Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-08-02
FIRST STEP IS
VERY HARDEST
'"Have You Had Any Expert
ence" Cause of Much
Misery
By BEATRICE FAIRFAX

Who has not faced the unanswera-
Bile misery of being forced to admit
that experience is the very thing he
wants to gain and that this is his
first application for a job!
Recently one of my correspondents.
woman who had studied nursing and
who had for five years kept up her
own home, applied for a position as
chambermaid in a hotel. She was
asked if she had ever done the work
for which she was applying and she
had to confess that this was her first
effort "Oh, we can't employ mex
perienced women" was her dismissal.
The young actress striving for her
first hearing, the unknown writer,
VINO wants a staff position in some
syndicate where experience can be
gotten, the young doctor waiting for
his first patient, the lawyer eagerly
anxious to prove himself by serving
his clients well-an of them know the
agony of being scorned and passed by
because they have had mo expert
ence."
Life itself is a laboratory in which
we test out practically the theories
we have learned in our textbooks.
How trite it is to say that there has
to be a first time for everybody!
How almost equally trite 1t is to say
that perhaps our eagerness to do well
will make us measure more carefully
and plan more exactly the first time
than after the much vaunted expert
ence has made us carelessly ready to
take for granted our ability to do
the job.
One Experience
Recently one of the highest priced
writers in America settled a bet by
sending a story of his to a magazine
which had handled quantities of his
stuff" Instead of signing his name,
something as unknown as John Jones
was appended; and the man who gets
two thousand dollars for a story got
rejection slip! The idea of the
magazine to which he sent his story
was clearly. None but authors who
have proven themselves need apply!"
The authors friends are still trying
to decide whether his stuff was so
poor that nothing but his well-known
name could have swung it, or whether
the unknown name failed to secure a
reading!
Most of us pick up magazines on
the newsstands and scan them hastily
for the names of writers who have
given us interesting half-hours in the
past. All of life is like that. After
you have proven yourself. every one
agrees that you were always worth
your chance Cor confides that it is a
mystery how you ever got it). The
point is that you want your chance
before you get it!
few months ago a girl came to
me in bitterness and desperation. She
had gone to dramatic agency to
apply for a part. The agent gave her
a bit of verse to read and was so
pleased with the girls rendition Of
the poem that a chance to run over
a part which was right there in the
office was given her. That too. was
satisfactory. Then the agent turned
to her and asked Alice what expert
ence she had had. The girl had to
confess that she had none.
We'll, you are very clever; go and
get years experience and come back
TO me and will be glad to place you"
And Alice sobbed out wearily the
tale of how almost a dozen offices had
said the same thing to her.
How is any one of us going to take
the first step If all the rest of us
stand blocking the way and say that
directly we have taken that step we
are to be worth considering?
An Explanation
Why aren't all of us a little bet
ter sports about beginners? Why
don't we have a feeling of adventure
at the thought of discovering some
body new and worth while? Why
don't we remember our own pitiful,
trembling, long-deferred beginnings?
Are we afraid of youth-afraid it will
wrest our laurels from us?
A friend of mine, who is the editor
of a syndicate, offers a very sane eX-
PLANTATION of why it is so difficult to
take "a first step" IF I come down
in the morning and find that my read
er has put twenty manuscripts on my
desk and l realize that it is going to
take me six hours to go all through
those manuscripts and that 1 have
already six hours work scheduled for
an eight-hour day, what do 1 do
what must L do?
Il glance at the names on the title
pages. There are three or four there
which mean something to me.
know those people; they turn out
good stuff have to have three or
four stories right away, and so l read
what l can count on. If 1 still find
myself in need of another story 1
glance over the things submitted by
the unknowns. a good first para
graph, a clever title, a brisk conclu-
sion-any of these may take my eye.
But about the only chance the un-
known has is for the known to fail
mel"
All of us are a little too busy to
do much investigating-too busy, too
selfish or too lazy. We like what we
can count on; it is easier to use that
than to search for something else.
But we are miserably selfish and un-
fair and forgetful of our own begin
nings when we refuse to try to help
other people make their beginning.