The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1877-07-07
THE JOURNALIST.
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Rh0 Ire and Who Ave Not Fitted fot. TIE
Journalistic PROFESSION,
II. Y. Reddeld contributes the follow
ing to a recent issue of the Cincinnati
Commercial: alt has been remarked
that but very few that get into jour
nalism start out with such intention,
They drift in accidently, and are pro-
noted as they develop capacity. Money
and influence are no sort of service in
getting a young man a place on a news
paper. There is no business that isso en-
tirely independent of these considera-
tions, as this, A wealthy father can
easily get his son a location TO read law,
or medicine, OF push forward in almost
any walk of life he may select, but he is
utterly poHerless to do anything for
him in a Journalistic way, TO be sure
he may buy a newspaper and set up his
hopeful in that manner, but unless there
is something in the youth called Jour
n~alistic knack, q natural knowledge of
what TO write and how to write it, he
will be a failure in that line, and all
the money and influence Of wealthy and
perhaps powerful relatives will count for
nothing.
"Some foad parents educate their sons
with especial view to n1ake journalists
Of them but it is rare that we hear OF
these young men after q few yyears.
Meanwhile some scrub, born among the
hills, having nothing but a common
school education and the knowledge
scraped up in a country printing Office,
will edFance to a front rank in the pro-
fession. He has the journalistic knack,
and forces recognition because he has it.
He gets a place not because he has
wealthy parents I'd Influence the proprie-
tors Of leading newspapers, but because
he knows what to write and how to write
it, and the editors take it because it is
what they want. His articles go in be-
cause they supply a demand, while per-
haps the elaborate essays from the pen of
a man educated ON two continents, with
an especial view to journalism, are cast
into the waste basket.
"Young men just out of college, and
with journalistic ambition, who have
had their essays passed upon by admir-
ing relatives, and pronounced the pro-
duction Of genius, think if they can get
a letter of introduction to the manager
of some leading newspaper they will
forthwith find recognition in his col
umns. I don't know how many applica-
tions by mail and in person I have had
from young men asking me for a letter Of
{ recommendation to the editor Of the
Commercial. l never complied, because
I know that these agencies are not worth
five cents a peck toward getting into that
paper. I tell the applicants to send
along whatever essays and sc forth they
have on hand, and that a letter of intro
duction a mile long would not be of the
least seRice in influencing the editor to
print what didn't fill the bill. Recon-
mendations from those known to the
editor, or the influence OF wealthy rela-
tives of the young men ambitious to
shine in journalism, are of no earthly
benefit in this matter, unless, indeed, the
latter might furnish money to have the
maiden efforts published as advertise
ments. But fame at thirty dollars a
column is expensive.
"The majority of successful Journal
lists drift into it from other walks of life,
and perhaps the most of them, up to the
time they are eighteen or twenty years
old, had no thought in that direction"