Bozeman avant courier. [volume] (Bozeman, Mont.) 1872-1882, 1878-01-10
In II Newspapers Office.


wooden shaft in the middle of the room.
into which rolls of manuscript were put by
an Of:ice-boy. who rushed from desk to
desk and gatlicrc;! the sheets rs they came
from the writer's hands. From time to
time very nervous. sliarp-voicea. iIlperG-
tive gentleman. in Il 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 establish
ment for a slaughter-house when he heard
a pale-flced little gentleman requested to
make Il paragraph of the Pope" '.cut
down Anna Dickinson" doublc-lcad Gen.
eral Grant" put Il minion cap head on
Peter Cooper" and "bOil down the Evan
gclcal Alliance But making para
graph of the Pope simply applied to the
compression Of some news concerning 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 technicalities expressing condensation.
The gentleman in the linen duster was the
night editor in charge. the tlespot 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 3 O'Clock the last line Of ''copy" must
be in the printers hands. and from mid
ni,rlf lnfi1 f1nf tit,,a ;>
the editorial department is in state of
nervous intensity and activity for which /
can imagine no parallel.
The smoke from cigars ann pipes rolled
up to the ceiling. and the pens sped over
pages of manuscript paper. The writers
bent to their work with tremendous earn
estness and concentration: there was not
one of them who had written less than a
column Of matter that night, and some
were closing two and three column articles
which contained nearly as many words as
five pages of Harper's Magazine. They
were pale and careworn. One of them was
heading and sub-heading cable dispatches
from the seat of war. another was writing
editorial paragraphs on the important tele-
graphic news that came in, another was
damning new play in virulent prose, an
other was revising thrilling account of a
murder. another was transcribing his STEM
Og.lpllic notes of speech on the imitation
of tie currency, another was putting the .
finishing touches upon well-consdered
article criticising debate in the French .
Assembly and another was absorbed in the
DESCRIPTION of a yacht race. The little tin
box IN the shaft bounced up and down
more frequently, and the night editor be-
came more nervous and imperative than
ever, as the fingers of the big clock on the
wall went beyond2. The pages of manu-
script were sent up one by one. and long,
moist prOot-sheets came down from the
room. Then cutting down.
began, and some OF the writers saw ar
ticles that had cost them hours of research
lnnihilated by tic stroke Of apen. or re-
luced from columns to paragraphs-not
On account OF unimportance, bat simply
because there is always Il superiiuity of
natter, contrary to the erroneous notion
hat the editors great difficulty is to fill
lis space-and in some instances even the |
were omitted to make room |
or unexpected news that arrived later.
kilograms were still coming in at $50, but I
Don after that hour one dispatch brought i
he words ''good night" and that meant !
he closing. The night editor and his as |
istant now disappeared into the compos- {
lg rooms, where they remained to super l
ltend the making up Of forms, and the j
len at the desks prepared to leave, or i
liew themselves back in their chairs for /
hat and some more smoke.--Wiiliam a
I. Rideing, IN Har,e,'s Magazine for Dec. v
"A negro kissed white girl in ColEm- II
Ia, s. g., and she shot him instantly thro' II