The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-12-12
How a Newspaper Is Made.

From an artlcle I'D a0TpeTS Muy1'
zine, entitled "The Metropolitan News.
paper" we take the following vivid de.
scription of the manner in which the
reading matter of New York morning
newspaper is prepared for publication
A close, low-roofed, smoky room,
lighted by innumerable Argand burners,
and filed with little desks, at which sat
busy, STOPPING men, putting cigars, and
scribbling with pens or pencils at light
ming speed-that was the next scene
opened to them. On some Of the desks
there were piles upon piles Of news
papers from points as far apart and as
varied as the capitals of Europe and
plaintive outposts on the for western
plains. A little tin box shot up and
down q wooden shaft in the middle OF
the room, into which rolls OF manuscript
we're put by an Office boy, who rushed
from desk to desk and gathered the
sheets as they came from the writer's
hands. From time to time a nervous,
sharp-voiced, imperative gentleman in
very much soiled linen duster, called to
one or the other OF the workers, and
gave orders which would have been quite
unintelligible to layman, who might
have mistaken the establishment for a
slaughtsr-house, when he heard pale
faced little gentleman requested to
"make q paragraph of the Pope, y" cut
down Anna Dickenson,," "double-lead
General Grant," "put a minion cap
head OF Peter Cooper" and I" boil down
the Evangelical Alliance" But making
a paragraph of the Pope, simply applied
to the compression of some news con-
cerning him into that space; the ''minion
cap head" intended for the venerable
philanthropist meant the kind OF type
to be used in the title of speech or
lecture of his; and :" boiling down " and
"cutting down" were two teehnicalities
expressing condensation. The gentle.
man in the linen duster was the night
editor in charge, the despot of the hour,
and the intermediary between the writers
and printers, the latter being on the
floor above, and the little tin box in the
shaft communicating with them.
By three o'clock the last line of copy
must be in the printers hands, and from
midnight until that time newspaper IN
the editorial department is in state OF
nervous intensity and activity for which
can imagine no parallel.
The smoke from the cigars and pipes
rolled up to the ceiling, AMI the pens
sped over the pages of manuscript paper.
The writer's bent to their work with
tremendous earnestness and conceatra'
ton; there was not one Of thom who
had written lens than a. column OF mat
ter that night, and some of them were
closing two and three column articles,
which contained nearly as many words
as FIVE pages Of Harper's Magazine
They were pale and care.worn. One o.
them was heading and sub-heading cable
dispatches from the seat of war, another
was writing editorial paragraphs on the
important telegraphic dispatches, an
other was condemning new play II
vir,llent prose, another was revising
thrilling account of murder, another
was transcribing his stenographic notes
of O speech on the imitation of the cur
rency, another was putting the finishing
touches on a well.considered article
criticising a debate in the French AS
sembly, and another was absorbed IN the
description of yacht race. The LITTLE
tin box in the shaft bounced up ano
down more frequently, and the night
editor became more nervous and I'M
perative than ever, as the fingers on the
hio clock IN the wall went beyond two.
The pages of manuscript went up one
by one, and long moist proof-sheets
came down from the composing-room::
Then the "cutting down began, and
some of the writer's saw articles that hao
cost them hours of research annlhllateo
by the stroke of pen, or reduced from
columns to paragraphs-not on account Of
unimportance, but simply because there
is always a superhuity OF matter, con.
trary to the erroneous notion tha'
the editors great difficulty is to fill his
columns-and in some instances even
the paragraphs were finally omitted 70
to make room for unexpected news that
had arrived later. kilograms were still
coming in at half-past two, but soon
after one dispatch brought the words,
"good night" and that meant the CLOS,
ing. The night editor and his assistant
now disappeared into the composing
room. where they remained to superin.
tend the making up Of the forms, and
the men at the desks prepared to leave,
or threw themselves back in their chairs
for chat and more smoke.