Sharp County record., 1878-02-01
A Talk with WOuld-be Journalists.

/ 81 want to get into the newspaper
business. Can YOU give me situation?
+ Salary not so much of an object as
chance to make q commencement" "
/ This. saws the Cleveland Lea06r, is the
/ substance of each of pile of letters ~
. inc upon our desk. Most Of them come
from Young fellows Just from school,
+ but some are written by men who ayow
4 themselves of middle age, and who pre-
sumablv have made q failure in some
other calling, and turn to journalism as
q last resort, on the supp0sitiOn that
any man of fair education can be an ed
itor. To this latter class we have moth
+ inc to say. They are of the type that
+ Solomon declares useless to bray in a
mortar. But for the young men we feel
sympathetic interest, and we would
like. as in friendly chat, to correct
some of the miSapprehenSionS 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 BRAIN
work expended in this profession
could be measured, like the force of an
engine. and compared with that reqUir-
ed bv other avOcatiOns, it would be
found to be the poorest paid of any. In
the lower grades, where every body
must commence if he would succeed,
the salaries are miSerably small, and in
the higher positions they are trit1ing in
comparison with the earnings of fairly
successful lawyer or doctor. We have
in mind now a veteran journalist who
has tOiled early and late for % years
upon q daily newspaper in city Of
about the size of Cleveland. The paper
has absorbed his whole thought and en-
. ergy-it has been his very life. At the
end of this long term OF faithful, ntGli-
gent and never-tiagging effort he is
without a roof over his head that he can
call his own, or a dollar invested for his
old ace. 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
has been that his yearly income has Just
sufliced for his yearly wants. He is q
type of thousands of men in the profess
sion. Had he entered the law, medicine
or trade, and devoted but half the labor
and thought he has given to journalism,
he would now be in the enjoyment of Il
competency. 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 d man can not make money
in journalism, but we do say that the
chances are q thousand to one against
him, while in other occupations he has
at least an even chance-nav, almost
sure thing, if he. possesses the qualities
without which he can make no headwaY
at all on newspaper.
"Ah, but it must be such pleasant
life, " the young aspirant viii perhaps
/ reply; ''Only to write in al office and
/ give your manuscript to printers to set
fup. ~ DeIuded youth, it is the mostla-
/ borious of all the intellectual profess
sions. Unless man has a good phys
/ iaue, correct habits, q brain Of strong
fibre, and is made of that sort of highly
tempered, elastic stuff which, like @ steel
spring, rebounds after every strain, ne
. is sure to break down. No position on
q daily paper is an easy one, and per-
haps least of all that of o writing edi-
tor. The reporters are on duty 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
influence and can compensate himself
for lack of money and leisure by de-
lighted sense Of power. Another mis-
take. On almost every paper one man
gets all the credit, reputation, and IN
huence to be made out of the sheet.
How much power has any JOdy on the
Cincinnati Commercial beside Murat
Halsted? Who knows or cares for the
men who make the New York Herald
what it is? Can any body in Cleveland
/ tell the name of the editor Of the New
+ York TjmyS? 1t is nonsense to talk
about the power Of a sUb-editOr. He IS
but q single wheel in q great machine,
and if he breaks down his place can be
supplied before the mex. issue goes to
press.
"No money, no influence, only poor
pay and hard work, - the would-be Jour
nalist will exclaim. Why, then. do
men 90 into the business or stay in itg"
Rather q hard question to throw at one
suddenly But stay; this must be the
answer: Because of what Philip Gilbert
Hammerton calls the pleasures OF the
intellectual life Journalism is a crea-
tive art, like sculpture, painting, en-
. cheering, and the writing Of books;
but, unlike any Of these, its votaries