Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-06-10
BUSINESS AND WRITING.
EXPERIENCE OF ONE WOMAN WHO
TRIED JOURNALISM.

Some Of tho Reasons That Indnccd HeI
TO Give Up the UDoromising Realms
OF Newspaper Success for the More Sub.
stantiaI One OF Assured Competence.
IL has been wittily said that the success
ful politician Is the man who can eat saw
dust without butter and certainly such q
capacity must be large factor in all sue
cess. have eaten good deal of sawdust
In my time, aud 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 OF
special knowledge Of any kind, and
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
don'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
had to get rid OF was my ambition and de
sire for fame as Il 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 a hack, she is ready enough to
accept any kind Of work and let who will
have the glory, so long us she sees results
in dollars and cents
So 1t came to pass that, shortly after my
arrival in New York, | was more than sat
isfied If my copy was accepted and aweek' Is
income assured, and perfectly jubilant
when, by any chance. n 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 | have tramped about
Brooklyn and New York looking up open
ings-writing ut the point of the bayonet,
as 1t were, for a miserable dollar, and
many time and Oft have written col
umns Of worthless trash which never saw
the light ut 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 miser
able ahnrtinns OF semi literary life
Knight to this day be walking the tread
mill of itincrant 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
ii publisher, whose name is a byword
for philanthropy, once told me plainly that
should never succeed as a writer until |
produced something worth reading, and
he added, "a doubt if You have sufficient
cultivation to do itp' | remember swa
lowing this bitter pill with tears A still
franker friend a 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 successful
business man could easily buy up all the
authors III creation, aud never miss the
money, which, us | was only hack and
could not even aspire to authorship, was
quite unnecessarily severe.
1t Is to this caustc 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 ut first made
no impression upon me except that of sur
prise that he should he interested in any
thing 50 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
sured my everybody-at least everybody 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, and 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 be prepared to give advice upon, In my
new undertaking called myself n 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 fun.
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 n
committee of six gentlemen before should
be entitled TO the thirty dollars asked for
it. read it to them with aquaking heart,
and came out victor much to my surprise
and theirs
Another time was offered ten dollars to
draw up the form of will in which Il wo.
man could cut her husband off with a dime
but, calling to carry out my Instructions |
found she had forgiven him and wouldn't
hurt his feelings by any such an item. Ah
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
mails were not rs plentiful ms 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
public, and six months from my new de
parture was offered forty dollars week
by firm of good standing to look after the
advertising. Later on, when was free to
work for others, this income was more
than doubled and each fresh experience
gained was Just so much stored up capital,
"A Business Woman in New York Times.
Grants Comment.