"SOB - SISTER"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 120, 10 October 1941, Page 41

"SOB - SISTER"

CCORDING to R. A. Melville, who recently gave a talk from 1YA on "Literature and Journalism," there are very few opportunities for New Zealand girls to become second Dorothy Thompsons, and if they stay in New Zealand they will probably begin and end as social reporters. He went on to de-bunk the prevalent idea that the journalist lives a Bohemian sort of life, and pointed out that there’s a lot more hard work than gaiety about the life of the average journalist. But the story of Miss Margaret Johnstone’s experiences as a reporter in Sydney and later in Vancouver seem to show that for a woman reporter at any tate the excitement rather outweighs the monotony, and that a New Zealand girl with a reasonable amount of talent and staying power has a fair chance of success in the world of journalism overseas. ‘ Boundless Optimism Two and a-half years ago Miss Johnstone left Wellington for Sydney. "When I landed I had ten pounds and no immediate prospects," said Miss Johnstone. " But I was full of boundless optimism, The moment the boat goes through the heads of Sydney Harbour you feel a new woman. The whole city is spread out over all the hills, and it looks so huge that you feel there must be some niche in it for you. "T was six weeks without a job, during which my ten pounds dwindled. I was eating every second day. Then I gat a job selling linen from door to door. I think now that I might have been quite a good house-to-house saleswoman if I had been selling cakes of soap or toothbrushes, but~- housewives hesitate before buying a pair of sheets or a linen tablecloth and six serviettes. As I was working on a commission basis, eating was still rather a problem. "Then I got a position as governess to three children who lived on a sheep station in the north-west of New South Wales. When I reached the homestead J had exactly twopence halfpenny left. I spent two pence on a stamp and I still have the halfpenny. I have never needed to spend it since. First Assignment " When my six months on this station was almost up I got a letter from one of the many Sydney editors I had inter-

viewed offering me a job on the Daily Telegraph. My career as a journalist had begun. "My first assignment was a rather tough one. All the Sydney suburban trains had just adopted the system of one-class travel, and I was told to interview a number of chronically firstclass travellers and get their reactions to the change. I was a complete stranger to Sydney, but I travelled by the oneclass train to the centre of the best residential district and asked the station master for the names and addresses of people who always travelled first. To my relief all the people interviewed were very obliging, but their attitude (which

surprised me) was that they should be allowed the right of paying extra for extra comfort. One man couldn’t understand why I didn’t object to the oneclass move. ‘I don’t like rubbing shoulders with a man who’s been heaving coal all day,’ he said, ‘and I haven’t got a pretty dress on!’ The "Human Angle" " Australian papers have an entirely different attitude to news from New Zealand papers. Here we tend to report facts in chronological order, there they always aim to get the ‘human angle.’ An ordinary piece of news becomes a

* good story’ if interpreted in the light of its effect on some preferably unfortunate person. It was my job to get such stories so I became a ‘sob sister.’ I interviewed mothers of prisoners and wives of strikers. I interviewed the wife of a Dutchman who had been interned because the authorities thought he was a German. He escaped, and while the police were looking for him I visited his wife. Here were all the ingredients of a good sob-story, for the wife was half starved and had a three-months old baby. "On one occasion a Polish novelist and caricaturist, F. L. Schwarz, arrived in Sydney. Unfortunately his arrival was unheralded by the Press, and my Editor, suddenly aware of his omission, sent me to interview. him. When I reached his hotel Mr. Schwarz was ungracious, He seemed piqued to find that a mere woman had been sent to get his story, and began immediately by stating that women had no sense of humour. I ventured to deny this. ‘ Well, it’s proved by the hats they wear,’ said Mr, Schwarz. I still averred that I, for one, had a sense of humour. Mr. Schwarz whipped out a scribbling block, made a few lightning strokes, and showed me the caricature of myself you see on this page. I laughed. ‘Well, Mr. Schwarz grudgingly admitted, ‘you’re the exception.’ Canada For A Change " After two years in Sydney I decided to try my luck in Canada. It took me a long time to make up my mind, for I was enjoying my life in Sydney, and I do like the Australians. It’s much less inconvenient being Cown-and-out in Australia than it is in any country in the world. . "As soon as I left the boat at Vancouver I started looking for a job. The News Herald attracted me because it was a morning paper. I saw the Editor. ‘Used to doing Court work?’ he asked me. I had never done any in my life but I wasn’t going to lose my chance of a job for the sake of a small lie. Actually he was overjoyed to see me, for with s6 many enlistments his staff was rather depleted. American Husband "In Vancouver I met and married an American serving with the Canadian Air Force. Being married to an American I was able to take several trips down the coast from Vancouver to Seattle and San Francisco. It is amazing to notice the difference between the outward appearance of American and Canadian women, despite the fact that they are neighbours. In Vancouver all the girls seem to go round in tweed suits or overcoats and brogues. They seldom wear hats, and don’t seem to bother much

about hair or make-up. But in Seattle and San Francisco every face is an artistic replica of itself, and flat-heeled shoes are seen only on the golf links. "When my husband left for England I gave up my job and came back to New Zealand. But I certainly don’t regret my years in a newspaper office. I felt all the time that I was ‘seeing life.’ ‘Probably any view of life that a journalist -or rather a sob-sister-is likely to get is superficial, or perhaps even erroneous, but then there’s a lot to be said for the wide vision even if it isn’t the deep one."