The Van Buren press., 1893-05-13
IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
THE NEWSPAPER WOMAN.
Hcr Work 10 Hard and Her Employer Yer
Critical.

THE NEWSPAPER WOMAN.
Hcr Work Is Hard and Her Employer Very
Critical.
It has been loosely estimated that
there are several thousand newspaper
women in this country. In reality
there are less than two hundred and
fifty. There is distinction between
newspaper writing and writing for the
newspapers, and the young lady who
"does little space-work' in the inter-
walls of her social or business engage
ments was not considered in the COM
pilation of these statistics The two
hundred and fifty writer's who have
been considered are newspaper women
in the best sense of the words, writes
Elizabeth &. Jordan, in Lippencott's.
They hold staff positions on journals of
good standing, or they have had expe-
rience which fits them for such posi-
tions; they have learned to recognize
news when they hear it, and they know
how to present it to the public in
the most attractive form; they can
judge of its comparative value and the
amount of space it should be given in
a newspaper; they can edit their own
copy if necessary; they know something
about composing-room, and can dis
tinguish between form and piece of
type; they have learned why it is not a
sheer waste of material to write on but
one side of their paper; they know that
q newspaper Office is not drawing
room, and that they can not expect
drawing-room manners in it; they have
learned that the highest compliment an
editor can pay his woman associate is
promptly reprimanding her for a blum
der and giving her word of praise for
good work-if he happens to think of
It,
Last and most important point of all,
these women earn their living with
their pens. This is the crucial test.
Luck. pluck and influence may keep
one afoat for few months, but the ed
itors of to-day are not knowingly buy
ing bad copy. If one particular editor
is disposed to overlook the charming
Miss Blanks little errors of fact and
grammar, the copy-readers, the associ-
ate editors and the great power behind
the throne will soon throw search
light upon them which can have but
one result. Miss Blanks work must
stand on its merits. In no other pro-
fession does she have so many and such
merciless critics.
All this, of course, applies to woman
as reporter, the field in which she is
most prominent, and in which man has,
as usual, an advantage over her. Many
men who can not write are making
good livings on the daily newspapers.
Perhaps they are able and willing to
work twenty hours out of twentyfour,
an excellent qualification; perhaps they
have sources of information which 9th
ers lack; perhaps they are ''men of
IDEAS" or "have the news instinct"
which scents story long before it lifts
its head in the path of the average re-
porter. In any case they earn their
salaries, and you will see them sitting
at their desks as the seasons pass and
as the official heads around them rise
and fall. There are various reasons
why woman can not take the place
OF such man, as yet. She lacks the
training, the instinct and the strength
Perhaps too, she lacks the self-conf-
dence, although that is the journalistic
armour which, II she be wise She will
select first and wear on the outside
With self-confidence there are other
qualifications which she must possess.
That she should have a good education
and some worldly experience goes with
out saying. She will also need tact, a
cool head, clear judgment, the ability
to think and act quickly, good under
standing of human nature, and above
all, an n-and-take-another spir-
1t which no amount OF encouragement
can break.
Olive Schreiner emphasizes this point
In her study "Was 1t Rigbt-Was 1t
Wrong?' The heroine, hysterical
young woman, succeeds in making her.
self and every other character in the
tale profoundly wretched. She is
thinking of this with her lips drawn
in ut the corners" when messenger
enters and announces that she has just
ten minutes in which to finish an article
OH "The Policy of the Australian Col
Onies in Favor of Protection" "She
finished the article" ends Miss Schrei-
ner, admiringly, and the reader, while
he sympathizes deeply with the editor
who bought it, admires the authors in
sight into the exigencies of journalistic
life.