The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-12 00:00:00

THE 2RADE OF JOURNALISM.

As a mere money-coining pursuit, there is a good deal to
be said both for and against journalism. It is emphatically
one of those trades, aspired after by old Tulliver in the
" Mill on the Floss," which require no capital and are all
profit. A ream of paper, a box of pens, a bottle of ink,
and a chair, are all the stock-in-trade required. You want
no offices, no studio, no shop, to be a writer ; you have no
need, except in a very incidental way, to go to expense to
keep up appearances ; you require neither carriages nor
horses, clerks nor servants, for the extension of your
business. Indeed, access to a good library of reference,
not in itself a very difficult or expensive object to ao-
complish, is about the only outlay absolutely essential to
success as a professional writer. And, in spite of all that
has been written about the difficulty of getting any sort of
employment as an unknown aspirant to literary fame,
we believe there is no trade in which it is so easy to get a
start as that of journalism. To make a beginning is
alway difficult, but not more so, we hold, in literature than
elsewhere. By the laws of trade, which no novice can
defy with impunity, a briefloss barrister cannot go and
ask solicitors to give him cases to plead ; a medical student
who has won every honour and medal the faculty could
bestow upon him, cannot solicit patients to employ his
services ; and young divines, burning with eloquence, can-
not command the use of a pulpit, or enforce the attendance
of a congregation. But a writer, without any breach of
etiquette, may go and pester every publisher and editor in
London to provide a market for his literary wares ; and
he must be singularly unfortunate if he cannot find any
one disposed to give him a trial. Indeed, the facility with
which any new recruit can get enlisted into the army of
journalism is one of its defects as a permanent trade.
Anybody may enter it when or how he chooses. We
writers may conceive ourselves to possess an extraordinary
aptitude for pleading a case, or curing bodies, or convert.
ing souls, but we can no more go and argue a case in court,
or perform an operation, or preach a sermon, than we can
fly without wings. But any barrister, or curate, or
surgeon, or, for that matter, any apothecary, attorney, or
minister, may come and poach upon our premises to-
morrow ; and if he can but hit his game, his services as a
literary sportsman are as valuable as ours. But this
accessibility of journalism to all comers, though it depre-
dates what we may term the net value of the calling,
offers great attractions to young men in search of a pro-
fession, who have neither connection nor opening. No
doubt if a man chooses to commence his literary career by
writing epic poems, or five-act dramas, or philosophical
treatises, he may be a long time, whatever his merits are,
before he finds a means of making his voice hear;
d but if
he produces such artieles as are fitted for general con-
sumption, he will have no difficulty in finding a purchaser.
Anybody, for instance, who wants employment as a
journalist, has really nothing to do except to write letters
to a paying newspaper on any subject of passing interest;
and if his letters are good enough to secure insertion, he
will be certain, sooner or later, to have the chance given
h'm of trying his band as a urofeasional writer.—i%
Paula

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