The sun., 1903-12-06
ONE NIGHT AT A cory DESK.
Telling OF the Earlier Newspaper Exper'
fences of the Retired Literary Man.

TelnnI OF the Earlier Newspaper Exper.
fences Of the Retired Literary Man.
so much," said the retired literary man, u,
continuing. as he talked, the wrapping up
of pair Of coupon shears which he was
about to send out TO be sharpened"so
much depends as he laid the now
completely wrapped up bundle on one side
Of his desk and settled back comfortably in
his chair-"so much depends on the point
of view!
"In my younger days, before had come
to devote myself solely to strictly literary
pursuits. ! worked for a time on a news-
paper, az a reporter And l was. hopk
pretty good reporter never failed, any
wav, to get the facts; but often was grie Ted
by the way in which my copy was handled.
Sometimes 1t was cut and slashed IN a
way that was all but disheartening, and
sometimes would find sentences and even
paragraphs, br the whole story itself, re-
written; and this wounded me more deeply
than all else. Why couldn't they let my
COPY alone?
-One night the office suddenly found
itself shy-pardon the expression, young
copy reader; and when they had looked
in I was the only man availabe. And so
got my first chance at hacking copy.
In the first batch Of stun thrown over
on nv desk was little story Of my own
that I had written and turned in earlier
In the day. don't suppose 1t could have
b cen intended that this should come to me,
but here it was, and picked it up and read
1t with curious interest. was looking
at one OF my own stories now from a new
point Of view; from the point Of view Of the
copy reader. Z
And young gentlemen, it was rotten;
sim ply rotten. 1t had a weak and unat-
tractive beginning, and lame ending, and
it was all muddled up in the middle
"The facts we're In it, but yet in it's written
form the story wasno good. 1t was not the
work Of a man who had come into the Office
with his work all planned out in his mind
and with his opening sentence decided upon,
ready to sit down and start the story of
with rush and to keep 1t a.booming clear
and strong to q stirring finish, but II was
the work Of man who had put down his
facts In most any sort OF way and with q
great surplusage OF words and with blind
sentences scattered here and there which
he hadn't even tried to straighten out, but
had let gojust as they were. II was a mixed
up, jumbled disconnected story, that didn't
read true anywhere, as the writer himself
must really have known, but which he had
turned In just as II was, nevertheless, ex-
pectine that somehow 1t would come out
all right in the paper!
1T was bum, II you will pardon me gain.
young gentlemen bum; the bummest line
Of copy that anybody ever put blue pencil
to; and l made a railroad switchyard OF
every page Of 1t and then threw II all on
the floor and wrote clear, simple straight
forward DaraQraDh emhodvinU tho facts
stage Of the game, and let II 60 at that.
And from time that on ceased to wonder at
why they couldn't let my copy alone.
As matter Of fact, that was not only
my fFt., but II was my only night at a
Of copy reading / learned that 10 get my
stun past the copy deck must make good
and workmanfke copy; lesson that proved
Of great value."