The morning call., 1890-05-02

men that there is little or nothing news
paper hasn't full right to know, and usu-
| ally her experience has been such as to lead
| her to regard most people as seekers after
| newspaper publicity. OF course she knows
| she can herself innocently enough display
new silver bangle without the faintest stir
! ring of a wish to see it chronicled as an
| item. Of course she knows that she can
| give dinner to eight or ten other profess
sional women in delightfully."- Bohemian
| fashion at a little Italian restaurant with
| out the least desire to get glory out of the
| performance. OF course, in a general way,
| she knows that five women out of six desire
| nothing more than to keep out of the news
papers in these days when the scrubbing OF
| skeletons forms regular part of spring
and fall housekeeping. but her adventures
| with the sixth woman have made her cYni-
| CAL
She remembers how in the innocence OF
| her heart she went in her salad days to an
IDOL she had set on a pedestal, now sh she
| asked the idol to be allowed to describe
some of its virtues to the world, how the
| idol wrapped itself in delicacy and offended
dignity as in garment, and how she went
away feeling as if she had neglected to put
| off her shoes before approaching shrine.
Desecrate such sanctuary with public
adulation Neverl But she remembers
also how the days went by and there came
| letter. The idol had taken it for granted
she would know the reserve and outraged
money for 100 copies of the paper contain
| ing the article which must by that time be
| ready to appear Lest the information at
hand might not have proved sufficient, the
IDOL sent clippings OF three laudatory
| sketches written by three quicker witted
! journalists and couple of photographs
| taken for the occasion.
She remembers the pleasant lady who in
| her first lonely winter IN the big city invited
| her to her afternoons" She thought she
ked for the nlaasnra Of her
and 1t never occurred to her to gazette the
| guests or to praise, in print, the tea. One
! day her hostess spoke to her of another re-
| porter who had attended every one of her
| receptions last winter and never did sin
| gle thing for her."
Never did anything?" came the per-
| picked inquiry
mot a line. She has access to the So
ciety columns Of the -, you know"
A LITTLE wRINKLING OF THE FOREHEAD,
Then full illumination. 1t is the misfor-
tune of the society reporter that the people
who want free advertising are the ones
| with whom she has frequently to DEAL
| She learns to know so well the woman who
receives her lying in froth of laces on
| pile of softly tinted cushions, with shaded
| candles and languorouS perfumes to be-
wilder and to charm. She understands the
| authoress OF the erOtic novel not yet
brought into paying notoriety, who asks
| her 10 lunch and confides to her over dainty
0GNlCo anu llLQCoCtub SIdoS lllHs SIG Is
afraid her last book is really quite
| wicked" fear she laughs when told of
fathers of debutanteS who grow black in
the face in public over the placarding OF
their daughters charms. knowing as she
does not infrequently that the pictures
were obtained in private from the paternal
albums. She sees SO much of these people
! that it is EoJ always easy to bear in mind
that they are not usually people who have
succeeded, but people who would like to
a sunnAan 'Thnra il Donab ipc tho+
| she sometimes forgets there is a great
| deal more sincerity. Whether she is
most creator of the craze for publicity or
most its victim, whether she believes with
| unfiinching heaTtIness in the work she does
| or whether she fully appreciates, as do many
| successful correspondents, the yulgarity OF
| personal journalism, she does not yield with
! one-half the frequency that outsiders might
suppose to the perilous temptation to pay
| off grudges and TO aVenge sights she does
not violate a confidence and she respects the
| desire for privacy whenever you can con-
vince her that there exists a human being
who does not desire to see her name in the
| newspapers.
This is one side for one set of women.
Everybody knows that women write the col
umnS of directions as TO how to powder your
nose and how TO do up your back hair
| Everybody does not know that the woman
who is telling you to-day what sort of hair
pins Mrs. Cleveland uses on Sundays and
what kinds she prefers for Monday after
moons may have been writing yesterday
| about the babies hospital and may give a
! hint tomorrow that will show score of
| troubled women possible money-making
| occupation. The women who manage The
| charities, the woman exchanges, the train
| ing schools for nurses, the free kindergar-
| tens, know how much they owe to news
! paper women. The woman who has
! helpful plan sees first the possibility of its
| realization when she can win the ear of an
| intelligent woman reporter. One Of the
| most successful newspaper women | know
said to me yesterday that she loved her
work because it gave her so many chances
of doing good. She could not give money,
but she could give words that would put up
blocks of buildings. This is the other side
for another set of women. in spite of which
1t remains true that tine demand for articles
about what actresses eat and what the Van
astorbilts feed their poodle dogs is too
steady to permit the work of a woman
newspaper correspondent to be considered
as opening, save in exceptional instances,
TO a literary career"
ELIZA PUTNAM HEAToN.
NetC York ADrN 1890 CoDt0-feht