The Election Returns

There is one night in every year iu every great newapaper office when work U done that is tlio least uncterstood of all that goeson iu tho making of a daily papor, one niglit when the highest state of fever attends tho exciteinent and strain of tlie most intense work that falls to the lot of any inen, except soldiers in war. That is election night. That is the night when a few men sit down at 0 o'clock before virgin sheets of paper, with the knowledge that before 2 o'clock the next morning they must cover those sheets with the electiou returns of a nation, digesting rnountains of iigures and apprising the public of tho results iu the most condenserl forms, weeks in advance of the official announcements, as sparks might be counted wbile they fly trom the shapeless ircu on a blacksmith's anvil. And these calculations must stand the test of comparison with those which the rival newspapers, working without collaboration, as eager competitors, will publish at the same moment. The election figures come in driblets and atoms and mnst be put together as the Florentinos make their mosaics. Somo of it, we shall see, is plucked from the very air - as a magiciau seems to collect coins in a borrowed hat - begotten of reasoning, but put down boside the genuino returns with equal confidence and almost accuracy. Ah, but that is a work to try cool heads and strong nerves. I am quite certain no other men in the world include such a night of' tensión and excitement, periodically, as a fi.xed part of a workaday existence. No other men, regularly once a year, feel themselves so truly in the focus of an intense public interest, manifesting itself in so many ways. -