Claiborne guardian. [volume] (Homer, La.) 1877-188?, 1878-04-03
In a Newspaper Editorial Room.
Harpers Magazine.


Clustered among scores of other
publishing offices lOomed the build
ings of the Tribune, the Herald, the
Sun, the World, and the Times,
white wreaths of steam rolling up
from their roofs and from the graf.
ing over the press. rooms. The
pressrooms extended beyond the
buildings under the sidewalk, and
the pavement vibrated with the beat
of the machines, which were already
tossing of parts of the papers, the
insides or the outsides, leaving q
reserve of space tor the news that
might arrive afterward. Where the
heat had penetrated the hard flags,
some newsboys had curled them
selves in innocence and dirt. 9th.
ers lay asleep on the steps, where
the most important and most hur-
ried of the larger contributors to
journalism finally forebore nom dis
turbing them. Occasionally a tcle-
graph messenger dived into the en-.
trance of building, then an errand
boy from the Post Office with pile
of newspapers and letters, and then
a reporter from some late meeting
up town. As n matter of appear
ance more than anything else-as
the last from admitting advertise
ments had long since closed-a clerk
sat in the advertising office, on the
pronnd floor. and drOw sed, with the
lights halt down.
The two gentlemen entered one OF
the offices, and began to ascend that
long stairway by which all editorial
rooms are attained, custom and
economy invariably putting editors
in q garnet, whence they may look
down, physically and mentally, OH
the world they write about. More
telc graph boys, compositors, proof
readers, and reporters passed the
visitors on the stairs, who, when
they had explained their business
to an inky Office boy, were admitted
into the sanctum sanctorum OF a
celebrated morning paper.
A close, low rooted, smoky room,
lighted by innumerable Argand
burners, and filled with little desks,
ut which sat STOPPING, busy men,
putting cigars or pipes, and scrib.
bling with pens or pencils, at light
ming speed, that was the next scene
opened to them. On some Of the
desks there we're piles upon piles o
newspapers from points as far apar
and as varied rs the capitals o
Europe and frontier outpOsts on TIT
far Western plains. A little tin DO,
/, shot up and down q wooden shaft il
the middle of the room, into which
J rolls of manuscript were put by al
Office boy, who rushed from desk t,
desk and gathered the sheets n
they came from the writers hands
. From time to time nervous, sharp
d.. voiced, imperative gentleman, in
a very much soiied linen duster, caiie'
=, to one or the other of the workers
and gave orders which would hav
been quite unintelligiblc to a lay
e man, who may have mistaken tn
n establishment for a slaughter.hous'
when he heard q pale.faced it'll
gentleman requested to "make
+ paragraph of the Pope "cut dow
8 Anna Dickinson" '.dOuble lead GeI
e Grant, put miniOn cap.head o
Peter Cooper and "boil down til
Evangelical Alliance.
= But making paragraph of tn
!. Pope simply applied to the compress
e sion Of some news concerning hi
Q into that space; the minion cap'hea
intended for the venerable philaI
u thropist meant the kind of type I
s he used in the title Of speech {
20 lecture of his; and boiling down All
cutting down were two technicalitit
expressing condensation. The GEL
3 tleman in the linen buster was II
r, night editor iti charge, the despot
d the hour, and the intermediary b
;, tween the writers and printers, II
latter being on the floor above, ar
IT the little tin box in the shaft cor
o municating with them.
"a By three o'clock the last line
:, copy must be in the printers hand
- aud from midnight until that time
q newspaper Office in the editorial d
IL partment is in a state Of nervous