Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-07-24
HANDLING GREAT
LOTTERY WAS AN
ENORMOUS TASK
1t Required Five Wires From
Washington, Big Force of
Specially Selected Men,, and
the Utmost Speed and Pre-
CiSion

the NEWS OF the great Sc
lective service lottery has been the most
stupendous newspaper task imaginable
The people have read the numbers and
read the names. scanning the two long
lists with probably a greater degree of
interest than American newspaper read
ers have ever felt in anything else they
ever saw in type
But while they read they had no idea
of the enormity and complexity of the
wor krequired to give them the lists
They werel ike an audience in a theater
looking a a scene complete and perfect,
which scores of men have constructed
with frenzed haste and yet with perfect
precision while the curtain was down.
The Journal was prepared, was re-
hearsed. was ready.
The names and serial numbers of the
men of Atlanta and Fulton county were
set up I'm type. Each serial number and
name filled a line of type. Some filled
a line and part of a second line, where
name and street address wera long.
On table ranged in rows were gall
leys containing the type for division No
l. On another table right alongside
were rows of galleys of type for divis-
| ion No. 2. On another table the gall
leys of type for division No 3. And
so on. through the seven divisions of
the city and the one division for Full
ton county outside the city.
CALLING THE NUMBERS.
An expert printer stood by each ia
BILE facing a man who read aloud the
serial numbers i'm the order drawn in
Washington. When he read out "25S."
the first number drawn, each man reach
ed to his serial number galley and
plucked out the line of type bearing
serial number 25S and dropped it into
first place al the head of the sequence
galley.
Next the caller read out 20 522" and
each man reached to his serial number
galley and plucked out line of type No.
2,522 and dropped it into second place
in the sequence galley
And thus they worked hour after
hour, the caller reading aloud the num-
bers drawn as they rolled off the tele-
graph operators typewriter the print
ers pluckihg lines of type and drop
ping them into sequence ready for the
forms which went to press at frequent
intervals for the extras.
Across the composing room in a cor
ner stood another printer plucking
numbers from a set of galleys ranged
before him. In front of him stood
caller reading serial numbers, reading
from carbon copy of the first callers
sheets. This caller and this printer
were not, however, placing names in
sequence. They were simply ranging
the long columns of black type num-
bers in the sequence drawn. Their num-
bers went as high as 1000. covering
not only the highest serial number of
3,4OO in Atlanta, but practically every
serial number in the southeast.
TWENTY MEN AT WORK.
A fascinating task. and yet a task
requiring utter concentration of the
mind, the eye and the hand. A task
requiring speed, requiring precision. A
task requiring a force of more than
twenty men all told. each one an ex-
pert, each one thoroughly versed in
the method of the lottery, each one
thoroughly rehearsed in advance for his
special task. each one thoroughly i'm
bued with the necessity for absolute
accuracy
Two press associations and three
leased wires flashed the numbers into
The Journal office from Washington
as fast as they were drawn.
1t was the most intense and trying
work for the telegraph operators who
sent and for those who received. 1t
was an enormous load" for the news
monopolized five distinct and separate
wires from Washington into The Jour
nal. and the other news took up several
more.
A great piece of news were the num-
bers dropping. dropping, dropping. hour
after hour. hour after hourr-the great
est piece of news that ever happened
in the history of AMERICA piece of
news that concerned almost every man
and every woman and every child
throughout the whole United States
The Journal was prepared when the
great news came. and The Journal did
it's best The Journal hopes its read
ers were pleased. On Friday, the first
of the lottery. The Journal sold more
papers on the streets of Atlanta than
ever before in it's history.
In a separate section of this issue of
The Journal is the final instalment of
names Of men in Atlanta and in Fulton
county outside of Atlanta in the order
thev were drawn. The Journal carried
the first instalment Friday. the second
instalment Saturday and now the third
and final instalment today. The Journal
also carries today the complete list of
serial numbers affecting the southeast
in the order they were drawn, beginning
with 25S and running clear through to
the last. This list of numbers runs to
1000. which covers practically every
division in the southeast.