spirit of that signal in a profession where time is observed more strictly
than in pugilism, where whatever one does one does in the white light of
self-appointed publicity, where a single error or dereliction may ruin the
prestige of years! Consider also the rank turpitude of such a lapse! Alas,
women frequently do not consider these things. Some of them seem to have a
superstition that a newspaper is an automaton and has a will-to-live of
its own; that somehow (they know not how) it will _appear_, and
appear fitly, with or without man's aid. They cannot imagine the
possibility of mere carelessness or omission interfering with the
superhuman regularity and integrity of its existence. The simple fact of
course is that in journalism, as probably in no other profession, success
depends wholly upon the loyal co-operation, the perfect reliability, of a
number of people--some great, some small, but none irresponsible.

Stated plainly, my first charge amounts to this: women-journalists are
unreliable as a class. They are unreliable, not by sexual imperfection, or
from any defect of loyalty or good faith, but because they have not yet
understood the codes of conduct prevailing in the temples so recently
opened to them. On the hearth, their respect for the exigencies of that
mysterious _business_ is unimpeachable; somehow, admittance to the
shrine engenders a certain forgetfulness, Or perhaps it would be kinder
and truer to say that the influences of domesticity are too strong to be
lightly thrown off. For commercial or professional purposes these
influences, in many cases, could not well be worse than they are. Regard,
for a moment, the average household in the light of a business
organisation for lodging and feeding a group of individuals; contrast its
lapses, makeshifts, delays, irregularities, continual excuses, with the
awful precisions of a city office. Is it a matter for surprise that the
young woman who is accustomed gaily to remark, "Only five minutes late
this morning, father," or "I quite forgot to order the coals, dear,"