Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/322

 306 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

" follow stories " and bulletins might be expected ; others would be covered by the afternoon papers, and would therefore lose much of their news value. Here were problems in plenty. Some early copy must go to the compositors by 4 a full quota of men could not be provided for the evening and after seven the stream of stories must flow steadily and copiously. All uncertain matters must be postponed until the latest possible moment, every- thing sure to be printed must go up promptly, while "over- setting" i. e., the composition of more matter than there was space for must be minimized. The editorials already men- tioned, supplemented by three which grew out of the news of the morning viz., "Finance and Publicity," "Admiral Enquist and His Cruises," and "A New Theatrical Conscience" were the first of the copy to be set. These, together with short, original paragraphs, a half-column of clippings, literary reviews, dramatic criticisms, society notes, and an exclusive special article, an inter- view with the Japanese consul on Togo's telegram to the Mikado, completed the editorial page, which was locked up about 8, at which time the staff had been installed for two hours in the editorial rooms of its newspaper host.

From this time on the situation grew more complex and excit- ing. The press reports were coming in rapidly, and being handled by the telegraph editor and his copy-readers. The tele- grams were being checked off, sorted, selected, condensed, pro- vided with headings. All the war dispatches and other rapidly changing stories were put to one side for late treatment, while the shorter, miscellaneous telegrams were sifted and rewritten for a column of " Telegraphic Brevities," a devise for handling a large number of items in a condensed form. At the same time the city desk was a center of activity. Stories of the afternoon special men had been devoting the whole day to traction and strike developments were being sifted and copy-read; reporters were arriving, summarizing their results, receiving space instructions from the city editor, and sitting down to write out their copy, which was quickly merged in the stream now flowing steadily through the copy-readers' hands to the composing-room. The managing editor had before him the news schedules of the differ-