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Show ,V""------.."---.----'--- l MARY l :i SUCCEEDS :: on ;j 3 i MAIN STREET : r. ' J J j; By LAURA MILLER j v ' :: v ; y. ;;;.. i i ; ; ; : ::::;;; ; ; & by Laura Miller ON BEING A COUNTRY JOURNALIST The University of Missouri recently discussed journalism as a career for women. Active newspaper women told what they knew. Of city work of necessity an employee of a big paper pa-per spoke. Country journalism held the top of the ladder with an owner and publisher, Mrs. Anna Ewing better bet-ter known as Mrs. W. E. of the Odessa (Mo.) Ledger. She Is no grind, with her head burled in her Inky presses. She has "interesting sideline side-line occupations, as housekeeper and mother." She enjoys the distinction, among others, of being state chairman of the Democratic women of Missouri. And us for her job. here's part of her address to the university: "I am speaking of country journal-Ism journal-Ism country country, where people arise when the lark is a-wing; where we eat our dinners, boiled dinners largely, in the middle of the day; where the prices of poultry,, butter-fat, butter-fat, corn, hogs and hides are vital statistics; where the highest minded, tenderest hearted, most sympathetic, most helpful, most lovable people most do congregate. "And the woman's field In this journalism? jour-nalism? It is as some one aptly said of her sphere, it has no limit. In this woman's field there Is no such phrase as 'I don't know.' You can't say thut; It Isn't done. "I am not touching on the financial question ; my method is stamped on most of our coins, and my success Is always in the forefront of my mind when I sing the doxology. Nor am I going to say much on the subject of news. When your field is a small country community where everybody knows everybody else, often to the third and fourth generations all their uprisings and downsittings, as it were you get to feel as if It were all a part of yourself. Every time you write an item you think who will enjoy en-joy it. I know a world-renowned journalist jour-nalist said: 'What God has allowed to happen, I am not ashamed to publish.' Neither am I if It happened in New Hampshire or California. But when fathers have talked heart-to-heart to you about their hopes, their fears, their disappointments for their children chil-dren ; when women have confided In you; when lovers have coma' to you for advice and comfort; when people have laid their hands on your shoulders shoul-ders and said 'Will you pray for me?' Oh I tell you news has a new meaning. mean-ing. So has lifs! "To me the thing that peculiarly differentiates dif-ferentiates the woman's field is the matter of service. Why, truly, there is not a life or death or birth, or anything any-thing a penny's weight of worth, but what a newspaper woman is in it. To be a newspaper woman takes a vast amount of courage, love, tact, bluff, a deep abiding sense of humor, and an unshakable faith in prayer." |