The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-02-01
CAPACITY OF REPORTERS
RAPIDTTY WITH WHICH THEY
WRITE Is ONE OF THE MARvELs.
star Man May Turn Ont Good Copy
Equal I'm Amount to Twelve
Ordinary Novels.
New YORK commercial Advertiser.

New York Commercial Advertiser.
1t was after dinner on the city EDITORS
night off. and the man of municipal beats
and three-alarm fires was growing remi-
niscent.
considering the interest of the average
reader in all branches of things literary, it
has always been surprise to me how little
is known of what might be called the me
chanical end of writing" he began. "For
example who are our champion writer's
judging from the standpoint Of numbers of
words turned out in given time? What
Is the limit OF human capacity in bringing
thought to paper? To what extent does
practice facilitate quick writing? Under
what pressure and under what adverse
conditions are stories often written, and
what is the effect of the strain on the hu-
this line of work?
Ask almost any fairly well posted per-
son who Is the champion producer of words,
and likely he'll tell you Marion Crawford
who seems TO have set himself a standard
OF two novels year. Or Clyde Fitch, the
playwright. some may say, relying on Mr..
Fitchs ability TO turn out comedy or a
meIodrama with every manhole cover blown
off In New York's streets. But the cham
pion OF ali writers, three or four times over,
Is the star reporter on almost any of the
big New York papers. Take the work OF a
star. and IL is no exaggeration to credit him
with an average Of two newspaper columns
OF reading matter a day. Days there will
be when his story does not pan out, and
when he goes home with but a half column
TO his credit. But the next day. or the fol-
lowing one. will bring us the average-say
1900 words, or. I'm apDreciable measure. at
least forty inches a DAY. That means dur
ing a week-for the star usually works
seven days. taking a day of once "a month
so-thc man turns out u 900 words. a
little more than twenty-three feet OF mat
ter. In month of thirty days he produces
$1,000 words, or loo feet of newspaper liter
allure. And, figuring this by the year. he
runs out l.oSoon words to a length OF l.2O0
feet-in other words the equivalent in num-
Der of words to twelve novels OF the leng n
Of Soldiers OF Fortune, strung in a strip
about two inches wide from Thirtieth To
Thirty-sixth street, on broadway.
RAPIDLY is ESSENTIAL.
"vast figures. these. when you come to
consider them. and naturally they suggest
the limit OF human capacity in recording
thought But there arises the question
whether your man writes by hand or type
writer. No matter whether the star uses a
machine not. it Is necessary that he be
a quick writer. Contrary TO general i'm
pressions. the star reporters OF to-day do
not use shorthand except on rare occasions.
IL. indee,G they understand stenography al
ALL The exceptions are when speech IL
90 be taken verbatim. and even here the
expert l0ng-hand man Will work accu-
rateiy, though with greater expenditure Of
labor. "a his colleague who uses the pot
E hooks. But there are two sides 10 reporting
BY shorthand ordinarily. In the first place
a speaker. b. he never so trained will rare
~ make speech which is all meat and
worth reading. Unconsciously the short
hand man will take down all that Is said.
while Invariably the lOnghand fellow will
Gull out what he wants on the spot. trust
Ing 10 his notes and trained memory 10
yet there
1.-The other disadvantage 20 shorthand Is
that when man reaches his Office hate and
must dash or his stofy with one eye on