Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1905-05-05
A NEWSP APER WOMAN
AS A RULE FINDS JOURNALISM
A DESIRABLE PROFESSION.
As a Reporter Her Dress Should Not
Be Mannish-No Long Novitiate
Required of the Clever Girl-A
Country Newspaper the Best Of
Training Schools.
BY MARGARET E. sANGsTER


Copyright, 1905, by Joseph B. Bowles)
A new profession has opened inviting
ly before ambitious girls, who do not
wish to be tied fast to the schoolroom,
or obliged to earn their living in any of
the old peculiarly feminine ways.
Thousands of girls find occupation still
in what may be called womanly handi-
crafts of one or another variety, but
there are girls who do not wish to cook,
to sew, to embroider, to design fashions,
or make pictures, and to them journal
ism is especially tempting.
What are the real needs of the news
paper woman? How is she to fit herself
for her work? Where shall she find an
open door? What price shall she pay for
her technique? AS compared with music
or medicine or illustrative art, how long
a novitiate must she serve before she
can reach an enviable position? What
is the limit of advancement to which she
may aspire? These questions are per-
| tnent. They are asked by city girls and
| country girls, by girls on the farm and
girls who have grown up in thriving
communities where nine women out OF
ten expect to be self-supporting.
In the first place, the girl who would
become newspaper woman must not
be afraid of hard work. She must pos
sess good health, good temper and good
spirits In beginning, her foot will be
on the lowest round Of the ladder. II
accepted as a reporter her hours will be
irregular, and her pay at first will be
small. She will probably write at space
rates, and these are regulated by the
locality and the paper on which she is
employed.
| might say, too, that ability to write
is essential, and that she who can see
quickly what is interesting about her
who can describe it accurately, with a
piquant flavor or a dash of humor, and
above all she who can write good, brief
telling paragraphs, will find herself
among the wanted.
A trustworthy memory is indispens
able, and as well good manners are never
thrown away, cince they give a woman
access and ingress where otherwise she
would be denied. Because the hours are
long and irregular, and because a WON
an must have courage enough to &c
wherever she is sent, health, repeat, is
requisite. The newspaper woman asks
nothing by way of special courtesy fol
her sex, though she need fear no rude
ness on the part of editors or fellow re-
porters, men in newspaper work beinG
almost uniformly courteous and consid
crate in their treatment of the womer
who serve on the staff with them.
woman reporter must be imper
sonal. Her dress should by no means b.
mannish, but it should be trim, neat anC
unobtrusive. In the streets of a grea
city she is safe by night or by day, quite
as safe in the hours between m!dnigh
and dawn as at high noon, if she simpl!
goes about her work without !;
OF insult
A prominent newspaper woman ha
said: Men like womanly women, Blu
still they don't want any clinging-vin
business about newspaper office. |
woman will only be natural and U.s.
common sense, she will get along al
right, but if she does otherwise, she ma.
complain as some would-be newspape
women do, that newspaper men trea
them badly"