The age-herald., 1901-02-18
ALFRED HARMSWORTH AS
 EDITOR OF THE "WORLD"

if 1t had been any other day of the year.
 And then Mr. Harmsworth retired to write E~s two editorials; and here, strangely enough, MT. Harmsworth vio- lated his own rules about condensation. Each of his editorials was a column long and contained more words than any article in the paper save one And here too. he upset "The Worlds" ideas for it's editorials are couched in the brief est form and seldom run over 200 words, while short paragraphs are literally sprinkled in between.
 It was dinner time now, and the night force of editors and copy readers was coming In. To the night city editor, who has charge of handling all the city copy. Mr. Harmsworth was particularly careful in his directions.
 Remember said he, nothing more than 250 words and keep a good share of them down to 100 words. Condense as much as possible"
 And so the copy readers began choppng down to 6 stick-and-a -half-less than 250 words-"spread' stories written for the customary half column or over Pretty soon the proofs began to come down stairs from the composing room. All were handed to the new editor-in-chief.
 Sometimes he looked very serious-the matter was running over his ideas of space. He hurried out into the city room with word of caution
 Keep it down, gentlemen" he said
 Things were taking shape pretty fast now. Meanwhile MT Harmsworth had been out to dinner with the several edi- tors, where he talked long and earnestly about his ideas of successful journalism. It was getting along to Il D. m. There was but an hour left before going to press. Proofs were coming down stairs in Proofs were coming down stairs in punches, and the makeup men were al- dxy rnff inc ha orli 1xr for. the stereotypers. Because of the great mechanical problem presented in the change of form the paper was going to press an hour earlier.
 We've only got twelve columns for news cried the makeup editor, hurry ing down from the composing room. Mir. Harmsworth was master of the situation in a moment.
 News Is all important" said he in- cisively; then see the business manager; we must leave out some advertisements" And when "The World" went to press that night there were four columns of advertisements left on the galleys that never saw the light on New Years morn ing! Think of that on a New York news paper of today-though in the old days the Herald often did so.
 The work was almost done. MT. Harmsworth was everywhere-cool, alert; directing this and suggesting that. Twice
 
 ''stone" where he went over the forms carefully to see that his ideas were car ried out. Finally the great work was finished "The World" went to press as edited by Alfred Harmsworth for the opening day of the twentieth century
 Meanwhile walters were busying them selves in a corner, where there was a ta- ble spread. There was champaigne a. plenty and bite to eat Then MT w. H. Merrill, the editorial chief of "The Wor1d,' proposed the new editors health, and the staff, gathering around drank to his success. MT. Harmsworth took nothing; he Is tetotaler. He re- piled in few well chosen words, adding that the remarkable thing about it all was to see staff organized on wholly different lines adapt itself in a moment to such a new order of things.
 The World of New Years Day was unique. Its pages were only half as large as those of the regular World It had thfrty-two pages instead of the usual fourteen or sixteen. There were no "scare heads" The matter was very brief There was absolutely no attempt at fine writing
 The edition was all sold out, and so great was the demand that another had to be struck off in the afternoon. News boys raised the price, sometimes as high as 25 cents, and newsdealers sent in rush orders for more supplies. As an adver- t.sement the Harmsworth edition of the World was af overwhelming success. Opinion widely differs among the readers and editors of other papers whether or not the experiment was successful from journalistic standpoint.
 REGINALD l.. FOSTER.