His father, who had died young, had filled a small diplomatic post, and it had been intended that the son should follow the same career; but an insatiable taste for letters had thrown the young man into journalism, then into authorship (apparently unsuccessful), and at length--after other experiments and vicissitudes which he spared his listener--into tutoring English youths in Switzerland.

I know that journalism largely consists in saying "Lord Jones Dead" to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.

You could rise in journalism and make a name for yourself.