University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1908-10-06

A prime qualification for success i
any art, trade, or profession is the Low
of it, though love alone will by no mean
bring success in it; the love must b
reciprOcal-that is, the vocation mus
desire its follower, for reasons whicl
there is no finding out and which mus
remain as much mystery to him as t.
any of his witnesses. "She was love
worthy" says Heine, in treating of
more passiOnal case. land he loved her
but he was not Noteworthy, and sh'
loved him not" The fond youth. univer
sally bred or self made, may have evel
so great desire for journalism. but jour
nalism will have no desire for him, unless
he has the peculiar charm for it which
commands affection in all cases. HI
can only prove the fact by trying, and
by longing to try with a longing that
excludes the hope of every other reward
beside the favor of the art he wishes to
espouse. Richs, fame, power may be
in the event, but they are not to be in
the quest. The wish to succeed in it for
its own sake must be his first motive.
and the sense of success in it must be
his first reward: those other things must
be left to add themselves, without his
striving for them. So far as he strives
for them, they will alloy and dilute his
journalistic success.
If We were paraphrasing Mr.. Harvey
again, without reinforcing his meaning,
it cannot be helped, for he has so fully
covered the ground; but if it could be
helped, the pleasure of finding our
selves in accord with a practiced and
practical journalist in an ideal of the
art. or trade, or profession, might well
tempt a more succinct and suggestive
to mere eXpatiatiOn. If
more original is latent in our
gloss, it must appear from the wish to
recognize that charm in the calling, which
it seems to us is peculiarly potent, and
which makes itself felt on every level of
journalism.
The Lure of Journalism.
The poor space rater. the powerless
slave of assignment, the lowly inter-
viewer. will feel it as keenly as the
proudest writer of leaders, the freest
special correspondent, the managing
editor. or that yet more supernal au-
.hOrity. the editor himself, whose dig
lity no qualification could enhance. Pos
'ibly the soldiers in the ranks are more
subject to this nameless, this well-nigh
ndefinable allure than their superiors,
or their zeal is apparently in proportion
o the degree of their subOrdination.
There love of their newspaper, their de-
.Otion to it's service. their pride in its
epute. and their willingness to sacrifice
themselves for its success. is something |
S battling to the alien as an English
mans loyalty to his King, and is as
'holly unrhymed and unreasoned to
themselves. No doubt their passion is in
to their innate fitness for
heir work. but there are many jour
alists of every grade who would all but
lie for their paper, and are yet not
cry good. or not the best editors, man
ging editors, leader-writers, special
space-raters, assignment
len. or interviewers. These are willing
!, spend years. or whole lives. in the en-
pavOr to be better in their kind, and
re humbly glad to any improvement,
lOugh they are conscious that it still |
aves them fatally below the best. 1t
the sort of thing that we see in
-ery craft and calling, and which fills
lem all with fair to middling, essen
ally secondrat doctors, lawyers,
'eachers, painters, actors, tailors, shoe
akers, and what not.
If we attempted to tell what the
arm of journalism is, we should per-
lps have to say that it is the sense !,
being at the centre of things, of be-
g in the secret of the world, in the
nfidence of life. If some persistent
quirer demanded what we meant by
is. we should, no doubt, shirk direct 7
ply, and should try to put him off
th still obscurer generalities. Yet We
lieve there is meaning in our words,
d that the reader, if he considers them t
IL, will perceive that they imply that C
tentiality of prophecy which is the t
ost flattering of all its possibilities to a
e human soul. {
The journalist stands nearest the uni il