The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-01

his own country; secondly, with the
! history of his own state and city;
thirdly, with the history of England
and, fourthly, with a general knowl-
edge of the present condition of the
leading European nations, enough to
enable him to feel that he is informed
correctly as to their relative popula-
! ton, wealth and resources, and the
| general drift of their present policies
in relation to other countries, and par
ticularly in relation to our own. Twelve
months of close reading, giving to it
from three to four hours a day. max
ing notes of the main points as he goes,
will be well given to this preparatory
work
This is scientific age, and he should
study the popular sciences sufficiently
to. enable him to write an intelligent
account of a new electrical machine, or
new locomotive. If he aims to be-
come an editorial writer, then all
knowledge in his proper province. and
he should never consider his education
finished, but should read omniverously.
1t is true of newspapers, as of every
thing else, that what man does not
know he cannot tell. and it is only the
subjects with which a man is familiar
that he can readily write about with
credit to himself or profit to his reader.
would further advise young men
who aim at success in the field of news
paper writing to master the useful,
though somewhat difficult, art of short
hand writing. There is no occupa ton
of our day in which the ability to
rapidly taking down the exact words of
a speaker is more valuable. ! do not
mean by this that it is at all essential
for newspaper writer or editor to be
a verbatim stenographer. AS a matter
of fact, there is very little verbatim
reporting done in the daily press, but
there are one hundred and one emer-
gencleS in newspaper writer's life in
which the ability to make shorthand
notes rapidly is extremely useful. and
gives him decided advantage over the
man who has to trust either to his I'M
aided memory, or to such longhand
notes as he can hurriedly jot down. 1
might instance in this connection the
work of the interviewer who seeks out
a citizen of prominence and desires to
obtain a full expression of his views on
some important public question. He
may be able to make fair and toler-
ably accurate report of the mans re-
marks by the help of his memory
and his longhand notes only; but if he
is good shorthand writer, he can
make the interview photographically
correct. Moreover, if he is called upon
to hastily make a literal copy of some
document of which he can only have
POSSSoolOH IOI d SHUT lllIc-pOSSlDIy dI
a consulting library-it is easy to see
that he can bring his shorthand writing
into service with great effect. 1t seems
to me also that there is a large and
growing field of special newspapers
writers, in which brilliant and highly
paid work is called for, in the doing
of which a knowledge of other Ian
guages than English is indispensable. 1
would advise the ambitious young men
who is thinking that he has in him
the making of a good foreign war cor
respondent to acquire a workable
knowledge of French, Spanish and Ger
man.
Beyond these things the successful
newspaper writer needs to cultivate the
art of making friends. He must learn
most, after all, from men, not books 1t
is very important to him to gain the
confidence of public men, official and
unofficial-of all sorts of men and wo-
men who have news to give and infor-