# Tales of the City Room

"The popular idea of the reporter is not of him—especially not of her—as a ministering angel. Quite the contrary. But those who really know need not be told that the men and the women who, through their profession of newsgathering, come closest to the city's seamy side, are often able to be more helpful than professional philanthropists, for the reason that they touch what the others cannot reach. The ten tales of the City room show this without argument, and gain effect from an impression of reality. Indeed, in two or three instances, notably in "The Passing of Hope Abbott" the newspaper, reader of reasonably good memory will require no assurance that the stories are actually founded on fact. —from The Bookman, August 1898
Layout 2
TALES OF THE CITY ROOM
TALES OF
THE CITY ROOM
By
ELIZABETH G. JORDAN
New York Charles Scribner's Sons 1898
Copyright, 1898, By Charles Scribner's Sons.
University Press: John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.
TO
My Father and Mother
WILLIAM F. AND MARGARITA G. JORDAN
Note
IN stories of newspaper life, "local color" calls for the colloquially technical expressions employed in a newspaper office. Since they are not many, but are constantly used, it may be well to state in a prefatory note their meanings, in order to avoid putting them between quotation marks whenever they occur.
In newspaper parlance, a reporter takes his "assignment" from the "city editor" and goes out to work up his " story." The "city editor" is the editor in charge of city news. An "assignment" is the subject a reporter is detailed to report upon. A "story" is almost any article in a newspaper except an editorial one. If the other papers fail to get a "story" which one has secured, it is called a "beat" or "exclusive." If the facts a story presents exist nowhere else, it is called a "fake." The manuscript of the story is called "copy," and is submitted to "copy-readers," whose function is to cut, correct, or sometimes re-write it. The place where the city editor and the reporters have their desks is called the "city room."
The editor-in-chief holds sway over the entire staff. He represents the owner of the newspaper, and directs its editorial policy. Next to him in importance is the managing editor, whose chief executive officers are the city editor, the night editor, and the night city editor. The Sunday editor is responsible for the special features of the Sunday edition, and under him are numerous sub-editors in charge of various departments.
Contents
* Page
* Ruth Herrick's Assignment1
* The Love Affair of Chesterfield, Jr.33
* At the Close of the Second Day57
* The Wife of the Candidate79
* Mrs. Ogilvie's Local Color105
* From the Hand of Dolorita121
* The Passing of Hope Abbott151
* A Point of Ethics163
* A Romance of the City Room185
* Miss Van Dyke's Best Story209
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1947, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 76 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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