The times., 1898-06-05
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the town. The editor engaged her to re-
port the visit, gave her explicit directions
about sending copy, and announced in his
paper that he would have the special re-
port When the time came the copy did
not and the lady in explanation, after
ward said that she had been so knocked up
after the ceremonies were over that she
was not equal to writing, and she
thought IL would not matter" The GU
rious thing about this incident is that
the lady, with such ideas. ever got far
enough in her profession to obtain such
job at all. London newspaper editors
must be more gullible than Americans
Another thing which Mr.. Bennett says
about the woman journalist is that she
is garrulous; but he has the fairness to
add that this fault is probably due to
lack Of training. In this he is right. Few
people understand how little training the
average woman Journalist usually has.
She has commonly evolved her own sys-
tenn of writing, and gets work at last.
not because her style is really good but
because il has. on the whole. more mer-
its than faults. The unmerciful scoring
and condensing which a reporters copy"
receives is almost unknown TO the wom-
an special correspondent, who has never
been a reporter. She learns. not by be-
ing frankly criticised. but by observation
and intuition. Hence some of her vir-
Of the reporter seems not to be seriously
considered by Mr.. Bennett. so far as the
woman journalist is concerned His idea
of her path 10 fame is that she write
special correspondent articles, and learn
by experience and failure how to sue
ceed. This may be a coed plan in Eng
land, but it is not always the best plan
in America. There is experience, but no
drill in ii.
The chapter which deals with the spe-
cial article is not especially useful 10 an
American, because il is devoted to the
characteristics Of certain London news
papers, and the kind of article most ac-
ceptable TO each Still, If one can draw
shlful comparisons, one may argue that
If the London Tit-Bits will take thing
some similar newspapers in New York
would likewise take it, and so on.
The chapter on 'copy-making'' will be
interesting to the rank and file of jour
nalism, but whether il win prove useful
or not depends on the beginner. Mr.. Ben
nett takes one of the most ordinary
events Of life-getting up in the morn
ing-and submits a long list of titles of
special articles evolved from that sug-
gestion. For instance, Queer ways of
sleeping" for Tit-Bits and its class-ma-
terial at British Museum. How TO
economic space in a small bedroom" for
a woman's paper; rs breakfast in bed
enjoyable?" for the silly season. And so
on, and so on. Mr.. Bennett takes occa-
sion, by the way, in the course of this
chapter. 10 put in a very pretty little
compliment TO American newspapers He
says that New York journalists are the
cleverest in the world. and that the Eng
glish press is gradually being American
ized.
There is another chapter on how to
handle the editor. which might be amend
ed by condensing II all into one sentence:
don't try TO handle him at all
Then Mr.. Bennett devotes another
chapter or two TO the inaccuracies of
women Journalists and the very end of
his book of advice is the remark that
he believes that the majority of women
journalists regard their business as q de-
lightfu! game. and he wishes them 10 un-
derstand that it IS not However that
may be in England, il IS emphatically
not true in America. OF course, every
woman who does writing for money can
not be called a journalist any more than
every man who scribbles can be called
an author; the woman journalist proper
is the woman who supports herself by
her work. And il is safe to state that
there are very, very few women who are
earning their living in journalism in
America who regard their business a 6 in
any sense a game. They may enjoy 1t,
but if they did not know that business is
business, they would not in this country
obtain their salt by newspaper work
tNew York: John Lane. Washington:
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