A LABORATORY EXPERIMENT IN JOURNALISM 307
ent editors and the proofs of the matter already in galley. He modified his " make-up " from time to time and hurried frequently to the composing-room, where the three remaining pages were beginning to fill. The base for the cartoon was waiting in the upper center of the first page for the zinc etching still in the engraver's hands; the leading first-page stories were being assembled under their headings, while vacant spaces showed where the final bulletins and latest " leads " were to find place. On the third page "The City in Brief" and "Telegraphic Brevities" were lengthening rapidly, while more important tele- grams, foreign and domestic, together with local stories were being assembled. The fourth page early began to fill with finan- cial reports and sporting news. To one side stood galleys of matter as yet unassigned, awaiting the exigencies of the final make-up, which was scheduled for i A. M. The paper was to be a first or mail edition, not the city edition which contains later telegrams and local reports.
At midnight the climax approached. The telegraph editor was working at top speed. He turned a mass of items concerning federal affairs into a special correspondent's Washington letter what are principles and policy in a crisis such as this? and dictated to a stenographer, provided for an emergency, a clear condensation under a St. Petersburg dateline of telegrams from Moscow and other Russian cities, at the same time skilfully weav- ing in the chief facts as to the Zemstvos situation, and other related items. It was a clever and effective piece of work. With the turning in of this copy the labors of the staff were practically over. The composing-room now became the center of interest. Thirty amateur journalists watched with keen parental solicitude the work of a deft and marvelously long-suffering foreman who, under the guidance of the managing editor, in consultation with three or four of his chief aids, " lifted " this story and substituted that in order to secure symmetry and balance of heads, to recog- nize news values, and to meet the exigencies of space. The fourth page was locked up, the third was on the point of being closed, when in rushed the telegraph editor with a fresh war bulletin. It must go at the head of the first page war story. It was ten
