Memories of Jane Cunningham Croly, "Jenny June" by Various
page 10 of 178 (05%)
page 10 of 178 (05%)
|
Jennie was married to David G. Croly, a reporter for the New York
_Herald,_ and they began life in the city on his meagre salary of fourteen dollars a week. The gifted young wife, however, soon found work for herself on the _World_, the _Tribune_, the _Times_, _Noah's Sunday Times_ and the _Messenger_. The first money she received for writing was in return for an article published in the New York _Tribune_. Their joint career in metropolitan journalism was interrupted however by a short term of residence in Rockford, Illinois, where Mr. Croly was invited to become editor of the Rockford _Register_, then owned by William Gore King, the husband of our sister Mary A. Cunningham. Mr. Croly was aided in the editorial management by his wife, and while the work was agreeable and successful, it was due to Mrs. Croly's ardent desire for a larger field, that at the end of a year they decided to return to New York. The results for both abundantly justified the change. As managing editor of the daily _World_ for a number of years, afterwards of the New York _Graphic_, and later of the _Real Estate Record and Guide_, Mr. Croly won an honorable position in New York journalism. He was a conservative democrat of the strictest sort, a radical in religion, and had but little appreciation of the deeper forces at work in society and in national life. But he was able and honest, and enjoyed the respect of his fellow-craftsmen. "Jenny June" was a person of very different mental and moral mould. Her work soon revealed a new, fresh, vigorous force in journalism. An examination of her editorial contributions to the _Sunday Times_ from March to December, 1861, suggests her mental vivacity, vigor, breadth of view, and uniform clearness and power of expression. The title of the whole series is unpretentious enough: "Parlor and Sidewalk Gossip." All through her journalistic career similar qualities of |
|