The record-union., 1897-08-08
new JOURNALISM.
WORK OF THE NEWSPAPER
WOMAN IN THAT FIELD.
Contemplate Methods to Which
She Resorts Makes Her Lose
All Finer Feelings.

/ S@AC - 4sA@tACS 4ACl AOSS
| All Finer Feelings.
Especial Correspondence of Record -Union)
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 6.-Certainly
no one has taken or is taking a more
prominent part in the so-called new
| journalism" than the modern news
paper woman. In fact in this line or
rather quality of newspaper work she
| has quite eclipsed the newspaper man
of the latter half of this decade in that
she has written the greater part of the
sensational stuff that has gone into
print and has risked life and limb in
some instances to obtain the end sought
for by her paper. namely, the getting of
data for a smashing good story"
She has climbed dizzy nights, followed
on the trails of murderers, penetrated
isolated regions, dived into dens of in
| iquity and shown herself generally to
be bright, plucky and possessed of in
domitable energy as we'll as an unusual
amount of what is known in vulgar par
lance as cheek"
The following interview with a news
paper woman of the new journalism"
| SldIllp W III DcSl SIlON " nat ACilS III
women writer's have gone and been
asked to go in order to secure notes for
| articles:
THE up-to-date newspaper woman, 3"
said She must be young, full to the
brim of energy and new and startling
/ ideas, and possess above everything else
that something which for lack of a bet
ter word we term go She must have
the happy faculty of making a good i'm
preston on sight, and, too, of making
| friends easily.
''She must have tact. She must be
vivacious, yet quiet and womanly
| enough to command the respect of at
| least the majority of those with whom
she comes in contact. She must also
have the ability to write in the bright,
catchy way so affected by the new
| journalism
''She must be strong in body, for how
else can she bear the strain of working
hard, often fifteen hours at stretch, of
doing without sufficient sleep, and of
writing we'll when tired physically.
Lastly, yet perhaps first in Importance,
| she must be daring enough to accept
any detail assigned her and carry it
| through notwithstanding the fact that
it may humiliate her beyond words to
do so. And this is perhaps a fair sketch
| of the woman of the new journalism
| OF the ethical side of the question l will
| speak later.
| Whether she be a special writer or
a regular reporter her duties will be
much the same. In either case she will
be sent into unpleasant places and
asked to do things that are extremely
difficult
mot long since I was called into the
city EDITORS office and asked to go at
once and interview a young man and
his aged mother who had lost the father
and husband through a most unfortun
ate circumstance only two days before
II boarded a car and rode to their
home. As I mounted the steps my con-
| science smote me for there was still
about the house that air of sorrow and
desolateness which hovers over a home
under the shadow of bereavement.
Il felt of course that l was taking an
unwarranted liberty in even calling in
the capacity of a newspaper woman
to say nothing of plying the recently be-
| reaved wife with questions whose an
swers the world had no right to know.
! felt that I was treading on sacred
ground, but l was powerless to stop.
My paper wanted that story and it fol-
lowed without saying that my paper
must have it, for by printing it the sales
of that particular issue would be aug
mented considerably and the manage
nent be better off to the extent of a few
hundred nickels. 1t mattered not that
thereby one tender heart be grieved.
Shilling the command of my con-
science to go back to the city editor and
tell him then and there that l could
not and would not get that story, I sat
down in the little front parlor where
| only two days. before the husband had
| lain in his last sleep, and asked the
| impudent prying questions I was told to
ask.
Perhaps thinking that it would be
better to treat me as well as possible
rather than to risk making me angry
and giving me the opportunity of writ
ing what 1 pleased, and 1 would natur-
ally take the opportunity of writing un-
pleasant things in that case-the sor-
rowing wife told me the story L had
come to hear
'She treated me with the utmost
courtesy and consideration. In that
brief hour l spent with her I learned to
admire and respect her profoundly. 1
felt that l could not go away and write
| lightly of her grief and life and have the
story Haunted beneath scare head lines
to the scandal-loving public.
yet that very night / was forced
to cast aside any delicate feeling
might have and write the story not as
! it really was. mind you, but by leaving
some truths out and by putting few
| false differences in, make of it what is
known in newspaper offices as a good
story.
What the feelings were of that sweet
old lady when she read the article 1
wrote about her I have never dared ask
myself. And I should not like to meet
| her again.
II was told to join with another news
paper woman in a scheme to get our
selves arrested, carried through the
| streets exposed to the admiring gaze
| of the public, and after having gone
through with the experience that would
naturally follow that Of spending
night in a cell and a morning before
| Judge, write up the whole affair and
| if possible expose any shortcomings in
either the officers on duty or the prison
officials