The Penn's Grove record., 1895-04-12
HARD WORK SOMETIMES.
Two Striking Instances of Almost
Superhurnan Physical Effort.

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Two Striking Instances of AImos,
Superhunan Physical Effort.
The story of the soldier and the ex.
perience of the spy contain no greater
records of the triumphs Of physical and
mental strain than does our daily press,
said e. ]. Edwards in his address ON
Journalism. When Daniel Webster
died Henry ]. Raymond, then editor of
the Times, shut himself in his private
office, giving orders that he should not
be disturbed until the work he had in
hand was finished. He proposed to
write q life of Webster, and he wrote
steadily for more than fifteen hours
q mastery, comprehensive, and, for q
newspaper, an exhaustive sketch and
study of the departed statesman. That
exploit was for many years regarded
as n Of the greatest personal achieve
mems Of journalism. 1t was always re-
ferred to when the endurance Of the
newspaper man was the theme. But 1t
was conspicuous because it was n of
the first. 1t is so frequently matched
nowadays that the achievement excites
no especial interest in newspaper of.
fees. Take, for instance, the report OF
the hanging Of Guiteau, which appear
ed in one of the papers. The editor had
instructed his Washington correspond
emit upon three points only-one, that
1t was desired that the correspondent
should write the whole account himself,
SO that 1t could be consecutive, sym.
pathetic and free from the raggedness
which Is inevitable when two or three
men are engaged in preparing a lengthy
report. Next. the editor wanted II put
upon the wire sheet by sheet; last of
NIL, he was anxious to have it complete
in the home office by 10 O'Clock at night.
Mr.. Raymond's achievement did not
compare either with endurance or swift
ness Of work with what this CORE
spondent must do If he were to meet
the requests of his managing editor.
The jail where Guiteau was to b.
hanged was three miles from the tele.
graph office T~hsssxesption was to be
done betws h6urs of u and 1.
Certainly a ! utwould- eiapse ar
ter the drop fell before the body was de-
livered to the surgeons, and after that
there would be the ride back to the
correspondents office. At the earliest
moment possible the correspondent
could not see how he could begin his
work before 3 o'clock, and between that
time and 10 he was expected to write
about $1,000 words, send it at white
heat over the wires, and have 1t com
plete in the newspaper Office in New
York. 1t would have been a physical
lmpossibility to have written that re.
port under those conditidks. There.
fore, the correspondent employed three
stenographers. ~instructing them to
mark their copy a. "B' and &C." A
little after 8 he began work with them.
First, he dictated to s~tenographer A
for some twenty minutes; then, leaving
the stenographer to write out his notes.
the correspondent went to st~enograpAer
| B, debating to him twenty minutes, aHd]
then to O. When he had finished with
s~tenographer @ he returned to STEM
| ographer A, who had by that time writ
ten out his notes, and they were put
upon the wires, and SO the correspond
ent went on a sort of treadmill expedi-
| ton, making the circuit Of those three
stenographers for seven hours. Ten
minutes after he had sent the last pas6
he received a dispatch from the hons
| office stating that the account wass&1I3
In type. 1t had been put in type almost
simultaneously with Its dictation, but
It was a most exhaustive piece of work
| for the correspondent. He had not only