The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-07-19

by hand. At midnight the head printer
.-s.--, - say tlat re cannot take any
more copy. 1t 1 o'clock he asserts,
I with tears, that he has enough set up
to fill two papers After a. m. Moth
ing is put into type but what must go
/ in At $3.50 the editorial staff put
their feet up on the almost bare tables.
At the machineS-real printing ma
chimes these-are trying TO get into
running order. and the weary night
staff are thinking of cabs. At the same
hour the publishing staff are getting
out of bed. Then comes the next
stage. The paper is printed. BY 4:30
the publishing office glows with life
and light. Vans roll up TO the doors,
swallow uD vast loads and bear them
hence TO catch the newspaper trains,
and so to the breakfast tables of the
public.
A great newspaper has an organiZa-
ton of extraordinary compiexity and
de;icacy, ard of this We VIII endeavor
to give the reader some slight idea.
Its scope includes everything literally
everything-an its space is limited,
so that there is a constant struggle
going on. But for the most careful
news and for accidents. BY 'acci
dents we would certainly get omitted.
and other urimportant things would
OCCUPY an undue amount of space.
fore, allotted certain amount of space
which varies at different times in
the year and as circumstances change
ard a certain amount is lefe open for
general news and for accidents. b.
accidents" we mean such things as
the death of the prime minister, or an
earthquake. The organization of
great paper must be rigid and yet
elastic-ngid in checking exuberance.
aad sufficient elastic to allow three
columns to the printer after
a. m. If su.I thing ~-auld suddenly
become neceus1.v. Tbs most impor-
tant fact to be realized bout a great
daily is that every night about four
times as much stuff goes into the
wastepaper basket-good stuff, too
sometimes = as can possibly be
crammed into the paper. There is
never any difficulty about filling up,
even on Christmas day.
Foreign news forms one of the most
important-if not the most important
of departments. Its size varies i'm
mensely and it is one Of the most dill
ficult TO estimate. Perhaps for a week
or two there will be no trouble, and
then viii come a thunderbolt-lik
President Cleveland's message. for
instance-aEd foreign news will run
all over the paper. 1t has one advan-
tage, in that everything must give way
to il; but this only shifts the difficulty
of finding space on to the shoulders of
some other department. Foreign tele-
grams arrive very late, too, and with
out any warning, so that the pressure
viii come just at the time when the
editor has arranged everything COM
fortably, and the head printer has be-
gun 10 make up the paper. Then
all the bottle. begins again. Proofs
have to be cut down, matter which is
in print has to be put aside altogether /
and perhaps wretched leader writer /
must be dragged cut Of his cabin /
which he was going home-to write an
article. The same Kind of commotion (
can occasionally be caused by home 4
news, but not nearly so often. Some 4
times ii happens that a very big man /
dies without giving decent warning by 1
means of illness. His obituary will, of (
course, be already preDared-perhaps T.
written years before and revised /
periodicaIiy-but its insertion will
casion an article. However. most men
seem to die in good time for the papers
or else CONSIDERABLY wait until after
they have gone to press" Ordinarily
home news causes little trouble. 1t is
very elastic, comes in as q rule in good
time. and the evening papers have
given a most desirable warning of
what is 10 be expected.
The leading articles, which look so
imposing and which express the policy
Of a paper on important subjects, are
not troublesome from the point of view
Of organization. The editor decides
early in the evening
what subjects shall be written about,
and he. Of course. also directs the
lines which the articles shall follow
Unless he be very wise or very fool
ch n dOez IN
arr of them himself.
From what We have already de-
scribed it will be sufficiently clear that
an editor who really edits a paper has
no time to write. He is responsible
FOR everything, and has in the last
resort to arrange everything. He or
his assistants read every line of every
Droofsheet; they have TO be constantly
IN the lockout for insidiOus errors, for
'doubles"-the same news given twice
IT given previously-for matter which