Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-07-11

with the arrivals and departures by the
nluhlgnt trains, and at two O'Clock the
City Editor and one reporter, having re-
IreShed themselves with a ten-minute
luncheon, taken 10 an interval OF COM
paratlVe leisure, settle down to walt for
the last proofs or to catch any chance
item OF late news. Three o'clock in the
morning sees the last local proof read,
telephone message to police headquar-
ters settles the question of police news
Tor that issue, and after a final wait of
twenty minutes to half an hour the
City Editor bids the last lingering re-
porter good night, the lights are put
out, and work in the local department
Is over again. Meanwhile
THE NIGHT EDITOR
has been having his rush. Between
nine o'clock and midnight telegraph,
both special and Associated Press, comes
pouring in as fast as two
or three operators equipped with
type-writers can furnish it, proofs of
matter for the inside pages shower
down from the composing room, he gets
late mail at about half-past nine and
later one about midnight, and between
it all he has little time for rational
thought. About midnight there Is
"let-up" in the telegraph, at which hour
the operators on press matter all over
the country stop for short time for
luncheon, and taking advantage of this,
the night editor flies to q restaurant and
swallows a hasty meal. At half-paSt
twelve he Is at it again, and
from that time on until half-paSt three
he grows more busy as it grows later.
Between the City Editor and the Night
Editor there is an irrepressible conflict
as TO space in the paper, the City man
insisting that it's poor policy TO spoil
white paper with what he terms "tele-
is willing TO qualify himself that the
sort of stuff the city department insists
on printing is what is killing the paper.
Between these clashing interests it hap
pens daily, in the ambition TO get as
much copy of both sorts into the paper
as possible, that the foreman tootS his
whistle about one thirty o'clock In the
morning, and announces in decisive
tones that the paper sis full" and that
it's no use TO send up another line.
Everybody In the writing department
has heard this cry daily, but no one can
be found who will admit that the fore
man has the slightest idea OF what he Is
talking about. but only makes that out
cry at that particular hour in the morn
ing as all other newspaper toremen
clear back to Adam, have done
the same thing-and thus it comes
that the City Editor says he has rat
Ting good story which "muSt go, and
the Night Editor says his good stuff Is
lust beginning to come in" and the
copy goes rafting merrily up to the des-
pairing foreman just as though the
foreman had said there was n page OF
room remaining. At two-thirty the
foreman says he has four columns too
much matter in type, with column OF
COPY on the hook and calmly wants TO
know what tho Night Editor is
GOING TO DO ABOUT IT.
The Night Editor tells him to go ahead,
and "Pll be up there after while" and
about three o'clock he climbs the stairs
10 the composing room and proceeds to
do his worst, aided and abetted by the
foreman. The City Editors pet article
is cOntemptuouSly dumped out on the
imposing stones, along with the chief
editorial article and the suburban re-
pOrter'S griSt of items. Reprint articles
are set aside, telegraph items are
dropped here and there, and at half
past three the makeup" OF the eight,
ten or twelve pages, Us the case may
be, is completed, the forms are locked
by an ingenious mechanical de-
vice tightly In their steel
frames, technically known as
chaseS, each separate page OF type, rest
ing on its truck-wheeled table Is rolled
over to the elevator, and while the tired
compositors are putting on their coats
and are disappearing down stairs the
pages of the soOn-to-be paper are one
by one lowered 10 the press room, where
they are turned over TO the stereotyper
and his assistant, who are to cast the
plates for the preSsman.
But before the subject Of stereotyp-
ing is taken up, let us go back to the
composing room, and witness the opera
ton of setting the type. When the
COPY comes from the local, telegraph or
editorial departments, in the shape or
reprint clippings, manuscript, or type
written COPY, it goes into the hands OF
Foreman or Assistant foreman OF
the composing room, who cuts
IL into takes" or pieces, each
averaging about two inches OF type, of
the width Of a column. Editorial copy
is hung, thus cut into takes, on
hook by itself, local copy by itself,
reprint on still another hook,
and general telegraph, including
market reports, on still another, it be-
inc the object to keep all these sorts OF
couy separate and apart from each
other, as the proof is TO be read by men
renresenting each OF these departments
in the editorial room. The early copy
is thus assorted and cut up before
TIE WORK OF TYPE-sETTING
begins in the evening, and the copy
hooks prepared with enough copy to
last the competitors an hour or more,
the foreman or his representative giving
the preference to copy intended for
what are known as the inside pages OF
the naper, which have TO be gotten to-
getber first. When the hour for CON-
mancing composition arrives time is
called. and the compositors, one
NV one. according to rotation
given them by previous ar
ranpement, advance TO the copy
how III which the copy hooks have been
placed, lift off a take" OF copy ana
goIng to their respective cases, com
nenee to put the copy in type. The
tirsr man at the box, TO illustrate
the system more perfectly, may
have obtained the first two inches
ian editorial upon the tariff. The
So =, had cut the entire article, half