The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-07-13

JectlVe as she would the plague. (This
is good corning from an S. r. who uses
more adjectives than all the other
| newspaper writers in Kansas put to-
gether, but nevertheless 1t is sound ad-
vice.. If your city editor allows you
to make your department spicy, gos-
sipy and unconventional and you care
for that sort of thing, you can give it
some variety. If it is not carried to
en- extreme personal journalism may
safely relieve the monotony of the So
clety column both for the S. r. and
her readers. People may say what they
please, there is no question that such
column, dealing in all sorts of trivial
iy interesting, bat not necessarily scam
dalous gossip about we'll known people,
is more widely read than the conven-
tioEa1 routine reports of the average So
ciety column. 1t allows the S. r. to
exercise her own Individuality and it
greatly increases her opportunities If
she has the true newspaper instinct it
makes her work much more interesting
to her. Usually, however, the S. R.
who shows individuality and cleverness
even under the deadly restrictions and
Limitations of the society column will
be promptly graduated from that line of
work to a higher and wiser field and
her talents will be put to use on spec
ial assignments, human interest stories
and the like. The city editor thinks
so little of the society column that he
is coIltented with cut and dried ac-
count of the happenings which are
S. r. takes enough pride in her de-
partment to try to make it creditabl
different. there is constant conflict
between them for the disposal of her
best gossip. The city editor wants to
make special stories with top heads of
anything out Of the ordinary which she
has written and usually she is so flat
tered by this honor that she willingly
aecedes. In which case her depart
ment loses the individuality it might
otherwise have had and her best eff
forts are swallowed up by the regular
news columns of the paper. 1t is all
right for the S, r. personally but of
flcially it seals her doom. The gain of
the rest of the paper is her depart
ment's loss.
Gets Credit for Her Work.
The one supreme advantage which the
S. r. has over the other reporters who
snub her and make fun of shel" stuff and
call it silly rot with her laughing ac-
quiescence, is that she. has a depart
ment, such as it is, of her own, and if
she is allowed to exercise any ind1vIdu-
atty in it she gets almost as much
personal credit for her work as if it
were signed. The other reporters may
do good work and yet their identity
is entirely lost in that of the newspa-
per. Only a few people who read their
stuff will know of the personal exist
ence of the writer's. But the S. r. re-
tains a sort of professional identity.
This is largely because she gets her
news from SO many sources and mas TO
come into personal contact with SO
many people in gathering it, also be-
cause all that she writes is published
under one department or head. The
rule works both ways, though. If she
gets credit for her ten-strikes she also
has to bear personally, the consequent
ces of her mistakes. When another re-
porter writes a story that displeases a
reader the latter telephones the city
editor. The reporter is usually out or
has aroused not against himself. per
sonally@5ecause the people he ofends
do rot know of his Rersepal exlstence-a
but against the newspaper and its ed
are. offended at. the S. r. they are Of
fendd at definite, tangible, unmlstak-
able person. They know who has writ
ten the thing that aroused their ire
and they hold her, not the newspaper,
or the =mana cement thereof RESPONSE
BILE. The city editor rarely hears from
thelS S. RS mistakes, except through the
SIR because 1.-The irates ones call her
UP personally or come to see her ana
tell her to. her face what they think OF
her. - - znEv- .srs-<e
1t is strange, when you consider that
the S. r strives constantly to please,
how angry she makes people and on,
to her thinking, what trivial occasions.
One woman hates the S. r. because
her name is in the paper all the time;
another is furious because hers is not.
one telephones TO ASK that IGI IldilC
be omitted from the list of Those
Present; another wants. to know why
hers was left out This woman thinks
it is nice note if she can't have in
three friends to play bridge without
the S. r. putting it in the paper that
neighbor across the street stops at the
office to tell the S. r. what
she thinks of her. Mrs Blank across
the street had three guests and it was
ierI7+ h che 70
an afternoon bridge. But I, who gave
a Large and Really Elegant euchre
last week. was never mentioned"
Spells Her Disposition.
However, if people hate the S. r.
the feeling is frequently mutual. In
deed the worst feature of her position |
is the effect it has upon her dispo- |
sition. Among her pet diversions is the
pious church women who entertaind
in Lent and then make it unpleasant
for the S. r. because she innocently
publishes accounts of their parties. An
5. r. once asked woman about a |
dinner she was to give. Heavens
shrieked the woman II wouldn't |
have that in the paper for Anything!
Don't YOU know I'm keeping Lent?''
80, mammal" exclaimed her daugh-
.er I'm disgust what difference does
t make? As long as God knows it any
way, why are you so afraid of the
%
The people who want to work the
j. r. for free advertising-the people
who bubble and fuss and waste her
ime; the piano teachers who expect
1er to print long programs of students
-ecitals; the women who, telephone to
isk her to put an advertisement for
,ook in the want column; the women
who ask her to advertise their church
1azaars in her department, although
The has explained to them time and
again that such items must be arrang
d for at the business office; the ones
Who think she ought to know adver-
Using rates; the ones who, when she
lsks them if they know anything, ans
yer facetiousIy: well, it's raining.
You might put that in the paper
ind laugh in an asinine manner as if
heir hrornidiom We're the very es-l