Los Angeles herald., 1891-09-18
THE DAY OF SPECIAL WRITER'S.
Some of the Prices That Are Paid for
Newspaper Work.
Especial Correspondence.l !

Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, Aug 31.-The day when
those who relied upon the pen for support
were obliged to content themselves with
scanty living has passed away, and men of
talent are no longer called hack writer's
Within the past ten years the business of
meeting the tremendous increase in the de-
mand for reading matter which instructs,
entertains, charms or thrills has made
those who do miscellaneous writing mem
bers of a recognized profession. There are
many men who earn far more than the
average lawyer, even in New York city,
and whose yearly receipts are greater than
those of some of the most popular clergy
men. There are correspondents who earn
us high as $4,000 or s., 600 year, and there
is one at least of the regular newspaper
correspondents whose earnings for the
past ten years have averaged some $4,000
year, and who estimates his wealth at
not far from 100000, every cent of which
he received for his daily work.
OF late those writers who have won great
fame and who write about the profounder
subjects, men whose names carry their ar
ticles, have experienced a change of heart.
For few years ago the number OF those
who would contribute their articles to the
daily newspapers was small, and feeling
existed that it was not exactly dignified to
have an article appear in anything less
ponderous than a review or II monthly
magazine. Now all this is changed The
best writers in the world are in the market,
and even William d. Howells has at last
consented to furnish story which is to ap-
pear serially in the daily newspapers.
IA
know what the great writers of the world
are accustomed to receive for their contri-
buttons. Gladstone and Tennyson are ex-
ceptions to the general rule. Mr.. Glad
stone can receive any price that he asks
for any sort of an article he chooses to
write. 1t is not easy to get him to furnish
matter, and when he does his charges are
phenomenal, but are always willingly paid.
Tennyson has been offered as high as a
hundred dollars line for short poem
and has declined it,
Leaving these men out of considera-
ton, it is found that even the ablest writers
are satisfied to receive about three cents
word, or from fifty to sixty dollars for the
ordinary newspaper column. Mr. Andrew
d. White, who is n man of great wealth,
charges at this rate, not because he needs
the money, but because he feels that his
work is worth the market rate. 1t would
be shock to his pride to know that some
other person receives more than he does
OF other American writer's Major Mckin-
ley charges the highest prices for his work
so high in fact, as to cause Il smaller de-
mand for it than would be the case were
his charges less.
Ex-senator ingalls, received from a week
lymagazine n cheek for 81 900 for some ten
n1a Of 4 r1c hot
Stuart Phelps has never received more
than twenty dollars per thousand words,
at least of her serious articles. Her earn
ings for some of her stories have been, of
course, considerably greater. EX-Speaker
Reed, it is understood, received $500 for a
single magazine article of about 1000
words, and his earnings for his literary
work while speaker were sufficient for him
to take five months vacation in Europe
this summer.
Colonel Ingersoll is one of the writers
who receives great pay, and if he would
write more he could market enough mat
ter to materially add to his income as a
lawyer.
OF the foreign writers, Andrew Lang is
perhaps the most popular, at least SO far
as brief essay writing is concerned, with
readers in this country. He is also an ex-
ceedingly obliging man, and has the repu-
tation of being able to turn out at very
short notice a readable article upon almost
any subject. His prices do not run over
two cents a word, or about forty dollars
for a newspaper column, and his income is
said to be from $4,000 to $4,000 a year.
Frances Power Cobbe, who is the great au-
thority on vivisection, or rather the most
powerful opponent of it, is becoming very
popular, and is always willing to write and
to receive even q more moderate sum than
Lang charges General Wolsey, who is
developing great energy as a writer, earns
on an average about two cents II word, and
he writes so much that his income is very
Handsomely increased.
Robert Louis Stevenson has charged
very high rates for some of his work of a
descriptive or serious nature, and some of
his admirers as a story teller do not think
that he maintains in his letters his reputa-
tion as u romancer Edison could charge
almost any price within the bounds of
reason for anything he might choose to
write, but however great his genius is as
an inventor, he feels that he has shortcom-
ings as a writer, and cannot be induced to
do much general work of this sort. If he
had the gift of Park Benjamin, whose ar
ticles on scientific subjects are very mar
ketable and bring high prices, Edison
would feel that his happiness was COM
plete The specialists receive great deal
more money than do the fiction writers,
with perhaps one or two exceptions, and it
has just begun to dawn upon many of
them that splendid field is opening to
them in this great demand of the reading
public for authoritative articles upon spe-
cial topics of interest and Importance.
i. j. EDWARDS.