The Grenada sentinel., 1907-02-02

! from the effects of this work, while
the number Of physical wrecks among
the men is wholly out of proportion.
| This, be it understood, where the
work and hours are identical.
1t sounds at first paradoxical to say
that the life of a newspaper writer
is one Of incessant repression and
continued development The tre-
mendous rush of competition, the be-
ing in active touch with the great
and small events of daily life, the
knowledge that each so engaged is in
an infinitesimal way writing history,
serves to rouse even dormant ambi-
ton.
Active daily newspaper work is a
hotbed for the development of the
best intellectual qualities. 1t is a
life of untiring perseverance, of I'M
failing patience, OF abasement of self
at times to an abnormal degree, yet
upon the whole decidedly beneficial.
Frequently it comes to pass that the
woman writer, while maintaining her
dignity of brains, must entirely oblit-
crate her individuality, unless she
means to fall by the wayside and be
laid in the potter's field of failures.
For some people she must ever be-
come a mere listening machine. Alb
sOlutely this and nothing more IL she
means to achieve success, for she
must listen to all manners Of woes
and tribulatiOns, and have positively
none Of her own to relate in ex-
change. The role Of Punchinello is
not always the easiest to enact, but
to leave it out Of the curriculum at
times very materially interferes with
achieving the desired end.
Of all arts of which she must be-
come mistress that of learning to
draw people out that their best points
may be brought into play. is the most
important. The acquisit1On of this
accomplishment has in turn its re-
fex good effect upon her work, as nine
times out of ten it will enable her
to turn an opening negative into a
closing affirmative.
The branch of newspaper work in
which women excel in Washington,
in which in fact they have the almost
exclusive field, is that of social report
ing To a greater or less degree dur
ing the last half dozen years the So
ciety reporter has come to have a
place upon the staff of nearly every
large journal in the United States
and Europe But it is in Washington
that she rises to her greatest heights
of usefulness, and, therefore, because
of the broader opportunities among
the official and political element, of
greater Importance.
In this particular phase of work,
woman's great success lies in the culti
vation of the power to keep her owA
counsel regarding much that must
be seen and heard in
the discharge Of her work. And In
this respect, scoff as unbelievers may, |
she has achieved a success. From |
the experience of years l can truth
fully assert that the woman writer's
of the daily press do not gossip even |
among themselves of the vast num- !
Der of secrets that come to their |
concerning prominent peo-
pie of the world of society in which |
their lives are spent.
At the start OF society report |
ing woman's presence on the reg |
ular stats of newspapers was re-
garded in the light of necessary evil. |
She not infrequently in masculine es- |
timation sunk far below this level, |
rarely in the eye of the general pub |
lie did she rise above it. Just why |
this should have been is enigmatical, |
as the copy" of the average woman
requires less revising |
than that of her brother of the pen.
Further, she represents a commercial
value that the man does not and in |
the nature of things cannot. Her |
value is incalculable as an advertis-
ing medium. This is something she |
comes in time to understand and ap-
preciate.
The best society column on local