sed into one very busy man. On a city daily of average size
there are _desk men_, or _copyreaders_, who work under editorial
direction but feel superior to the reporter because they correct his
literary efforts.

The reporter's work consists of gathering and writing news. In the
office this is called _covering_ and writing _stories_. He is ordinarily
put on a _beat_, or _run_; this is simply a daily route or round of news
sources which he follows as regularly as a policeman walks his beat. The
reporter's work on a special story outside his beat is called an
_assignment_. Any hint that he may receive concerning a bit of news is
called a _tip_. Any bit of news that he secures to the exclusion of his
paper's rivals is called a _beat_, or a _scoop_.

Everything that is written for the paper, whether it be a two-line
personal item or a two-column report, is called a _story_, or a _yarn_,
and from the time the story is written until it appears in the printed
paper it is called _copy_. If the story is well written and needs few
corrections it is called _clean copy_. After the story is written it is
turned over to the copyreader to be _edited_. The copyreader corrects it
and writes the headlines or _heads_; then he sends it to the composing
room to be set in type by the _compositor_. The story itself is usually
set up on a linotype machine and the heads are set up by hand. For the
sake of keeping the two parts of the copy together the reporter or the
copyreader ordinarily gives the story a name, such as "Fire No. 2"; the
bit of lead on which the name is printed is called a _slug_ and the
story is said to be _slugged_. If at any time in its journey from the
reporter's pencil to the printed page, the editor decides not to print
the story, he _kills_ it; otherwise he _runs_ it, or allows it to go
into the paper. When the story is in type, an impression, or _proof_, is
taken of it, and this proof, still called copy, comes back to the
copyreader or the proofreader for the correction of typographical
errors. The gathering together of all of the day's stories into the form
of the final printed page is called _making up_ the paper; this is
usually done by some one of the editors. In like manner, the finished
aspect of the paper is called the _make-up_.

Some stories are said to be _big stories_ because of unusual news value.
When any news comes unexpectedly it is said to _break_; and when any
story comes in beforehand and must be hel