Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1896 — HOW GREAT NEWSPAPERS HANDLE ELECTION RETURNS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOW GREAT NEWSPAPERS HANDLE ELECTION RETURNS

NOT more than one out of a hundred of the great number of American citizens, who, on the mmrmmg following a national election, permit their breakfast to grow cold while they rend the complete storv of the batballots, has even the vaguest lowwledge of the tremendous task impanrd upon the great newspapers of the mmntrr when a presidential election OMBes around. Quite in line with the progress of the day are the interesting methods by which the printing press produces a perfect mirror of events politico! within a few hours after the last ballot has been cast, giving telegrams from •very State in the Union, the vote for ]?resident by counties in tabular form, the Tote on the various State tickets, the poßtical complexion of the different LegtaUturv.-. the standing of the next United States Senate, returns from every Conpreesicinas district, a list of the new members to the blouse of Representatires, the legislative returns for each State, and. anally, a complete report of the election in the city and county where the aewspaper is published. How the News Is Obtained. The methods adopted for rapidly and effectively accomplishing all this have been reduced to an accurate system by an the great da iiies. but those employed by the Chicago Tiines-Hcrald are partie«tar!j efficient. To carry them out re<*ires week* of preparation, the most Sberal Mpenditure of money, the empiaymec: of the most skillful labor, the axerase of the keenest intelligence, and the utmost economy of time in every direction. The details are almost inwamcraMc. yet ail of them have to be cxecsted to the letter, so closely are they caoaected with each other in the system which has been devised for handling the tatnrtss. First iu its importance is the

wart of the Associated Press. Through this great agency the paper receives tele-graph-c reports of the election from all parts of the Union. At least a week before ejection the correspondents are forwarded printed instructions, giving them the fonri in which tirey shall prepare their dispatches, and other rules for their guid-' mnoe iu handling the news from their localities. These instructions are detdgaed chiefly to insure promptness, accuracy and brevity. Iu addition to this force the special correspondents of the aewspnper itself form an army which any general would be proud to command if assembled in a body. The Times-Her-ald has more than ’_*,ooo of these vigilant news gatherers scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific, aud from the Gulf In the frontier line on the north. These wutch the polls, ready to record the figures of the election as soon as they are ■anonoced. They supply the news from those towns and cities in which the Associated Press has no representatives, and perform other special duties devolving upon them should the election be marked by way unusual incidents in their respective localities. , Am avalanche of telegrams begins to | get » motion very shortly after the polls uce closed on the night of election. Each apecinl correspondent, impressed with the necessity of getting his dispatches on the wires as early as possible, rushes to the telegraph office. Each correspondent the Associated Press, animated by the •nme desire, enlists the aid of electricity «i the earliest moment. Thousands and thottsacds es telegraph operators click •GT the messages thrown upon their desks. Ai the same hour the City Press Association, upon which falls the task of colliKting the returns for Chicago And Cook County is busily employed. There ure some States in the Unipn which can uot boast of having more election pfe«iacts than are included in the territory covered by this association on election uight. Chicago has almost a thousand precincts, in addition to which must be counted more than a hundred precincts for other townships. Yet the complete returns from every precinct in this vast territory, populated by more than 3,000,1100 souls, are in the offices of the several newspapers before midnight, ami the majority of the figures are in type before tfant hour. The polls close at 4 o'clock in the afternoon in Chicago. The reporters of the City Press Association watch every votSog place in the city an hour later. These reporters are not necessarily newspaper ■ten. In the city proper they are mostly poEccmeu, detailed for the special ddty «f carrying the news to the city hall. In the remote precincts of the county are other messengers, employed to facilitate tbe handling of the returns. All are anAer the most specific instructions to

lose no time in transmitting the resjilts frm the precincts to headquarters, ▲boot three hours after the polls close tfc* Judges and clerks in most of tti£ bre«taets haVfe completed their counting. As anon as they, have ascertained the vote «f their precincts the result is given ftt the Messengers in waiting. Then begins a race from all directions. Railroad trains, afreet cars, horses and bicycles hasten the transmission of the news to the headepnrters of the Press Association, where •certs of skilled accountants are in waitto tabulate the figures for the newspapers. As fast as the figures are transcribed. a pneumatic tube carries them with lightning swiftness to the newspapers. There they are copied, as a safegwunl against any emergencies, and a aback against any mistakes that might jaagttv and are sent to the composing raesa. The earliest returns on election afeht come in the shape of bulletins from _«jSPffent sections of the country. In the " .B**& of trained observers, these bollqtips ‘ra» compared with the vote of the pfe-

tlous presidential election, and thus furnish indications of theTesult to be expected. As the bulletins increase in number they become more definite as the hour grows later, uptfi they begin to tell the story without any need of comparisons. The figures are copied and then handed over to the telegraph editors to be prepared for the composing room. Where Everything Hums. With afi army of telegraph operators, editors, reporters and typesetters all working at the game time to their utmost capacity, human intelligence is necessarily taxed to its limit to meet the situation. An able-bodied youth watches the pneumatic tnbes, through which an almost constant stream of leather-covered cylinders come Syiag. to be discharged into the glass-inclosed receiving chamber. Each of these cylinders contains from one to a dozen sheets of “flimsy.” the name given by newspaper men to the yellow tissue paper used by the press associations in the -duplication of their news by ,the manifolding process. The “flimsy is distributed by hurrying “copy” boys between the editors, reporters and

accountants, each of whom has been assigned to some special duty by his chief. On their desks are piles of heavy cardboard, ruled and labeled ready for the tabulation of the vote in the covmty, from President down to the local officials. Each ward, precinct and township has" a separate blank, with separate blanks also for recording the Tote of the Congressional and legislative districts. One man may have several of these tables to take care of. As the returns come into the office they are passed from one to another of the clerical force, who pick out the figures for their table, until the last return is duly recorded. The expert accountants begin their work footing up the columns of figures as soon as possible. When a complete vote Is obtained for any of the candidates, the total,is quickly recorded on another tabic giving a summary of the vote, and the vote, by ward, or precinct, or outside town, is then “shot” through a pneumatic tube to the composing room

above, to be set in type. Here it falls into the hands of the compositor, who sits before a typesetting machine and pounds away at a keyboard like a typewriter. When he finishes, the fignres on his "copy” have been transformed mt© a glistening, solid line of type. ' There are other matters to be looked after on election night, aside' from gathering and handling the returns. Along about midnight, when the result of theelection is no longer shrouded in doubt, the city editor sends a score or more of reporters scurrying around among the hotels and political headquarters. They look for the politicians and the candidates and the prominent citizens with the intention of interviewing them. The candidate is asked to tell how it happened— If he is the politician is given a. chance to say “I told you so,” and the proiniuent citizen expresses his gratification or astonishment over the result. This is about the final chapter of the story of election day, as written by the reporters. They have already recorded the scenes and incidents of the day, from the opening to the closing of the polls, with a minuteness of detail characteristic only of the metropolitan reporter. The desire to give every bit of information possible to its out-of-town readers is the reason why big morning newspaper offices on election night are about the busiest places on earth. A composing room is always a place where hustling is in fashion, but election night brings this feature out most strongly. About 9 o'clock the first election “copy” begins to pour into the copycutters' cage, and the stream never diminishes in volume until near daylight Since the adoption of the typesetting machines the work of putting the copy into type and making up the forms for the stereotypeas has been made much easier and shorter. Between the first and second editions of the paper comes the final strain of the night. This is from 1 to 3 a. m., after the editors, reporters and accountants have disposed of a hasty lunch. Later 1 and more eceurate returns make necessary a revision of a great part of the paper. Proofs are consulted; figures are stricken out and new ones inserted; headings are rewritten; totals are changed beneath the columns to conform to the changes made in their figures, and a hundred more changes have to be made in a few minutes that the paper may go out in a finished condition. When the great presses finally begin to roll off the second edition the work of handling the returns still goes on upstairs. Important news may come in at any minute changing the aspect of the election, and provision must be made for issuing an “extra” in snch an emergency. For this reason the clerical -force remains at work until the forenoon is well along, and a force of compositors is retained. Story Told by Ballet ins. The scene outside the newspapers offices, hotels and campaign headquarters on election night is one of rare excitement and interest. In a great city like Chicago “watching the returns” has become a feature of poUtics, attended with ail the

bustle, enjoyment and variety that ingenuity and intelligence can suggest. The ! plan adopted by the big dailies for I kcepingThe public posted up to midnight j scored some new and remarkable features this year. Intense.interest in the election does not permit many city residents to remain at home on election night, and from, ( o’clock until daylight vast crowds parade the principal thoroughfares, going from point to point where bulletins are displayed. These take the form of huge canvas screens tacked across the front of a building opposite the newspaper office. Two powerful stereopticons are employed to flash the returns upon them. By still another method the enterprising newspapers tell the story of the election for the benefit of the public, and this noved system of disseminating news was used on election night for the first time. I One newspaper secured a searchlight of | the greatest possible reflecting capacity, which, under the guidance of an expert, flashed a code of signals up into the sky, visible .as far as fifty miles away. The Times-llera'ld placed men on the top of its building, aud exactly on the hour, from dark until after midnight, shot up into the air bombs of different colors. These burst as high as 1,000 feet aloft, and were visible fifteen miles from any direction. Each color had its individual significance, the number fired at one time indicating city, State or national report, as the case might be, aud the color designating the political complexion of affairs at that hour. The bursting of a grand battery of bombs of all colors wound up the display, announcing that the presidential question was settled, and closing the exciting campaign of 1890 in a blaze of glory.

BUSHING THE “MAKEUP.”

EXPERT ACCOUNTANTS AT WORK.

THE TIMES-HERALD REPORTORIAL DEPARTMENT.