The Sub-Editor, 69 sub-editor's desk — ^long verbose descriptions of ordinary events from gentlemen who expect to be paid for their con- tributions according to the number of lines printed. When the sub-editor takes these items of news in hand, he pro- bably thinks, with Mr James Grant, that the work of cutting down " flimsy " of this description is " the hardest and most disagreeable duty '* of the sub-editor. His labors are not confined to home news. Foreign telegrams from various sources reach him which will give him a great amount of trouble. Unfamiliar foreign names have been transmitted, and have come through the tele- graph office in a manner barely intelligible ; these have to be corrected ; the news sent is brief, and to render it in- teresting to English readers, it is in some cases necessary to supplement it with other information. All news which reaches the sub-editor has to be submitted to careful scrutiny. He reduces to half or one-third of its dimen- sions some prolix report, gives due prominence to an important item of news by means ofa proper heading, and excludes what is absolutely erroneous, undesirable to be published, or libelous. From time to time he despatches, by means of either mechanical or pneumatic apparatus, batches of prepared " copy " to the " case room," an apart- ment in which from fifty to sixty printers are engaged the whole night long in putting advertisements and news into type. Thus the work goes on, varied by occasional re- searches in books of reference or pigeon holes for facts with which to amplify or illustrate the news which is passing through the sub-editor's hands. There seems to be no end to the stream of news, but at last we have reached the small hours of the morning. The reporters have done their work and gone away, and the messengers from the railway stations and the telegraph boys come no more. The bulk of the news having been dealt with, new sources of anxiety arise. The foreman of the printers finds that
