The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-06-09

office and makes his typewriter hum getting off
the "lead." The lead is the first part of the
story and embraces the really important facts
of any occasion. In The Age Herald office II
is an invariable rule to tell the story in the first
paragraph. The first sentence should tell the
biggest thing about the event, and the first par
agraph should be such that if a busy man next
morning should be able to read no more than
Il few lines he will have fairly comprehensive
idea of what the story is about
Suppose it is commencement week and prac-
tically every school and college in the state is
holding its exercises the same week. Most Of
this matter will come by mail from the special
correspondents and when it reaches The Age
Herald office by special delivery or otherwise
the state news editor must show his ability in
discriminating. 1t would be physical impos-
sibility to publish every word that was said at
every commencement and Judgment must be
used as to the relative importance Of the va
rious schools and the reports cut and sunmar-
lied accordingly He has been allowed only
certain amount of space by the man in charge
of the news department for the following morn
ing and he must get as much into his space as
possible and omit no important feature from
any of the schools.
During the month of May there are always
great many state and national conventions
being held. They are regarded as Jonahs by
newspaper men because they require so much
space and are rarely of interest outside the par
tlcular organization whose convention is in
progress. But they must be handled and with
two or three conventions going on at the same
time it Is sometimes difficult matter to Judge
their relative news value and what space shall
be given to them.
When big story breaks during the night
of the most important things nowadays is
to have it properly illustrated. Suppose bull
letin comes in about an earthquakes AT once the
cut cabinets must be ransacked for views from
the scene If they are not already made the
library must be invaded, for here illustrations
are on file from practically every section of the
globe, and the Art Department at once buses
itself making proper showing of surroundings
at the scene of the big event. The Age Herald
has on file cuts already made of thousands of
men prominent in local, state and national af-
fairs. These are all alphabetical y arranged so
as to be instantly available in case some well
known man figures in the news events of the
day.
In addition to this The Age Herad's file cab
inets contain cuts ready made of practically
every public building or large institution in the
state. In case of bad fire at any point it would
be possible in hundreds of cases to illustrate the
story even though it occurred after midnight
1t is all these facilities for assembling and
handling news that make the men Of The Age
Herald confident that there is no better
equipped plant in the country for handling big
events and for getting the detailed particulars
of such events to the reading public the follow
ing morning.
A feature of the Editorial Department which
arranged for the special benefit of the read
ing public is the bulletin system for handling
election returns Election returns are usually
so eagerly awaited and there are so many hun
dreds of places to hear from that the public
is not willing even to wait until extra editions
can be issued. They want to see the returns as
they come and just as quickly as they are count
ed. To accommodate this demand on the part
of the public The Age Herald bulletins all cleo
ton retains on Il specially prepared screen on
election night BY a patent device the specta7
tor on the street read the figures on the
screen on the opposite side of the street as they
are being written by the operator of the stere.
optlcon. This device was invented in Brming-
ham and The Age Herald is the only newspaper
which has ever installed this -to-date feature.
Not the least important feature Of The Age
Herald Buildings Editorial Rooms is the
accommodations for ladies. The society edi-
tors and the special Woman's Department
writer's have separate rooms ON this floor
arranged with every convenience for facilitat-
ing their work. The rooms are so situated that
it is pleasure to work in them and also makes
it a pleasure to receive visitors. These rooms,
like all others in the building, are equipped
with private telephones and have an abundance
of light and air.