Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1891-06-25
BUSINESS AND WRITING,
EXPERIENCE OF ONE WOMAN WHO
TRIED JOURNALISM.


to Give Up the Unpromisins Realms
Of Newspaper Success for the More SUBJ
stantial One of Assured Competence.
It has been wittily said that the success
full politician is the man who can eat saw
dust without butter, and certainly such
capacity must he Il large factor in all sucs
cess. l have eaten a good deal Of sawdus.
In my time, and only recently acquired thu
right to add the butter. Some ten years
ago was the most miserable of created
beinRs-a woman with three children de-
pendent upon her-no training for work or
special knowledge of any kind, and l
shared. in common with a good many other
women, the conviction that my misfort-
unes gave me certain claim upon people,
and that should make an income because
1t was necessary for me to do SO or starve
Idon't mind owning now that came per
ilously near doing the latter.
Ever since landed in New York, now
over ten years ago, have been able to find
work of some sort, although it has often
been miserably i'll paid, and. am afraid,
of very little real value. The first thing l
had to get rid of was my ambition and de-
sire for fame as writer. A woman with
three children soon finds she must banker
after more material things than a name in
literature, and the time speedily comes
when, as a hack, she is ready enough to
accept any kind Of work and let who will
have the glory. so long as she sees results
". dollars and cents.
So it came to pass that, shortly after my
arrival in New York, l was more than sat
isfed if my copy was accepted and weeks
income assured, and perfectly jublant
when, by any chance, Il task of compiling
fell to my share which would bring me
more grist to the mill But it was
wretched existence. Many and many
day in midwinter l have tramped about
Brooklyn and New York looking up open.
ings-writing at the point of the bayonet,
as it were, for a miserable dollar: and
many time and oft have written col
umns of worthless trash which never saw
the light at all. But every hack can tell
the same story, the never ending effort to
produce and the difficulty of turning the
production to account after all-the miser
able abortions of mi-iterary life.
might to this day be walking the tread
mill of itinerant Journalism but for the
frankness of my friends had good
many Of them, and they were unusually
outspoken, probably because they were
really sorry for me. The fault finding OF
faithful friends is valuable
FAULT FINDING FRIENDS
A publisher, whose name is a byword
for philanthropy, once told me plainly that
! should never succeed as writer until
produced something worth reading. and
he added, II doubt if you have sufficient
cultivation to do itp | remember swal-
lowing this bitter pill with tears. A still
franker friend, Il business man, expressed
his opinion of the abominable pride that
could consider it dignified to write rub
bish for nothing and yet despise honor
able business adding that successful
business man could easily buy up all the
authors in creation, and never miss the
money, which, as I was only hack and
could not even aspire to authorship. was
quite unnecessarily severe.
1t is to this caustic friend owe the fact
that | am today in comfortable circum-
stances, and that my children are highly
educated and entirely Independent; of me-
He fell upon me with such severity that
asked what he would have me do, and was
told, to my SURPRISE that he himself had
made his money mainly by his cleverness
as an advertiser-a fact which at first made
no impression upon me except that of sur
prise that he should be interested in any
thing so commonplace.
It reminded me simply of atrocious il
Illustrations and odious types. but after all
there was something seductive in the idea
of making money, and finally gave ear
to the suggestion that instead of killing
myself in producing bad articles, which
nobody wanted. | should try to produce
good advertisements, which my friend as
sured my everybody-at least every body in
business-would want.
SUCCESS AND MONEY
have found much truth in his predic-
ton. The modest card drew up at his
suggestion and sent to the leading bust
ness houses brought wonderfully prompt
replies asking me to call, aud all at once
a comic element entered into my life, and
found myself quite suddenly in request,
and for such funny things, tool about
many of which knew absolutely nothing,
yet was expected. by the terms of my card,
to ,e prepared to give advice upon. Inmy
new undertaking called myself descrip
tive writer and was prepared to put any.
thing and everything into such shape that
the public would be bound to want it.
very soon had my hands full
should say there is nothing have not
written about, from soft soap to the circu
lation of the blood. the latter on the under
standing that the article must satisfy
committee of six gentlemen before should
be entitled to the thirty dollars asked for
it. read it to them with a quaking heart,
and came out victor, much to my surprise
and theirs.
Another time was offered ten dollars to
draw up the form Of a will in which wo-
MAN could cut her husband off with dime,
but, calling to carry out my instructions,
found she had forgiven him and wouldn't
hurt his feelings by any such an item. All,
WE'LL learned wisdom slowly but surely.
The only thing could do was to make
suggestion. could tell business man
what would be likely to bring him bust
ness. Is it any wonder, then, that was
listened to with respect even when my
suggestions had little value.
At that time, ten years ago, trade jour
nails were not rs plentiful as they are now.
started one or two. and undertook their
whole management. writing the articles
printing, publishing, even circulating.
had much to learn. but the knowledge
gained soon paid in good coin of the Re