Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1910-03-04


ness of producing the paper. 1t is the
time when trained brains and trained
hands are exerted to the extreme limit
Of their capacity to get the very latest
news into shape. into type. into the
press, into the mail wagons and ION
the street"
And it is in the composing room
where the brunt of the battle is borne
in the final hours in which is complet-
ed the record of worlds doingS and
undongs for day Masses of copy"
swirl upward in the tubes or are car
ried in by boys from the city editorial
ROOM The typesetting machines click,
click, click. in unceaSing mOnOtony,
and the prcofreaders scan columns Of
green proofs" with rapidly. when
under pressure, that would amaze the
uninitated observer. The makeup"
men cluster around the cumbersome
tables or ''stoneS" on which the forms
are made up, lifting in the metal lines
of type here, making corrections or
shifting cuts there and locking the
forms to be shunted into the stereotype
room, where the paper matrices will
be made. When the matrix is placed
in the casting box the molten stereo-
type metal is poured in, and within
very few minutes the cylindrical
plates. hardened quickly in the cast
ing box by the pouring of cold water
into the jacket, are locked on the cyl
inders of the gigantic duodecuple
press and ready to whr off over 100
copies Of paper per second, all print
ed, pasted, folded and counted.
Midnight in the offices of the Adj
vance on the night that Judge Bartel-
mys photograph was taken with $1O,-
600 of bride money in his hands found
the staff If the paper in all depart
ments working as probably they had
never worked before. except on cleo
ton night. The story required con-
siderable time for preparation. The
notes Of Howard and jeff, the two re-
porters who recorded the conversation
of Brand and Bartemy had to be
translated from shorthand into Eng
lish. Then an Introduction and a
head had to be written. and the art
department bad to break all previous
records in turning out a cat made
from the photograph resulting from
the flaShligbt.
In the composing room men were
working like galley slaves TO get the
great Bartemy exposure story into
type and into the forms. The COM
posing room II the Advance building
was a double decker"-i. e.. Il second
story had been built in the rear part
Of the room to accommodate the proof
readers. This second story was really
but a half story. extending out over
portion of the composing room. and
the walls were partitions, the lower
half of wood ard the upper half Of
glass windows.
On the lower floor the linotype ma
chimes were set in rows. steam table
doomed OH one side. On another table,
an ironbound one. rested the galleys
containing matter for the 9ights edl-
ton of the paper. At the extreme left
of the room Il wooden partition shut
off the small Office that the managing
editor used ut night when he supern-
tended the makeup proceedings. a
door opened into this small room from
the outer hall. close TO a door open
ing from the hall into the composing
room itself. At the opposite end or
the compartment Il door opened into
the COMPOSING room. In his small ill.,
closure Brand, the managing editor,
Il tAIn A6inii,-
ing the partition. which shut him off
from the composing room and on the
outside of it. was Il desk used by the
copy cutters. who cut the pages OF
manuscript after they had been past
ed tOgether-intO takes A take is
one Of the sections into which story
is cut, so that several compoStors can
work on different parts of the same
story simultaneously. resulting in the
saving Of considerable time in setting
1t up.
The typesetting aChines clicked off
rapidly the words, sentences and para
graphs of the Bartelmy beat" and
the other stories which had to be
crowded into the mail edition." Brand
was in his little room at the right,
reading the proof Of the introduction
of the account of the accusation OF the
United States judge, which introduce
ton he had chosen to write himself
McHenry, the dppoScd managing ed
itor and now Brands assistant was at
the forms with the makeup men.
A hoy rushed i'm with Il cut for Nc
Henry. The busy editor squinted at
it and waved the boy to one side.
why do they send us this baled hay
when we've got live one!' he said
disgustedy.
Downs came in from the city room.
'"That Clinton street fire Is getting
better every minute" he said TO Nc
Henry. I'VE ought to have at least
four columns OH it,"
McHenry gared at the speaker.
Are you crazy, man, he exclaimed
"Do you think we use rubber type?
You'll have to keep it in three"
Downs was dissatisfied.
'All right This shop is going to the
d." he answered shaking his head
negatively. He went out of the COM
posing room.
McHenry went over to one of the
makeup stones.
''Where are the cuts for the Chicago
and Bryan jump heads? l can't find
them anywhere" he asked.
Here they are" answered one of