Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1893-09-29
FISHING TACKLE.
ssincs. metz, reefs. rods aud hooks o.
an klias Anderon's Clubhouse.
RAPID TYPEsETTING
AN INVENTION THAT WILL REVOLT.
TOME NEWSPAPER WORK.

Machine Is Destined to Make In All Big
Newspaper omees-onc Writer Tries an
Experiment.
It happens that have very decided ideas
about the futureof mechanical typesetting.
Originallya disbelieverand a scoffer have
become a convert. The machine is with us
TO stay It has come just as came the cot
ton gin. Amy device that will reduce the
cost Of the production of manufactured
article % per cent cannot be ignored. The
newspaper is manufactured article. Type
setting by machinery does reduce the cost
of its production at least 80 per cent There
fore the machine is the life preserver Of the
modern newspaper.
With the perfection Of the printing ma
chine came the invention of the typewriter,
aud while their relation Is not obvious at
first there is no doubt that their interde-
pendence can be shown and that the sue
cess Of the typewriter has fastened the per-
lection of the typcsetting machine,
We can all remember how crude were
the first typcwritiug machines; how mac
curate their alignment and how slow their
production Of copy. Today no well np-
pointed newspaper or lawyers Office is COM
plete without them. Many successful cor
respondents and special writers do their
own work wholly by dictation directly to
the typewriter. So great is the speed OF the
expert operator today that he or she can
readily keep pace with the average rate Of
speaking. The typewriter has become a
great source of comfort to the copy reader
and editor, Bad English is more readily
detected, proper names are more accurately
put in type from the printed page, and the
frpnarnl fnat1IF 10 eutfafugfnrv ~ hnfh
the writer and the reader of the paper.
The theory upon which the copy reading
desk exists in every newspaper office is that
it is for the purpose OF making matter in
tended for publication more readable and
more concise, but, above all, OF purging il
Of libolous and indgllcate matter and bad
English.
1t is a matter of sincere modification TO
the experienced writer upon the newspaper
press to feel that the average copy reader
ia n copy butcher While not entirely TO
blame for this, because he is instructed by
his superior to "read for space" the haste
under which the work generally has to be
performed does not initiate In favor Of nice
distinctions in the use of words, in the
turning Of phrases or In the selection of
subheads. Very much-ah, too often-the
individuality of the writer is destroyed, and
the plan upon which he or she constructed
the account Of II disaster, a murder or a
town meeting is utterly eradicated.
can remember to have heard In The
! Tribune Office during the days Of Horace
Greeley humiliating rebukes administered
70 reporters upon its staff who ventured to
cleverly turn n phrase or to be unduly IA
miliar with an adjective, In those days of
the blue pencil the copy readers broke
al.
! ping to consider that they were destroying
instead Of creating capable newspaper re-
| porters and correspondents.
| Looking back over an experience OF near
! ly quarter of a centuryin New York,
| cannot recall single clever literary man
who endured that harsh schooling for three
or four years whose love OF his work sur
vived. The blue pencil, with a mere car
| penter behind Il, is the destroyer of style,
the dissipntor of ambition.
The typcsetting machine already looms
| up rs valuable coadjutor OF the working
newspaper man-whether he be reporter,
/ editor or special writer The compactness
| of the typesetting machine OF today; the
| possibility of running it with small dyna.
/ mo and a Jet Of gus; the fact that one man
can do the work OF four and can produce
/ type in columns ready for use with nearly
the same rapidity that the expert typewrit-
| er can place words in row upon blank pa
l per, suggest that the writer talk directly to
the compositor
Before many years l confidently expect
to see the typesctting machine, with the OK
pert oomposltor behind it, take place at
the right hand of every writing EDITORS
desk in every newspaper Office in this coun-
try,
ipba manual 4 ,,ls.,,,, =, ...--;.,
already relieved by the introduction of the
stenographcr and typewriter, but at crit
ical hours of the night, when every minute
is worth saving, there is no reason why de.
ley should be suffered by a writer who de.
sires to turn into copy ideas that are ready
TO How from his pen upon the white paper.
why longer submit to the tyranny of the
copy readerl Why shall not each "starn
reporter hire his typesetting machine just
as he already employs his typewriter
There are many arguments in favor Of
this idea,
The writer will be able to exactly fill the
space allotted TO him for his article m
there be any "oyerset," he will know il be-
fore the article goes into the hands Of the
night editor Again he will be able to le-
tam all his peculiaritics of style, and the
prootreader will only reyise for typograph-
iuut cITols- IN huuitiOn the writer will be
able to produce three times as much copy
every night as he can possibly put in hand
by the old system OF writing ont his IDEAS
As an evidence that this system is thor
oughly practical l have undertaken 10
compose this article directly to the machine
The orudities Of expression that may be an.
parent are due to the fact that what oaye
said went into solid type. There is a IN
nous maxim, "Littcra scripta manet ),
Here the spoken word is cast into hard
metal almost as soon MS uttered, and from
It's silver face can be no appeal, no altera.
ton, no retractionl
As an Experiment. il IS interesting. and
am sure that this Is what we shall ali come
to eventually
In time we may be better writer's morn
capable OF accurate and regular dictation
The saving OF time in our brief and active
hnman existence is worth so much 10 us an
that we cannot afford to ignore its posgibil.
iues.--Julius Chambers in New York Re.
corder
War Is Very Expensive.
War is very expensive business. Starts
tics OF some Of the great wars Of the nas,
are as follows The Crimean war cost -
! oOo,eoo,ooo and 10000 lives. The italiar
war Of 1850, $500 o00O0O and 45 oo1 uves. M,