The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1904-01-15
EARLY NEWSPAPER WORK.
As Described by One Who Had Served
In Different Departments of
the Service.

man, 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
relates the New York Sun. as he laid
the now completely wrapped up bundle
on one side of his desk and settled
back comfortably in his charlse
much depends on the point of view!
I'm my younger days, before l had
come to devote myself solely to strictly
literary pursuits, / worked for a time
on a newspaper as a reporter. And
was, l hope, pretty good reporter;
never failed. anyway, to get the facts;
but often l was grieved by the way in
which my copy was handled.
Sometimes 1t was cut and slashed
in way that was all but dishearten-
ing, and sometimes l would find SEN
fences and even paragraphs, or the
whole story itself. rewritten: 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 gentlemen. but such was the
fact-shy of copy reader; and when
they had looked around to see whom
they could get to sit in / was the only
man available. And so / got my first
chance at hacking copy
I'm the first batch of stuff thrown
over on my desk was a little story Of
nay own that had written and turned
in earlier in the day. I don't suppose
it could have been intended that this
should come to me, but here it was,
and l picked it up and read 1t with a
curious interest I was looking at one
of my own stories now from a new
point of view; from the point of view
of the copy reader.
And, young gentlemen, 1t was rot
ten; simply rotten. 1t had weak and
unattractive beginning, and a lame
ending, and 1t was all muddled up in
the middle.
"The facts were in it, but yet in its
written form the story was no 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
off with rush and to keep 1t a-boom-
ing clear and strong to stirring fin
| ish, but 1t was the work of a man who
| had put down his facts in most any
sort of way and with a great surplus
age Of words and with blind sentences
scattered herea there which he hadn't
even tried to straighten out, but had
let go just as they were. 1t 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. expecting that some
| how 1t would come out all right in the
| paper!
at was bum, II you will pardon ms
again. young gentlemtn-bum: ths
bummest line of copy that anybody ever
| put blue pencil to; and / made rail-
road switchboard of every page of It and
then threw it all on the floor and wrote
clear. simple, Straightforward para.
graph embodying the facts. or came
as near to that as could at that stags
OF the game, and let It go at that
And from that time on l ceased te
wonder at why they couldn't let my
copy alone.
| "As q matter OF fact, that was no
only my first. but 1t was my only nigh
at a copy desk: but from that brie.
experience Of copy reading I learned
that to get my stuff past the copy desh
must make good and workmanliks
copy; q lesson that proved Of great
| value"