CLEVER TRICKS TO SAVE TIME.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3113, 17 April 1922, Page 8

CLEVER TRICKS TO SAVE TIME.

During the boat race a few years ago a certain ingenious editor sought to outdo his rivals. He-decided to publish two editions- of his newspaper. One was in dark blue ink and tho other in light blue ink, and whichever crew won, the paper corresponding to their colors would be issued. His enterprise was not rewarded, for that year there was a dead heat,! As even better instance of the lengths to which keen newspaper men will go to secure “scoops” for their papers is illustrated by a story concerning a certain statesman. He was believed to be dying, and a journalist arranged that one of the household should pull down the blind in a certain room when the great man had breathed Ins last. But the scheme fell through. A housemaid entered’ the room one morning, saw the sun streaming in, and pulled down the blind.

The waiting journalist, of course, provided his newspaper with a great “scoop,” hut it was not the kind wanted, as the heated letter sent by that statesman on his recovery proved. The facts of Archibald Forbes, the brilliant war correspondent, provide one of the bright pages in the romance of journalism. Once, during the Franeo-l’russian War, lie witnessed a breat battle. The telegraph office was thirty miles away. Forbes knew that wnoever got there first and held the line would he the first fo get the news through. Mounting Ins horse he galloped oil, but when be arrived at the telegraph office he had not a line of his/‘copy written. Any niouftnt one of his rivals might appear, so tearing a page out of his Bible, Forbes gave it to the operator to send over the wire until ho had his message wriften. One can imagine the editor’s surprise when, instead of a brilliant war despatch, the message began with the first verse of Genesis and continued through the whole chapter. But ■when the “wire” switched on to a brilliant description of the battle, the editor nitdorstood the clever device to which his correspondent had resorted.

Tho greatest newspaper "scoop” was secured for a London paper by its Paris correspondent, M. de Blowitz, when the Berlin Treaty was signed. He arranged to meet at a. restaurant an official attending the Conference. In order that no suspicion would he aroused they met as strangers, hut when the correspondent left he wore the official’s hat, and in the lining eras the clause that had been passed the previous day! Later, M. de Blowitz endeavored to get a full text of the Treaty and approached a Minister, who, however, could' not lend him a copy; but “knowing the correspondent’s memory, he read it over to' him. The Treaty was signed the next day and at the time the same newspaper man came out with the full text.

During an election a newspaper man was locked inside the counting-room and had arranged with a colleague outside to signal the result. Unfortunatelv the signal was unsuccessful, and, 'a s a last resort, the journalist outside cried “Fire!” Out rushed the officials and with them the newspaperman. The result reached the newspaper in time ! In a newspaper office the type is arranged on a table inside an iron forme, or frame, the same size' as the page. The forme, when it is to l he moved, has to he handled very gingerly, otherwise the type would break up, aim hours of work would have to bo done over again. . On one occasion, in a certain office, everything was hustle and hustle. Directly the form© was completed and locked up, two men seized it, lifted it on to the trolley, and ran the precious page of metal to tho lift, to be sent down to> the foundry. The shutter of the lift was raised and, with a sigh of relief, the men pushed in the forme. But, sad to relate, the lift was not there!