The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-03-11
THE FAIR SEX
 IN JOURNALISM

There are still to be found oId-fash- toned folk who insist that women have no place in journalism, unless it be
 as menial 1aborerS in the circulation and business departments. The bril- liant intellect and far-seeing vision of
 man, these fogies insist, should pre-
 side exclusively over every branch of the editorial department, although a
 few might admit the usefulness of a. representative of the fair sex in edit ing the woman's page and the society columns. The woman in the news de-
 partment according to these conser- vatives, is an offense to decency.
 In spite of such opposition, or per haps partially because of it, the fem mine Journalist is here, and here to
 stay. There are thousands of her in American newspaper offices, and in
 England and France the crumbling walls of opposition are breaking down before her onslaughts.
 Really, there is nothing remarkably new and novel in this fact. While the past, they have been influential.
 The first daily newspaper in the Eng fish tongue, the London Courant, was established by a woman just IA years
 ago today, March Il, 1702. All honor
 to Elizabeth Ma11et, who concealed her
 'fE. Ma11et," and taught slow and plod- ding man that the day of daily jour
 nalism had arrived Since her bril-
 liant work as a pioneer the world has
 never been without daily journals, and
 perhaps never will be again. It is true
 that she soon resigned from her edi-
 toria1 duties and gave over the con-
 duct of the Courant to a mere man,
 but not until she had b1azed the path for masculine Journalists to follow.
 On this side of the Atlantic it was Annie Royall who, in the early days of
 kI-- H.
 stone in the history of journalism. President Adams had consistently re- fused to be interviewed on subject then attracting much attention. An rie succeeded where mere man had failed by the simple expedient of trail ing the President to a swimming pool and hiding his clothes until he "came across with the desired interview. If that did not make Annie the mother of modern newspaper enterprise of the peculiarly American variety some times called yellow" we should like to know what she could have done to deserve the honor.
 In spite of such conspicuous exam pies of feminine possessors of the nose for news in the early days of American journalism, it was not until after the civil war that the fair sex played any important part in the mak-t 1 ing of a newspaper. Mrs. Sara Josepha Hale founded the first magazine for women, the Ladies' Magazine of Bos-,I ton, in 1927, and thus opened a new field in which many men, still playing the role of humble followers, have 1 made fortunes. The success of such | periodicals led newspaper publishers | to start departments devoted to the | interests of women. It was popularly | supposed that these pages were pre- l sided over by whiskered men who i smoked corncob pipes and used awful language, but, while this may have l been true in isolated instances, for the l most part women were engaged as conductors of such columns.
 The woman's page was the opening l wedge for the feminine journalist. | Soon she was asserting her right to write editorials and cover murder 1 trials we'll as pink teas Winifred | Black. originally best known under her pen name of Annie Laurie," was | perhaps the pioneer ttsob sister, but i she has had host of followers. In l her long career she has written of 1 society, the drama, pugilism, police 1
 stuff. and, in fact, every known | variety of news, and has Lad time to l bring up ''by hand three children two boys and a girl. And there are l many like her in American newspa pers | who know life at it's worst, 1 live it at it's noblest, and are as devot- ! ed as any man to the newspaper i game"