The Portland daily press., 1896-01-10

the essay by Samuel L. Boardman of
Augusta, entitled The Equipment of the
Sanctum.P
The editorial room of every great daily
newspaper, and in Maine, even. there
are some journals that are so we'll edited
ana inaonlned as TO come somewhere near
this classification should. have a library
In which may be found files of its own
paper and the papers of opposite political
opinions which are published in the same
city; lilies of one Boston, New York and
! washington paper which should on no &C.
count be cut and should be kept until a
year cid; directory Of every Maine city
andstown which has SO usefuiFa publioa-
| ton; set of the Maine Register; files of
all state reports and documnts issued
| from year to year; a dictionary of phrase
and fable; the county maps and histor
ies Bible sets of two different CYCLIC
paedias; two of the standard dictionaries ;
the Revised Statutes with all su bsequent
acts anu resolves; dictionary of poeti-
cal quotations; a set of the census re-
ports; Harper's Book of Facts; the vol
umes of the Executive messages and
OF documents of the United States
dictionary OF mythology; Appleton's Cy-
cloDsedla Of American Biography; Cham
bers Book of Days; the histories of Maine
regiments and towns so far as possible;
catalogues of oil the Maine colleges; the
pamphlet proceedings and minutes of
every state organization, society and
church, of the Maine Press Association,
the State Grange, the educational and
medical societies; the bar associations;
copiesGof judicial opinions in remarkable
legal cases, as that OF Stain and Crom-
we'll; Thomas Gazetteer; Oweu's legis.
iaBive biographies; at least six of tue
leading reviews of the day; files OF Maine
Farm RS Almanac from year to year;
t,n. @.Nls& A-,~k L
mapof the state and United States; a
general atlas of the world; the Congress
ional dictionary and directories: annual
reports of the heads of the National de-
partments; the national list of United
States vessels;- copies of the World and
Tribune allnanacs; and as large a general
library besides as the publishers can
afford.
This equipment of intellectual tools is
necessary in order to make good news
paper, because good newspaper should
record everything that occurs which is of
human interest. and which is of sufficient
importance to arrest and absorb the at
tention of thu public or OF any consider
able part of it, TO which it looks for sun
port. What is of interest to people in
Portland is OF interest to somebody in
Norway. Some person is there who reads
your newspaper, who sees something in
1T about some one whom he knows or has
something about the matter in which he
Is interested, and he thinks more of it in
consequence. A great state newspaper
cannot fail to be of interest to everybody
in toe state, on some one of the many
subjects which it covers in it's daily news
service.
However extensive the equipment may
be along the line just indicated, no sane
tum can be regarded as complete in its
GU TIT unless there is regular and syste-
matte attention given to The filing of
newspaper cuttings and the in7exing nf
whatever it has upon its shelves and III
its pigeon holes. All the directories, and
ANNALS and cyclopaedias. and biographi-
cal dictionaries and gazette srs, are supple
mented every day by the elaborate and
far reaching information by the daily
press
What book is there which gives the ac-
curaJe and up-to-date facts about Vene-
zuela, the Armen ian question, the latest
phases of the institutional church. the
discoveries in Egypt, the political and
industrial statistics Of the new states, the
output of the Colorado mines, the discov-
cries along the line of preventing and
curing infectious and germ diseases, tho
work of the civil referendum. the prob
lens relating to labor and capital, the
many branches of modern electrical
science, and the lives of the great men
who are so rapidly coming to the front
in every civilized country, in all depart
mentS OF human activity, and making
history faster than ever it has been re-
corded i'll any previous period of the
worlds progress a record which would
be impossible without the aid of the
Lightning presses of today?
There is none. One consults the latest
books in the best libraries for these things
with disappointment 1t is only in the
great newspapers that one can find fresh,
full and trustworthy information upon
the subjects, only in too many instances
the papers containing them are read and
thrown away. But in tho we'll equipped
sanotum all this information is preserv ed
and made available for daily reference
and future serrice
The plan is very simple. By an ar
rangement of q number OF large envelopes
or fling boxes. the articles on wide
range of subjects may be cut from the
leading papers, always being sure to afiix
date to the heading of the article, the
writing of (which will require in any
cases but five seconds. Then arrange
these clippings alphabetically under the
leadingscatch word of the subject matter,
placing them in the envelopes, and the
envelopes again in the boxes or receptacle
properly labelled. and you have one of
the freshest, most valuable and most prac-
ticable cyclopaedias that can be thought
of in connection with the work Of the
sanctum.
Again. How the sanctum of any great
newspaper can be managed without
system of daily indexing is one of the
things hard TO be understood where once
such a system has been in use; and its
value realized. have known reporter
to turn over files of newspaper for three
hours to fad the report Of a speech which
he thought he could put his hands upon,
and then give up in despair.
The first thing which should be done
in every sanctum, when the days work
begins, is to index the leading subjects
and important articles in the daily issue
of that morning or the previous evening
Run the paper over carefully and index
all matters that will be likely to be re-
ferred to, an address, a party platform,
the Presidents message, q great fire, the
death of q noted parsonage, important
law cases, abstracts of state or national
reports, leading editorials which you
wish to remember. Use for this purpose
the system Of cards in a drawer, arranged
alphabetically, or simple index book
Index by leading subjects, giving date of
paper, page and column. From eight to
ten minutes daily will index the import
ant things in each issue of the newspaper,
and there you have .it-a key to every
thing of value which the file contains