If I were to suggest a curriculum for the young man who wished to take a
regular course in a school of journalism, preferring that to the actual
experience, I would say to him, devote the first two years to meditation
and prayer. This will prepare the young editor for the surprise and
consequent temptation to profanity which in a few years he may experience
when he finds that the name of the Deity in his double-leaded editorial is
spelled with a little “g,” and the peroration of the article is locked up
between a death notice and the advertisement of a patent moustache coaxer,
which is to follow pure reading matter every day in the week and occupy
the top of column on Sunday tf.
The ensuing five years should be devoted to the peculiar orthography of
the English language.
Then put in three years with the dumb bells, sand bags, slung shots and
tomahawk. In my own journalistic experience I have found more cause for
regret over my neglect of this branch than anything else. I usually keep
on my desk during a heated campaign, a large paper weight, weighing three
or four pounds, and in several instances I have found that I could feed
that to a constant reader of my valuable paper instead of a retraction.
Fewer people lick the editor though, now, than did so in years gone by.
Many people--in the last two years--have gone across the street to lick
the editor and never returned. They intended to come right back in a few
moments, but they are now in a land where a change of heart and a palm
leaf fan is all they need.
Fewer people are robbing the editor now-a-days, too, I notice with much
pleasure. Only a short time ago I noticed that a burglar succeeded in
breaking into the residence of a Dakota journalist, and after a long, hard
struggle the editor succeeded in robbing him.
After the primary course, mapped out already, an intermediate course of
ten years should be given to learning the typographical art, so that when
visitors come in and ask the editor all about the office, he can tell them
of the mysteries of making a paper, and how delinquent subscribers have
frequently been killed by a well-directed blow with a printer's towel.
Five years should be devoted to a study of the art of proof-reading. In
that length of time the young journalist can perfect himself to such a
degree that it will take another five years for the printer to understand
his corrections and marginal notes.
Fifteen years should then be devoted to the study of American politics,
especially civil service reform, looking at it from a non-partisan
standpoint. If possible, the last five years should be spent abroad.
London is the place to go if you wish to get a clear, concise view of
American politics, and Chicago or Milwaukee would be a good place for the
young English journalist to go and study the political outlook of England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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