10
THE OOUBIEB
A WOMAN'S GRlTICIbM.
Written for THE COURIER.
The womea's edition of the Call, dated Saturday March 30, came
Sunday morning just as I was about starting for church. Interest
in the work of these enterprising women kept me from attending
church that day.
The paper was a surprise.
Knowing something of the difficulties under which it was prepar
ed and issued, the apparent completeness of it seemed remarkable.
I think the people of Lincoln will agree with me when I say that
many much advertised special editions of Lincoln papers have
not equalled it iu interest. Some of the articles were notably able,
and the result of the enterprise adds to the triumphs already
achieved by the ladiep of the W. G. A. Perhaps the ladies who
assisted in this experiment in journalism will not object to the pub
lic expression of some thoughts that occurred to me as I enjoyed
the novel experience of a Sunday spent in the persual of a paper
that I could regard is peculiarly my own, while my husband had
retired from view behind the leaves of the Journal and his Chicago
paper.
Where in the ranks of the professional newspaper men of this city
could be found ability like that of Mrs. Horton's which gave artistic
value to tuis women's Calif Has any Lincoln paper ever contained
as handsome en embellishment as that which adored the first page
of the Calif
I noticed that the type used in the different pages did not corres
pond. Inquiry among people better informed than myself elicited
the fact that most of the type used was "brevier," but the "faces'
-were different, a consequence of the necessity of having other print
ing offices set up some of the pages. The women are not responsible
for this.
There was a tendency to long essays, and a scarcity of brief,
catchy pieces that some of the women could easily have furnished.
I know Mrs. Sawyer's article was very learned and interesting; I
have not read it; the four columns frightened me.
Then that page about the educational institutions was awfully
dreary. We have had too much of this sort of thing from the news
paper men.
The editorial page held my attention, but a little closer supervis
ion on the part of the editor-in-chief might have unified these edi
torial expressions and prevented the Journals saying that this page
was wobbly.
Mrs. Green's book review impressed me as the view of person who
had read the book, "Stories of the Foot-Hills'' by Mrs. Graham,
whom many of us know, intelligently and carefully.
When Mrs. Burton Harrison lately commenced a series of weekly
articles in the New York Herald she signed her name, "Mrs. Burton
Harrison. One or two of the critically inclined New York journals
ridiculed Mrs. Harrison for this, and I noticed all her articles since
the first have been signed "Constance C. Harrison." Mrs. F. S.
Stein, Mrs. H. W. Hardy, Mrs. I. S. P. Weeks, Mrs. E. T. Hartley,
Mrs. A. J. Sawyer and others are open to the same criticism bestow
ed on Mrs. Harrison.
My husband says he could have told the paper was written by
women by the profuse use of italics. He says women cannot get
away from the habit of underscoring and emphasizing things.
There are several women in thiB city who have had more or less
experience in newspaper writing. Miss Manley, Miss Harris, Miss
Cather, Miss Bullock, and others, and I looked in vain for anything
that I could distinguish as coming from them, although the names
of some of them appeared in the published list of the staff. Why
were their services not enlisted?
But it is doubtless ungracious in me to criticise what every
body must acknowledge is a successful demonstration of women's
ability to cope with the most difficult undertakings that are usually
left to men. It isn't an easy matter to "get out" a twenty-four
page newspaper. The women have done this, and done it well.
RUTH.
sRAPlGL
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MONDAY APRIL 8. Mr Wj,iam Reed Dunroy
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-WILL GIVE A-
- "-. .-. READING . . ,
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From his poems and prose in the y
chapel of the Uhiversity of - ..
-Nebraska
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MONDAY EVENING, 8 O'CLOCK.
Admission, 25 otsi
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