Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1889-01-17
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
TRIALS OF A WRITER WHO TRIED
THE EDITORIAL CHAIR

he Learns That Editing Is Not Writing
Conflict with the Printers-Misery O
Rejecting MsS.-The Space Grabber, tn
Rehasher and the Clincher.
Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, JAN IL knew there was
difference between editing" a paper ant
writing for one but how much of a differ
ence did not realize until my destiny place.
me temporarily in charge of the Sunday sup
plement of a city daily, which, in accordanc,
with the regulations, or rather exactions, O
modern journalism, published a Sunday
paper, or rather magazine, of sixteen pages
In this case deducting the space allotted fol
advertisements, it meant about 100 solic
columns of reading matter OF this l hat
about forty-six columns to ''edt"
To "edit" is not to write. | speak thu.
plainly for the benefit of the many young
men and maidens who are to swell the ranks
OF the great army now industriously engaged
In sending contributions to the EDITORS waste
basket, and who still imagine that the editor
does nothing but write for the paper
pause here 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 the average
monthly magazine.
| While this competition Is going on at such
lively and increasing rate between news
| paper publishers to give the most reading
matter for the least money, wonder If the
idea may not I'm 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 a blissful ignor-
ance Of the trials that awaited me- did not
know how to put q head" on an article or
selected reprint" | knew nothing of the
hieroglyphics necessary to let the printer
know the various kinds Of type in which my
headings should be set up. l did not realize
that the writer's manuscript must be, in
sense, ground through the EDITORS mill and 90
through a certain process before being put in
the printers hands l did know that some
thing was to be done, but the extent of that
something l did not know OF the signs to
type used should be ''brevier" or ''minion" 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 page should not be
jammed up together or too far apart. was
in that condition of ignorance that the small
est part of printer was justified in looking
down on me with cOntamDt
N. BIN the composing room printer Is
q much larger sized Indian than a mere
writer
You who read the instructive and enter
tanning columns of ghastliness, accident and
crime in your morning paper-you who are
unfortunately or otherwise neither writers nor
printers, you think you could easily write one
of those staring sensational headings over the
article which tell all about 1t before you read
It and whet youriappetite for reading it. But
you might not 1t is not SO much the literary
ability needed. 1t is the printer who stands
In the way. 1t is the printer who must have
just so many words for one kind of 'head" and
SO omany for another. You must get your sense,
sensation and information condensed into say
twenty-four or twenty-six words for one part
Of the head" and ten or twelve for another
part, and these must neither run over nor run
under these numbers. If they do and the
spaces are uneven that issue of the paper
would, in that printers estimation, be ruined.
If you, the editor, do not make up" your
pages SO that the columns "balance," the
paper, for him, would be a wreck. The foreman
Of the composing room values newspaper for
its typographical appearance. This is right
A paper, like 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 stuffr' he would re-
mark, and he used to put such an infection Of
contempt ON that word ''stuff'' that it would
have made any but an old tough writer sick
to hear him. Poems literally perspiring with
inspiration, beautiful descriptive articles
reeking with soul and sentiment, lively
humor, manuscript written and rewritten
80 lovingly and arefully-children of many
brilliant brain-al with him was but |
'stuff"
During all the years that had been writing |
had bestowed no attention on the making |
up" of paper. / had a vague idea that the |
paper made up itself. l had passed In my |
articles, and had seen them In their places |
q few hours later, and never dreamt that the |
placing of these, SO that the columns should |
end evenly or that the page should not look |
like tiresome expanse Of unbroken type, re-
Quired study, taste and experience.
was aroused from this dream when first |
called on to make 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 the continued
story should be and how many columns It |
should fill, where the foreign correspondence
and illustrated articles should appear, where
the paste pot and scissored matter, shorter
articles and paragraphs should be, so that
the printer could place his galleys in the
form as marked out per schedule.
l was confronted within single week with
al this mass of my own editorial and typo
graphical ignorance, and even more than can
here be told. It had not before dawned upon
mo that an editor should be-well, we will
say, the skeleton Of a printer. l was not
even the ghost Of ona l was not before
aware that In the recesses Of editorial dens
and composing rooms the printer stood
higher than the writer. Everybody" writes
But Everybody" does not set
type or ''make up" papers
I saw then what had done saw that
had rashly assumed to govern a realm Of
which l was entirely ignorant l made q
full and free confession to our foreman.
put myself before him as an accomplished
lgnoramus He was q good fellow and
helped me through. 1t was tough work,
however, for several weeks As Sunday
came nearer and nearer, my spasms Of dread
and anxiety increased ] was seized In the
dead of night with fears lest had not sent
l.