48 The Newspaper World, amount of intelligence despatched at particular times to suit the convenience of various classes of newspapers. For daily papers messages will be transmitted at intervals from six o'clock at night till six o'clock in the morning, while the evening newspaper supply extends from six o'clock in the morning till six in the evening. Weekly newspapers are accommodated 'with a supply suited to their requirements on the day of going to press only. In the year 1871 there were 21,000,000 words of Press mes- sages sent over the wires. In 1886 the number of words telegraphed to newspapers was 578,382,655 ! But, in addition to this enormous total, thirty private wires are rented from the Government by morning newspapers for transmitting news by night, and it is estimated that over each of these about six columns of matter for newspapers is sent every night. The arrangements made in the present day by the Post Office for the transmission of newspaper messages on all important occasions are of a very complete and compre- hensive character. Whenever a great statesman visits a place with his attendant train of newspaper reporters, the Post Office sends to the nearest telegraph office an experi- enced superintendent telegraph officer, with a picked staff of operators and, if need be, special instruments. Within a few minutes of the close of a speech, every word of it will have been sent over the wires to a far-distant town. Such a feat would have been deemed a miracle in the days when Dickens rode post-haste through the country, transcribing by the dim light of a candle as the carriage careered along, and doing his best to outstrip a rival reporter in the race to London. But still more wonderful than even the extension of home telegraphy, is the develop- ment of the telegraphic system all over the world, so that what is said and done in any part of the globe is known a few hours later in every civilized community, however distant from the scene of action.
