Milford chronicle., 1889-03-01
EAGER TO BE JOURNALISTS.
Newspaper Offices Flooded with Requests
for a Chance to Draw a Blank.


for a Chance to Draw a Blank.
81 think every young man and young
woman in this town wants 10 60 into jour
nalism."
The speaker was one Of the best known
managing editors in New York city, and he
passed his hand over his troubled brow as he
spoke
81 get about forty applications per day
from men and women who want to become
journalists, and the proprietor Of this paper
gets twice as many more A young man
whom | know to be making 500 per week
in the dry goods business came to me and
offered to work for S25 per week as a re-
! porter 1t makes me trife weary. If these
| young men and women knew how many
blanks there are in this lottery and how few
prizes drawn they would quit"
This managing editor was in a bad humor,
but be was all right as to facts. There isn't
a newspaper office in town that isn't flooded
with applications for work. The prizes in
New York journalism are few You are
reasonably sure Of drawing blank pretty
nearly every time There are more than
/ LOCO hard working newspaper men in New
York city. Outside of their own offices and
the New York Press club not two dozen of
them are known to the general public Those
'f-S "a RNA AAA1hl DhNaAAb VI AfG0 4 OAk
could almost be counted upon the fingers of a
single hand
The men who have drawn prizes cannot
themselves tell you how they did it All
they know is that they started at the bottom
and got there-somehow.
This is not intended to encourage printers
devils to throw type around, but as an illus
tration.
Charles A. Dana is, perhaps, the most ia
nous Of the men who have drawn prizes As
editor Of The Sun he draws salary of SOS, COO |
per year, and from other sources his income is !
swelled to about Sl50,OOOper year, upon which 1
he manages to live very comfortably, aided by /
French cook, whose income income is big |
ger than that Of a congressman. Dana started |
on The New York Tribune at a salary of sl2 |
per week. He started in a small way from a /
town in the interior Of Ohio Joseph Pulitzer,
Of The World, is said to clear 50 600 per dav.
Hell not working journalist now, but not
many years ago he was an ordinary reporter
In st. Louis, and they say he was a hustler,
too. Whitelaw Reid, as a matter of form,
draws salary of some $4,000 per year from
The Tribune, but his income from his stock
In the paper is several times this amount
John A. Cockerin is one of the working
managing editors and newspaper men, and
draws a salary Of $4,000 per year from
The World, and has an interest in it
besides. Cockerin was typo, and fought his
way up from the ranks. Amos Cummings is
said to have an income Of $4,000 peI. year.
He was compositor and a private in the
Union army during the rebellion, and he,
too, came from the bottom up to where he is
now. Chester A. Lord, the managing editor
Of The Sun, has a salary of 1880 per year.
de started on small paper in the interior of
THIS state, and had TO work herd for success
But he is little known outside Of New York
George +. Spinney, as managing editor of
Inc New York Times, has a salary Of about
"a 900 per year. But he has been a hard
working journalist all his life, and the salary {
S not so much. He, too, is little known out,
iide Of New York
There are probably fifty or sixty men who
ire simply writer's, like Blakely Hall and
Julian Ralph, who earn anywhere from $50
o $50 per week, but, with the exception of
he men named, and four or i've more, they
ire never heard or spoken of except in their
lwn homes and circles
AT the Fifth Avenue hotel the other night
Archie Gunter, the author of "Mr Barnes,
I New York." was a lion. He was more
ourted than any one at the hotel, and most
( the young men around him are ambitious
o become journalists If they knew Of
iunter's struggles up to the time that he sue
eeded in getting "Air. Barnes, Of New 6
FORK, before the public they would hesitate.
{ they could go into any newspaper office
nd see how long and how hard men work
Dr. small salaries, they would hesitate some
lore. And if they could go into some other.
laces and see some Of the wrecks that the y
des Of the years have cast up on the shores I,
journalism, they would go into some other
usiness. York Mail and Express y