Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1905-05-10
WOMAN.
AS. q RULE FINDS JOURNALISM
2. DESIRABLE PROFESSION. e


BY MARGARE:T II; SANGSTER. 4
Copyright, 1906, by Joseph B. Bowles.)
A new profession has opened inviting
" 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,
ISM is especially tempting.
What are the real needs of the news
paper woman? How is she to At herself
for her work? Where shall she find an
open door? What price shall she pay for
her techniQue?. Ascompared withmusic
or medicine or illustrative art, how long
. novitiate must she serve before she
can reach an enyiable position? What
is the limit of advancementto which she
may aspire? These questions are per-
tinent. 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 a. 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. If
accepted as 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.
I 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
eiquant flavor or 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 we'll good manners are never
thrown away, since they give woman
access and ingress where otherwise she
would be denied. Because the hours are
long and Irregular, and because wom-
an must have courage enough to 60
wherever she is sent, health, repeat, is
q requisite. The newspaper woman asks
nothing by way of special courtesy for
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 women
who serve on the staff with them.
A woman reporter must be imper-
sonal. Her dress should by no means be
mannish, but it should be trim, neat and
unObtrusive. In the streets of a great
city she is safe by night or by day, quite
as safe in the hours between midnight
and dawn as at high noon, II she simply
goes about her work ,: without a
thought OF herself or the anticipation
of insult.
A prominent newspaper woman has
said: Men like womanly women, but
still they don't want any clinging-vine
0>oAAASs'o "OOue q AV"oVaQCA Ou4CSs IL
woman will only, be natural and use
common sense, she will get along all
right, but If she does otherwise, she may
complain as some would-be newspaper
women do, that newspaper men treat
them badly"
Just as a soldier is obliged to obey or
ders, SO the successful newspaper wom-
an must be willing to do what she is told
so where she is sent, brave all kinds of
weather, and make light of every trifling
Inconvenience. BY way of preparation,
she will need good common school
education, the ability to write legible
hand, to .punctuate properly, to spell
correctly, and to express herself in
good English. j.. This last is absolutely
imperative. Do not for a moment under
rate English grammar and good spell
ing, if you aspire to earning living as
newspaper woman.
The price to be paid for place at the
top in this profession, as in any other,
is the price of personal conservation.