The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-29

so many newspapers in SO many cities
OF several sizes in so many states, en-
ploying (conjecturany) SO many men and
youths OF special endowment, and paying
out presumably not more than a certain
sum in wages; and from these figures de
riVes Usually with more or less of an at
tending sigh conclusion that the aver
age newspaper writer does not get as
much by his labor as if he had been
doctor or a lawyer. The conclusion is true
enough, and the regret that attends the
contemplation of it by the persons most
concerned-namely, the newspaper writer's
is natural enough. But always in con-
sidering the subject one fact goes strange
ly unremarked-the newspaper writer is
an emp.oye. Doctors and lawyers
are heads OF a business, and their larger
rewards are due, in part, to that. The
aptest comparison in considering the re-
wards of newspaper men would be with
men in the upper grades of the railway
and telegraph service. Here are men spe-
cialiy educated and charged with impor-
tant duties, but stil employees With theirs
the reward Of the newspaper men compare
| favOrably. In other words, an employe
anywhere has to be content with an EN-
ploye's wages; and if a man wants hand
some profits he must develop the faculty
of making other people work for him. and
| avoid the Office of simply working for
| them.
The publication of a CHEAP edition of
| DIR. Nansens "Farthest North" adds
further instance of the literary profit
Of the Arctic, if one will go far enough
| into it, and then, on coming back home,
| exercise a fair amount of business
shrewdness, DR.. Nansen must have been
| handsomely paid for the brief accounts of
| his journey which he supplied to the news
| papers Immediately on his return. Then
ha he ma
| only with more fullness; and on this he re-
! ceived an unprecedented rOyalty-a sum
! that made him safely independent. The
! book written and published he mounted
| the lecture platform, and thence retailed
! anew the old story-and with a profit sur
| passing those of the book and the newspa-
| per articles. In the United States alone,
| 1t is estimated that he netted on his lee
! lures not less than $50 600. This was I'M
! doubtedly his best field; but it was not the
only one; he harvested England, and per
| haps other countries. Then he managed
! to work in on his one theme some maya
zine articles that were not stngily paid
for; one l know, brought him $1,000 1t
may be that the cheap edition of his book
| does not add anything to his returns that
| the good round sum first paid down COW
| cred the rights of this as we'll as those
| of the earlier edition. But however that
may be, the public will still be paying
| Il
| great story, no one can, or s.-c''ld want
to, deny it; but really it does seem as if
the thrift with which it has been employed
| by the hero to purely commercial ends was
a little excessive-that is, for pure man
of science.
] heard the other day a rather charm
ing story of Lowell and Howels. When
| HOwells was an aspiring young poet,
toiling for the Indispensable daily bread
| as telegraph, literary and several other
| editors on the Ohio State Journal, at
| Columbus, he modestly forwarded, as
| time and inspiration permitted, pieces
| of his verse to the editor of the Atlantic
| Monthly, who was at that time James
! Russell Lowell. A number of the sub
| missions were accepted and published in
! the magazine; others were returned as
| unavailable. There was living in close
| friendship with HOwells at Columbus at
this time a fellow printer and journalist,
| and also a fellowpOet, John James
| Piatt. He, too, had had occasional poems
| published in the Atlantic. Encouraged by
| this much acceptance, the young men
| Joined in a collection of their poems and
| published 1t in the little book mentioned
| in most OF the biographies of HOwells'
entitled Poems Of Two Friends" In cue
time the book came under review in he
| critical department of the Atlantic, and
the reviewer quoted in full, with special
commenda ton, sone Of the poems by How
| ellis that the editor of the Atlantic some
time before had returned as not avail
able for his pages.
AS time went on Mr.. Howells came to
know Mr.. Lowell pretty well, and one
day he ventured to relate the incident
of the rejected poem and pleasantly &C.
sired an explanation. Lowell smiled in
| his fine. humorous, gentle way and said
well, he did not remember then how the
poem came to be rejected; but he did re-
| member that when he read it in the book
1t made him cry; SO he was sure his last
Judgment of it was the correct one.
e. c. Martin.