Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-01-19

Mrs Battle and Miss Glenn, daughter
of our old friend Sam Glenn, once ed
itor of the. Boston Herald, and for years
man among the men of the New
York Herald, have made marks in
journalism of credit and profit; while
Miss Nellie Hutchinson, of the Tribune,
Miss Amalia Barr and Nellie Bly,, Of
the World, have done such significant
work as TO place them absolutely in the
very van of contemperaneous writer's.
Nellie BLY, is the young woman whose
voluntary incarceration a few months
ago made sensation from Maine to
Georgia, and its story was copied in all
the papers of the land She came to
my Office last summer from Pittsburgh,
where she had been working on local
papers, and said she wanted something
to do. l gave her letters to the chief
editors in the city of New York. upon
whom she called. and interviewed them
on the subject of women in journalism.
Her reception was courteously chilling.
Like the guests invited by the man
whose story is told IN the Bible, Forth
with they began every one TO make ex-
cuses," and show to her how utterly
impossible it was for woman to sue
coed in what they were pleased to call
journalism-for we are all journal
lists" now, Bohemianism being entire
ly swept away by the lesson of alleged
reform when she wrote
about fashions.
That nettled Nelly.
Being nettled she was stung to 40
ton.
She went to work and produced fif-
teen columns of sensation, which mono
of her critics had thought Of or could
have accomplished if they had tried.
turned it into the paper to which she
had promised it and received about
one-third as much for it as would have
been paid to any one of four or five ex-
perts. had they been smart enough to
think of the idea.
There is no reason whatever, there
can be no argument whatever, against
girls working on newspapers, in pub
fishing establishments of any sort or
kind. but in that branch of work, as in
every other, experience is what tells.
First comes the natural gift, then the
discretion, the ingenuity. the informa-
ton born of experience.
Needle-work. shop duty. nursing are
laborious and underpaid occupations.
The time will undoubtedly come
when women will practice Ia our
courts. I doubt if ever they will be
popular in the pulpit, because two at
least of the great denominations will
of necessity bar them out, leaving to
them the more arduous. less conspicu-
Gus and poorer paid branches of relig-
ious perfunctoryisms. teaching vista
ton, private ministration. The life of
school-teacher. a conscientious,
pains-taking schoolteacher. is the
hardest known to mortal existence
and the poorest paid.
just see what school-teacher is.
No one will deny, 1 suppose, the
truth of the old proverb that ''as the
twig is bent, the tree inclines." and
yet we send our little twigs to be bent
day after day, year in and year out.
knowing nothing and caring less of the
mental attributes. the physical condi-
ton, the moral status of the person
who is to bend the twig and incline the
tree. If we are heavy tax payers, we
grumble because the Board of Educa-
ton wants $50 much money to pay
the teachers.
If we are not heavy taxpayers We
don't feel sufficient interest in our own
children to see that the men and
women who are to mold their char
acters. in whose hands are influences
that are to train and direct, in very
many instances, their whole future;
we don't care enough about the people
to see that they arc comfortably
housed. that they are conveniently
placed during school hours. even that
they are paid enough money to keep
body and soul together. As you all
must know, a school teacher has no
time to herself for outside occupation.
Her school hour begins. to be sure,
with the tinkle of the bell. but her
school hour does not end when the
merry troop rush from the school,
house door. If bad children are ''kept
in'the teacher stays as we'll. and when
she gets to her ''palatial'' three-story-
Darkroom she can not throw herself
upon her bed and rest, she can not at
tire herself in becoming costume and
accompany friend to the theater. to
tho opera or wherever. She must read
little Tommy Jones' composition. she
must correct little Mary Browns
arithmetic. she must puzzle her tired.
wearied brain over the cOnundrumistic
reports required from her and figure
out averages until the wonder is her
gray matter is not exhausted and her
brains criss-crossed with oveSw>rk.-
N T. Graphic.