Nellie Bly Paper
Nellie was clearly a bold writer who did things her way and hardly allowed for any hindrance in her journey. Not only did she influence journalism, but she also made an impact on women’s RI gets and flaws in the political system 1. Her beginning articles were about female factory worker RSI and the objectifying of women. Fly was discovered, in fact, by an anonymous letter she wrote denouncing an article titled, “What Women are Good for. ” Fly wrote the editor of the Pittsburgh Dispatch claiming the article was sexist and degrading.
The editor was so impressed by her passion and issued advertisements asking her to reveal herself. She did so an d was immediately hired by the newspaper. She also went to Mexico for six months when she was 21 and wrote about the lives and customs of the Mexican people. She titled her book Six Months in Mexico. This book she shined a light on the inequitable government and the corruption n she saw during her trip. She was threatened by readers of the book and faced arrest if she did no t leave Mexico. She American Experience Around the World in 72 Days Nellie Fly promptly left.
Her intentions in becoming a writer were to be an influence in the world. She wanted people to read and be moved. And she did so at a young age and Chaw geed journalism, sexism, and overall the wellbeing of others. Fly grew up in Pennsylvania with her parents and four siblings. Her father, Mi cell Cochran founded the town in which IBIS family lived. When Fly was six her FAA there died leaving her family financially unstable and no legal claim to their property. Three moon this later Bums mother, Maryanne remarried an abusive and alcoholic man forcing Fly to tests FYI for her mother and confirm a divorce.
At this time the Married Women’s Property Act had be en passed and it allowed women to inherit property and to be the legal owner of the money the y owned. 2 This was beneficial for her mother and allowed her a stable life until Fly went to co Liege. In hopes Of supporting her mother further, Fly went to a small college in India an to become a teacher. When her financial situation worsened she dropped out an d moved to Pittsburgh with her mother and siblings. Bays experience with her mother an d the struggles they went through as a family built her feminist morals.
She became aware of the oppression that women felt in the walls of her own home. She fought alone for her mother’s s fatty and demanded that her mother was safe and respected. At 18 Fly sent her letter protesting the sexist article and her writing career too k off. Her first series of articles focused on women and their place in society as well as p poverty and revealing the discrimination in Pittsburgh. Local leaders pressured IBIS editor , George Madden to stop Fly from publishing these bold articles and put her in a topic more SSI table for women. Madden placed Fly in the topic of “Fashion and Society”.
Being as determined as she was she 2 Spastics Educational 870 Married Women’s Property Act still found a way to impress the public mind with matters concerning equal g ender roles. She wrote an article titled, ” Should Women Propose as well as ” Women in the pulpit The New York World , both of which concern women’s roles in society and woman suffrage groups. In addition she also wrote ” Nellie Fly Among the Starving and” Nellie Fly in Jail ” with these articles she used pictures and interviewed men in jail to show the side of socio TTY that the public would be blind to otherwise.
It didn’t take long for Fly to push the barrier. The public was fascinated but drew criticism from the business community. Eventually comb anises threatened to pull advertising from ND they assigned Fly to a gardening story. She turned in her article as well as her resignation as a fashion writer and decided to write AIBO t what she thought were more compelling subjects. After years of writing articles about women’s fashion and current events Fly d cited to become a foreign correspondent. One of BY s first bold moves after her time while writing for the newspaper was traveling to Mexico to observe the lifestyle there.
She rest deed in Mexico for 6 months unconcerned. Which was quite unusual for a women and thought to be inappropriate. There she observed the lifestyle of the residents. She started out writing a Tara veal log in which she wrote of her experiences with locals and the environment. She sent these log stop Dispatch Eventually her logs became more and more thorough and she began to incur prorate criticisms of the government in them. Being the journalist she is, Fly put all these logs Togo there into a book. In her book she wrote about the overwhelming government and the terrible a addiction the Mexican people had to the lottery. ‘They would sell their clothes to buy a ticket t. ” 3 She spoke on 3 Six Months in Mexico 888 the issue of gambling and the role gambling had in the lives of the Mexicans. It was an unstable environment. “The Mexicans, as a people, have an inordinate passion for gambling. They GA emblem on everything. Poor peons have been known, when their money was gone, to take e the rags off their backs and pawn them in order to get a few cents to lose. Men possessing thou sands have gone into houses at night to be hauled away in the morning a corpse, without a doll AR to pay funeral expenses.
Gambling reached such a stage that the government saw it must in terror. Consequently they prohibited all street gambling and started lotteries, in which h prizes are drawn every other day. ” 4 After publishing this book which included a section in which she wrote about t he Mexican leader, President Priori Ditz imprisoning a journalist for doing exactly what she was doing, authorities threatened to have her arrested and she return to her home in Pit though, quit her position as a journalist for ” “yet again and began on her next project in New York.
In New York she found it much more oppressive. She was unable to find a job because of her gender, She was seen as a radical writer; too dogmatic for a woman and the j ruinations of that day. She was unemployed for a while and suffered oppression she was nuance stormed to and did not feel back in Pittsburgh. Aiming to deem herself worthy of the position as a writer she met Joseph Pulitzer the founder of the New York World and earned her position to “expose all fraud and sham, fight all public evil and abuses”.
During the 1 ass’s the world of magazine publishing 4 Six Months In Mexican was revolutionized by the rise Of the country’s first mass circulation national magazines . Aniline’s articles could reach around the whole world and it was clear after her first fee w articles with New that she was making an impression on the people. But being as vivacious as s he was an impression wasn’t as groundbreaking as she would have hoped. It was clean r to Fly that her fame was peaking and she had no intention of stopping at this point in her ca ere. She wanted to change the way journalism was perceived.
She wanted it to be more than an j just words on paper. She wanted to put herself into her articles. Fly was going to turn journalism in to a dangerous feat; something a woman in the 1 sass would not be permitted to do. Fly was convinced she could change the social construct society has made about women and journal ism. With this new session as a guide she made plans and decided to just that. For Fly’s first story she pulled the great stunt to act as an insane women by the e name of Nellie Brown. She pretended to be Spanish speaking and was eventually admit Ted into the mad house.
She was released ten days later by the lawyers of the newspaper and s he had all the accounts she needed to piece together an article shedding the light on the term rifle living conditions theses patients lived in. She wrote about the constant abuse the n urges used on the patients when they did not comply. She questioned whether the asylum was place for recovery or a place to confine those who are deemed “insane” and “beyond help. ” She published her work in October of 1 887 and the piece spread fast along with her name. It was a dad ring move and no one could fathom a woman pulling this off. She was famous. Digital History Rise of Communication IBIS intentions for the most part were not to be famous but to change society Y; Her intention was to change the way these patients lived and were treated. She of arced the public to break from their ignorant lives and see what happens unbeknownst to them. Fly proposed a umber of reforms for the asylum and after thorough investigation the refer ms were issued and the living conditions were improved. This was her first step at bettering society y and allowing them access into a world unknown to them. She returned to simple yet bold articles after her madhouse experiment.
She exposed sweatshops and their poor environment. She wrote about jails and the corrupt Zion of the legislature. She focused again on women’s suffrage and did more interviews. S he interviewed the wives of presidents to get farther into what goes on in the government and w hat the public would know about the white house and the mind of the president himself. H ere articles remained influential and bold but her most famous stunt, surprisingly, was yet to come. Fly had read about the fictional character Philips Fog who traveled around t he world in 80 days. Being the ambitious and determined woman she was she spoke wit h her editor about being able to do this trip around the world in fewer than 80 days. She was De need for a full year. Her editor was concerned about her being alone or the fundamentals. She WA s, after all, only a woman. They claimed that being a woman, she would need more suitcases the n is necessary. She would need an escort to accompany her which would be an even greater cost. She would lose fame and credibility if this adventure could not be done; which they whole retell believed it could not.
Fly proved them wrong. She packed only the dress she was wearing, a sturdy 6 Classic adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, published in 1873 overcoat, several changes of underwear, and a small travel bag carrying her t lottery essentials. And her money in a bag around her neck. She did not have an escort. She pro missed that she could do this with no hesitation or doubt in her ability. In 1889 she was prepare red and ambitious. She was officially set to see the world and set a world record for traveling the world.
The New York newspaper Cosmopolitans had heard about IBIS proposition and sponsored its own reporter, Elizabeth Abstain, to beat Fly. Abstain would Tara el the opposite way around the world and race Fly back to their home. To keep their audience into rested World the newspaper issued a “Nellie Fly Guessing Match” where readers were asked to estimate Fly’s arrival time. The prize was the first free trip to Europe. This kept people kepi nag up with Fly and her travels. It kept people interested in her work although the idea alone was enough to keep the public eye on Fly due to her courage and ambition.
During her travels she went to England, France, Singapore, Hong Kong and m any other places where she visited a leper colony and meeting with many important pee people along the way, Fly traveled using steamships and the existing railroad systems, which cause d occasional setbacks, particularly on the Asian leg of her race. Nellie would step back on to American soil in San Francisco. She then boarded a train that took her across the country. On J unary 25, 1890, Nellie Fly arrived back at her starting point; seventy days, six hours, level n minutes and fourteen seconds after her departure.
She ended up beating her opponent by four and a half days. Fly was a legend, However, to her surprise, The World did not Offer Nellie a bonus despite the increase in circulation she had created. Upset over the sleight, Nellie Fly resign Ned from the newspaper after this big stunt. Though unemployed, Nellie was not short of opportunities. Her image graced trading cards, board games and numerous other products. She went on lecture tours 7 Cosmopolitan News est.. 1 886 ND spoke to fans. Unfortunately, during this time, her brother Charles died, and Nellie began taking care of his wife and two children.
In 1 893, a new editor at The World convinced Nellie to come back. On Septet beer 17th, the headline “Nellie Fly Again” appeared on the front page of The World. Fort he next three years, Nellie was back with articles about police corruption, the violent Pullman n labor strike and an interview with noted suffragist Susan B. Anthony among others. Len 1 895, N Elli surprised everyone by marrying noted industrialist Robert Seaman, and by 1896 she ha d stopped writing for The World. Robert Seaman was owner of the Iron Clad Manufacturing co many which made milk cans, barrels and other steel products.
As the marriage progressed , Nellie became more and more involved with the company. She even patented a milk can of her own design. When Robert died in 1904, Nellie took over the company and became the word Id’s leading female industrialist. Unfortunately by 1914, poor management and fraud with in the company forced her into bankruptcy. That same year saw Nellie travel to Europe to visit a friend in Austria. It also s awe the outbreak of World War 1 . Nellie got in contact with former World editor Arthur Brisbane who now worked at the Hearst newspaper The New York Bioengineering and mad e arrangements to become a journalist once again.
