The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-23 00:00:00

TWENTY-FOUR HOURS OF NEWSPAPER LIFE.

"A sketch of twenty-four hours of newspaper life will
give some idea of how the complex and expensive ma-
cainery moves for the collection, preparation, and publi-
cation of a daily paper. Perhaps the earliest contributor
at work is the Dublin Correspondent. By the present
Post-office arrangements, via Holyhead, a steamer leaves
Kingston harbour, soon after eight in the morning, for
Holyhead, and special dispatches sent by that convey-
ance reach London the same day. By this mode we
have news at night in London dated Dublin the same
morning. To prepare thii the correspondent must be up
betimes, get early copies of the morning papers, write
his dispatch, and be off by railway to meet the steamer
by breakfast hour. He is then free till evening, whilst his
copy is making its way across the Channel towards the
Lo,don office. The French Correspondent, meanwhile.
has risen, dressed, and is deeply immersed in the Debats,
the Constitutionnel, and the Moniteur. Flimsy paper and
rapid translators are in requisition; a brisk drive to the
Hotel de Wile, or to the house of a brother journalist, or
a call at some other point where additional information,
or a confirmation, or contradiction of current rumours
may be gained, and then ' Our Paris Correspondent' sits
down to complete his dispatch. Quick pens and quicker
thoughts speed on the work, and when all has been said,
a capacious envelope receives the slips; it is sea'ed, and
away to the post-office in the Ruu J. J. Rousseau before
eleven. The day is yet early, and a stroll through the
city, a call upon friends, a gossip at some public office,
li and in a café, another glance through the newspapers,
an overhaul of the letters from Rome, from Naples,
from Turin, from Madrid, which the post has brought,
and the correspondent is ready to prepare his more
elaborate dispatch for the five o'clock post. This is a
matter of importance, and takes time. It the Chambers
are sitting, a reporter has been placed there to give the
proceedings, and, as the hour of five draws mar, the
copy' accumulates. The dipatch is written; .atracts
from the leading Parisian papers have been made; Ga-
lignani has been laid under contribution; some digests of
French statist:cal papers have been summarised into
readable and valuable pars ; the report of the Paris
Bourse, and of the Madrid Boise, come ise, followed
quickly by that from the Chambers, delayed till the last
half-minute, that the proceedings might be brought up
till the latest possible moment before the words left
sitting' closed the copy. Again the capacious envelope,
with its printed address, is ready, and the abundant con-
tributions of Paris towards the London stock of news
finds its way to the post just two seconds and a quarter
before the bureau closes. Whilst these French and
Irish ambassadors of the Fourth Estate are thus em-
ployed, their brethren at Berlin, Vienna, Madrid, and
elsewhere are occupied much in the same way, each col-
lecting his batch, of news and commentary in time for
the mails. Special correspondents, meanwhile, are less
systematic. One, it may be, is vibrating between con-
tending armies, as in the recent cases of Radeteky and
Charles Albert, or of Bem and Windischgratz; another
is an attache to the fallen fortunes of Kossuth at Widdin;
another hovers about the Golden Born to learn where
the English fleet will really make a warlike demonsti a-
tion against Russia ; another is gathering news of
California amongst the Wall-street sp-culaters of the
western world; whilst another chronicles the doings of
the Sooloo pirates in the suffocating atmosphere of the
East.

" The reporters at home are as busy as the correspon-
dents abroad. Amongst the earliest afoot in the morn
ing, is one noting at Smithfield the prices of cattle;
others, at Wakefield and Mark-lane, the price of corn;
another, in Southwark, the prices of hops; and in Minc-
ing-lane, the qualities and rates of coffees and sugars
At Liverpool, the cotton; at Manchester, the yarns; and
at Leeds, the woollens, are being watched, their prices
jotted doern, and the tone of the markets noted. Stocks
and shares, also, are
.beitig_ inquired about in all' these
and many other towns; whilst corn prices, and supplies,
are equally attended to. Where large local meeting.'
occur, there also the reporters are to be seen taking up
their places on the platform to note the thrice-told tales
of agricultoral distress; and the equally familiar pro-
mises of prosperity to come From free trade. In one
part of the country a railway collision is being reported;
in another, an inquest on a mine explosion; in a third,
an assemblage of persons favourable to church extension;
in a fourth, a lecture on separation of Church and State;
in a fifth, some terrible accident or appalling murder,—
be it where it may, tt ere is a busy pen at work for the
London paper. Post hour has less importance fur the
newspaper man iu Englatd than abroad. The last train
is the point of Interest here. As the hour fur that ap-
proaches the names of the sufferers by the collision, of
the speakers for church extension and for church disrup-
tion; the described horrors of the fatal choke damp; an
equal account of the murderous 10. ka and deeds are all
quietly packed up together in little brown paper parcels,
and steam-power is bearing them away towards the sub-
editor's table. Before this London is contributing its
quota. In each law court there is a pencil busy in a
note-book, or on the back of a brief; in each police-
court the reporter's box is occupied; in each coroner's
court the highly respectable jury' look with surprise
upon the often tattered habilimeets of the penny-a-line
representatives of The Payers.' Does an engine rattle
through the alarmed street.? there goes a reporter with
it; dues a gentleman fall down in an apoplectic fit? a
surgeon and a reporter are sure to be ready,—the one
to ' use every means that medical skill could afford,' and
the other to earn a few shillings by writing a paragraph.
The Court Circular is chronicling the Queen's proceed-
ings; the liforniny Post has its fashionable friend buszirg
about Gunter'a to hear of fashionable routs, or about
Banting'a to learn full particulars of a fashionable
funeral. Every district his its penny-a-liner; every dis-
aster its historian.
" These minor contributors are not more active than
their superior officers. The editor has been reading
over the morning papers of London and Poris ; has
glanced at the debates; and mentally arranged many of
his topics for the night's leaders. Ile has written to
st me of his literary aids, and received an article from
one, a review from another, a suggestion from a this d,
and he finishes his breakfast, and goes off to call at his
club or on a political friend—his mind thu while shadow-
ing forth the arguments to be employed; the illustrstions
to be used; and thei points to be made, in the paper of
to-night. Theemb-editor, if any remarkable meetings,
or other reports, are expected to come, has been to the
office to consult with the editor, secretary, or other exe-
cutive daylight officer of the paper, about: expres, es or
telegraphs; to talk over the character and usefulness of
candidates for employment; to discuss sugeestions; to
decide who shall attend various meetings in London an-ti
the provinces, and settle the various points 'Which con-
stantly arise in the progress of working a daily journal.
"If Parliament is sitting, another large mass of manu-
script is now growing up under the p' ns of the re-
porters. Fourteen or sixteen of these gentlemen each
in his turn' sits in the gallery of the House, and f.,r
three-quarters of an hour, or an hour, according to ar-
rangement, takes his note of the dilute. When the
, time of one is up, and his seat at St. Stephen's has been
occupied by a successor, he hastens to write out in