The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-06-04
BUSINESS AND WRITING.
EXPERIENCE OF ONE WOMAN WHO
TRIED JOURNALISM.

| C<FEht<-INlrG Vt SlNG WOHHIN Wf1O
TRIED JOURNALISM.
to Give Up the Unpromisang Realms
of Newspaper Success for the More Sub
stantial One of Assured Competence.
1t has been wittiiy 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 good deal Of sawdust
in my time, and only recently acquired the
right to add the butter. Some ten years
ago 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 I
shared. ia common with a good many other
women, the conviction that my misfort-
unes gave rae a certain claim upon people
and that should make an income because
it was necessary for me to do 50 or starve
don't mind owning now that ! came per
ilously near doing the latter.
Ever since I landed In New York, now
cverten years ago, have been able to find
work Of some sort although it has often
been miserably Ill paid, and, l am afraid,
of very little real value. The first thing
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 name in
| literature, and the time speedily comes
| when, as hack, she is ready enough to
accept any kind of work and let who will
have the glory, so long as she sees results
in dollars and cents.
So it came to pass that, shortly after my
arrival in New York, was more than sat
isfied if my copy was accepted and weeks
income assured, and perfectly jubilant
when, by any chance, 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 I have trarnped about
Brooklyn aud New York looking up open
ipgs-writing at the point of the bayonet
as it were, for q 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.
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
publisher, whose name is a byword
for philanthropy, once told me plainly that
l should never succeed as a writer until
produced something worth reading, and
he added, 81 doubt if you have sufficient
cultivation to do itp' | remember swal-
lowing this bitter pill with tears. A still
franker friend, business man, expressed
his opinion of the abominable pride that |
could consider it dignifed to write rub
bish for nothing and yet despise honor
able business, adding that a successful |
business man could easily buy up all the
authors in creation, and never miss the |
money, which, as | 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.
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 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
saired my everybody-at least everybody in
business-weuld want.
SUCCESS AND MONEY.
have found much truth in his predic-
ton, The modest card drew up at his
and sent to the leading bust |
ness houses brought wonderfully prompt
replies asking me to call, aud all at once
acomic element entered into my life and
lfound myself quite suddenly in request,
and for such funny things, tool about
many of which | knew absolutely nothing
yet was expected, by she terms of my card.
to be prepared to give advice upon. In nv
new undertaking called myself descrip-
ave writer, and was prepared to put any
thing and everything into such shape that
the public would be bound to want it. l
very soon had my hands full
should say there is nothing l have not
written about, from soft soap to the circu-
Iation OF the blood, the latter on the under
standing that the article must satisfy a
committee of six gentlemen before should
be entitled to the thirty dollars l asked for
It. read 1t TO them with Quaking heart.
and came out victor. much to my surprise
and theirs.
Another time was offered ten dollars TO
1raw up the form of will in which a wo-
nan could cut her husband off with dime.
put, calling to carry out my instructions, | !
onnd she had forgiven him and wouldn't
lurt his feelings by any such an item All.
Telli learned wisdom slowly but surely.
The only thing / could do was to make /
could tell business man {
What would be likely to bring him bust
hess. Is it any wonder, then, that was
listened to with respect, even when my
had little value.
AT tbat time, ten years ago, trade Jour t
ials were not as plentiful as they are now. f
started one or two. and undertook their c
whole management, writing the articles, l
printing, publishing, even circulating.
lad much 10 learn, but the knowledge | 4
aimed soon paid in good coin of the Re- r
'ublic, and six nnonths from nv new de- t
'arture | was offered forty dollars a week {
y firm OF good standing to look after the a
dvertising. Later on, when was free to &
YORK for others. this income was more u
han doubled and each fresh experience !,
aimed was just so much stored up capital =
"A Business Woman IN New York Tines q
y