Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1885-12-24
COMBATING TYPOS.
Extraordinary Type-setting by Two
New York COmpositOrs.

view 1OrR COmpOSltOrss
New York Sun Of Wednesday.
Mr.. Joseph McCann, printer in the
Herald Office, has always been admired
for his ability to set type, and has usually
beaten clear ont of sight those who tried
to set up type faster. Mr.. w. O. Barnes
is the crack type setter of the World
office. He enjoy: the reputation of being
able to do the work of two ordinary men
and not perspire. They were matched
against each other for $500 a side, and
the even thousand was placed in the
hands of Mr.. w. H. Bodwell of the Sun
As soon as Frank Tousey's elevator boy
began his daily task in the big building
i'll North Moore street yesterday he was
besieged by an eager crowd of printers,
anxious to see the great contest AT TO- 80
the champions arrived. Mccain is q
short, stout, and handsome printer, with
moustache that most printers would
envy. He prepared for the conflict by
removing his coat, putting on a big check
apron, and squatting comfortably ON n
revolving stool before his cases. Barnes
is very different kind of n man. He is
tall and thin, with full brown beard, a
big forehead, and generally romantic
face. He donned n heavy flannel shirt
reaching far below his waist, and u pair
of blinkers similar to those worn by
horses, and extending out beside his eyes
to prevent his gaze from being distracted
by the crowd around him. He stood up
| to his work.
The contest was to last four hours the
| type used to be solid minion, without
| paragraphs; the copy to be identical re-
| print. Each contestant was to correct
his composition at the termination of the
| type.setting, one line being deducted fol
each minute consumed in correction, and
a corresponding part of line for each
fractional part of minute.
AT precisely IL O'Clock, Referee White
of the CdmnteTcidI and Financial GhTOnt.
Gle furnished the printed copy to the two
| champions. 1t consisted of reprint edi.
| torial articles from the Chronicle the
figures in them carefully excised. Al
1l.O5, Referee White gave the word, and
simultaneously began the clicking of the
| types as they rained into the sticks.
Barnes was the first to empty his stick,
| doing so just 15l minutes after he had
| started. Mccain emptied his almost
before Barnes got back to his case. His
stick, however, held 90 lines TO Barnes 10.
After the first few minutes of work
Barnes discovered that the long shirt and
blinkers, to which he was unaccustomed
hindeled more than they helped him, and
he interrupted his work for second to
tear them off. That WINS the only break
in the monotonous struggle of the two
men, except when they laid aside com.
| pleted stickful, or loosened the types in
the cases with quick, impatient jerk at
the box.
At 3.05 Referee White called time, and
having emptied their sticks for the last
time the two men waited while Messrs.
Sullivan of the World and Coles of the
Herald began TO read the proof of the
two long columns of type. Then the
contestants fell to work correcting.
Mccain was the first to finish, turnine
in his corrected composition in II
minutes, while Barnes did not straighten
from his work for % minutes. The score
was as follows Mccain set 8,0S7 ems,
from which 300 ems were deducted on
account of the time occupied in correc-
ton, giving him corrected total of 1887
ems. Barnes set 1875 ems, and lost 575
ems for corrections, his total being 400
ems.
AT the end of the contest Barnes shook
hands with Mccain, and acknowledged
being beaten squarely. Referee White,
ON behalf of many friends, then pre-
scented to the winner handsome gold
badge.