Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 93, November 26, 1887Various
General
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 93, November 26, 1887
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR SONS.--Journalism.--Mr. DAVID ANDERSON, 222,
Strand, W.C., Author of _Scenes in the Commons_, &c., from 1879, a
principal Leader Writer, Special Correspondent, and Critic of the
_Daily Telegraph_, INSTRUCTS a limited number of YOUNG MEN in the
practical and literary branches of Journalism. Prospectus free.
An ordinary trained Journalist earns from £300 to £1000 a year.
That, _Mr. Punch_, is the question I have been asking myself for ever so
long--"What on earth _am_ I to do with my sons?" And this Mr. DAVID
ANDERSON, with a message that seems almost too good to be true, comes
like the radiant genius on to the scene, and says, "Send them to me,
your Grace, and I'll soon put 'em in the way of making from £300 to
£1000 a year. What do you think of that?" What do I think of it? Well,
all I can say is that it sounds to me like an ANDERSON'S Fairy Tale!
Why, there's my elder son, the Marquis, just opened a market gardening
business at Tooting in a small way, and though he drives his cart up to
Covent Garden twice a week himself, I know he's not making a good thing
of it. PLANTAGENET, my second, I'm not ashamed to own it, shoulders a
butcher's tray; BERTRAM is a linen-draper's assistant in the Tottenham
Court Road; and ALGERNON is, _faute de mieux_, loafing about railway
stations, following cabs, in the hope of picking up a stray sixpence now
and then for carrying the luggage upstairs when they arrive at their
destinations. Poor boy! I had always meant him to have a Commission in
the Guards, but hard times have rendered that project impossible--and he
has come to this!
With one hundred and seventy farms on my hands, the whole of my property
mortgaged, my house in Belgrave Square given up, and my establishment
confined to a couple of floors in a back street in Islington, the family
has, I need hardly say, to accept its altered fortunes with equanimity.
But, if Mr. DAVID ANDERSON is to be trusted, surely a brighter prospect
opens before us! How he manages his instructions "in the practical and
literary branches of journalism," is to me a mystery. How does he teach
his "limited number" of pupils to report--say, an inaudible speech? Then
there is their practical training for a crowd. Does he lead them at the
present moment, to Trafalgar Square, and teach them, in the event of a
collision with the police, to continue their labours up a lamp-post?
Again, how about initiating them into the work of a correspondent
mounted on the field of battle? Would their experience on a hired
cab-horse let loose in the midst of a procession of the Unemployed
afford the many useful experiences in this direction? Then, how about
the leader-writing? I do not say that the journalist, like the poet,
need necessarily be born one, yet for all that, the art of literary
composition is not one that can be readily acquired by anybody.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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