The Ellensburg dawn. [volume] (Ellensburg, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1913-02-20

in fact, any and everybody who NAV
possibly hear Of good news item
Thus it will be seen that the cora.
spondent must be diplomat and
"stand inn with all sorts of peonlo
He must be "A person Of considerable
magnetism to keep his hold on his corps
of volunteer assistants, for he cannot
afford to pay them for their trouble in
his behalf. The correspondent with tho
most friends is the one TO whom tbo
managing editor many miles away must
often write letters of commentator
The managing editor does not know
how his correspondent gets his stories
He doesn't care. He knows that the
paper is being well served and that 3
enough to know.
The correspondent 3 work is gov.
erned by code of rules to which he
is supposed to adhere strictly. When
story develops he is required to
"queryo or "schedule' his paper. Civ.
ing briefly the nature Of the news and
the number of words in his Judgment
necessary to tell it properly. For in.
stance, he will prepare message
something like this:
"Collision on G. & NJ; 10 killed. 81
injured; 500 SMITH,"
If he has less important story his
"query' will read like this:
"John Jones, prominent farmer
commits suicide while insane; 100.
"SMITH."
The editor who handles the message
will order the story at once, providing
he wants it. If he orders it he will
send message something like this:
Crush suicide.' or "Send wreck
story" He may enlarge or cut down
the number of words suggested by the
correspondent. He may order only 2Od
words on the wreck, or he may ask fol-
1000. Editors gauge the orders some
times upon their personal view of the
human interest attached to the story
the policy Of their paper and the pres
sure of space. All these things must
be considered in handling the hun
dreds of queries that pour into the Of
flee of the metropolitan paper day
after day. 1t takes genius to pick the
wheat from the chaff, to secure every
thing of interest and importance and
stir avoid printing libelous matter and
spending money for worthless mes
sages.
The principal source of woe to the
country correspondent lies in the prone
ness of the managing editor to detail
a staff of men to handle what big sto-
rics come up and thus deprive the cor
respondent of a chance to fatten his
" string.' In cases Of important polit-
zeal gatherings. conventions or sensa-
tional or mysterious crimes the editor
may prefer an original and extensive
story. one different from that sent any
other paper, and he sends man who is
familiar with the style and policy of
the paper. and who will turn out a
story in accordance with the ideas pop
ular to that particular publication
When such assignments are made the
correspondent usually gets Disguised
with his Job and rebels at what he con
siders unfair treatment. He is called
upon to assist the staff man in every
possible wav-as a rule. it is the CORE
spondent who gets the story and the
staff man who writes it up. The re
ward of the correspondent is usually a
cigar or n drink, while he loses out on
the anticipated fattening of his
'string' to the extent of a column or
more. It might be explained that
"string' is n wellknown newspaper
term. for the aggregate of clippings of
stories sent by the correspondent or
space writer to his paper. These clip
pings are saved day by day. and at
the end of each month are pasted to-
gether and marked off by the column
remuneration being made at so much
per column.