Ruthe
S. Wheeler
Goldsmith
Publishing Company, 1932
Genre:
Realistic
Description
Helen
Blair's father, Hugh, is the editor of the Rolfe Herald. Her
brother, Tom, writes some news for the paper and operates the
Linotype while Helen helps around in the office. The newspaper is an
eight-page paper. It features four pages of national news and four
pages of local news. At the time of the story opens Helen arrives at
the office to find that her father is very ill. She sends him home
and promises that she and Tom will finish the paper and demands that
he call the doctor. The doctor examines him and tells Helen and Tom
that their father will need to go to a southern state to rest for
possibly six months at least as he is suffering from lung trouble.
Knowing that they don't have the funds for such a trip, Helen and Tom
offer up their college savings for the “vacation” and offer to
run the paper themselves which is better than hiring someone to come
in from outside and do it. Mrs. Blair calls Helen the new editor but
she says that Tom is really in charge. He says that they will be
democratic. They nominate Mrs. Blair as the publisher; Tom will be
the businessman, run the mechanical department, and act as handyman;
and Helen will be the editor, lead reporter, and assistant to the
handyman. Margaret, daughter of the local doctor and Helen's best
friend, volunteers to write for free as she's always wanted to be a
writer.
A
number of days later a bad storm hits. Tom calls it Helen's first
story. In the calm of the storm they see a boat out on the lake. It
is their neighbor Jim who delivers mail and papers to the resorts
every Sunday morning. He could get in trouble if he's not out before
the storm picks up again. Helen takes off to help him when Tom yells
and points to the sky where a tornado is forming. Working together
they pull Jim from the water and begin to drag him to the nearest
storm shelter. They watch from safety as the tornado appears and
proceeds to take out a small barn. Luckily it turns away from town
and the doctor decides to head out to check on the farmers. Helen and
Margaret tagalong as reporters. Their first stop is the demolished
Laver farm where they find the father with a broken arm and the
family gives Helen an eyewitness account of the storm. As they
continue on about 15 miles outside of town they see more destruction
but no major injuries. On the way back they’re stopped by a man who
says that his house was destroyed and that his son was hurt badly as
he was knocked unconscious. Meanwhile, Tom checks out the damage to
the resort on the lake which accounts for about $50,000. The total
end result is about $100,000 in damage. Tom suggests that Helen sends
her story to the Associated Press as it might be a big deal and maybe
they could get paid for it. She calls them and is told to write up
her account and that she might become their new Rolfe correspondent.
Monday
morning Helen writes an article about the storm. She then proceeds to
spend time finding more news for the paper. She visits an incoming
train to try to get some personals from the visitors. One new man in
town is Mr. Charles King who happens to be the state superintendent
of schools and is there to make inspections. He offers to see Helen
before he leaves and report on the school system. A farmer comes in
to get some sales bills printed and Helen offers him a good deal. He
tells her to look into the same kind of deal with some of the other
farmers in the area as they would be a good source of revenue for
advertisements. Jim eventually shows up to tell Helen that the damage
to the summer resorts was about $35,000 total but everything is
insured and should be fixed in about two weeks. Luckily the storm
missed Sandy Point, the older resort. In the afternoon Helen sees Mr.
King who proceeds to tell her that her town has the best schools in
the state with populations under 1,000 people. He suggests that Helen
consider adding a school page to the newspaper. Later that night
Helen, Tom, and Margaret all go to school for a sophomore/junior
debate. The sophomores win and Margaret is the best debater.
Thursday
morning comes and as they head out to finish the issue they discover
that their printing press has broken down. Tom gets help from Milt at
the local garage as he is fixed it before in the past. On Friday
Helen and Margaret go to the sophomore class picnic of 18 students.
They gather rocks and partake in treasure hunt. They eventually have
dinner and hold a campfire where they tell scary stories. During the
stories Helen discovers that Margaret has disappeared. When they
learn that it is no joke they set out to search for her and discover
that one of the rowboats is missing. They all set out onto the lake
and finally find the missing boat half under water and Margaret
drenched with a black eye. She admits to disappearing and looking for
the boat. When she tried to get back to sure she stumbled and that is
all that she remembers.
The
school year is coming to an end and the senior class play has run
into a bit of a problem—the lead actress is sick and can't speak.
Everybody convinces Helen to take over the part. Other exciting
things happen along the way. The big exciting news is that the
railway has a new train that is gas electric powered. By the first
week in June Tom discovers that the newspaper isn't making enough
money. He says that they're just going to have to make the paper so
good that all the businesses will want to advertise with them and he
starts by including the farmers’ page. Tom decides also to cut down
the national news from four to two pages. He says that most of the
people want to read the comics and the fashion news. Helen finally
receives a check from the Associated Press for her tornado story and
is shocked to discover it is $10. It is Tom's goal that they
hopefully get new subscribers and get to be noticed as an official
county paper. However, there is stiff competition to be one of the
three official newspapers. Their biggest competition comes from the
Auburn Advocate which is run by Mr. Atwell, who their father
called the crookedest newspaperman in the state.
The
big Fourth of July celebration is just around the corner. Usually two
resorts send out flyers to the big papers but Tom put in a smaller
bid and got the job. Art, the owner of the smaller resort, is holding
a huge carnival and gives the Blair family free passes considering
how much money he saved by printing his 20,000 flyers with them. The
big exciting news is that Speed Rand is going to be making an
appearance. He is a huge aerial celebrity. On their way to Sandy
Point for the festivities, Helen gets an urgent telegram from the
Associated Press who wants her to try to get an interview with Rand
and to try to confirm rumors of his next big stunt—flying around
the world without refueling.
Once
they reach Sandy Point Speed Rand is attempting a trick in the path
of their boat. He flies over their boat and nearly busts the bottom
of his plane open. He flies off and crashes and Tom, Helen, and
Margaret get their boat to follow after him to make sure he is all
right. In exchange for being quiet about the accident Helen get the
chance to interview him and asks about the rumor which he confirms is
the truth (and sounds a lot like Lindbergh’s big flight). She calls
the Associated Press office and they are stunned that she got the
story.
After
a day full of fun they decide to take Captain Billy's ship, the
Queen, back to town. This will be the boat’s last year on the lake.
Everything seems to be going fine until speedboat crashes into the
bow of the old steamer. The captain gives Tom orders to run full
speed to the shore as everyone on the lower decks moves to one side
to see the accident, which unfortunately could cause the old boat to
sink. Luckily they make it to shore in time and no one gets hurt.
Later that night, the Queen catches fire and burns to the ground.
Some believe that Captain Billy started it but no one really knows.
Helen decides to write about the story for the Associated Press. The
next morning Helen receives a copy of her stories and a message about
a monthly check coming her way and possible employment after high
school.
Time
flies by. In August Helen adds the school page to the newspaper. In
October they've added an additional 400 new subscribers making their
total 1,272 people. Soon Atwell shows up to try and intimidate Helen
and Tom by claiming that they are stealing away his subscribers. By
the end of November they're up to 1,400 circulation. It is pretty
certain that the Herald is going to be named the third
official county paper instead of the Advocate. Tom decides to
place his subscribers’ records in the bank because he's pretty sure
that Atwell would stoop to sabotage. The very next day a fire occurs
in the printing office but is luckily stopped before anything too bad
happens. The Fire Chief finds evidence of arson and discovers that
the office was ransacked—probably for the circulation records. An
official audit proves the Herald has 1,411 subscribers and
they are indeed named the third official county paper.
The
Blairs now have more income so Tom hires a printer at $18 a week and
buys a paper folder for $50 so Helen never has to fold 1,411 papers a
week again. By the time all of their bills are paid they have a
surplus of $900. Helen decides to spend $200 on a railroad tickets to
send her mother down to Arizona to spend Christmas with their father.
Thoughts
and Nuggets of Wisdom for Research
There
isn’t much of note in this story (it was actually a “career”
novel that was pretty well written and entertaining). The characters
are described in pretty standard ways: “Tom was tall and slender
with a wavy, brown hair and brown eyes that were always alive with
interest. Helen came scarcely above his shoulder, but she was five
feet two of concentrated energy. She had left her tam at the office
and the afternoon sun touched her blonde hair with gold. Her eyes
were the same color blue as her mother's and the rosy hue in her
cheeks gave hint of her vitality” (p. 22-23) and “Mrs. Blair, at
45, was a handsome woman. Her hair had decided touches of gray but
her face still held the peach bloom of youth and she looked more like
an older sister than a mother. She had been a teacher in high school
at Rolfe when Hugh Blair had come to edit the country paper. The
teacher and editor had fallen in love then she'd given up teaching
and married him” (p. 25-26).
The
biggest element in this story was gender stereotypes. As noted above,
Mrs. Blair gave up teaching to marry Hugh and she currently just
teaches a Sunday school class for 10- to 12-year-old girls. When her
children declare her the new publisher of the paper the following
conversation occurs showcasing just how skeptical their mother is of
being useful outside the home (p. 37-38):
“As
publisher, I'll stay at home and keep out of your way.”
“Mother,
we don't want you to do that,” exclaimed Helen. “I want you to
come down and help us whenever you have time.”
“But
what would I do?” asked her mother.
“Well
things. For instance, jot down all the personal items you know about
your friends and about all the club meetings. That would be a great
help to me. Sometimes at evening maybe you'd even find time to write
them up. Tom and I are going to be frightfully busy between going to
school and running the Herald.”
“I'll
tell the town,” said Tom. “If you'd handle the society news,
mother, you can make it a great feature. The Herald has never
paid much attention to the social events in town. Guess dad was too
busy. I think that women would appreciate having all of their parties
written up. I could set up a nice head, 'Society News of Rolfe,' and
we would run a column or so every week on one of the inside pages.”
“You're
getting me all excited, Tom,” said his mother. “Your father said
I never would make a newspaper woman but if you and Helen will have
little patience with me, I'd really enjoy writing the social items.”
The
other two elements that showcase gender stereotypes include quick
references—one which is slightly negative and one which was
positive. When Tom and Helen decide to cut some of the national news
elements to save money Mr. Walker, their news contact, says, “You're
going to be quite metropolitan with a full page of comics and a page
devoted to women. I'm glad of that. Too many editors of weeklies fail
to realize that the women and not the men are the real readers of
their papers. If you write a paper which appeals to women and
children you have a winner. Comics for the youngsters and a serial
story with a strong love element and fashions and style news for the
women” (p. 169). Lastly, when Tom tells Helen to call the
Associated Press with her tornado story she tells him to telephone
instead as she’d be “scared to death and wouldn’t be able to
give them all the facts” (p. 70). Tom replies (go Tom!) that she’s
the editor and that it is her story so she ought to do the phoning.
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