The Portland daily press., 1882-04-10
Hartford Courant.l
10 a Female Correspondent.


The following is tosall appearances a gem
uine letter, We received 1t a few days ago
and have no reason to think that 1t was merely
clever advertising device of some firm or that
the singer is a fictitious person. Itshowssuch an
utter misapprehension of the newspaper bust
ness that we publish it, Disgusting names and
places for the purpose of setting right any
other people, who may have the same ideas. 1t
Is as follows
B. March 23d 'S2.
Mr.. EDITOR, Dear Sir:-I venture to send you q
fashion letter millinery with the name of Blank
q Co.. ~ this city attached The firm would not
adyeItise far from Hartford, but will pay
II a couple of dollars for writing let ter and using
their name. AS it is an opening for me to earn a
little money, with my pen, l am begging the favor
of you, to allow it space in your paper, and one
paper for me. trust that have not asked too
much, and that you can think fayorably of my pro-
position. viii you please let me know If you can
not use it, and will send postage for its return But
If you use it all you need do is send copy,
for which favor in all, shall appreciate very much
Please send word esry as must use it in its season.
Yours very respectfully, MRS. u.
We did not compel her to send us the return
postage. We remailed the fashion letter at
once to It's author at our own expense and
against our established rule. We trust that
this most generous act will in itself convince
Mrs. e. that there is nothing mean about us.
We can assure her that such is the case; and,
If she will begin with that conviction, we can
come on to talk of money matters at once and
without embarrassment.
In the first place, it is not exactly according
toour methods of doing business to print adj
refreshments ana let other people collect the
pay for them. The Courant is 118 years old
the Oldest newspaper OF continuous publication
in the country-but 1t would have died in its
arlest youth had the attempt been MADE to
bring it up by any such proceedings as this.
Just by way of illustration, we will ask Mrs. Il.
how she would have liked it had every other
circumstance been as her letter narrates, ex-
cept this-that this enterprising millinery firm
Could she see any money in it for herself un-
der such conditions? Probably not; and yet
that was about our fix.
But reverse it, and suppose the two dollars
to be offered to us. We would say simply that
a colamn of The Courant costs thirty dollars,
condensed into two-thirtieths Tor two dollars
WORTH of column, about all the millinery 1t
would be likely to suggest would be the evil
dent trimming that we had given it here in
the Office. We should want the credit OF that
ourselves.
Two fundamental mistakes pr event conced-
ing this bargain-the two dollars were offered
to the wrong party; and they>were not enough,
if offered to the right party. But we are sorry
for our correspondent II she needs the money.
A better way for her to earn it BY her pen is in
copying legal documents at so much page or
In writing letters that are not advertisements
and that newspapers are ready to buy for their
own merits. Such letters before long will es-
tablish your reputation. That is the way to
begin. After you've got your hand in. you can
join the great procession of professional female
correspondents and give up about half OF every
letter to puffery as a matter of course, charg-
ing the expense of the same impartially upon
both the puffer and the puffee.
Then you can make up your mind that this
is pretty good sort of world to live in and to
puff and Won will seldom blush-except when
you think of the time when you gave yourself
away ~ this innocent manner before you
learned that the true way was to charge both
parties and explain to neither.