and its victim and spread Thy fame abroad. Thou, O blessed Savior! Thou doest know the love I would express. Pardon, sanctify, and save me. I am thine. I here record a vow to live altogether for God. Lord help me to keep it”.

Ginny and I finished our initial transcription Sunday afternoon. Now, all I have to do it edit, proof and format the text we developed.

The rendering of initials and people’s names concerns us. Short often refers to people by their initials and these are difficult to make our. Is that R.K. Jones or K.R. Jones or P.K. Jones… or that a K at all?

Remember that the pocket diary is tiny with five entries per page and Short’s wrote in miniscule Spencerian script. which would challenge modern readers even if it were full sized.

Oh well, in editing I’ll do the best I can to render these names and initials consistently—if not accurately.

Another week or two should get the job done—unless, or course, we do get cable tv.