The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 1, 1898, Page 20

2 = 0 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 1, 189S8. "HOW TO SUCCEED ~AS A JOURNALIST Points for young men who are anxious and ambitious to open up a career for themselves in newspaper work. By Chas. H. Taylor, Editor Boston Globe. OW: to succeed in life is a very | ities of the individual. There is no royal hard question to answer. I think that hard work has been the chief reason for success in the lives of most men -and women. - Good looks, attractive man- ners, circumstances, friends-—each or all may help in the battle of life, but earnest, honest, hard. work secures most of the results. . There may be such a thing as luck in the world, but I have noticed that as a rule the peo- ple who do the fighting, .the workers who are struggling early .and late to get ahead and make progress are those who find what luck there is. The man or woman who waits for lucg to come to him or her will sadly . disap- pointed. The best rule-for success in life that I have ever found is to do a little more than is expected of you. Whatever your position in life-may be, whether 1n an office, factory,. store »’ workshop, -under -any and all cir- cumstances, do a little more than is ex- pected of you, and you ‘will never ‘be overlooked, be the establishment large or small. It is the people who begin about noon to look at the clock and commence to feel afraid that they will t he " hed up” and. dressed and ady to rush through the door atthe ict minute the clock strikes or-the 1 rings who usually fail to win any success. In my own case I owe my entrance into journalism wholly to the fact that 1 was industrious and. willing to work, I naturally had that ambition, hence I do not state it as a quality for which I am entitled to any great credit. I was employed as a boy in an: office where I be for it, to wit. $150 a week. A schoolboy friend of mine was at work in a Boston newspaper office, he had to work through the day and four nights in the week until 10 or 11 o'clock. For his services he was re- i was always groaning because he was overworked, d 1 was complpining because I did not have enough%o do, I proposed to him that we exchange plac 1 intro- 1im_to the firm for which I worked d then went and applied for his pc and secured it. 1 was will- ing to to get on and he W not. I wor g hours then and did for afterward. or all kinds many years ess one has to pay a price equal of suc to the ult. At one time, for a period of more than flve years, I worked in my pre: ent office 0 a. m. until 11:30 p.m. without a vacation. Perhaps the reader may get an impression that I am ¢ ing home this point too strongl but it is the basis of sub- stantially all of the success which has ved by men and women in all es of life and in all positions of pow- er and influence from the beginning of the world. One the most successful men I have ever k._own won his position and a large fortune because he possessed certain qualities which would have at- tained success in an~ cupation. He possessed industry, am- bition, he was economical, he was hon- est and truthful, and he was alw; just and helpful to others. To succeed in journalism one needs about the same qualiti quired in the other prof ons, or most any kind of business. Men who are born journalists, like those who are born physicians, or poets, or preachers, or mechanics, or great traders, find it much easier to succeed than men who | have not great natural aptitude. Jour- nallsm offers three distinct careers, a lterary, a business and a mechanical. Men can be trained for either of these divisions. The measure of success which can be secured depends upon the ambi- profession or oc- | little to do, and got very little | that are re- | road to success. It is hard to tell exactly what special lines of study and investigation are re- quired for each of these divisions. Men who have natural qualities and special tastes will easily excel in that for which be; fitted. The ablest and ul men and women will out their salvation in their par- ar field. I might sum it all up by saying, as rd Kipling said the other day in reply to a question by a young author as to what he should do to succeed, “Keep on trying till you either fail or succeed.” It may be, however, that when I was asked to write this article on “How to Succeed as a Jour it was e pected that I would give some practical hints to that large c of young Americans whose ambition it.is to be- come efficient writers for the daily press, and eventually graduate to edi- | torjal positions. That is, to be sure, only one branch of journalism, but no doubt it is the one that is most at- tractive to young men just starting out in-life. To such young men, I may of- fer, perhaps; a few helpful suggestions. It requires a very broad and com- prehénsive mental taste to be an effi- cient member of a staff of newsp per writers. Men whose minds naturall tend to some one line of thought shou aveid the mewspaper because a newspaper is a kaleldoscope, in which the topics to be written about are changing every day.- To-day war is the foremost .topic, next week the Klondike will be at the front agin, and | a little. later it may.be that yachting or baseball will be the all-absorbing theme. Suddenly, in the fall, the scenes will shift, and politics will be the sta- ple news of the day. in with, a young man who pro- poses to enter the wide yet keenly competitive field of reportorial and edi- torial work for the daHy press will do well to be quite suré that he has an aptitude for such work. It is true of every profe: and trade that some men who a it are peculiarly well- fitted for i while others are not quite so well fitted, and still others are not fitted at.all. There is doubtless a place for every willing and capable man somewhere in the busy world, but it is also true that 1 men ne find the place which thei. Henry remarked | that a in the | world w too = d that he had known ¢ poor mu ans who might have made very superior carpenters. The idea that T wish to convey is that the highest succ as a reporter or editor ‘is not to be hoped for by any man whose temperament and abilities are not well suited to the peculiar w which newspaper reporters and editc have to do. There is h a thing “the journalistic temperament.” The is such a thing as *‘the nose for news, by which term is meant a quick, prac- tically instantaneous appreciation of what is news, and how much value one piece of news has when compared with another piece of news that comes in at the same time. This faculty of knowing what the news is and of weighing -its relative value and importance closely allied to another equally necessary, namely, the faculty of seeing where a good plece of news may be dug out and brought to the surface right in the nick of time, when it is most interesting and valuable. ‘I am inglined to think that this gift of news hunting is born with some men, and that they make the best Jjournalists in the reportorial and ed} torial sense. And if this gift is not a part of the young man's natural equip- ment, if he does not have a keen and all-alive sympathy with the events of the day, as they present themselves every mornine and evening, then I ad- vise him to try some other occupation: tion, the industry and the fighting qual- | for I doubt if the gift is ever acquired by any amount of industry, when the | man is not naturally built that way. | Hence it follows that a newspaper | writer who aims to to any of the higher editorial positions must have a wide -range, not only of information, | but of sympathy. He must be able to | know - something of a great many things rather than to know any one thing profoundly He must be able to switch his train of thought from one track to another suddenly, and to throw his pen with something like equal in- telligence and spirit upon half a dozen different subjects within the same week. . It follows, therefore, that success as a writer for the daily press will be greatly helped by wide rather than | deep reading. I do not mean by ‘hisl to say that the writing journalist should know “a little of everything and | nothing much,” but only to say that | if he is deeply read and thoroughly in- | formed on one topic only—say on pol- itics, for example—he will never achieve success as an all-round newspaper | man. I think no young man contemplat- ing a career as a reporter and editor | will make any mistake in laying a foundation by a course o ding | which will acquaint him, first, with the history of his own country; secondly, | with the history of his own State and | city; thirdly, with the history of Eng- | land, and, fourthly, with a general | knowledge of the present condition of the leading European nations, enough | to enable him to feel that he in formed correctly as to their li\'e, population, wealth and resources, and the general drift of their present poli- | cies in relation to other countries, and particularly in relation to our own. Twelve months of close reading, giving to it from three to four hours a day, | making notes of the main points as he | s, will be well given to this prepara~ | work. s a scientific age, and he should | study the popular s sufficiently to enable him to write an intelligent | =% account of a new electrical machine, or a new locomotive. If he aims to | become an editorial writer, then all | knowledge is his proper province, and | he should never consider his education | ed, but should read omnivorously. | s true of newspaper writing, as ot | ¢thing else, that what a man does not know he cannot tell, and it is only the subjects with which a man is fa- miliar that he can readily write about with credit to himself or profit to his reader. T would further advise young men who aim at success in the field of newspaper writing to master the useful though somewhat difficult art of short- hand writing. There is no occupation of our day in which the ability to rap- idly take down the exact words of a speaker -is more valuable, 1 do not mean by this that it is at all essential | for a newspaper writer or edltor to be | a verbatim stenographer. As a mat- ter of fact, there is very little verbatim reporting done in the daily press, but there are a hundred and one emer- gencies in a newspaper writer’s life in TWO STRANGE CR CATERPILLER THAT IS PARTLY WOOD. HE steamer Alameda, which ar- rived the other day, brought over two of the greatest curiosities ever seen on that vessel. One is = caterpiller with one of the EATURES FROM AUSTRALIA THE STRANGE PLATYPUS FROM AUSTRALIA. though undoubtedly mammals through- out the greater part of their structurs, are oviparous, laying eggs which close-~ ly resemble those of a reptile. The animal is found throughout the islands of Tasmania and thessouthern giants of the forest growing out of its head, while ‘the other is a duck-billed platypus, “‘one of the most remarkable of known animals.” The caterpiller is the property of Dr. G. M. Hall of the Alameda, and the platypus came con- signed to Captain Horace Z. Howard, superintendent of the Oceanic Steam- ship Company’s wharf. “The caterpiller makes its home prin- cipally in the thermal springs distrigt of the north island of New Zealand,” said Dr. Hall, when talking about the matter. ‘““When released from con- finement it eats voraciously 'of every- thing that comes in its way. Very frequently it attempts to swallow the seed of one of the forest trees and thus commits suicide. ‘The seed sticks in the caterpiller’s throat and chokes it to death. Then the seed takes root in the insect and gathering strength thee young shoot forces its way out into the sunlight. Sometimes the roots fail to find their way out of the body into the earth and the shoot dies. Then you have the specimen that 1 secured when I was over there. In the majority of instances the roots do reach mother earth, however, and from the.seed that germinated in the body of the cater- piller we get one of the giants of the forest.”” Dr. Hall is very proud of his specimen and has had a glass case made for it, so that his curious friends cannot handle it. Captain Howard's platypus kept sci- entists guessing for over a generation. They did not know whether to class it as fish, flesh or fowl, and it was only about fourteen years ago that its status was finally settled. The animals, .action of the broad fore paws, the hina portion of Australia. It passes most of its time in the water, swimming ana diving with the greatest ease, ahd form- ing, for the purpose of sleeping and breeding, burrows in the banks whiciy | generally have- two orifices, one ]usb above the water level, concealed among | the long grass, and the other below the surface. The passage at first runs up- ward sometimes to a distance of as much as fifty feet and expands at its termination into a cavity, the floor of which is lined with dry grass ana leaves, in which its eggs are laid ana the young brought up. Their food con- sists of aquatic insects and worms which are caught under the water, the sand and small stones at the bottom being turned over with their bills to find them. ¢ Swimming is effected chiefly by the feet and tail taking little share in lo- comotion in the water. When asleep they roll themselves into a ball ana in their native haunts are extremely timid and wary and very difficult to approach, being very rarely seen out ox their burrows in the daytime. When irritated they utter a soft low growt resembling that of a punpy. Captain Howard’'s specimen is a per- fect one and it was procured for him in Australia_by Purser Smith of the Alameda. Years ago, when the cap- tain was in Tasmania, he saw one of the animials and ever since has desired to possess one. It will be added to his collection of curios gathered from the four quarters of the globe during the wanderings of a lifetime. which the ability to make shorthand notes rapidly is extremely useful, and gives him a decided advantage over the man who has to trust either to his unaided memory, or to such long- hand notes as he can hurriedly jot down. I might instance in this connection the work of the interviewer who seeks out a citizen of prominence and de- sires to obtain a full expression of his views on some important public ques- tion. He may be able to make a fair and tolerably accurate report of the. man’s remarks by the help of his mem- ory and his longhand notes only; but if he is a good shorthand writer he can make the interview photographi- ally correct. % Moreover, if he is called upon to has- tily make a literal copy of some docu- ment of which he can only have pos- sess for a short time—possibly at a consulting library—it is easy to see that he can bring his shorthand writ- ing into service with great effect. It seems to me, also, that there is a large and growing field of special newspaper correspondence in foreign countries, in which brilliant and highly paid work is called for, in the doing of which a knowledge of other languages than 2nglish is indispensable. I would B | advise the ambitioys young man who s thinking that he lias in him the mak- ing of a good foreign or war corre spondent to acquire a workable knowl- edge of French, Spanish and German. Bevond these things the successful newspaper writer needs to cultivate the art of making friends. He_must learn most, after all, from men, not books. It is very important for him to gain the cenfidence of public men, official and unofficial—of all sorts of men and wo- men who have news to give and in- formation to impart. To this end he must learn the meaning of the little word “tact.”” It requires tact above all things to win the personal confi- the assistance that is constantly neces- sary to be obtained in gathering news press. | thing more of practical value to young men who intend to tiy their chances on the reportorial and editorial side of journalism. I may add, however, that the same solid qualities of character which help men to success in other | fields of work will help them in thi The man of good habits, who will have at s to every ically un- his general health good, least three chances of succ one that the man who is phy fit will have. Newspaper work is arduous and ex- acting, and if any young man is think- dence of people and obtain from them | | and preparing articles for the daily I do not know that I can say any- | ing of a newspaper career as an easy | labor, both ph; ' sTHE MOTHER CHURCH @0 “o BOSTON: ° R and gentle occupation into which he, d t much hard will not need put as sical and mental, as into | taken. any other, I advise him to keep out of it altogether, for he is entirely mis- CHARLES H. TAYLOR. o6 POOOOVOOVLPIOOOOOOD T IS now thirty-two years since Mrs. Eddy gave to the world the | keynote of the philosophy of Ch jan Science in the state- ment: “All causation is mind and every effect a mental phe- nomenon.” To-day th~ mother church at Boston, erected at a cost -of $200,000, and having a local mem- bership of twelve hundred and a general membership of ten thousand, together with the branch churches lo- cated in nearly every city of any size in this country, all having thriving con- grega.ions, bear testimony to-the won- derful growth of the movement. - San Francisco is also in the line of progress in this direction. The move- ment here began ten years ago when Miss S. E. Bradshaw, a personal pupil of Mrs. Eddy, located here and began to sow the seed of her faith and per- form her cures. From the handful of people who -a short time ago assembled for service in Miss Bradshaw's parlors, a flourishing church with an active membership of over a hundred and a floating attend- ance of nearly three hundred has grown. Services of the church are held twice a week, with Miss Bradshaw as the leader. The Sunday morning service consists of Bible réadings, while the Thursday evening service is conducted after the manner of an experience meeting. At this session a topic which has been assigned at a previous meet- ing is thoroughly interpreted by volun- tary speakers, while at the same time many accounts of demonstrations of healing are given for the benefit of in- terested visitors. who are not familiar with the workings of the science. But the people who are most interested in science consider the healing properties as of secondary consideration, and the end, of which it is but the means, is spiritual growth and understanding. Christian Science, as expcunded by Mrs. Eddy, claims that the soul, through belief in God, triumphs over sickness and death, and performs mir- acles of healing such as are related in the Bible. It is described briefly as the Christianity of the Bible rediscovered. It ignores time. It takes nc note of birthdays.: Age. is supposed to leave untouched such as are perfect in health, as taught by Christian Science. The movement has 600,000 followers in this country and many in other lands, professed or secret. Its follow- ers number many persons of great wealth and cultivation, who devote their means and ability to spreadins the faith. Their churches are artistic and beautiful. Teachers and readers are surrcunded always by beauty and by evidences that Science never lacks for money. On Falmouth street, in the Boston Back Bay region, on a $40,000 lot given by Mrs. Eddy, a church worth $200,000 was recently built by voluntary con- tributions as a monument to Mrs. Eddy, to whom the church and all it MR POPIIVOPORPOOOOOOOQ R R R R R R R RO R RO OB CROR S R RSO CR R R RCR R R R R R A R A R R 4 C[]R[ST[AN SCIENCE According to S MARY BAKER EDDY OO0V OPPVVPVPE0000000 0000000000000 0000® F R E R EEEE R E R XN EREKEEEERREK®EERFNRK KKK ] to do anything for a long time until T | * * * = MRS. EDDY’S HOME LIFE. * s * Mrs. Eddy is the founder of the Christian ‘Scienco School and lives In Concord, Mass., which is the center of the Christian Scientist faith. She | the city of whic! other books with wide circulation. others are poor. my account with conscience.” for a second course of lessons. have numbered about 5000 since 1867 HK KK XK KKK KKK held was offered as a gift, only to be refused. | Twelve years ago Mrs. Eddy with-| drew from the center of the world of | Christian Science, which she had lo- cated in Boston, and retired to Concord, N. H,, to finish a book which she was writing. This book, called “Science and Health, With a Key to the Scriptures,” is the text book of the denomination. One hundred and forty thousand copies are in circulation already. This book | is the “pastor” of the 300 churches. A | few years ago Mrs. Eddy abolished the | personal ministers of the Church of | Christ, and this book was installed in their place. And now I come to the strangest phase of the strange controversy which has lately raged about Mrs. Eddy—to the belief of her intimates in the faith that she is immortal—to the belief of certain opponents -that she is subject to “ossification and mental assassina- tion”; that she is already in a measure dead. Among Mrs. Eddy’s pupils are many who have failed to adhere to the strict lines of Christian Science. - They prac- ticed and taught hypnotism and “mind | in God. These either voluntarily sepa- rated themselves or fell into disrepute with the governing body of Forty First Pupils in whom all authority for the faith was vested, and they became out- casts from Christian Science. Many of them, it was claimed, had no other pur- pose than that of making money. While Mrs. Eddy has finally permitted her pupils to receive money for instruction, it was long against her rulings. Many of these people have made spe- cial claims for themselves, and gath- ered followers about them. Most of these, naturally, are not friendly to the Christian Science powers, and espe- cially to the discoverer of the belief. These are they who are classed as cure” instead of healing through faith | claims about 600,000 folowers to-day. Mrs. Eddy’s home life is most idyllic, and she lives among the most spacious surroundings Every room in the big house is filled with though she is greatly opposed to receiving gifts. She is fond of the best music. There are in the house three pianos, an organ and a large music box. Besides her house in Concord Mrs. Eddy owns a residence on Common- wealth avenue, Boston, and a fine country place at Roslindale, just outside She holds all the copyrights of her books and various publications, Science and Health” alone has sold 140,000 copies. When the official asked her If she was a millionaire she is said to have replied: *No, I will never own $1,000,000 worth of property while so many I could have been. worth many millions. has an annual income of $40,000, but I manage to give away eaough to balance It was said that $300 was the rate for instruction for the first course of lessons given by Mrs. Eddy, and classes of sixty were common occurrences, while crowds waited for an opportunity to be admitted. Another $200 wasasked Mrs. Eddy herself FFEREF R R XXX ARRRFAFFXFARRLRRXRRR RS mental mn.lpmcuu:mexa. “Pleasant View.” magnificent ~ gifts, at the most There are nine My college alone says that her students EE R R EE R R R R R R R R * To guard against these people— | though Mrs. Eddy herself expressly dis- claims the need or efficacy of such as- sistance—the faithful surround the Mother of Christian Science with a body-guard of noble thoughts. To pro- long her life, as we should say; to ward off, in the Christian Science phrase, those visible traces of lengthening years that are due not to nature's changes, but to malign designs of men- tal malpractitioners, this great leader, assuiled by those who have soiled the faith she has revealed to the world, is guarded by friends, whose white thoughts, pure and undefiled by day, whose loving dreams by night, form a thick veil born of God’s spir:t to shield her every hour. . s don’t know when I shall teach again. Perhaps never. Not until God calls me. When he tells me to do so then I will send out ‘the word. They don’t need long weeks of preparation to come here. Why, last Fourth of July I only knew three days before that I was to speak. “That night telegraphic notices were sent out and before day- light many were speeding on their way here. Twenty-five thousand people were at Pleasant View. In February, when I spoke for the first time in Science Hall here, T sent for forty of my students. Thirty-seven, I believe, arrived here, traveling on a special train in order to do so.” When Mrs. Eddy was told of thé growing sin of thieving among women, and asked what influence would cure the 2000 confessed respectable woman thieves in New York City, she showed, as she had several times done before, that the mere mention of evil things had a disagreeable effect on her. “Don’t!” she cried. “Don’t tell me all that! It is like filling a vessel with poison which has to be emptied before sweet milk can be put into it. If you fill me with all that I shall be unable [} o1 PR R R RORCRORCRCRCRC R R R A R R R S 2R R 2 24 9000090000000 am rid of it.” Mrs. Eddy herself was healed before she healed others. Her own cure led to her discovery of the doctrine she has given to the world. These teachings were for years ac- companied by wonderful cures that led to all sorts of confusion in the minds of the public. Two of these cures have been recently related by Judge S. F. Hanna, editor of the Christian Science Journal, in a secular magazine, In 1870, when Mrs. Eddy was visiting in. Chelsea, Mass., a_cripple, distorted l;nd strapped to crutches, stopped at the. oor. Mrs. Eddy gave him money. Not long after her hostess came across a smart- looking peddler in whom, to heramaze- ment, she recognized the same man who was apparently doomed to a living death. He explained that immediately after calling at her door his sufferings had become so great that he had to lie down at a near-by house. In an hour all changed as Lv a miracle, and he was entirely cured. Atterward the former hostess asked Mrs. Eddy if she thought such a man could be healed. Mrs. Eddy answered: “I do believe that he was restored to heaith.” In explanation she said later that when she saw the man her heart gushed with unspeakable prayer and pity, and after that she thought noth- ing more of him until she heard of his cure. Early in her experience, in 1867, an escaped lunatic rushed into her room, seized a chair and raised it to dash at her. She looked quietly at him and spoke to him. The man dropped the chair, exclaiming, “Are you from there?” pointing upward, and in a mo- ment was kneeling. When he spoke again he said a terrible weight had disappeared from his head. Mrs. Eddy found he was talented and educated and a son of a wealthy Beacon-street family. A counle of years later the same man called to tell her of his life. He had taken his place again and was a successful man with a lovely wife and children. E ’ “At the present rate of increase il be- lieve that in fifty years, aye, less, :Christian Scier.ce will be the dominant religious belief in the world; that it will have more adherénts than any otker denomination* “Why are so many attracted to it?"” Then Mrs. Eddy gave proof of the practical side of her character. “My dear.” she said, ‘“‘they have re- ceived a great gift. They believe be- cause they know. They themselves have been healed and have personal knowledge of the power of God as demonstrated by Christian Science. Now, tell me, if you knew of a Arug that was going to make you well all your life, would you lay in a large sup- ply of it? Well, that is the way with Christian Science. Haven't I seen the dead return to life, the lame made to walk and the wonderful work of God manifested in many ways? “I began by refusing money. I took Continued on Page Twenty-three.