The crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1877-1878, 1877-12-27
A Talk with wouId-Be Journalists


II want to get into the newspaper busi.
ness Can you give me situation? Sal
AIRY not so much of an object as IA chance
to make Il commencement" This is the
substance of each of Il pile Of letters lying
upon our desk. Most of them come from
young fellows just from school, but some
are written by men who avow themselves
of middle age, and presumably have made
Il failure in some other calling and turn to
journalism as q last resort, on the suppoSi-
tiOn that any man of fair education can he
an editor To this latter class we have
nothing to say They are of the type that
Solomon declares useless to bray in IA NOR
tar. But for the young men we feel a sym
pathetic interest, and we would like, as in
friendly chat, to correct some of the mis-,
apprchcnsions which they labor under, in
common with great many older people,
about the newspaper profession. In the
first place, let us say that, if the amount of
FRAMEWORK expended in this profession
could be measured like the force of an en-.
glnc, and compared with that required by
other avocations, it would be found the
poorest paid of any. In the lower grades,
where everybody must commence if he
would succeed, the salaries are miserably
small, and in the higher positions they are
trilling in comparison with the earnings of
Il fairly successful lawyer or doctor. We
have in mind now veteran journalist who
has toiled early and late. for twenty-five
years upon II daily newspaper in city of
about the size of Cleveland. The paper
has absorbed his whole thought and ener.
IA I,,, h,n,, Ia; liEn
OF this long term of faithful, Intelligent and
never tagging effort he is without roof
over his head that he can call his own, or
dollar invested for his old age, He has
had no bad habits, has been abstemious
and prudent and has had no burdens to
carry save that of family not over large.
The difficulty had been that his yearly in
come has Just suiliced for his yearly wants.
He is u type of u thousand men in the pro-
fcssion. Had he entered the law medicine
or trade, and devoted but half the labor, he
would now be in the enjoyment Of a COM
potency The aspiring young man will
turn away from such examples as this and
point to the few men who have made fame
or fortune on the press. Stop and think
how few they are. We do not say that
man CulHOI Ildhc nlOHcy III JOulHullSlll,
but we do say that the chances are a thous-
and to one against him, while in other oc-
cupations he has at least an even chance
nay almost a sure thing, if he possesses the
qualities without which he can make no
hcadway at all on newspaper
"Ah but il must be such pleasant life !,
the young aspirant will perhaps reply
"only to write in an Office and give your
manuscript to printers to set up" Delud-
ed youth, it is the most laborious of all
the intellectual professions. Unless a man
has good physique, correct habits a brain
of strong fibre, and is made of that sort of
highly tempered elastic stuff which, like
street spring, rebounds, after every strain,
he is sure to break down. No position on
a daily paper is an easy one, and perhaps
least of all that Of a writing editor The
reporters are on more hours in the day, but
they do not have to hammer their ideas out
of their brains. They pick them up from
other men, or merely narrate events. But
it will be said that the journalist has great