National Republican., 1883-05-23
THE END OF JOURNALISTS.
Where Old Newspaper Men GOA Ser
mon for Would Be Journalists.
- Philadelphia Ps.odress. ] !


A lady visitor,who has been long acquainted
with the newspaper world and its inhabi-
tants, whose purpose in life is charity, and
who goes to the newspaper men to help her in
her philanthropy, asked the editor an odd
that journalists drop out of the business as
they get on in years." 81 did not" Well,
look around you. Most of the editors and
reporters are young men. Some of the edi-
tors-in-chief may be old fellows, but most of
the workers are young. 1t has always been
SO far back as l can remember.
What becomes of the journalists who have
got old2 All we know is that they are not in
journalism. Is your business such terrible
one that it kills you of. like cholera? No
doubt there are old journalists working else
where but you never hear of them. They
give the best part of their lives to journal
ism, and wherever they may be they have
not enough energy left to make noise.
Journalism took all their vim and dash, and
after that it did not want any more. 1t cap
tured now life and now blood, and threw the
old, worn out material away, not thinking or
caring what became of il. l tell you journal-
ism is u heartless, ungrateful business for its
followers 1t makes me sorry to see brilliant
young fellow go into it. In any other pro-
fession-I believe journalism is a profession
the older he got the more power and the
in journalism he just uses himself up
before he reaches middle age, and then
drops out of sight. The proportion
of Journalists who get to be owners Of papers,
or editors in chief at salaries their abilities
warrant, is SO small that IL is scarcely worth
considering. Mr.. Ringwalt said in his lecture
that you could count the number of rich
journalists on your fingers, meaning journal
lists who had built up successful newspaper
establishments which they owned but that
no man could imagine the vast number of
failures or the vast number of editor-owncrs
who are struggling through an existence of
half starvation. There are some rich journal-
lists, but the majority of rich journalists are
not journalists at all. They are capitalists
who have bought into journalism, just as they
would buy into a foundry or any other busi-
ness enterprise. They cannot do the work of
journalism, and they buy the brains for it as
they would buy pound of butter in the
market. You journalists are all enthusiasts
in your profession, but its money rewards are
seldom for you. You may have lots of talent,
but you lack the common sense of knowing
how to make money or to keep 1t If your bust
ness manager makes it for you. Journalism
may give you fame. But you can do moth
ing but starve on fame. You are the
most impractical of men. l never knew an
editor in chief who was not at war with his
business manager, while the business mana
BcII WuO W W WIllG u TWO llub
paragraph, kept him from going to the poor
house. Five or six years ago | met very
able young journalist, and l gave him my
opinion of what he was doing. l told him to
get out of journalism before it was too late,
before he was all used up. He took my ad-
vice, went into another profession; has now
as much honor as he could have had had he
remained a journalist, and has besides big
bank account which, II thousand to one, he
would not have had if he had scOrned my ad-
vice. never see him but he thanks me for
what did for him. l do not understand
your fascination for your business Why you
arc its slave. You may lead others, but you
are not your own masters Your work never
lets loose its hold. do not see the glory of
that. You take your editorial sanctum
with YOU wherever you go. You are think
ing out articles when you are walking the
streets. You destroy night and you laugh at
Sunday. 1t is write, write, think, think, in
cessantly. Ihsve not reached the end of the
chapter, but it is long enough. / hope will
be welcome again.