Morning journal and courier., 1889-04-18
AT THE NIGHT EDITORS DESK.
The Daily Exciting Experiences o
 Metropolitan Journalfsm.

William Taylor, Jr., in the WriterJ
 Pass but one night in the office of me- tropolitan daily and your appreciation of your breakfast paper will be heightened ten- fold. Say it is seven o'clock. The night editors and their assistants have begun their labors. There is ths list of the city edi- tor showing where the local men are as- signed He has covered every available spot for n.ws-the theaters, bathrooms, meetings, weddings. His scouts are at the hotels, lying in wait for notable arrivals; his detective reporters are out among the police and inspectors watching for the latest crimi- nal news. The water front is covered, the hospitals are looked after and he is ready for the night. The general directions from the managing editor are also there. He expects ''stories" from correspondents the world over, who have been instructed to send in their matter He wishes such local event to be we'll placed and to be "given a good show" Other general instructions are given and the night editor is left to his fate. All night long he receives "queries" from corres- pondents offering the best news in their 1o- calitiss. He must get all the news into his paper, advertisements and other matter such as editorials, to the contrary notwithstand- ing. Hegoverns himself accordingly.
 ''A steamer has arrived here with the latest news from Samoa. I can give you one thousand words" wires the San Francis co correspondents.
 "Boil 1t into two hundred and rush It, !" IS the night editors answer.
 ssThere are negro troubles, with several dead-graphic story,"-is flashed from the New Orleans man.
 "No, thank you the Associated Press will cover it for us," is wired back.
 Now the St TOuia man has wakad mn He has the story of an unknown Bostonian who was found dead in the street. Immediately he is told to wire full particulars, with any facts that may assist at identification, and the detective reporters in Boston are put at work.
 So all night long the editor in charge is kept informed of the doings of the world, and at moments notice he may reach thou sands of miles for tempting bit of news. At midnight the office is at its busiest. At that hour news is pouring in from all quar- ters-local, New England, foreign, Wash- ington and general. Every 'story" must be watched. Untruths must be eradicated, doubtful facts verified, nbelous utterances avoided, badly-written matter rewritten and comprehensive headlines placed over every article.
 Great pieces of news, as 8 general thing, come most unexpectedly. A modest dis patch was received from Savannah, on a night that was unusually quiet, from news editors point of view, saying that all the country there had been shaken by an earth quake, and that Charleston, s. O., seemed to have lost all connection with her neighboring cities. It was after midnight when the dis patch arrived and set the night editors of all the dailies at work. Something must be the matter at Charleston, and they would not quit until they found out what it was. Be- ! fore many hours the country knew that that great city had been almost totally wrecked I by the now famous earthquake.
 | So it was with the great blizzard in New \ York a year ago. Every night editor knew | that there was @ great storm raging in New York city when he left his desk that Monday morning. Monday night he came back and