Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-06-09
WOMEN JOURNALISTS.
SOME OF THE CURIoSITIEs IN THE
PROFESSION.
Growth of Editorial Consideration for
the Fair SeN-A Fair Field
for Competency.

That {" John Paul" of those incompara-
BILE "Vagrom" verses said to me the other
day:
| " 1t is very odd to me to think of your
being newspaper woman. When l was
on the Times twenty odd years ago, such
thing was never thought of as a news
paper woman. What do you do How
come you to be such thing, and how do
you like it as far as you have got ?"
Then it occurred to me that though l
am often seeing articles about different
newspaper women, have never seen any
thing about women on newspapers-their
work, character and position, and its growth
in quantity.
could write yards about newspaper wo-
men / know, but l don't think we are very
good material for personal sketches.
The fact is, the newspaper woman, as
such, is not apt to be much known to the
public, and the public has not much inter
est in people it does not know about.
| might as well sit here and tell You
about Mary Jones or Ann Smith, as about
most of the newspaper women | know,
though | may think them cleverer than
such favorites of the paragrapher as
Amelie Rives or Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
That has nothing to do with the case, as
you have never heard of them, or, indi-
vidually, of their work.
Horace Greeley was one of the very
| first editors to take women into journalism.
He had Mrs. Runkles, then Mrs Calhoun,
writing editorials for him too many years
ago to mention, and the tradition is that
many of the brightest ones that adorned
the Tribune in those days came from her
pen. Two other New York dailies have
women on their staff who write "leaders."
One of them quite goes in for politics but
it is not in this department that most of
the work of women is done, and perhaps it
| is not here that it is most significant. The
significant thing in the growth of women's
work on the papers is that it has resulted
| chiefly from a desire to cater to feminine
readers.
1t is a very recent thing that editors
have walked up to the idea that it would
have marked effect ON their circulation
if women were interested in their journals.
1t used to be that the "society columns
and the dry goods advertisements were the
only things that were supposed to be spe-
cially adapted to the feminine taste
That society column was the entering
wedge for the great mass of feminine Jour
nalism.
A type of slightly cranky newspaper
woman is very common in these DAYS but
there used to be almost no other sort. Now
with, | suppose, growth Of emoluments,
| there are plenty that are as trim, STYLISH
looking women as you can pick up; but
there is class of femme oddities that
trickle in and out of newspaper offices that
are rather mysterious. | must say | never
see them in New York outside newspaper
offices, while London seems full of lust such
| walking illustrations of the antique.
Every Office has its daily experience of
ladies of this sort of appearance. | am
| sure / don't know whether it is the same
women going around or new ones always
turning up, for it is quite impossible to tell
| them apart; but as they seem invisible
elsewhere, | think | must see them again
and again. They are a little saddening :;
not because they look that way, for that
is their own affair, and | know don't
mind looking shabby myself, but because
they are generally non-competents, and
yet they seem bound to stick to the busi-
ness and scratch along somehow. Once in
while there is really clever woman
| disguised in this way, who does acceptable
work, gets paid for it and enjoys life in her
own way; but usually the successful ones
either never did look like cranks, or have
gotten over it when they got some money.
| A /
pressed half-hour the other day, telling
how in his Office these women were always
| appearing with large bundles of manuscript
and always, in his expressive language,
| "getting fired out with monotonous regu-
| larity." | think that is dreadful to think
| Of
To my surprise he told me that there are
no women working for his paper at all. 1t
is the first exclusively masculine produc-
tion I've known among the New York
dailies
At the same time he was saying to me
| that if I'd bring in some stuff" there he
knew it would go in, as you see there is no
| prejudice against women's work, as such,
| even there, though, of course, without some
sort of personal introduction, all those non
competents would form an association of
ideas that would be against you. The way
that women can succeed easiest usually is
writing about women or their affairs.
That is demand, as | have intimated be-
fore, that in these days is widespread. To
me newspapers seem very hospitable
field, but suppose its hospitality depends
on the knocker at the door having a GER
tain sort of perception-the journalistic
instinct When / read the papers it seems
to me that there are some people in the
world earning their living very easily. but
however light their work, they have to get
a certain touch on it, and that touch seems
like certain higher gifts, thing born, not
made.
The fact is that although in all human
affairs there are "pulls that count, news
paper work stands as ruch on its merit as
any, except the higher grades of literary
production, and consequently it is good
field for the women with talent for it, be-
cause their sex will not be counted against
them if their work is up to the mark, and
an exceedingly hopeless one for those
without that special talent, even if they
manage to float for time on pull"