The record-union., 1897-08-08

results disastrous to myself I simply
faxed the story which was in conse-
quence poor and fiat and showed upon
its very face is untruthfulness.
However a little practice enabled me
to write a falsehood with comparative
ease. OF course it was only a question
of time before l was able to give a
fake story a cloak of truth and then [
began to be of more value to my paper.
Still another time | was sent to
interview a score of men prominent in
business, politics and church on Why
They Married. In no case did they re-
fuse to see me, but many of them by
their conversation, of their manner,
showed me how disgusted they were
with my papers method of working up
silly and sensational subjects and not
few expressed themselves quite
strongly.
Did they refuse to say anything
on the subject l suggested to them
Not at all. They were afraid 1 would
fake an interview that would subject
them to ridicule, and consequently they
gave me one. But of course none of
them gave me their true reasons on
the subject, and if there were no true
reasons given what value had the ar
tfcle?
1T is of no use to suggest a story
in new journalism that is not SEN
sational You viii be told for your
pains that the paper is not pandering
to the best thinkers, to literary people,
or those of refinement and culture but
instead to the loafer on the street cor
10 o1 nf hot II
in factories, or to the frequenters of
saloons.
"All these experiences have their eff
feet, of course, upon the morals of the
newspaper woman who undergoes them.
And it is a bad one. She learns to be
hypercritical-and you have only to
examine the productions of some of the
woman writers of sensational stuff to
ascertain this for yourself. She loses
her finer feelings. Her conscience be-
comes dulled. Things that have shock
ed her cease to do so.
''She finds that she can now enter
places that she once felt were con-
taminating without feeling SO any more.
She also finds that she can talk to peo-
pie with ease whose mere presence
would once have seemed pollution to
her. She can chat for an hour with a
murderer whose hands are crimson, and
whose heart is black and whose
thoughts of her while she is interview
ing him would sicken her, calloused
though she may be, could she but read
them
''She gets cynical and loses the pow
er to write in loving way from a
loving heart. Consequently, she has
ceased to be a lovable woman. She has
lost what> she can never. regain And
what rs more deplorable STILL she does
not realize the fact.
This may not apply in one or two
cases among the women now employed
in new journalism There are excep-
tions to be sure to all rules. And there
are women who can retain their wo-
manliness and still go through the mire.
But from the very fact that women
are more sensitive than men to all in
fluences, both good and bad, it must
necessarily follow that the exceptions
in this line of work are exceptional, in
deed.
"The evil effect of this sensational
work upon a young woman who has
seen little of the world, and much of
home life cannot be called into QueS-
ton at aid. She may deceive herself
for time, as she win try to do, by
telling herself that, yes, she knows more
of the world than is absolutely neces-
sary, and she has done some things that
perhaps it would have been better not
to do, she has acted in bad faith, and
has gained lot of publicity that would
not be fattering to any woman, but
she is no worse-she has not suffered
morally by il.
"She may tell herself all these things.
say, but there viii come a day when
she will look back and see her mis-
take; see tender consideration for 9th
ers, fineness of feeling, and truth if
not honor lying dead along the path
of new journalism that she has just
trod'' E. A.