The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-06-17
Journalism AS a
Trade for Women
The Difficulties and Disbursements of
the Beginner.
The Difficulties



< an newspaper writer? and without
) meaning to fall in with those who warn
5 away from their own profession,
3 would say it depends on the girl
' The men in either professionals ii
be said to their credit-do al they can
do protect the girls who are associated
with them. 1t is the outside Influences
J which work the harm. And worst of
, all is the scandal arising from late
hours Provincias refuse to believe
B that a girl in a theatrical company or
) on morning newspaper must work so
( late.
I She certainly could come home ear
lier if she wished" was. said of the
writer so repeatedly that it's meanness
Z came to have no effect.
I'll bet she stops downtown TO have
{ something to eat?" was another in
situation meant to carry with it a word
of condemnation. And why not? The
newspaper woman who boards has got
to get a supper before she goes to her
by abode. What landlady who ever
breathed would put cold luncheon
, aside for her. And after working
} steadily from evening dinner. at $50
until midnight, the body is so weaken
ment would mean an impossible head
ache next day.
A MILD SORT OF BOHEMIAN.
So. in a way, the newspaper woman
must become sort OF mild Bohemian.
She seeks the 'all night lunchrooms
where nothing strong-not even the
coffee-is sold, and where the respect
ability is oppressive even though the
ia o1Nc ion, IF rifNf,,
warnings to watch your coat and hat
reveal the presence of widely contrast
ed grades of humanity. With her are
usually one or two other women work
ers, from her own some neighboring
morning sheets, or, mayhap, few men
of the staff whom she knows in an
impersonal way thoroughly incompre-
hensible to women outside her realm.
That she discusses only matters of a
newsy nature with them, that she has
seen them on reeking hot summer
nights (of the sort Kipling has made
immortal in his story of THE Man
Who Would Be King'D, collarless and
with coats and vests discarded: that
they have. seen her with dank, stray
Cling hair and dark-circled, weary.
eyes with sleeves rolled I'D and not
even handkerchief about her throa-.
until all thought of difference in sex
has given place to the good fellowship
and innate courtesy which marks as
ISOLATION in the arts, truths which
the lay public may not grasp.
SHE MUST UNDERSTAND.
And. not infreouently, the girl fails
to grasp them herself In such case
success VIII always pass by her on the
other side. The way of the press is
strewn with the bones of those who
have not understood. The woman
meaning to adopt journalism must
know herself
Is she taking it up as a pastime until
she can marry and leave it? All right.
then. for marriage is the aim and end
of every normal woman. But she must
be earnest, even in her play, and give
to it the best there is in her. To put
: individuality into the most wornout
! theme to write when she is tired
that sleep seems a milIionaire's luxury
to know when to stop writing and how
to say differently what others were
SAYING when she was yet unborn. are
the qualifications which mark the fit
test - survive.
She must realize that she cannot
serve the two masters of social obliga-
ton and journalism. Each demands
everything. And those who treat news
paper work honestly find themselves
rapidly becoming alien to the friends,
and relatives who have always SEEM
ed congenial.
az can't find anything to talk about
when 1 go home" a young woman
writer said to- me. land nobody is in
terested in what I am"
Shop-talk filters through her speech,
the days work are being distributed
by an office boy under the direction of
the city editor becomes the most inter
esting of the day. Only she must re-
member that to the men she is just
a fellow worker. She must resolve to
be fair toward men working against
her for other papers, and she must
never put forth the plea of her wom- /,
anhood to obtain a special favor from 7
the public. She has elected to do
mans work and she must do it like
man.
THE BEGINNING OF HER TRIALS.
Having assfmflated ali this. then, the
maiden who is wise will get letter of
from somebody worth d
while and go down town 70 present it p
to the editor IF she is especially wise a
she has this. letter written to the
or city editor and not to the o
proprietor Of the publication. There 4
is the same subtle distinction between s.
him and the editors as there is between
the leading man of a theatrical COM e.
Dany and the manager out front. The e.
latter is not a professional The s.
owners work is a pursuit, not pro-
'ession. and TO be brought forth by him III
g TO arouse an antagOnism among the C:
men lower down. which is conquered e;
,nly after months of honest endeavor.
The city editor viii be busy. He al dl
ways is when anybody calls. So the ol
-oung woman will sit down and twid- h;
lie her thumbs and wonder if the jani-
or is i'll. because the place is in such bt
terribly dirty condition. She never in
reams that some day she will get to II
owe its very cObwebs. d.
Men in their shirt sleeves. with pipes