Recently I ran across an article about Nellie Bly. I remembered Joe
posted several articles, a few years ago, detailing some of Nellie
Bly's undercover work, and the terrible conditions that so many
working class Americans lived under back 100 plus years ago. Think
times are getting tough today? Well, you're right! But unless we,
the working class people, do not turn it around, America will slip
back to those Bad Old Days. Sadly, what Nellie Bly reported on has
been the Norm for most Americans. Only the Wealthy, Privilaged
Americans remember "the good old days". For most of us and our
parents and grandparents, there were only hard times.
Carl Jarvis
*****
Nellie Bly, 1864-1922
Nellie Bly was born Elizabeth Jane Cochran on May 5, 1864 in the town
of Cochran's Mills, Pennsylvania. The town was named for her father,
Judge Michael
Cochran. Early in life, Elizabeth earned the nickname "Pink" because
her mother routinely dressed her in that color. Judge Cochran passed
away when Elizabeth
was just six. Elizabeth's mother, Mary Jane, would re-marry three
years later to a man who was very abusive, forcing her to go through
the tortuous process
of divorce. This left the family on very hard times. Elizabeth
attended Indiana Normal in hopes of becoming a teacher. However, she
could not afford tuition
and spent only one semester at the school.
In 1880, Mary Jane moved her family to Pittsburgh. Elizabeth assisted
her mother with duties around their house which they had opened to
boarders. In January
of 1885, Nellie read an editorial in The Pittsburgh Dispatch entitled
"What Girls Are Good For." The article admonished women for even
attempting to have
an education or career, suggesting they should stray no further than
the home. This infuriated Elizabeth to the point of writing a scathing
reply that
she signed "Little Orphan Girl." Dispatch editor George Madden was so
impressed by the reply, he placed an ad for the Little Orphan Girl to
visit the newspaper.
When Elizabeth introduced herself to Madden, the editor offered her
the opportunity to write a rebuttal piece to be published. Elizabeth
went home and
wrote her first newspaper article "The Girl Puzzle." Impressed again,
Madden offered Elizabeth a full-time job writing under the name Nellie
Bly (the title
of a popular song by Stephen Foster).
At the time women who worked at newspapers almost always wrote
articles on gardening, fashion or society. Nellie Bly eschewed these
topics for hard pressing
stories on the poor and oppressed. Drawing from her mother's
experience, she wrote on the inherent disadvantages women had in
divorce proceedings. She
also wrote numerous articles on the lives of poor women who worked in
Pittsburgh's bottle factories. Nellie's articles fascinated readers,
but drew criticism
from the business community. When companies threatened to pull
advertising from the Dispatch because of her articles, Nellie was
assigned to a gardening
story. When she turned in the article, she included her resignation.
Nellie's next adventure was a six month trip to Mexico. She wrote of
her travels to Madden, who published her reports in the Dispatch.
However, what started
out as a travelogue soon turned into a scathing review of the Mexican
government. When she reported on President Porfirio Diaz imprisoning a
journalist
for criticizing the government, Nellie soon found herself threatened
with arrest and left the country. Her accounts would later be
collected in the book
Six Months In Mexico.
Back in the United States, Nellie decided that her next destination
would be New York City. In 1887, Nellie arrived in New York hoping to
land a job at
a major newspaper, but none was offered. After four months of
rejection, and near penniless, she talked her way into the office of
John Cockerill, managing
editor of the Joseph Pulitzer newspaper The New York World.
Determined not to leave without work, Nellie was eventually assigned
to go under-cover as a patient in the notorious asylum on Blackwell's
Island and report
first-hand on her experience.
Nellie convinced both doctors and judges that she was insane, and was
committed to the asylum. She endured filthy conditions, rotten food
and physical
abuse from doctors and nurses for ten days before a World agent
rescued her. Nellie's articles "Behind Asylum Bars" and "Inside The
Mad-House" created
an uproar in New York. After further investigations were launched, New
York officials provided more money and a change in care for the people
at the asylum.
Nellie Bly had arrived.
Nellie would spend the next several years writing articles for The
World. She pioneered the field of investigative journalism. Often
going under-cover,
she exposed crooked lobbyists in government, tracked the plight of
unwanted babies, reported on the conditions for poor workers in
box-making factories
and much more. Nellie was becoming so popular, The World would often
use her name in the story's headline! People couldn't wait to see what
Nellie Bly
was up to next.
Nellie's most famous story would begin in 1889. She proposed to travel
around the world faster than Jules Verne's character Phileas Fogg in
Around The
World In Eighty Days. Editors at The World were wary of the idea.
Women didn't travel without escorts, they carried too much baggage.
Never one to be denied,
Nellie Bly stepped onto the ocean liner Augusta Victoria by herself on
November 14, 1889 carrying only two small satchels.
Nellie traveled the world heading east from New York. Her journey took
her from England to Egypt, Ceylon, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan
before heading
back to the United States. During a stop in France, Nellie got to meet
Jules Verne himself, who encouraged her to break his own - fictional -
record! In
the meantime, to keep interest in Nellie's trip alive, The World
promoted a hugely popular guessing game for her arrival time.
Nellie would step back on to American soil in San Francisco. She then
boarded a train that took her across the country. On January 25, 1890,
Nellie Bly
arrived back at her starting point; seventy-two days, six hours,
eleven minutes and fourteen seconds after her departure. Nellie was
now a hugely popular
international celebrity. 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 Bly resigned from the newspaper.
Though unemployed, Nellie was not short of opportunities. Her image
graced trading cards, board games and numerous other products. She
went on lecture
tours and wrote Nellie Bly's Book: Around The World In Seventy-Two
Days. Unfortunately, during this time, her brother Charles died, and
Nellie began taking
care of his wife and two children.
In 1893, a new editor at The World convinced Nellie to come back. On
September 17th, the headline "Nellie Bly Again" appeared on the front
page of The
World. For the next three years, Nellie was back with articles about
police corruption, the violent Pullman labor strike and an interview
with noted suffragist
Susan B. Anthony among others.
In 1895, Nellie surprised everyone by marrying noted industrialist
Robert Seaman, and by 1896 she had stopped writing for The World.
Robert Seaman was
owner of the Iron Clad Manufacturing Company 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 (as Elizabeth Cochrane
Seaman) took over
the company and became the world's leading female industrialist.
Unfortunately by 1914, poor management and fraud within the company
forced her into bankruptcy.
That same year saw Nellie travel to Europe to visit a friend in
Austria. It also saw 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 Evening Journal and made arrangements to become a journalist once
again. Nellie
Bly was America's first female war correspondent, writing articles on
her experiences at the war's front lines. What had started as a
vacation turned into
a five year tour of duty.
By 1919, Nellie was back in New York and writing regularly for The
Evening Journal. She had her own column and dispensed advice as well
as her opinion
on topics of the day. She helped poor women find jobs and raised money
to aid widows, children and others who faced hard times.
Nellie Bly passed away on January 27, 1922 from pneumonia, having
continued to write her column up until her death. The next day, The
Evening Journal carried
a tribute to the pioneering reporter, declaring Nellie Bly "The Best
Reporter In America."
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