The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-01-12
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
TRIALS OF A WRITER WHO TRIED
THE EDITORIAL CHAIR.
He Learns That Editing Ii Not Writing.
Conflict with the Printers Misery OF
Rejecting MSS. The Space GrnSber. tho
Rehasher and tho Cliucher.
SPECIAL Correspondence |

Rejectin: MSS. The Space GraSber. the
Rehasher and tho Clincher.
SPECIAL Correspondence
New YORK, Jan. I'll knew there was
difference betveen editing" paper and
writing for one, but how much Of differ
ence did not realize until my destiny placed
me temporarily in charge of the Sunday sup
plement Of city daily, which, in accordance
with the regulations, or rather exactons, of
modern journalism, published Sunday
paper, or rather magazine, of sixteen pages.
In this case, dcducting the space allotted for
advertisements, il meant about 100 solid
columns IF reading matter OF this l had
about forty-six columns To edit
To edit" Is not 10 write. speak thus
plainly for the benefit of the many young
men and maiiens who are To swell the ranks
of the great army now industriously engaged
in sending contributions 10 the editors waste
basket, and who still imagine that the editor
does nothing but write for the paper.
pause hero "a moment to ask where, at the
present increase of size and amount Of matter
published, are our Sunday papers to stopi
Already the contents of some Sunday issues
amount to more than that Of tho average
monthly magazine.
While this competition is going on at such
a lively and increasing rate between news
paper publishers to give the most reading
matter for the least money, wonder if the
idea may not in due course OF time strike
them that they may be giving to those who
read more than they can really read and
digest
Our business men today do not read one
half the contents Of the daily paper. They
have only time TO glance at them. They
would really be much better suited could
some device of journalism give them their
news in readable print in the compass Of a
handkerchief, and give them no more.
entered on my duties in n bissful ignor-
ance OF the trials that awaited mo. II did not
know how to put head" on al article or q
selected reprint" / knew nothing Of the
hieroglyphics necessary to let the printer
know tho various kinds Of type in which my
headings should be get up | did not realize
that the writer's manuscript must be, i'll a
sense, ground through the editors mill and go
thr ugh certain process before being put i'll
the printers hands. | did know that some
thing was to be done, but the extent of that
something | did not know. OF tho signs To
be placed on manuscript 10 show whether the
typo used should be "brovicro or "minioh" or
agate" or those TO designate full face caps
for my upper headings and full face lower
case" for my lower headings, of a display
heading" of balancing the columns nor
that the headings ON u page should not be
jammed up together or too far apart. | was
Ill that condition of ignorance that the small
est part of printer was justified in looking
down on me with contempt.
n. BIN the composing room printer is
a much larger sized Indian than n mere
writer.
You who read the instructive ana enter
tanning columns of EhastlineSs, accident and
crime in your morning paper-you who arc
unfortunately or otherwise neither writers nor
printers you think you could easily write one
Of thosa staring sensational headings over the
article which tell all about it before you read
il and whet yourappetite for reading it. But
you might not. 1t Is not so much the literary
ability needed IL is tho printer who stands
in the way. 1t is tho printer who must have
Just so many words for one kind Of "head' and
somany for another You must get yorn sense,
sensation and information CONDENSED into say
twenty-four or twcnty-six words for one part
of tho head and ten or twelve for another
part and these must neither run over nor run
under these numbers. II they do and the
spaces are uneven that issue of tho paper
would, in that printers estimation, be ruined.
If you, the editor, do not make up your
pages so that tho columns balance" the
paper, for him, would be a wreck. Tho foreman
Of the composing room values newspaper for
IT,, 10 isrbt
A paper, Ike house, should look neat. Only
the foreman need not forget that there is
something in the articles besides types. The
magnate of our composing room called all
written matter stuff" what are you
going TO do with this stuff he would re-
mark, and he used TO put such an infection of
contempt on that word stuff" that IL would
have made any but an old tough writer sick
TO hear him Poems literally perspirlng with
inspiration, beautiful descriptive articles
reeldng with soul and sentiment, lively
humor, manuscript written and rewritten
so lovingly and Observation-Disclosures of many
n brilliant brain--all with him was but
"stuGw
During all the years that had been writing
] had bestowed no attention on tho making
up of a paper | had a vague idea that the
paper mado up itself. | hid passed in my
articles and had seen them in their places
a few hours later, and never dreamt that the
placing Of these, so that the columns should
end evenly or that tho page should not look
like tiresome eZpanso Of unUroken type, re-
CURED study, taste and experience
was aroused from this dream when first
called on to "nale up" my eight page supple
ment OF course, the foreman expected me
TO go right on like an old hand, and lay out
in the printed form where tho continued
story should be and how many columns 1t
should FILL where the foreign correspondence
and Illustrated articles should appear, whero
the paste pot and scissored matter, shorter
articles and paragraphs should be, 50 that
the printer could place his gaieys in the
form Us marked out per schedule.
was confronted within "a single week with
all this mass Of my own editorial and typo
graphical ignorance, and even moro than can
here loo told. Ii had not before dawned upon
mo that an editor should bo--wcil we will
say, tho skeleton Of printer | was not
even tho ghost of one. | was not before
aware that in the recesses of editorial dens
and composing rooms the printer stood
higher than tl5 s,rter "Everybody' writes
nowadays. But Everybody does not BOT
type or make up papers
saw teen what had done aaw that
bg y.gl.',. ,,.g4fyYaJ IN crf.yaT.t, t.a1l., If