The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-08-26
journalism and Women.

No work is more strangely and more
curiously misunderstood than that re-
CURED by journalism. 1t not only re-
quires special talent of high order, but
the greatest amount of technical disci-
pline, general information, adaptability,
thickness of diction, and fertility of re-
sources. With all this it requires, too,
what is almost sixth sense; the mental
habit of keen analysis and swift combi-
nation. While these qualifications are,
in their perfection, the result of expert
ence, they must also be natural gifts.
The journalist, even as the poet, is born,
not made. The young woman who as
pires to do ''critical literary work" would,
upon trial, probably be found incompe-
tent to write local paragraph satisfac-
torily. If she is earnest in her desire to
enter journalism she must be content to
begin at the beginning. She must real
ize the importance of that sympathetic
perception, graphic delineation, and
power of representation that character
ize the able reporter. 1t is department
whose discipline is invaluable and whose
scope it may well be young woman's
aspiration to ably fill, and there is not the
I q. n1;ghtest danger of her work being too
~ sod for 1.-THE anxiety should be to have
sufficiently good. If the aspiring young
up'oman is ready to begin in the simplest
be sanner, and bring her best abilities to
Su hatever she is set TO do, she may, in
b me, grow to other work. That de-
., ends wholly on innate ability and her
Flower of perseverance.
gii Again, tho professional journalist is as
In ften amazed as amused over the atti
p AIDE taken by the young woman whose
contribution he rejects. Now, it is an
'a'nwritten law we'll understood in jour
Dralism that no editor is under the slight
,r,st obligation to give a reason for mis-
no cceptance or non-acceptance of man
script. He is not called upon to write
'e private critique on the article to the
uthor of it. His acceptance or rejection
ms an absolute and unquestionable fact
irAmong amateur writers this does not
u, .ppear to be understood. "The art
lie is hardly available for the columns
lltf the Dajly D3Signer," writes the editor
inf that journal. Now that is sufficient
IN hat should end the matter. The article
# rlay be better in some respects than
w oxen others he accepts, but if he be in
" ny sense worthy of his place he has an
mate intuition of subtle fitness and in
,rrlleCtual adjustments. which he could
, % more communicate than he could put
Ills mental life on exhibition. Moreover,
there is not the slightest necessity of his
communicating them. But his contrib
utOr cannot let the matter rest. Perhaps
she has written a book, and she is not
gratified with his review of it. She must
write him letter deprecating his judy
ment. She wants to know if he has
read her book carefully. She tells him
the Critical COnnOisSeWr gave two col
umns of extracts from it, and that she
thinks it too bad, she does, that he re-
ferred to it so unkindly. She favors him
with nine pages of her views on his con-
duct She alludes touchingly to the
fact that seven of her dearest lady friends
each sent her a copy of the Daily De-
Signer that contained his cruel allusion
to her volume on transatlantic Hurri-
canes" and she begs him to devote one
little half hour to her production and
then write fairly of it. All sub-editors
and reporters understand that it is an
unjustitiable impertinence to ask the
managing editor his reason for publish
ing or not publishing any matter sub
mjtted to his judgment. Outside writer's
and aspiring amateurs rarely seem to
comprehend this truth, and their trans
gressions are largely from ignorance
rather than from intention. The nature
of editorial work requires absolute power
of decision in order to preserve the unit,
les of the journal the editor conducts,
and the amateur contributor should not
permit his amour propre to incite him to
open any discussion regarding the justice
of the editorial judgment.-BoSton Cor.
Chicago Tribune.