Personal journalism has a prominence in this country with which nothing in
any other country can be compared. What is called publicity in England or
France means the most peaceful seclusion, compared with the glare of
notoriety which an enterprising correspondent can flash out at any time--as
if by opening the bull's-eye of a dark lantern--upon the quietest of his
contemporaries. It is essentially an American institution, and not one of
those in which we have reason to feel most pride. It is to be observed,
however, that foreigners, if in office, take to it very readily; and it is
said that no people cultivate the reporters at Washington more assiduously
than the diplomatic corps, who like to send home the personal notices of
themselves, in order to prove to their governments that they are highly
esteemed in the land to which they are appointed. But however it may be
with them, it is certain that many people still like to keep their public
and private lives apart, and shrink from even the inevitable eminence of
fame. One of the very most popular of American authors has said that he
never, to this day, has overcome a slight feeling of repugnance on seeing
his own name in print.




TALKING AND TAKING


Every time a woman does anything original or remarkable,--inventing a
rat-trap, let us say, or carving thirty-six heads on a walnut-shell,--all
observers shout applause. "There's a woman for you, indeed! Instead of
talking about her rights, she takes them. That's the way to do it. What a
lesson to these declaimers upon the platform!"