The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1884-12-10
A LONDON EDITOR.



%Lynn sat down and looked curfously about
him. The room was uiiyentilated, and the
gas made it uncomfortably hot. At first no
sound was audible,s save a faint clicking
/ noise which came, through. the partition.
/ Then voice made itself heard. 1t repeated
one word, the word "Copy!" with the first
| syllable much prolonged, in a tone at once
earnest and reproachful The voice, Lynn
| discovered, came from a speaking tube, also
communicating with the regions up
stairs. Presently y tall young man
and a short young man entered
They stared at Lynn, and. having shown
how thoroughly they were at their ease, de-
| parted. As, they went Lynn. caught the
words, @The new SUBJ and their use of the
/ contraction jared upon him. he began to
feel the situation growing irksome The
clicking sound from the telegraphic instru-
ments ne Tt door continued; the hoist ratified
| inside its pillar, vainly jerked up and down
| by impat TENT hands above, and the sepulchral
| voice at intervals called %Copyi" down the
tube. Then the rattling and the calling
| ceased, und there appeared thin, dark,
melancholy man in his shirt sleeves. He
gazed fixedly at Lynn, whosat doing nothing,
turned over tho papers on the table, seized
some of them nd departed, muttering gloom
lily. This saturnine individual, as Lynn
afterward found was ths foreman printer,
rayenouS for manuscript, SO that he might
make good start with the setting" of the
paper. At last, when Lynn had been seated SOL
itary in the room for about twenty minutes,
which seemed sixty, a man rushed in, hot and
breathless. This was Mr.. Sugden, who ad
come late and was eager to make up for lost
! time. You are Mr.. Lynn. he painted. Il
shall show you-about the work-by and by.
I've been kept behind time bit, you see and
it will be a big paper tonight Gladstone,
you know'-he shook his head and sighed as
he said this great speech at L.. There
will be a terrible crash. / must send some
thing upto the men at once, buty-'-'Copyr
moaned the voice. Mr.. Sugden said no more
but sat down at his desk, and went to work
upon pile of manuscripts before him. Lynn
watched him closely as he worked, but could
not understand what he was doing. he lifted
pile OF broad, rustling sheets, glanced over
them, wrote and scored on them with pencil,
then packed them into the hoist and sent them
flying aloft. He seemed to skim through
/ masses of manuscript with rapidity that
was nothing short of miraculous. 1t made
Lynn almost giddy TO watch him. Sheet
after sheet was crumplod up and tossed into
the waste-basket, bundle after bundle was
unfolded, its contents read, and apparently
altered and condensed, and so dispatched up
ward Very soon the table was partially
cleared. Lynn had sat for nearly an hour
silent, idle and wondering Keep your hand
well on the COPY, Sugden. said a peremp-
tory voice behind him. Lynn turned and
saw Mr.. Mallory. 'Sugden, give Mr.. Lynn
something to do, viii you, by-and- by, some
of the paragraphs. What are Eyou getting!
Gladstone. He's coming in on two wires,
said Mr.. Sugden, going on steadily with his
bis work. 'Vaughan's at him. he added.
'Ah, all right. What are they taking in the
laxtr rrAAY trfs in aTis al
I'm going to write about that. Tell them to
send it to me. Now remember. Sugden, the
measurement is high already; sit well down
on the copy. Just keep him going, that's all
Keep your hand ON it." Mr.. Sugden, to
whom this injunction was delivered nightly,
answered no word, and the editor departed
to his room Lynn was struck with the di;-
ference between Mr.. Mallory's manner
within and without the office. Without, be
discoursed in style of slow volubility aud
treated his listeners to whabmight be termed
q spec les of ornate impertinence. Within, irs
eschewed the epigrammatic; was curt, unaf-
fected and thoroughly practical He spoke
sharply and quickly, and even dis
penSed with arching his eyebrow.
Look here, Mr.. Lynn said Sugden, after
a time, you might take these oqhirnsies'
and cut them down about half. Put them
right, you know, and give the different para
graphs headings. Don't bother over them
they aren't worth much to us. You mean
j am to improve the STYLE If I can, and
ahridge themr Just 50. We've got to
boil everything down to the bare bones to-
night. Fire ahead, cut and carve-you'll
soon come into the thing.' Lynn took the
''1imsies" the thin, gray rustling sh, cts of
kilograms, which he had seen Sugden dis
posing Of with such apparent ease EPe de-
eiphered them with extreme difficulty. The
composition was certainly wordy and
slevenly. Lynn questioned If it were
possible to correct and condenSe the
paragraphs without rewriting each, eRd
plainly, there was no time for that How
Sugden could deal with these sheets as he did
seemed inexplicable to Lynn. How long it
took him to read, correct, and curtAif these
himsies, he never knew; but he knew that
he had never had such hard time In his life
before. And thi; was sub-editing this was u
journalism! in none of his visions had Lynn
ever prefgured anything like this Lynn at
some difidence-I don't know IL they are
right, yet,' hs said. oh, you'll soon do
that said the sub-editor, quite cheer
fully: you'll Z drop into it. You are
time to cut the stuff down that way Here
Sugden took one of the paragraphs, drew 3
his pencil down half the sheet, wrote two
words at the top and sent it from him. An .
written, and that with no small care, he had
the pleasure of seeing confined to the fast
filing basket, with the remark that 1t was
worth nothing at all Sugden gave him
suffered and toiled as ne had with the former =
Now and then reporter would enter. and
talk to Sugden, who answered without rais-
ing his head or ceasing to ply his pencil. But
the conversation distracted him grlevouslY. .
: @'Overset' means when more matter IL II
composed than the paper will hold. Down
came the night foreman, frantic and perish
ing, his shirt-sleeves rolled above his elbows, 4
The paper is oversetr ne cried. You see
what you have done. Now, then, what am 4
to dol Tell me. How am I to get to pressf
knew how it would be, the way the copy
has been coming upl Do you want this pa7
per out tomorrow, on do you notl What
am I TO take offl Whea are you coming up
to show me2 Then the editor entered. ~
You've done it again. he said you've gone J
and over set the paper. 1 hope you're happy NJ
now. Get down all the copy that's gons out
Of this room in the last half hourls Get )
it down at once, I say. and cut it
to pieeesI Tear that copy into ribbons b
Sugden. Put every oas of your did para
graphs into linesl do oyouundefstandf literally
90 on In this wayi This Is not sub-sditng,
Sugden; ploughman could sub-edit as we'll =
with pitchfork Have'ntI been telling you
Ill night to SIT we'll down ON that copya IT'S
than whom an abler sub-editur never sat at ?
4 desk. and who was, not in point OF fact, Il.
for the oversetting of the paper,
rose with an unmoyed face and proceeded g
upstairs to see what he could take off,
The foreman followed, still pruphesying
lark things. The editor continued 70 rail
lgainst his staff in general, IN terms which
howed equal disregard for Lynns presence n
md for the religion OF humanity"
Boston Transcript; aconHdSnce Is a plant
Il slow growth If this were true, the
,unko steerer would not DO so successful as