Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1891-06-12
BUSINESS AMI WRITING
EXPERIENCE OF ONE WOMAN WHO
TRIED JOURNALISM.

Some of the Reasons That Induced Her
to Give Up the Unpromising Realms
Of Newspaper Success for the More Sub
stantial One of Assured Competence.
1t has been wittily said that the success
full politician is the man who can eat saw
dust without butter, and certainly such a
capacity must be a large factor in all sue
cess. | have eaten a good deal of sawdus.
in my time, and only recently acquired thu
right to add the butter. Some ten years
ago l was the most miserable of created
beings-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 a certain claim upon people,
n that should make an income because
it was necessary for me to do so or starve.
don't mind owning now that | came per-
ilously near doing the latter.
Ever since | landed in New York, now
over ten years ago, | lave 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 a writer. A woman with
three children soon inds 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 IN kind of work and let who will
haye the glory, so long as she sees results
IAdOllars and cents.
So it came to pass that, shortly after my
arrival in New York, l was more than sat
lstied If my copy was accepted n a weeks
income assured, and perfectly jubilant
when, by any chance, a task of compiling
fell to my share which would bring me
more grist to the mill. But it was a
wretched existence. Many and many a
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 a 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 semi-literary life.
might to this day be walking the tread
mill of itinerant Journalism but for the
frankness of my friends. | had Il 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 RIENDs.
A publisher, whose name is a byword
for philanthropy, once told me plainly that
l should never succeed as a writer until l
produced something worth reading. and
he added, ~ doubt if you have sufficient
cultivation to do itV' remember swal-
| IOyvinu this hilton mill with +aore c%;l1
franker friend, a 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 Il successful
business man could easily buy up all the
authors in creation, and never miss the
money, which, as | was only ashack 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 nave 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.
1t reminded me simply OF atrocious il
Illustrations and odious types, but after all
there was something seductive in the idea
of making money, and l 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 everybody in
business-would want.
SUCCESS N MONEY.
I 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
l found myself quite suddenly in request,
and for such funny things, tool about
many of which l knew absolutely nothing,
yet was expected, by the terms of my card,
to De prepared to give advice upon. In my
new undertaking called myself a descrip-
tive writer, n was prepared to put any
thing and everything into such shape that
the public would be bound to want it. I
very soon had my hands full.
Ishould say there is nothing l nave not
written about, from soft soap to the circu-
lation of the blood, the latter on the under
standing that the article must satisfy a
committee of six gentlemen before l should
be entitled to the thirty dollars l asked for
it. l read it to them with a quaking heart,
and came out victor, much to my surprise
and theirs.
Another time l was offered ten dollars to
draw up the form of a will in which a wo-
man could cut her husband off with a dime,
but, calling to carry out my instructions, l
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 a business man
what would be likely to bring him bust
mass. Is it any wonder, then, that l was
listened to with respect, even when my
suggestions had little value.
At that time, ten years ago, trade jour-
nails were not as plentiful as they are now.
l started one or two, and undertook their
whole management, writing the articles,
printing, publishing, even circulating. ]
had much to learn, but the knowledge