letters from New York, the readers of the _Louisville Journal_ greeted
the advent of another woman, Mrs. Jane G. Swisshelm, in letters and
editorial contributions bearing the strong stamp of an earnest,
aggressive, deeply thoughtful but vivacious mind, intense in its
sympathies, ready to do battle against every form of wrong-doing, and
gifted with a bright humor which winged the shafts she sent abroad with
unfailing vigor. It was but a little while until she became also special
correspondent for the _Spirit of Liberty_, issued at Pittsburgh. She
speedily proved herself a worthy compeer of her Eastern sisters in the
journalistic field. In 1848 she removed to Pittsburgh and established
there the _Saturday Visitor_, a paper which grew rapidly into wide
circulation and influence.
But before she had reached this point in her career, while in fact the
fame of this Western worker was just beginning to be heard of in the
seaboard cities, the reading public of those cities was startled into a
fever of enthusiasm by the letters of a Western girl in Eastern papers,
the _Home Journal_, the _Saturday Gazette_, the _Saturday Evening Post_,
the _National Press_. It was in 1845 and ’46 that “Grace Greenwood”
first took her place, while still a girl in her teens, as one of the
most brilliant, clear-headed, and versatile of newspaper correspondents,
in which special province, so far as journalistic work is concerned, she
has elected to remain, with the exception of the few years, beginning
with 1853, during which she published and edited the _Little Pilgrim_.
Mrs. Swisshelm’s ambitions, on the contrary, led her always to prefer
the active duties of editor and publisher. The _Saturday Visitor_ under
her management was a power in the fields of political and social reform,
of home duties and graces. She enlisted the services of other women for
its departments. Chief among these helpers was Mrs. Frances D. Gage of
Ohio, who became afterwards widely known as a charming writer for
children, an earnest woman’s rights speaker, and contributor to the _New
York Independent_. In 1856, after her connection with the _Visitor_
ceased, Mrs. Gage led the van of women journalists in her own State by
becoming associate editor of an agricultural paper in Columbus,
conducting its Home department with marked success. Mrs. Swisshelm,
attracted in 1856 by what seemed a wider sphere for work in the new
Northwest, sold her Pittsburgh paper and soon afterwards started, in
Minnesota, the _St. Cloud Visitor_. In this she of course continued her
advocacy of Free Soil and anti-slavery doctrines, and within a year her
office was raided and her press destroyed by a mob. Fearlessly she
gathered her resources together, and began the publication of the _St.
Cloud Democrat_, in which she afresh demonstrated her ability, and in
the campaign of 1860 supported Mr. Lincoln for the Presidency. After the
close of the war she returned to the duties of active journalism;
having, during the years of conflict, laid them aside to perform
efficient service as a nurse “at the front.” Her vigorous pen until
nearly the close of her life failed not to serve every cause in whose
truth and justice she believed.
Near the same time at which Mrs. Swisshelm founded the _Pittsburgh
Visitor_, Mrs. C. I. H. Nichols became the editor of the _Windham County
Democrat_, a Whig paper published at Brattleboro, Vermont. This she
conducted for many years with admirable success, her editorials being
often widely copied. In 1851 “Gail Hamilton” made a brilliant dash into
journalism as special contributor to the _National Era_, Dr. Bailey’s
paper at Washington, for which Mrs. Stowe wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” and
Grace Greenwood did some of her best work. In 1854 the woman’s rights
agitation, which had taken form several years before at the Seneca Falls
Convention, and received a new impulse at the Worcester Convention of
1851, was reinforced by the appearance at Boston of a new paper, the
_Una_, published and edited by Mrs. Paulina Wright Davis and Mrs.
Caroline H. Dall. This failed of long life for want of pecuniary
support, but it was energetically conducted while it lived, and is well
worthy of remembrance as the pioneer woman suffrage paper of America. In
1855 Miss Antoinette Brown, afterwards Mrs. Blackwell, became for a time
one of the special contributors to the _New York Tribune_. She devoted
her writing to social and reformatory subjects, giving chief place
therein to the bearing upon women of the vices and defects of our social
system.
In any notice of American women in journalism it is needful to give
thus, in somewhat broad detail, an account of the workers during those
first twenty years, because of the wide influence which they wielded in
behalf of noble living and high thinking, and the practical stimulus
which they gave to work in the various lines of social reform.
After those twenty years were over, as the country became more widely
and thickly settled, as newspapers multiplied and enlarged their
departments, and called for an increasing staff of writers of varying
abilities, women journalists also became more numerous, and began to
take up special lines of correspondence and reportorial work. In 1856
Miss Cunningham, who soon after became Mrs. D. G. Croly, still better
known as “Jennie June,” entered upon her journalistic career as a
fashion writer, first on the _Sunday Despatch_, then on various other
New York papers. In 1857 she invented the manifold or syndicate system
of correspondence, supplying fashion items, gossip, and news of social
topics and occurrences, simultaneously to newspapers all over the
country. In this department of work her followers have multiplied until
it would be hopeless to name or to count them. In 1860 she suggested the
founding of _Demorest’s Illustrated Magazine of Fashions_, and edited it
for twenty-seven years, during which time she not only maintained her
syndicate work, but proved herself a good “all round” writer for the
press, having held at different times a position on the staff of nearly
all of the leading New York dailies. In the autumn of 1889 Mrs. Croly
issued the first number of a weekly paper, _The Woman’s Cycle_, the aim
and purpose of which are amply indicated by its title.
During the period of the Civil War and the few years immediately
succeeding, the larger city papers began to avail themselves of the work
of women as special writers, as correspondents, and reporters. The _New
York Tribune_ numbered upon its editorial staff Mrs. Rebecca Harding
Davis and Mrs. Lucia Gilbert Calhoun; Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton
supplied it weekly with the literary, dramatic, and art news of Boston,
and Miss Ellen Mackay Hutchinson began her work upon it as assistant to
Dr. Ripley in its book review department. Miss Middie Morgan on the
_Times_ has shown among journalists as thoroughly as Mlle. Rosa Bonheur
has done among painters, that a woman may fill admirably any unusual
place to which she is adapted by inclination and circumstance. Quite
recently Miss A. L. Wilson has won a kindred success as manager and
assistant editor of the San Francisco _Breeder and Sportsman_.
Of correspondents in this period, Mary Clemmer (then Mrs. Ames) was the
first to become widely known. Her Washington letters to the _New York
Independent_, and other papers, continued for a series of years to stand
in the front rank of journalistic correspondence. Succeeding her come a
long line whose names and work have become famed. Mrs. Burnham,
afterward Mrs. Fiske, in the _Republican_ of St. Louis, later in various
Chicago, Washington, and New York papers; Miss Anna M. H. Brewster, Mrs.
Lucy H. Hooper, Mrs. John Sherwood, Miss Kate Field, are among those
whose unmistakable gifts and conscientious work have won high place for
themselves and opened the way for others.
The religious press, weekly and monthly, was not far behind its secular
contemporaries in securing the aid of women as conductors of special
departments. For the last thirty years there have been few or none of
these that have not steadily numbered one or more women among their
regular contributors.
No woman in New York had taken the editorial control of a paper after
1849, when Mrs. Child relinquished her place upon the _Standard_, until
1867 Miss Mary L. Booth took the charge, from its initial number, of
_Harper’s Bazar_. Her reputation, earned as historian of New York and as
a translator, had become a national one when in 1861, in a week’s time,
she rendered accurately into brilliant English Gasparin’s famous
“Uprising of a Great People.” It aided in drawing immediate popular
attention to the new journal. How faithfully and admirably her editorial
work was done for the remaining twenty-two years of her life has but
recently been borne witness to over her grave.
In 1868, one year after the _Bazar_ was started, the lively agitation in
favor of woman suffrage gave birth to the _Revolution_, of which Miss
Susan B. Anthony was the publisher and Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
editor-in-chief. Two years later the _Woman’s Journal_ was started in
Boston, with Mrs. Lucy Stone, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, and Mrs. Mary
Livermore upon its editorial staff. If these two papers, and the by no
means insignificant number which have arisen to follow their footsteps,
have not as yet seen the accomplishment of their especial aim, they have
served as potent factors in woman’s educational, industrial and social
advancement, in helping to secure the repeal of unjust laws, and, if
last named, by no means least, in awakening women to a sense of their
solidarity as a sex—to the truth that “where one of the members suffers
all the members suffer with it.”
In the mean time there were, both in the West and South, women who had
demonstrated their ability and fitness for the profession of journalism.
In New Orleans Mrs. E. J. Nicholson, first as coadjutor and then as
successor to her husband, has for thirty years or more held editorial
control of the _Picayune_, of which she is the chief owner. On her paper
and on the _Times-Democrat_, also owned by a woman, women have for many
years held responsible positions. In Assumption, the _Pioneer_ has, for
a term second only to that of Mrs. Nicholson’s career, been owned and
edited by Mrs. Susan Dupaty. Mrs. S. V. Kentzel has for fourteen years
made her paper, the _St. Tammany Farmer_, of eminent practical value and
importance to the agricultural and material interests of a large part of
the State. Of later years there have been quite a number of additions to
the list of women journalists of Louisiana, foremost among these being
Miss Addie McGrath of the _Baton Rouge Truth_, who is one of the chief
officers of the Press Association, and Mrs. M. L. Garner, owner and
editor of the _Carroll Banner_ at Lake Providence; Mme. Marie Roussel is
the editor of _Le Propagateur Catholique_ of New Orleans. A Woman’s
National Press Association was formed at New Orleans in May, 1885. Two
years later the addition of foreign members caused a change of name to
the Woman’s International Press Association. Mrs. Nicholson is its
President. Near the same time that Miss Booth assumed charge of
_Harper’s Bazar_, Mrs. Mary E. Bryan entered upon the literary
management of the _Sunny South_ at Atlanta, Georgia. She had served her
apprenticeship to journalism as assistant editor upon an Atlanta paper,
and had afterwards edited a political journal in Natchitoches. After ten
years management of the _Sunny South_ she joined the corps of women
editors in New York, taking charge of the _Fashion Bazar_ a dozen years
ago. After Mrs. Bryan’s departure from Atlanta there seems to have been
no other woman in that part of the South inspired with an ambition for
newspaper work until Miss Andrews recently took a place upon the
_Atlanta Constitution_. Texas has a number of women journalists, most of
whom are new-comers in their profession; but one of them, Mrs. S. L.
McPherson, in 1877, established and still edits and publishes at Sherman
the _Daily Democrat_. For the two or three previous years her home had
been in Caddo, Indian Territory, where she had aided her husband in
publishing the _Oklahoma Star_. These ladies are all welcome members of
the Texas Press Association. There are a number of recent indications
that journalism is likely to become a favorite profession among Southern
women.
In the West, while Mrs. Swisshelm was still making herself felt as a
power in Minnesota, Mrs. Susan C. Vogl, of late years the successful
business manager of the _Boston Woman’s Journal_, began journalistic
work upon the _Western Spy_ of Sumner, Kansas. Afterwards she wrote for
St. Louis and New England papers for some years before her removal to
Boston. In 1868 Mrs. Myra Bradwell founded the _Chicago Legal News_, of
which she has been ever since the editor and business manager. In 1871
the Illinois Legislature passed special acts making the columns of the
_News_ evidence in the courts; and after the burning of all records in
the Chicago fire, Mrs. Bradwell’s paper was selected by the circuit and
supreme court judges as the publication to have exclusive right to
publish notices in regard to their cases. Mrs. Agnes Leonard Hill’s
journalistic work began as early as 1869 in Kentucky, was carried on in
Chicago papers, and for the last eight years she has been engaged in
editorial labors in Colorado.
In 1876 Miss Margaret F. Buchanan, now Mrs. Sullivan, entered upon the
journalistic career, in which she speedily gained an enviable
reputation, showing herself as thoroughly equipped as any brother of the
press among them all to meet the serious questions and vexed problems of
political and social science, and equally ready for brilliant
descriptive work or discriminating criticism. Near the same time Miss
Emily S. Bouton took the position upon the _Toledo Blade_ which, in its
varied demands upon her, not only as the head of its literary and
household departments, but as leader writer and special contributor, has
served to show the wide range of her accomplishments and her ability in
every line of journalistic labor. The editorial and dramatic columns of
the _Blade_ have been indebted to her for some of their strongest work.
It was to the _Blade_ also that “Shirley Dare” gave much of the best of
her early versatile achievements in the journalistic field. Somewhat
earlier Mrs. Kate Brownlee Sherwood had filled a responsible position
upon another Toledo paper. The _Indianapolis Journal_ has for many years
given a fair field to women journalists, and in its columns Miss Anna
Nicholas, Mrs. Florence Adkinson, Mrs. May Wright Sewall, and others
have achieved success. In 1878 Mrs. Belle Ball entered on a very
different line of newspaper works as traveling correspondent of the
_Albuquerque_ (New Mexico) _Journal_, and of two Kansas papers, her
especial duty being to report the progress of the Atlantic and Pacific
Railroad, with all its incidental accompaniments—one of these being for
months together the peril to life from Indian foes. After two years of
this arduous experience she became an associate editor on a Kansas
paper. For the last two years she has been the literary editor of the
_Kansas City Times_.
After 1876 women journalists multiplied in the West as rapidly as in New
England. The Illinois Woman’s Press Association, formed in 1886, at the
close of 1888, numbered 66 members, of whom 45 are either business
managers of important journals, editors, or editorial assistants.
Investigation shows a large number of newspaper women in the State who
have not enrolled themselves in this or any association. The Western
Association of Writers, organized in July, 1885, has many women editors,
correspondents, and reporters among its members. The Ohio Woman’s Press
Association has in its Cincinnati branch over thirty members, nearly all
of whom are journalists. The Cleveland branch numbers between forty and
fifty, about one-half of whom are authors and one-half journalists.
Earlier than any of these was the Woman’s National Press Association,
organized at Washington, D.C., in July, 1882. This has a large
membership, and, like all of the others, is in a prosperous condition.
Since 1887 a special press gallery for its members has been set apart in
each of the houses of Congress. The New England Woman’s Press
Association was organized in Boston in November, 1885. At present it
numbers nearly 100 members, all journalists or magazine editors. When
the _Woman’s Journal_ was established it found no woman journalist in
Boston save Miss Sallie Joy, now Mrs. White, who was then doing more or
less desultory work upon the _Boston Post_. In 1869 she was enrolled as
one of the regular staff of that paper. After her marriage in 1874 she
transferred her services to the _Advertiser_, and later to the _Herald_,
and to-day she is duly honored by the numerous sisterhood of Boston
newspaper women as their pioneer and leader.
Since New York saw the establishment of _Harper’s Bazar_ in the
interests of women in one direction, and of the _Revolution_ in another,
women’s publications in both of the lines thus indicated have multiplied
until it is quite out of the question to give a list of them outside of
the pages of a newspaper directory. The most widely known follower in
the path of the _Bazar_ is the _Ladies’ Home Journal_ of Philadelphia,
of which Mrs. Louisa Knapp was from the beginning until January, 1890,
the editor, with a salary of ten thousand dollars a year, and with Mrs.
Emma Hewitt and Mrs. Mary Lambert as assistants. There are probably not
many more such pecuniary prizes as yet in the grasp of women
journalists; but, on the whole, there are not many such open for any
one. It may as well be said here that Philadelphia, which was the first
city in the United States to set wide open many doors for woman’s work,
as yet numbers fewer women journalists than any other large Northern
city. Mrs. Hollowell, for many years past editor of the Household
department of the _Ledger_, and more recently Mrs. Kate Upson Clark of
the _Press_, have broadened their departmental work and made it of great
value in educational and divers other lines.
Following the lead of the _Revolution_ and the _Woman’s Journal_ there
are many others; some as out-and-out suffrage papers, and others
covering more broadly the circle of woman’s industrial and social
interests. In the East, the van among these is led by the _Woman’s
Magazine_, published by Mrs. Esther T. Housh at Brattleboro, Vermont.
Mrs. Housh began its publication originally at Lexington, Kentucky,
under the title of _Woman at Work_. In the south is the _Woman’s
Chronicle_ of Little Rock, Arkansas. In the far West are the _Queen Bee_
of Denver, Colorado, the _Woman’s Tribune_ of Beatrice, Nebraska, and
the _New Northwest_ of Portland, Oregon,—all owned and edited by women.
Those in the nearer West are too many to specify. With these, widely
differing yet in one sense kindred to them, should be named _The Woman’s
Exponent_, the official organ of the Woman’s Association of Utah. It is
edited by Emmeline B. Wells, and carries the motto “The Rights of the
Women of Zion, and the Rights of the Women of all Nations.” The
association which publishes it claims a membership of 22,000 women,
“thoroughly organized for the relief of the poor, and for medical,
philosophical, historical, and religious study.”
The Pacific slope has had comparatively few women journalists, but the
names of several appear upon the roll of membership of the lately formed
Central and Northern California Press Association.
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union has within the last four or five
years multiplied greatly the number of women engaged in the practical
work of journalism. Beginning with the _Union Signal_, founded by Mrs.
Matilda B. Carse in Chicago, they have started up in almost every State
of the Union, and many local papers have W. C. T. U. departments, all
edited by women.
The vital interest of working women in the vexed problems of the
relation between capital and labor has called into existence at least
one paper, the _Working Woman_. This is the organ of the Woman’s
National Industrial League. It is published in Washington, D. C., by
Mrs. Charlotte Smith, who long ago proved her editorial ability in St.
Louis. Miss Mary F. Seymour has, more recently, established in New York
the _Business Woman’s Journal_, which from its initial number has
carried the prestige of success in its chosen field. Miss Fanny M. Earl,
of the _Hartford Insurance Journal_ has made her name widely known in
business circles all over the country, and aided in conquering their
respect for woman’s practical abilities.
Our Anglo-African sisters are awakening to a comprehension of the use of
the press as an instrument of value to themselves and their race. The
names of half a dozen who have been or are now in editorial charge of
race papers are well known, and at least a score of others who are
actively engaged in journalism. A few of them have been employed as
reporters or as special contributors on some of the leading dailies in
our great seaboard cities.
Having noted the rapid increase in the number of newspaper women who in
other parts of the country are doing faithful and worthy work in this
their chosen profession, it remains to say that New York City has not
fallen behind in this respect. The evidence of their capacity and
fitness for the work is before the public in almost every daily, weekly,
and monthly publication issued in the metropolis. Besides these are many
whose work goes, through the syndicate system, all over the country.
Their work, usually signed, serves even more widely to attract ambitious
and intelligent young women to the same profession than does the
exceptional reputation of such editors as Miss Booth, Mrs. M. M. Dodge,
Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, and Miss Jeanette Gilder. There are two Amateur
Press Associations of these youthful intending journalists in New
England. There may be others in other parts of the country. And the
number of those who are being inducted into the practical work of
journalism, on rural and county papers, owned by their relatives or
friends, grows greater every year.
From the very first there have been for women in journalism an open door
and a fair field. The earliest comers went into it because their
services were sought for. Themselves and those whom their success led to
embrace the same profession met with a warm welcome from the public; in
not a few instances even an enthusiastic one.
In each and every department of journalism—whether in office work, i.e.
as editors, editorial assistants, or reporters; or in outside work, as
correspondents, special contributors, or syndicate writers—the wages
paid to women are the same as those paid to men of similar capacity,
doing the same work. The prices paid vary according to the financial
status of the papers themselves. In the larger cities writers “on space”
receive on some journals payment at the rate of five dollars per column;
some other papers pay as much as ten dollars per column. With all these
writers, except where special articles have been ordered by the chief,
and the length thereof specified, it is a matter of uncertainty how much
space will be given them. The exigencies of the case often cut down
what, under other circumstances, would be a welcome column article to
two or three paragraphs, sometimes to as many lines. Office salaries in
large cities vary from ten or even only eight dollars per week to as
much as fifty or sixty dollars per week. A fair average for syndicate
correspondence is probably about ten dollars per column. On country and
county papers wages are of course much lower, often running down to a
figure which makes outside labor needful for even plain country living.
But whether in city or country women who can do the needful work as well
as men may be sure of as good pay as men, and of fair and just treatment
at the hands of their journalistic brethren.
VII.
WOMAN IN MEDICINE.
BY
MARY PUTNAM JACOBI, M.D.
“Fifty years hence, it will be difficult to gain credit for the
assertion that American women acquiesced throughout the former half of
the 19th century, in the complete monopoly of the medical profession
by men, even including midwifery, and the diseases peculiar to women.
The current usage in this respect is monstrous.”—_New York Tribune_,
Editorial, 1853.