The Savannah morning news., 1903-01-09
WHAT A REPORTER WRITES.
He Puts Down i'm a Year-One Hun
dred Feet of "Liternture" a Month.

vertiser.
1t was after dinner on the city edi-
tors night off and the man of munich
pal beats" and three-alarm fires was
| growing reminiscent.
considering the interest of the aver
age reader in all branches of things
literary, it has always been a surprise
to me how little is known of what
/ might be called the mechanical end
of writing" he began. For example.
who are our champion writer's, judg-
ing 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 human sys-
tenn when driven to the utmost in this
! line Of work?
ASK almost any fairly well posted
| person who is the champion producer
! of words, and likely he'll tell you Mar
! ion Crawford. who seems to have set
| himself standard of two novels a
| year. Or. Clyde Fitch, the playwright,
! some may say, relying on Mr.. Fitch's
ability to turn out a comedy or mel-
| odrama with every man-hole cover
blown off in New York's streets. But
| the champion Of all writer's three or
! four times over. is the star reporter
on almost any of the big New York
| papers. Take the work of star and
! ii is no exaggeration to credit him
with an average of two newspaper col
| umns 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 following one,
| will bring up the average-say 5000
words. or, in appreclabe measure. at
least forty inches a day. That means
| during a week-for the star usually
| works seven days, taking a day off
| once month or so-the man turns out
| q 900 words, or a little more than
| twenty-three feet of matter. In a
month or thirty days he produces co.
900 words, or 100 feet of newspaper lit
erature. And figuring this by the year,
ne runs out 1,080,000 words to a length
of 1900 feet-in other words, the equiv
alent in number of words to twelve
novels of the length of Soldiers Of
Fortune, strung in a strip about two
inches wide from Thirtieth to Thirty
| sixth street on Broadway.
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 by typewriter. No matter
| whether the star uSaS a machine or
| not, it is necessary that he be quick
writer. Contrary to general impress
sions, the star reporters of to-day do
| not use shorthand except on rare oc-
casions, if, indeed, they understand
or Inv OF oil Tho eXCpnfiOnq
are when speech is to be taken YER
batim and even here the expert long
| hand man will work as accurately,
| though with greater expenditure of Ia
Dor, than his colleague who uses the
| pothooks. But there are two sides to
| reporting by shorthand ordinarily. In
| the first place a speaker be he ever
so trained, will rarely make speech
! which is all meat and worth reading.
| Unconsciously the shorthand man will
| take down all that is said, while in
Variably the longhand fellow will Gull
| out what he wants on the spot, itNlst-
| ing to his notes and a trained memory
TO get there
| ( 1.-The other disadvantage to short
hand is that when a man reaches his
Office late and must dash off his story
| with one eye on the clock and the
other on his work, and his mind on the
| concluding sentence. he has not time
| to translate pothooks. His notes. on
| the other hand, suggest the entire
| thread of the story, and he can sit
| down to his machine and rattle away
| turning out, If necessary, a column of
matter in from twenty to twenty-five
minutes, if he is very expert.
| THE man who writes column in
twenty minutes must not imagine that
he will turn out two in forty minutes.
A man with strong physique, with a
| nln xHyffh II {U Of mol IN
hand and expert at the typewriter will
find that his ability to grind out news
| paper literature at top speed decreases
| at almost arithmetical progression. If
the first column takes twenty minutes,
the second will take at least twenty
five minutes, the third thirty minutes,
| and soon up to seven columns as one
nights work-an entire page of report
| which was made during the first
| Molineux trial, and stands, think, as
| a record.
i LAS to writing by hand, of course the
work is both more laborious and more
time consuming. Most New York re-
porters can turn out a column by hand
within an hour. Many can turn out
two columns in two hours, but the fell
lows that can write four columns in
| four hours you can count on the fin
gers of one hand. You see, there is
| where the limit of human endurance
comes in, a point which probably never
even occurred to you in connection
with writing
1T is this strain which requires that
| a reporter be clear, not only in the
upper story, but as we'll physically. At
that many of the men break down
from time to time and disappear from
the Row to build up again. Altogether
pardonable when you come to consider
that frequently a reporter works any
| where from twelve to fifteen hours, and
| even to eighteen and twenty hours a
day-depending upon the size of the
thing that has broken loose.
"Only through practice can a man
gain that confidence in himself which
enables him to sit down without get
ting ratified to dash off a story with
out ever seeing a line until it is in the
| paper next morning. 1 have, known
i men to write under high pressure, try
/ ing TO catch the last edition with an
| important story, when everybody in
| the shop seemed to be up in the air
/ except the man at the keys of the
! machine. / have seen a night city ed
| itor himself stand over a man like
that and hurry and urge him along
and clip off the copy as fast as 1t APP
peared over the roll of his typewriter;
and still the writer set calm and rat
tied on his machine to make your head
swim without seeming to see the crazy
man alongside.
but there are other conditions,
equally distressing, which the reporter
must learn to face, and which he does
face so often that from time to time
! he suffers his periodical breakdown