Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-07-07
FAcTs(2) ON JOURNALISM.
Hints to coIIesians Who Would Adopt
Learned Profession.

A young man in North Carolina has
favored us with the following COM
munication:
'I am about to graduate from col
lege and desire to enter some learned
profession. I believe 1 have a talent
for literary composition. Do you think
that Journalism offers me good op-
portunity? Are newspaper editors
we'll paid? And how long would it
take me to advance from reporter to
editor?"
We confess that the adjective en-
ployed by our correspondent in the
second part Of his preliminary SEN
tence gives us an agreeable thrill, for
this is the first time, so far as we are
aware, that the word learned" has
ever been applied to the journalistic
vocation. We have heard it called al
most everything else, from "abhor-
red" to "zymotic," but, learned" is
new. We thank the young gentleman
OF North Carolina and pass on to his
questions.
A talent for literary composition?
Is it useful in journalism? We be-
lieve that it is. It will serve at the
start to make the aspirant's applica-
tion for a job graceful grammatical
and convincing. 1t will serve again
years after, when he retires from ac-
tive service and begins to write his
"reminiscences. And in between 1t
may prove it's utility more than once.
We have never encountered a reporter
whose literary skill was quite equal to
Walter Paters, but we have no doubt
that If such a one ever bobbed up his
talent would do him no great damage
But a good literary style is less es-
sentia' in journalism than good di-
gestion. The journalist must be able
to digest anything and nothing. He
must be able to go three days without
food and an hour without a drink. The
accidents and catastrophes which make
up the news Of the world have no
regular office hours. They happen at
any old time, day or night. When they
break loose the journalist must pro-
ceed to record them and he must stick
to the task until they are recorded
AS a result he must learn to stretch
the hiatus between lunch and dinner
until it attains the dignity Of geolog-
ical epoch. One day he dimes at 7 p.
m. and the next day he dimes the day
after. One day he Is invited to twen-
ty-two oyster roasts and is so busy
that he can't go to one Of them, and
the next day he may have little to do
and no invitations come his way.
Are newspaper editors we'll paid?
Our answer here must be both yes and
no. The average malefactor Of high
degree makes more, but the average
evangelist makes less. We have yet to
receive proof that any editor in the
United States can match the $500,0OO
per annum of John Hays Hammond,
but we know Of at least twenty who
receive $125,000 a year. In the $780,
900 class there are probably sixty or
eighty, and in the $4,000 class sever
al hundred. In the smaller cities sal
aries are somewhat lower, but we
know Of no editor who gets less than
$5O,000 a year, with board, lodging and
laundry We are speaking, of course
of editors in chief. The minor men
receive somewhat less, the average for
telegraph editors being about $500
week: for city editors, $3.50; for night
editors, $500, and for horse editors,
$3.50. Dramatic critics get $3.50 for
every performance they attend, besides
free passes, and society editors are
paid $50 a reception, with automobile
and dress suit thrown in. Poets are
paid SIS a line and editorial writer's
from SO to SIS a word.
The line Of promotion in neWspa-
per offices, from lowest to highest, Is
as follows: Dramatic critics, war cor
respondent special writer, baseball re-
porter, religious editor, editorial writ
er, copy reading, society editor, de-
tective reporter, assistant city editor,
city editor news editor, assistant man
aging editor, managing editor editor
in-chief, editor. Our correspondent
wants to know how long it will take
him to reach the top Of the ladder. The
question has interested us very much
and we have lain awake several nights
figuring upon an answer. Working 1t
out carefully after consulting more
than 1000 journalists and with the aid
Of the table Of logarithms, the United
States census reports for the period
1S2O-19OO and all available dream
books, we have settled upon 2,657,645,-
S64,S27 years. We may be wrong about
the decimals, but the 265, we are sure
Is reasonably correct-Baltimore Sun.