The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-11-29
IN A LONDON EDITORIAL ROOM.



 IN A LONDON EDITORIAL ROOM. IExchange.l
 Lynn sat down and looked curiously about him. The room was unventilated, and the gas made it uncomtouabiy hot At first no sound was audible, save a faint clicking noise which came through the partition. Then a voice made itself heard. It repeated one word, the word "copyW with the first syllable much prolonged, in tone at once earnes, and reproachful. The voice, Lynn dis covered, came from a speaking tube, also communicating with the regions up stairs Presently tall young man and a short | young man entered They stared at Lynn, and, having shown how thoroughly they were a, their ease, departed. As they went Lynn cAugh, the words, "The new sub," and their use of the contrAc- tion jared upon him. He began to feel the situation growing irksome, The clicking sound from the telegraphic in- strument next door continued the hois, rattled inside it's pillar, vainly jerked up and down by impatient hands above and the sepulchral voice at intervals called "copy!" down the tube. Then the rat ting and the calling ceased, and there appeared thin, dark, melancholy man in his shirt sleeves. He ga1ed 6xedly at Lynn. who sat doing nothing, turned over the papers on the table, seized some of them, and departed, mutterinR gloomiiy. This satuTnine individual as Lynn sfterward found, was the foseman printer, ravenous for manuscript 90 tha, he might make a good start win the setting" of the. paper. A, last, when Lynn had been seated solitary in the room for abou, twenty minutes, which seemed sixty, a man rushed in, hot and breathless. This was Mir. Sugden, who had come late, and was eager to make up for lost time. "You are Mir. Lynn," he panted, "l shall show you about the work-by and by. I've been kept behind time bit, you see, and ii will be know "-he shook his head aud sighed as he said this-"great speech at L.. There will be terrible crash. l must send something up to the men at once, but" Copy v moaned tho voice. Mir. Sugden said no more, but sat down at his desk, and went to work upon pile ot manuscript before him. Lynn watched him closely as he worked, but could not under stand what be was doing. He lifted a pile of broad rustling sheets, glanced over them, wrote and scored them with a pencil then packed them into the hoist and sent them flying aloft. He seemed to skim through masses Of manuscript with rapidity that vas noth- ing short Of miraculous. IL made Lynn almost giddy to watch him. Sheet after sheet was crumpled up dltossed into the waste basket, bundle afer bundle was unfolded, its contents read and ap- parently altered and condensed, and 60 dispatched upward. Very < ID the table was partially cleared. Lynn lad sat for nearly an hour, silent, idle and wonder ing. "Keep your hand veil on the copy, Sugden," said peremptory voice behind him. Lynn turned and say Mir. Mallory. How are you p said the editor, holding to him. "Sdgden, give Mir. Lynn some thing to do. by and by; some of the paragraphs. What are you getting" Gladstone. He is coming in on two wires, said Mir. Sugden. going on steadily with his work. "Vaughan's 2, him." he added. "Ah all right. Wha, are they taking in the next roomT "crisis in Paris" AVery good. Pm going to write about that. Tell them to send 1t to me. Now, remember, Sugdsn, ths measure. ment is high already sit well down on the copy. lust keep him going. that's all Keep your hand on itr MT. Sug- den, to whom this injunction vas de- livered nightly, answered no word, and the editor departed to his room. Lynn was struck with the difference between Mir. Mallory's manner within and with out the office. Without he discoursed in slew volatility and treated his list enefs .S -..S. might be termed q species Of ornate iml mlsrtincnce Withia. he esche the epigrammatic; was curt, unaffected and thoroughly practical. He spoke sharply and quickly and even dispensed with arching his eyebrows. Look here, Mir. Lynn," said Sugden 1 af,ey time, "you take these Aimsies' and cut them down about . half. Put them right, you know, and give the dif- iesent paragraphs headings. Don't bother over them-they. aren't worth much to us." "You mean am to ins- prove the style, if l can, and abridge them T' Just %. We've got to boil everything down to bare b0nes to-siEht. Fire ahead, crt and cave--youu soon come into the thing" Lynn took the flimsies "-tbe thin, gray rustiing sheets of teiegram2 which he had seem Sugden dispose of with such apparent ease. He deciphered them with extreme di66culsy. The composition was certainly wosdy and sloveuly. Lynn questioned # itI were u<snashia to ~orv><f end ~rnA~us~