The Metropolitan Newspaper (New York City)

ics for articles, and hints as to the tone which the articles are to have, or correcting errors in their work of the previous day. His correspondence is voluminous, and occupies him, with the secretary, who writes in short-hand, until six or seven o'clock, when he disappears, to re-appear later in the evening. He is courted every where. Cabinet officers, leaders in the world of art, literature, and science, judges, and millionaires— all are desirous of standing well with him, and do not stint their efforts to win his favor.

When the time comes for going to press, the night editor has sixty or seventy columns of matter in type, and the capacity of the paper is about forty-eight columns. All the news and the articles are desirable, but something must be omitted, and the chief at his house is called upon by his telegraphic instrument to decide. Then, perhaps, some accident happens to one of the "forms" as it is being stereotyped, or a second edition becomes necessary, to admit some news that arrives after three o'clock, and he is again aroused. It is sunrise before the little instrument is quiet, and the paper is issued before its chief is thoroughly asleep.

Large as the salaried staff of editorial writers is, contributions are often purchased from outsiders for the editorial page and the news columns, and the authors, whose names do not often appear, are frequently eminent specialists in literature, science, and art. A contrast thrusts itself upon us here between the editorial pages, so called, of the New York and London papers. Those of the latter are absorbed in most instances by political subjects or abstruse matters of social science; but the reader of our metropolitan journals finds on the editorial pages, in addition to the political "leaders," agreeable essays on nearly every variety of topic.

Besides having its own staff of reporters and correspondents, the metropolitan newspaper also shares the facilities of the Associated Press, which, both in its history and its methods, is exceedingly interesting. I write of it ex catdedrâ, as my facts were supplied by the general superintendent, Mr. J. W. Simonton.

Exactly what the association is, very few understand. Some suppose that it is a newspaper, and it receives requests from country journals to "exchange;" others mistake it for an advertising agency; and even among some newspaper men many curious misconceptions of its objects prevail. It was started, long before the telegraph was a practical success, by four New York papers, and its sole aim was co-operation in the collection of marine news; but with the development of the telegraph it expanded, and it was reorganized in its present form twenty-six years ago by the proprietors of the Journal of Commerce, the Courier and Enquirer, the Express, the Tribune, the Sun, and the Herald. The Courier and Enquirer being merged into the World, the latter paper secured the franchise of the former, and the Times was admitted to the partnership in 1851. The association is composed of the several papers, not of the individuals who own or control them, and so the proprietorship or policy of a paper may change without affecting the position of that paper in the partnership.

It collects news primarily for its own seven members, taking for the use of all a common dispatch, narrating Congressional proceedings or any event of general interest, and reducing the cost to each by dividing between all the expenses of reporting and telegraphing. But its scope was enlarged soon after its organization, and it now sells news at stipulated rates to over five hundred other papers published in every part of the