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

she ought to specialize on English his
tory, sociology and political economy
The girl afterwards got a position as
an s. r. and has continued in this
work ever since.
She has never made any use in hei
newspaper work of her special train
ing and about all the help her college
career was to her as S. R. was te
give her points about the Greek letter
fraternities- But this is no Argument
against the special studying you are
doing or the special training you are
receiving As you don't expect if you
do society reporting at all to stick to
it forever, you Will doubtless make
practical use of your education in the
newspaper field some time and in any
case it will be a great day for the city
editors when they can pick up readily
from the college departments of jour
nalism reporters who. even though in
experienced, can write a simple, direct
dramatically and HISTORICALLY correct
English sentence. This, nowadays, you
have doubtless noticed. many alleged
newspaper writers can not do. But
the graduates of a school of journal
ism will certainly be equal to it and
this paper presupposes that. its n.y.
pothetical S. r. has that fundamental
qualification.
1t is not likely that many. if any,
of you young men will ever have to
serve in the capacity of society re-
porter. but it won't do you any harm
to hear something of the trials and
difficulties of their position. 1t may
make you more considerable of s r. s
with whom you come in contact-less
contemptuous of their position, more
polite about sharpening their lead
pencils putting new ribbons on their
typewriters, lending them your UNI
breIIas and asking them out to lunch
con.
Trials of a Society Reporter.
20 IA limo for Granted the g
r. is a fairly we'll informed young wo-
man who takes an interest in her work
and has had some training for her po-
sition the first essential to her success
is a wide acquaintance among the
families whose comings and goings it
will be her responsibility to chronicle.
This may seem discourag ing to the
girl who expects to go to a new town
or city to begin her newspaper career,
but if she has the happy faculty of
making friends easily, gets on well
with new people, and has the social
instinct highly developed, as the nor
NAL woman seems to have. she will
readily make an acquaintance sufff-
cient for her professional purposes.
The girl who makes a successful so
ciety reporter should not take $50
ciety' Gin the limited sense in which
the word, for want of another. must be
used in this paper) too seriously, but
she ought to be sufficiently frivolous
u
aside from their mere news value. in
the events she chronicles. This is
not absolutely necessary, to be sure,
but it will make her work that much
easier. William Allen Whites sketch
of the s. r. in his I'm Our Town." is
about the best imaginable picture of
the ideal society reporter and should
be used as a text book in every school
of journalism. The original, people
pretty generally seem to think. was
Miss Mary McCabe, once society edi-
tor of the Topeka Capital. afterwards
society reporter on the Kansas City
Star, where she met Mr.. Ralph Stout
now managing editor of the Star, to
whom she has been married for a
number of years. Mr. Whites S. r. is
and intellectually
deal. She has just the right degree of
interest in and detachment from her
xork-a good sense of values, lots of
i'm and energy. excellent judgment of
people and things. and above all the
saving sense of humor. She knows ev-
erybody in town and has each person
-ated at his or her exact value from
ler professional standpoint. X
No regular beats or assignments are
given the s. r. She gets her news
when and where she can, its sources
depending largely upon circumstances.
rhe telephone is of course her great
lid and first assistant. BY means of
t she keeps in daily touch. with every
'OCldl set III the city LII large cities
he daily newspaper usually employs a
iociety editor and one or more assist
lntS- In New York. for instance most
If the papers have two distinct society
departments under one editor. The
ocial head liners including the multi
nillionaires whose wealth has made
hem national figures and the old es-
a blished families of Manhattan Who'll
lave kept their position undisturbed
~ the encroachments of the new rich
Zeppelin fact all the people who are
prominent in a business or
/ social way to be in or on the edge
# what We call fashionable society,"
re kept in department by them
elves. In another department is the
ocfety news of humber set-good
people, no doubt, rich people frequent |
Y according to any other than a New |
{ ork standard, but not known in the |
smart sets" and not in any way no.
able This news Is usually sent in
he other is solicited. There's the DIFF i
erence. 1t is a difference which ev-
ry s. r. understands.
In smaller towns one reporter, !
Usually called the society editor. does |
III the work for this department. OF |
curse it would be out of the question |
or her tc cover a beat in person. Gen I
rally perhaps, she makes daily /
ouhd of the fashionable shopping |
districts where her chances are good /
o meet lot of women of social |
prominence who are not too busy to be |
Sked for news. The rest she does by /
telephone. Although her office does
lot hire an assistant for her she soon
cqulres large and efficient corps of I
assistants-women in
very set who know the news. and
on mind or really enjoy telling it.
.ou would be surprised how good
atured people usually are about it,
cry rarely does she find a woman
ownright rude and unreasonable
'hen she troubles her for news. Even
ne tight wads who won't tell her
ews about themselves have friends
mo are not SO particular When the /
X. has had an unpleasant expert
nee with the woman of aristocratic
retensiors who tells her haughtily
nat she hates to have her name in
ne paDer she would be something Il
lore than human if she didn't take a