Читать книгу The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work - Virginia Penny - Страница 31

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This is rather a new arena for the exercise of female talent. A reporter must be a close observer of matters and things in general that pertain to individual or public affairs. A verbal or written account is furnished to the publication in which the reporter is interested. A reporter attends public assemblies of any kind, and writes down or stenographizes the proceedings of said assembly. In a city, places of amusement, lectures, political and church meetings, form subjects of interest to a newspaper reporter. Noting the proceedings of legislative and other legal assemblies forms the most regular and reliable employment. In London, there are seven publications that employ from ten to eighteen reporters each, during the meetings of Parliament. Two from each paper are always in attendance—one in the gallery of the House of Lords, and another in the gallery of the House of Commons. A reporter seldom remains more than two or three hours. His place is taken by another, while he writes out his notes and prepares them for the press. The reporters are well remunerated, and give very faithful reports. In the United States, the subscription price of even the very best papers, and their comparatively limited circulation, will not justify so great an expense for the reporter's department. Yet most good papers have one or two reporters. Not long since, a lady stenographer received $1,000 damages from a railroad company, for an accident that occurred on the car, which unfitted her for her calling, as it deprived her of the forefinger on her right hand. A lady reporter, in Boston, writes me: "The art of reporting needs constant drilling, like music, dancing, &c. Few women have the education and nerve for professional reporting." A lady teacher of phonography writes: "A person of common capacity could learn phonography in from four to six months, studying three hours per day; but to practise for reporting is quite another thing: that depends upon the unremitting industry of a person. I know of but two ladies whose business is reporting. It is hard work, but pays well." This lady also states that her terms of tuition are seventy-five cents per lesson of one hour. "Phonographers generally receive from ten to twenty dollars an hour; and it takes about five or six hours to write out what may be spoken in an hour, if done by one person. With an amanuensis, it takes about four hours of writing to one of speaking." Several ladies are acting in Ohio and Michigan as phonographic reporters. Mr. James T. Brady, in a public speech in New York, said: "Without disparagement to his friends who were here engaged in catching the extemporized words of the speaker, he really would be happy to see the day when women, who had the capacity, should be engaged in making reports." "Among the American Indians, the women, being present at councils, preserve in their memories the report of what passes, and repeat it to their children. They have traditions of treaties a hundred years back, which, when compared with our writings, are always exact." A telegraphic reporter told me a first-class reporter can earn from twenty-five to thirty dollars for three or four hours' labor. It requires a knowledge of stenography, of which there are several teachers in New York, and which can be learned in a short time. Some reporters are paid by the week; and some by the page of foolscap, which is considered, I think, as counting eighty words. Mr. B., a reporter of New York, had a sister in Washington with him, ten years ago, who attended the sittings of Congress, and took notes, and wrote them out fully. Her brother then revised and sent them to the press. Another lady attempted it for the Tribune, but was ridiculed, and very foolishly gave it up. I was told that Mrs. W., wife of a reporter for the Tribune, took notes of Dr. Chapin's sermon on Thanksgiving day, and made a report for the Tribune, with which the readers of the paper were well satisfied. The reply of Mr. Webster to Mr. Hayne was saved by Mrs. Gales, the wife of one of the Congressional reporters, by writing out her husband's short-hand notes, which he for the lack of time found it impossible to do. Otherwise that remarkable speech of an eminent orator would have been lost. Mr. L. remarked to me: "A reporter in New York has to move and write with railroad speed. Everything needs to be done with a rush; and so dense are crowds, that a woman would have to lay aside hoops to make her way."