The Washington herald., 1922-08-23

somewhere IN NeW 1OTk u man is
dying of an ailment so unusual that
none of the attending doctors Is
able to diagnose his case. But the
patient knows. He realizes that
what the doctors take to be a con-
suming fever is actully remorse
Confession would ease his soul. but
he does not dare to confess, for
this is the man who only. a few
short weeks ago called Babe Ruth
"a big bum
We managed to create a most un-
fortunate impression on Saturday
which we wish to dispel as soon as
possible. In discussing the average
applicant for a newspaper job we
wrote. "In the package under his
arm Is generally a play or some
poetry. The plays we dodge IL we
can. but we usually look at the
poetry" There the thing stopped.
We wrote much more. but the bot
tom of the column cut il OFF. Now
we want to resume the theme. Quite
a lot of poetry has been brought in
since Saturday. and 1t is all a mis-
take. We mean bringing 1t to US
is a mistake.
Unfortunately, we know nothing
about poetry. We have just one
catchword for the poets who call.
After looking at the manuscript
very carefully we remark. That
seems to have an idea.'
Our ineptitude in the matter wor-
ries US a good deal. 1t is entirely
possible that some day a genius
will come in with poetry under his
arm and we will look at 1t in the
same way as usual and say. THAT
seems to have an idea" Then will
come the rest of the formula. I'll
speak to the managing editor. but
I'm pretty sure there isn't any job"
There was a time when we actually
did speak to the managing editor.
but we have learned by this time
that 1t isn't necessary to ask tn
know that there isn't any job.
There may have been time when
newspapers were short-handed and
eager for applicants, but that must
have been many years ago. Now
adays reporters are proposed az
birth.
When we first began. way back
about 1908. things were little dif-
ferent In those days. when the cir
culation of a paper declined and
stayed down for a week or so, the
managaing editor would come In on
a Monday morning and fire ten re-
porters and change the style OF head
type. Now he just changes the type.
Strangers coming in Immediately
after a cyclone sometimes got hired.
Their chance was particularly good
if they pretended that they could
read copy. A good many years ago
nobody wanted to read copy. Peo-
pie shipped on a desk just for the
voyage. like stokers. They drank
hard and got sick and died and
didn't show up for work and IN
other ways behaved in an irregular
manner. Still. being a copy reader
was adventurous in those days be-
cause you met so many interesting
people.
Now. for some reason which we
do not understand. the job has be-
come stabilized and distinctly re-
spectacle. We know a copy reader
who is a Methodist minister on Sun-
day. Most OF them own their own
homes in New Rochelle and they die
infrequently and only fro mnatural
causes We are glad that we had
a chance to do copy reading in the
days before 1t became so con-
scientious. In those days all the
names that went into the heads were
easy. like T. r., and Taft and Bravn.
We didn't have any Hardings or La
Follettes to puozle over. Probe"
was a word in good standing. No
body expected a head to be humor-
Gus or anything like that. II II
fitted, that was plenty. Man Dies
or Gas" was accounted first rate
work. Why. we remember that one
week the prize for handwriting
went to a man who devised the
striking caption, ,rBoy Held for Rob-
berry" There was only one fancy
man on desk and he was dis
charged after writing Bard ana
Limner Dies Alone" II story
was twice as long as the night edi-
tor required we took the most sim
pie way of fixing It and cut off tnc
last half.
The night editor was one of the
nneSt men we ever met. He was
methodical and by . o'clock in the
evening he had his paper all
planned. Anything that happened
after that wasn't news as far a.
his paper was concerned. At 10
o'clock the crap game was started
and when reporters called up, the
Tewrite men would go to the tele-
phone and report back. There isn'y
any story in that" We never wor-
ried much about libel because we all
believed that IL you put alleged
into the story a couple of times
everything would come out all right.
We knew that the proof room would
attend to the spelling and the runc-
tuation.
We have no notion. either. how
actors get on the stage. Young
people who have tried assure US
mat managers never appear except
late In the afternoon. when they
hrst come out into the hall and
say. Were not casting" One
young man. who had been trying
FOR Two years. says that he has
never actually reached a managers
1rice but once and then he was
allowed to remain only long enough
TO hear him say, You're not the