
Remembering Nellie Bly, Rabblerouser and Pioneer of Investigative Journalism
Elizabeth Jin Kokran came to the world on May 5, 1864. Mrs. Kokran is pleased with the child, her first daughter, she wears Elizabeth in a pink dress to baptize her.
The fun was not to last. When Elizabeth was only 6 years old, her father died without warning and without will, as Elizabeth and her family drowned in a terrible financial strait. After several years, Mrs. Kokran married a man who was often drunk and offensive. Once she was enough to work, Elizabeth left home for training as a teacher, but she ran out of tuition funds after only one semester. With no money and there are no other ideas, she and her mother moved to Pittsburgh, where she helped Elizabeth manage an internal house.
- What girls are good for
- “Who is this crazy girl?”
- Nelly Black buy a child
- Around the world in 72 days
- A second profession
What girls are good for
In Pittsburgh, Elizabeth found her invitation. the Pittsburg Dispach He ran a weekly column by a self -important man named Erasmus Wilson, who was called “The Quiet Observer”. One week in 1885, Wilson published an article entitled “What girls are good”. The answer, as it was, was the household chores. He wrote, it was incorrect and ugly women to work, describing working women as “brutal”.
Elizabeth was not anything of this. She drafted an angry letter to the editor, and signing it, in a provocative way, “a single orphan girl.” The letter was not a technical work – Elizabeth left the school at the age of 15, after all – the editor, George Madden, did not like the writer’s enthusiasm. Announcement in the next issue of sendInviting the only orphan girl to apply. She did, and offered her a job. To protect her identity and reputation, Maden was quickly recommended to choose the selection of the pen’s name. The two settled on Nelly Bla, after a popular song for Stephen Foster.
Ble came out with the vibrant fire. From the beginning, she was determined to write important stories. She had no experience, education, and a small Polish, but she was hit by fire in her stomach, which she saw a few newspapers. I wrote about women’s labor laws. I wrote about the laws of sexual divorce. Maden was convinced to send her to Mexico, but a long time ago she was expelled Exposing government corruption.
the send The editors were not happy. They tried to restrain her by setting her stories about flower and fashion shows. Nelly Blai rejected these delicate tasks. I have resigned, but not before you leave a stunning cold message on the quiet observer’s office: “Dear QO: I am going to New York. Look for me.”
“Who is this crazy girl?”
It was the year 1887, and Nelly Blai just spoke to a job in New York World. For her first story, I agreed to me Mental disease demonstrated In order to enter the New York City shelter on Blackwail Island.
After examining her in an internal house for women under another fake name, she started to act wrongly, deny her speech by Spanish names and claimed that she lost her memory. That night I asked for a pistol. This was apparently all it took. The owner called the police, who were transferred to the court.
Correspondents were captured in the courtroom immediately by “Nelly Brown”. On the platform, we woven with a negligent story, abuse, and abandonment. A doctor examined her announced a “anesthetic”.
At the end of this week, and New York Sun (A. world A competitor) carried descriptions breathless for the mysterious woman, from the contents of her pockets to the sound of her voice. “Who is this crazy girl? She is beautiful, wears good clothes, speaks Spanish,” one of the main address.

I spent 10 days in the Blackwell Island shelter, during which she saw and was a victim Terrible treatment. The inhabitants of asylum were often poor women and immigrants, some of whom were imprisoned just because they were unable to speak English. Women were beaten, starved, and forced the cold bathrooms-the fate that the beautiful clothes were unable to save them.
When she was released (a lawyer in the newspaper arranged her), she recorded everything that I saw. she detailed The circumstances in which her colleagues were forced to live, and the punishment they carry: “What, except for torture, would produce madness faster than this treatment?”
The paper was published “ten days in a crazy” in a serial form. By the time when the last batch struck the news stalls, New York was interested.
Blind reports do not be afraid. A major investigation into the jury in asylum has confirmed many of its observations, and the institution was finally closed.
Blie had just started.
Nelly Black buy a child
Ble became a kind of journalism, Robin Hood, as it revealed the darkest pillars of the New York City community. Wherever women, children, or poor people are often treated, you will find Nelly Bla. She was secret as a patient in the poor clinic and ran away with a slight difference from removing the tonsils. For her story, “Girls who make boxes”, she joined the ranks of young women who work in a factory. Visited Seven different doctors She obtained seven different diagnoses and a large group of prescriptions.
She visited a house for “unfortunate women”. She lived for two days in one of the most dwelling in New York in the hottest part of the summer. I bought a child on the black market. No, really – it is Bought a child:
“I bought a child last week, to know how to buy and sell slaves in New York City. Think about it! Occupied a 10 -dollar spirit!
What can you top it?
He decided to conquer the world.
Around the world in 72 days
Gul Verna novel Around the world in eighty daysIt was first published in 1873, it was angry in 1889. Eighty days were very impressive due to the transportation options at the time, but I thought it could do what was better. After persuading its editors to finance everything, I bought a reasonable dress and set out.

The rest is legend. Make the house in 72 days, six hours, and 11 minutes. She had even time to stop in France to tea with Jules Verne. The story Make it a familiar name.
Inspired by the work of Bla, other women began to follow their bold steps. Since these secret stories were the boycott of “girls”, their brave work was rejected as “a trick reports.” Today we were calling it Investigative press.
A second profession
I met Robert Ciman, the industrial Bla, and married him a few days later, leaving the newspaper’s life behind it. Seman was 40 years older than his bride, but none of them seemed to be particularly disturbed by the different age. Their marriage lasted for nearly 10 years, until the death of Seman in 1904.
Elizabeth Kokran (her name later changed to add ESeman inherited all the holdings of her late husband, including an iron manufacturer. Another widow may have handed over the company. I decided to run it on its own.
Ble had no experience in this square, but the lack of experience did not stop before. By 1905, it was Submit patents For new types of oil barrels.
As a business owner, please Incarnate All the principles that she defended in her stories. She has led her workers somewhat and offered them to reach the gym, libraries and health care hall, unlike almost every other American factory.
Unfortunately, the treatment of employees like humans was expensive, and very long ago, her business was subject.
Bella returned to the newsroom during the First World War. She was still working in 1922, when she died due to pneumonia at the age of 58.
Nelly Bla, was a consistent advocate for social change, a journalist dynamo, and the power of nature. She was not the first woman of her time to join the newsroom, but she was definitely the most fierce.
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A copy of this article was published in 2019; Updated for 2025.
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