"Nellie Bly: Daredevil Reporter"
A Ballad About Elizabeth Jane Cochran (1864-1922)
Elizabeth was the rebellious child
Of a sleepy, little country town.
She was considered nothing short of wild
And was christened clad a bright pink gown.
When "Pink" was just about six years old,
Her father died, never leaving a will.
The house and all the furniture sold,
The Cochrans soon lived without a frill.
Pink's mother thought she must act in haste,
Only to find the man she'd suddenly married
An abusive one who was lacking in taste.
This burden, the whole family carried.
The disastrous match soon came to a end
With a shocking and scandalous divorce.
The family had lost nearly every friend,
But Pink kept her dignity with startling force.
Pink went off to school to train for a post,
Studying to become a grade school teacher,
Which was considered respectful by most,
The equivalent of a man being a preacher.
The money ran out after only a year,
But Pink never wallowed in pity.
She tried to keep back oh so many a tear,
While she went to find work in the Steel City.
In Pittsburgh, Pink would've worked with an iron fist,
But could merely help run a boarding house.
One day she was enraged by a known columnist
Who wrote women should sew and be silent as a mouse.
Pink knew how women worked just to get by
In the gutters and the slums of the city.
So she decided to take a stand and let her pen fly;
She took her name from a popular ditty.
The newspaper was quite impressed
That a woman could have such radical views.
They hired this woman who had been oppressed,
Now, she had a job in the news.
Nellie's first story was about the working
Whose awful state she knew all too well.
But with flower shows the story was found lurking,
And Nellie's heart began to swell.
Nellie left a note which showed her might
Before she left for New York City.
Nellie wouldn't go down without a fight,
Even when nobody there found her witty.
Nellie decided that she would be able,
Under the wing of the New York World,
To write more than tale or fable.
A whole new world for her was unfurled.
Nellie spent ten days in a mental house,
Convinced them that she was crazy.
She ate spoilt food and saw many a mouse;
The baths there were dirty and icy.
Nellie decided she had to leave,
But the doctors wouldn't let her go.
It took the editors to make them believe
That this woman was putting on a show.
Bly's story was a total shocker
Which brought about many a change
Some people tried their best to block her,
But Bly changed the treatment of the insane.
Nellie's was a new kind of writing
Which spoke of society's numerous ills.
But many people were constantly fighting;
They said Bly's writing used only cheap thrills.
Bly was challenged to go around
The world in under eighty days.
And all her skeptics soon found
That Nellie could never cease to amaze.
The record was by Nellie broken.
When she circled the world in 72 days.
Upon her return, she was spoken
Of with wonder and with praise.
At age thirty, Nellie was married
To a man forty years her senior.
Robert Seaman was the name he carried,
And he was millions of dollars her superior.
The marriage was less than happy, so
Different were the couple's views.
In ten years, Nellie was a widow,
So she reentered the world of news.
Nellie's finances went, and she became poor.
She escaped her problems in Europe, where
She reported from the front on the Great War.
She was the first woman to cover news there.
Bly died on the twenty-seventh of January
In the year nineteen twenty-two.
Each newspaper had an elaborate obituary;
The world felt its loss; so much is true.
Nellie Bly wrote about more than hearth and home.
For women, she opened up many worlds.
And so I have written this simple poem
About a woman who knew how to use words.
by Laura
