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CHAPTER IV
ОглавлениеSTRUCTURE AND STYLE IN NEWS STORIES
Writing the News. After the reporter has found the news and has collected all the important details concerning it, he must write it up for publication. To present the news effectively is as important as to get it. Many a good piece of news has been spoiled in the writing. The raw material of fact must be transformed skillfully into the finished product of the news story. The reporter is supposed to be able to write an adequate report. When he does not, the copy-reader or the “rewrite man” is called upon to make good the reporter’s failure. Ordinarily the copy-reader needs only to polish off the rough edges. The work of the good reporter ought to require little or no editing. The careless, slovenly writer is not a welcome addition to the staff of any paper. The less editing a reporter’s copy requires the more satisfactory will he be.
Essentials of Good Copy. The first essential of good copy is legibility. Typewritten copy, double or triple spaced, is always preferred. In long-hand writing, likewise, liberal space should be left between the lines and for margins. In such copy the “u’s” should be underscored and the “n’s” overscored in order to differentiate them. Proper names in long-hand copy should be printed to avoid errors in spelling. If the story is begun halfway down the first page, the copy-reader will have enough space on that sheet to write the headline. Quotation marks, or “quotes” as they are called, should be enclosed in half-circles, thus, “⁾stunt,⁽” to indicate whether they are beginning or end marks. A small cross may be used to advantage for a period. Numerical figures and abbreviations that are to be spelled out should be enclosed in a circle. Each paragraph should be indented, and the first word of it should be preceded by an inverted “L,” thus ⅃; if a new paragraph is desired where there was none in the copy as first written, the paragraph sign (¶) should be used. At the end of every complete story should be placed the end mark (#); if the story is incomplete, the word “more” is written beneath the last sentence. Additions to follow the last sentence of the story are marked with the name of the story and the abbreviation for additions; thus, “Add 2 Hotel Fire” means that the piece of copy is the second addition to the hotel fire story; “Add 1 Wilkins Suicide” means the first addition to the story of Wilkins’ suicide. Additions to be inserted in the story are marked “Insert A—Johnson Will Case” for the first insert in the “Will Case” story; “Insert B—Trolley Collision” for the second insert in the collision story. The place at which the new piece of copy is to be inserted is often indicated thus: “Insert after first paragraph of lead—Murder Trial.” Copy must never be written on both sides of the paper.
Style and Structure. In the writing of the news story two elements must be considered: (1) the style; and (2) the structure. The first has to do with the expression; the second with the arrangement of material.
Clearness. Clearness is the first requisite of newspaper style as it is of all writing. Newspapers are read rapidly, and rapid reading is possible only when the words yield their ideas with little effort on the part of the reader. The less the effort required to get the meaning, the more easily and rapidly can he read. Clearness is most readily obtained by comparative simplicity of style. However effective elaborate sentence construction, learned diction, and carefully wrought figures of speech may be in other kinds of writing, they ordinarily have no place in the news story. This does not mean that literary devices must be abandoned in newspaper writing or that newspaper style is bald and unattractive. News stories demand all the literary ability that the reporter possesses, for besides presenting the news clearly they must be interesting and attractive. Effectiveness in a simple style lies in that choice and arrangement of words which enables the reader to get the meaning with the least effort and the greatest interest.
Conciseness. Conciseness is the second essential of the style of the news story. This, again, does not mean that only the bare skeleton of news is required, for good news stories are clothed with flesh and blood to make them real and to give them human interest. Conciseness demands that not a single needless word shall be used, that every detail shall be necessary for the effectiveness of presentation, and that the length of the story shall be exactly proportionate to its interest and to its news value. If the reporter tests the value of each detail and can give a good reason for using it, he will not go far wrong as to the length of his story. If he can give an equally good reason for every word that he uses, his style is likely to have the desired conciseness.
Originality. Originality of expression in newspaper work is the quality that distinguishes the good writer from the fair and the mediocre ones. Constant rapid writing on similar subjects leads to the use of the same words and phrases over and over again. Trite, hackneyed expressions can be used with less effort and greater rapidity than is required to find new and fresh phrases, unless the writer has accustomed himself to think clearly and accurately in concrete, specific terms. The only way that the newspaper writer can make his work rise above the level of the average is by seeing more in persons and events than does the ordinary reporter and by expressing what he sees with greater freshness and individuality. The classic bit of advice given by Flaubert to De Maupassant, the French master of the short story, is of the greatest value to the newspaper reporter who would cultivate in his style both conciseness and originality. It is in part as follows:
Everything which one desires to express must be looked at with sufficient attention, and during a sufficiently long time, to discover in it some aspect no one has as yet seen or described. The smallest object contains something unknown. Find it.
Whatever one wishes to say, there is only one noun to express it, only one verb to give it life, only one adjective to qualify it. Search, then, till that noun, that verb, that adjective are discovered; never be content with “very nearly”; never have recourse to tricks, however happy; or to buffooneries of language, to avoid a difficulty.
This is the way to become original.
Typographical “Style.” For such details of typographical “style” as capitalization, abbreviation, hyphenation, and use of numerical figures, every newspaper has a set of special rules, generally printed in a so-called “style book,” that are invariably followed by copy-readers and compositors. When a reporter begins work on a newspaper, he should study carefully all these peculiarities, so that he may follow them in preparing his copy. He also should learn as quickly as possible the paper’s printed style rules, or, if there are no printed rules, he should study the news stories as examples of the practice followed in the office. Some newspapers have an “index expurgatorius,” or list of words and phrases to be avoided. These “don’ts” generally embody common errors of diction, but they not infrequently include also some pet aversions of the editor-in-chief, the managing editor, or the city editor, that are matters of preference rather than of good usage. Reporters will do well to observe carefully how their stories are changed by editors and copy-readers, and in all matters of style should make their work conform to the preferences of their superiors.
Paragraph Length. One of the distinctive peculiarities of newspaper style is the brevity of the paragraph. The width of newspaper columns permits about seven words in a line. The result is that a paragraph of the length usual in prose style generally, i.e., from 150 to 250 words, would occupy from 20 to 35 lines and would appear disproportionately long for its width. Paragraphs that are long, or appear to be so, make a piece of writing look solid and heavy, hence uninviting to the rapid reader. In newspaper work, accordingly, it has come to be recognized that shorter paragraphs are more effective. Paragraphs of from 50 to 150 words are considered the normal type for newspaper writing.
This means that often a paragraph, and particularly the first paragraph of a news story, consists of but one sentence. Paragraphs of two or three sentences are very frequent. A comparison of the structure of these short paragraphs with that of paragraphs in other kinds of prose, shows that what would be subdivisions, each with a sub-topic, in the common type of longer paragraphs, become independent paragraphs in newspaper style. The unity of the newspaper paragraph, therefore, is not less marked because of its brevity.
Sentence Length. Journalistic style has sometimes been said to be characterized by short, disconnected sentences that produce a choppy, staccato effect. Kipling, for example, is often described as “journalistic” in his abrupt short-sentence style. As a matter of fact the style of the American news story is marked neither by distinctly short sentences nor by particularly abrupt transitions. The sentences in news stories, on the whole, are as long as those in modern English prose generally. The first sentence of the story, which gives the gist of the news contained, is many times from 50 to 75 words in length, and is therefore to be classed as decidedly long.
Emphatic Beginnings. The emphasis given by initial position is especially important in news stories. The beginning rather than the end is the most emphatic position. The reason is obvious. As the eye glances down the column in reading rapidly, the first group of words in each paragraph stands out prominently. Any climactic effect with the strongest emphasis at the end is lost to the rapid reader unless he follows the development of the thought from sentence to sentence to the close of the paragraph. The important element if placed at the end of a long sentence, likewise, loses its emphasis for a rapid reader.
This principle of emphasis at the beginning determines the structure of the news story. Into the first paragraph, as the place of greatest prominence, is put the most important part of the news. Into the first group of words of the first sentence of each paragraph is placed, if possible, the most significant idea of the paragraph. The least important details go to the latter part of the story, so that unless the reader is particularly interested he need not follow through the account to the end; and so that, if necessary, parts may be cut off entirely without causing any loss that will be evident. The fitting together into columns of stories of different lengths after they are in type often requires that the last paragraph or paragraphs be cut off. This possibility adds to the importance of putting the least significant elements into the latter part of the story, and of concentrating the essentials at the beginning. It also requires that each paragraph be so rounded that it may serve as the end of the story if those following it have to be thrown away.
The “Lead.” The beginning, or “lead,” of the story is the part that requires the greatest skill in the choice, the arrangement, and the expression of the essential elements of the piece of news. Nowhere is it truer than in the news story that “Well begun is half done.” In the typical “lead” the reporter gives the reader in clear, concise, yet interesting form the gist of the whole story, emphasizing, or “playing up,” the “feature” of it that is most attractive. The “lead,” as the substance of the story, should tell the reader the nature of the event, the persons or things concerned, as well as the time, the place, the cause, and the result. These essential points are given in answer to the questions: What? Who? When? Where? Why? How?
The “lead” may consist of one paragraph or of several paragraphs according to the number and complexity of the details in the story. For short stories a one-paragraph “lead” consisting of a single sentence is often sufficient, because the gist of the news can be given in from 30 to 75 words. For a long, complex story consisting of several parts, each under a separate heading, an independent lead of a number of paragraphs may be written as a general introduction to the different parts. Usually, however, the lead is an integral part of the story, giving the substance of the news in a paragraph or two, in such form that all the rest of the story may be cut off without depriving the reader of any essential point.
“Playing up the Feature.” Before the reporter begins to write, he must determine what is the most significant and interesting phase of his piece of news; in other words, the “feature” of it. It is this phase that must be emphasized, “played up” or “featured,” as newspaper men say. As the “feature” of a piece of news is the most interesting phase of it, the reporter must apply to his raw materials of fact the tests of news values discussed in Chapter II. The element of his news, therefore, that will be of greatest interest to the greatest number as measured by these tests, he should select as the “feature.” In addition to the “feature” he must present all the important facts that are necessary to make clear the “feature” and its relation to the rest of the news of which it is a part.
In accordance with the principle of emphasis at the beginning of the paragraph, the “feature” of the story should be placed in the first group of words of the opening sentence of the lead. Although any of the essential points may be “played up,” some are less likely than others to deserve that emphasis. The time of the event, for example, is generally not a significant point in the story, and therefore stories should seldom begin with “Early this morning,” “At two o’clock this afternoon,” “Yesterday,” or similar unimportant phrases. Occasionally the exact hour of some action, such as the adjournment of Congress or of the state legislature, which has been anticipated but could not be definitely fixed in advance, has enough interest to warrant giving it the initial position in the lead. The names of persons should not be placed at the beginning unless they are sufficiently prominent to deserve this emphasis. When a man is not known to a number of readers, his name is of less interest than details of the news in which he is involved. Names of prominent persons, on the other hand, attract the desired attention at the beginning of the story. The place of the event is generally indicated by the date line in telegraph news, and is not played up in local news stories except in unusual cases. News stories should not begin with “At 116 Western Avenue,” “In the lobby of the Manhattan Theatre,” “On the corner of Williams and Chestnut streets,” “Near the New York Central Station,” for rarely is the exact location the most important point. Peculiar or important causes, results, or circumstances are likely to be the best features, because, as has been said, unusual, curious, new phases of activities have the greatest interest for most readers. How each of the different essential elements of the lead may be given emphasis in the initial position is shown in the following examples:
The Time
At 3:30 this afternoon the session of the legislature came to an end when the senate adjourned sine die.
The Place
In the lion’s cage of Barnum’s circus was performed last night the marriage ceremony uniting Miss Ada Rene, trapezist, and Arthur Hunt, keeper of the lions, Justice of the Peace Henry Duplain officiating from a safe distance outside the cage.
The Name
Governor Wilkins denied the rumor today that he will call a special session of the legislature to consider the defects in the primary election law passed at the last session.
The Event
Fire completely destroyed the four-story warehouse of the Marburg Furniture Co., 914 Oxford Street, today, causing a loss of $30,000, covered by insurance.
The Cause
The desire to have maple syrup on his pancakes led to the capture of Oscar Norrie, who was arrested by Deputy United States Marshal Congdon this morning charged with desertion from the army. He was on his way from his mother’s home, 116 Easton Street, to the nearby grocery store to buy some syrup.
The Result
Twenty miners are entombed in the Indian Creek Coal Company’s main shaft as the result of an explosion early this morning which blocked up the entrance, but which did not, it is believed, extend to the part of the mine where the men imprisoned were at work.
The Significant Circumstance
Posing as a gas meter inspector, a thief gained access to the home of John C. Schmidt, 1416 Cherry Lane, yesterday afternoon, and carried off a gold watch and a pocketbook containing $20.
How to Begin. The grammatical form in which the feature is presented in the first group of words of the lead varies according to the character of the point to be emphasized. Some of the convenient types of beginning are: (1) the subject of the sentence, (2) a participial phrase, (3) a prepositional phrase, (4) an infinitive phrase, (5) a dependent clause, (6) a substantive clause, and (7) a direct quotation.
The subject of the sentence frequently contains the most telling idea of the lead and therefore occupies the emphatic position at the beginning, as in the following stories:
(1)
Three unknown bandits robbed a conductor on the Hartford and North Haven Electric Railroad at the Westlawn siding shortly before midnight, and secured about $25. One of the robbers covered the motorman with a revolver while the other two went through the pockets of the conductor. No passengers were in the car.
(2)
Government ownership of telegraph lines is urged by Postmaster-General Hitchcock in his annual report made to Congress today.
(3)
Fire of unknown origin damaged the four story warehouse of Louis Berowitz & Co., wholesale wine dealers, 131 Arlington Court, early this morning, causing a loss of $5,000.
(4)
Vivid blue and green lights playing about Brooklyn Bridge led early risers to believe that the structure was on fire. A broken live wire coming in contact with a steel girder, electricians found, was responsible for the unexpected illumination.
A participial phrase, as the first group of words, is often a convenient form in which to “play up” a significant feature. The participle must always modify the subject of the sentence. The “hanging” or “dangling” participle which does not modify the subject, and the participle used substantively as the subject, are faults to be avoided. The effective use of the participial phrase is shown in the following leads:—
(1)
Speeding homeward from Europe to see their daughter who is ill in Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Spraugton arrived here on the Mauretania this morning and an hour later were on board an 18-hour train for Chicago.
(2)
Run down by her own automobile which she was cranking, Dr. Kate Mather, 151 97th Street, was seriously injured last night, near St. Luke’s Hospital.
(3)
Accused of embezzling $4,700 from the Erie Trust Company, John Fletcher, a bookkeeper employed by the company for three years, was arrested this morning.
(4)
While demonstrating a patent fire escape of his own invention, Oscar Winkel, a machinist, 1718 Amsterdam Avenue, fell from the second story of the apartment house at that number, and escaped with a broken arm and a dislocated shoulder.
Prepositional phrases, either adjective or adverbial, may be used to bring out an emphatic detail; for example:
(1)
With a million coal miners striking in England, with nearly a million out in Germany today, and with the prospect of a walk-out in France tomorrow, the coal supply of Europe will be seriously affected.
(2)
By sliding down three stories on a rope fire-escape, John Wilcox, wanted in New York for forgery, eluded City Detectives Dillingham and Bronson last night, while they were trying to gain access to his room in the Western House.
(3)
In the guise of a postoffice inspector, a bandit gained access to the mail car on the Occidental Limited of the Western Pacific Railroad, and after overpowering the clerks, rifled the registered mail sacks.
Infinitive phrases may be employed to advantage, as in the following cases:
(1)
To rescue his three-year-old son from death when his own home burned yesterday afternoon, fell to the lot of John Morrissey, of Engine 14, when, with his company, of which he was temporarily in charge, he responded to an alarm of fire from Box 976, near his home at 161 10th Street.
(2)
To prevent private monopoly of the water powers of the state, Senator H. G. Waters introduced a bill into the senate this noon providing for the purchase or control by the state of desirable sites for the development of water power.
Causal, concessive, conditional, and temporal clauses at the beginning of a story make possible the desired emphasis in an effective form; for example:
(1)
Because a multiplex money-making machine failed to transform tissue paper into crisp dollar bills, Jacob Montrid yesterday afternoon swore out a warrant for the arrest of Isaac Rosenbaum, 116 East Broadway, who had sold him the machine for $800.
(2)
Although Senator Cameron again refused yesterday to say that he would be a candidate for reëlection, his opponents claim that he has been planning a systematic campaign in his district for several weeks.
(3)
Unless the $150,000 guarantee fund for the democratic national convention Is raised before tomorrow night, the executive committee of the Commercial Club will not extend an invitation to the national democratic committee to hold the convention in this city next July.
(4)
While a surgeon was dressing a bullet wound in his arm at Williamstown Hospital, George Johnson, colored, was placed under arrest by Detectives Gilchrist and Hennessey, charged with shooting and seriously wounding Frank F. Taylor, a colored barber, 117 Washington Place.
A substantive clause as subject of the first sentence of the story is often convenient, particularly for an indirect quotation in reports of speeches, interviews, testimony, etc. The different forms available are shown in the following leads:
(1)
How the Standard Oil Company grew from a firm with $4,000 capital in 1867 to a $2,000,000 corporation in 1875, was told this morning by John D. Rockefeller in the course of the direct examination conducted by his attorney, John G. Milburn, in the suit for the dissolution of the Standard Oil Trust before Special Examiner Franklin Ferris in the Custom House.
(2)
Why the United States needs an income tax, was explained by Senator William E. Borah in his address before the Progressive Republican Club in the Auditorium last night.
(3)
That the United States government should operate a number of coal mines in Alaska and that it should take as its share approximately 25 per cent of the net profits on all coal development by private lease on the public domain in the territory, was the plan offered today by Senator Hitchcock of Nebraska, a member of the territories committee which is hearing the Alaska railroad testimony.
A direct quotation at the beginning is the means of getting before the reader at once the important statement of a speech, report, interview, confession, etc. The following examples and those given in the discussion of reports of speeches and interviews in Chapter VI illustrate the effective use of the quotation.
(1)
“I took the shoes so that my little girl could go to school on Monday,” was the defense that John Hoppiman offered in the Police Court this morning when charged with stealing a pair of shoes from the Palace Shoe Company’s store on Eagle Street last night.
(2)
“No cigarettes sold to minors” is the sign conspicuously posted in all places where tobacco is sold, because the new ordinance recently passed by the board of aldermen went into effect today.
Beginnings to be Avoided. The rule that a news story should never begin with the articles “a,” “an,” or “the,” is neither supported by actual newspaper practice nor based on entirely sound principles. Good emphasis at the beginning is what such a rule strives to secure and in so far as it calls attention to the desirability of beginning the story with an important word in place of an article, it is justified. Often, however, in order to get the most significant element into the first group of words it is absolutely necessary to use one of the articles. Sometimes an article is unnecessary before the noun at the beginning; for example: “Fire destroyed,” etc., is more concise than, “A fire destroyed,” etc., and, “Government ownership of telegraph lines was urged,” than, “The government ownership of telegraph lines was urged.”
Numerical figures should not be used at the beginning of any sentence in a news story. To avoid putting the figures first when round numbers are given, such forms may be used as, “About 250 students,” “Over 1,200 chickens,” “Nearly 750 gallons of milk.” If it is considered desirable to have numbers at the very beginning, they may be spelled out, thus: “Three thousand citizens greeted,” etc., “Two hundred pounds of candy were strewn along Broadway,” etc.
Explanatory Matter. In the lead of all stories of events that are closely associated with preceding events, such as “follow-up” stories, it is customary to give briefly sufficient explanatory information to make the event described clear in its relations to the earlier ones. This is necessary because readers may have overlooked the stories of the preceding occurrences. An explanatory phrase or clause is generally sufficient, but sometimes a whole sentence is necessary.
Unconventional Leads. In place of the usual summary lead containing all the essential points of the event, some stories begin with the particulars leading up to the event and thus keep the reader in suspense as to the nature and result of the happening until he has read the greater part of the story. These stories in their structure approximate fictitious narratives such as the short story. Various forms of beginnings that depart from the normal summary lead are illustrated by the following examples:
(1)
Half a dozen clerks were standing near the big vault in the Chelsea National Bank this afternoon, their backs toward the street.
A blinding flash filled them with terror, and taking it for granted that another earthquake had visited the[Pg 76] city, they jumped into the big vault and shut the door.
When they tried to get out they could not. Some time later when the cashier saw the door closed, he opened it and found the clerks nearly smothered.
A Wilson banner, soaked with rain, had fallen across a trolley wire and caused the flash.
(2)
“What time is it, please?” asked an innocent looking blond boy in short trousers of Harry G. Lampe on the steps of his hotel at 101 Johnson Street last night.
“I haven’t a watch,” said Lampe politely. The boy pulled one out and explained that it was 7:30, whereupon they fell into a conversation and Lampe went upstairs in great good humor, only to come running down again. Two sets of false teeth were gone from his back trousers pocket—all the teeth he had in the world.
The boy was seen talking to a group of men and was taken to the White Street station.
Strange to relate, Sergeant William McCarthy, until recently a marine in the Washington Navy Yard, was there explaining to the desk lieutenant how a blond haired boy had just asked to carry his suit-case containing clothes, discharge papers from a twenty-three years’ army service, and medals for bravery.
“Sure, he said he’d show me a good hotel and we came to a doorway that was dark. Just like that the wallops came, and me not being able to see who was hitting me. They took my bag and my watch and when I got up and felt for my purse they grabbed that, too; $140 was in it.” The door opened on the stealer of teeth. “That’s him, B’ George!”
So it happened that the child stood before Magistrate Hinton in the[Pg 77] Tombs court today on two charges of larceny.
“Stand up,” said the court, and noting everything, blond curls downward, pronounced: “You are a most interesting psychological and sociological study, sir.”
Detective De Groat said that the youth worked for a gang as Oliver Twist once did. Despite his youth and apparent innocence, therefore, he was held in $2,500 bail for the Grand Jury.
(3)
Two men knocked on the door of Mrs. Mary Martin’s apartment at 210 Easton Place yesterday afternoon and said they had come to fix the gas meter. Mrs. Martin through the keyhole told them to go right away, but they kicked down the door instead and walked in.
The woman got out on the fire escape and yelled for help, while the men put the parlor clock in a bag and rummaged about in search of money.
Policeman Cox answered Mrs. Martin’s call for help and ran upstairs. The men heard him coming and scrambled out of a skylight to the roof. Cox followed, but the two had disappeared.
In their flight, however, they spilled a bag of flour over their clothes, and so when Policeman Cox, two hours later, saw two men with their shoulders white with flour, carrying a bag down First Avenue, he arrested them.
Mrs. Martin identified the men as William Kelley and James Hammond, and said they had both lived in the house where her apartment is.
They were locked up on a charge of burglary.
(4)
Mary Hand, 7 years old, who was run down by a mail automobile last night in Third Avenue at Seventy-fourth Street, said she wasn’t hurt and asked to go home.
[Pg 78]
“Please don’t arrest that man,” she added, pointing to the driver; “he didn’t mean to hurt me.” So Policeman O’Reilley took the chauffeur’s name and address, Henry P. Miller, 117 Walnut Street, and let him go on his way with the mail.
The policeman insisted on sending Mary to the hospital though she wasn’t scratched. She had been there just one hour when she died. The hospital folk said they couldn’t account for it, except by undetected internal injuries that she might have sustained.
The little girl was the daughter of John Hand, 214 East Holton Avenue. On hearing of her death the police at once began a search for Miller, the chauffeur.
Another example of this type of story that follows the chronological order instead of beginning with a summary of the facts, is the following from the New York Sun, in which it was printed at the top of a column on the first page:
Tom Flynn, a coal passer who works next to the Fort Lee Ferry over on the Jersey side, was gazing dreamily out over the Hudson early yesterday morning. Suddenly he dropped his shovel and let out a wild yell.
“Gee whiz, look Bill!” he said to his fellow worker. “There’s a deer out there on the ice.”
About 200 feet off shore a red doe was floating down stream, poised on a large cake of ice. Pretty soon another cake drifted along and jostled the doe’s floe and she slid gracefully into the water and started for shore.
Flynn gave the alarm, and although this is not the open season in New Jersey, the game laws were disregarded and in a few minutes fifty odd deckhands, ticket takers, and commuters were engaged in a deer hunt.[Pg 79] Boat hooks, brooms, and shovels were immediately pressed into service, and the excited crowd waited for the deer to come ashore.
When the doe saw them she changed her direction, veering toward the ferry-boat Englewood, which is hibernating in the Edgewater slip, and took refuge in the lee of the paddle wheel. Having rested, the deer swam out into open water, headed directly for the ferry slip and splashed merrily about below the astonished crowd of amateur stalkers. Someone got a rope and attempted to noose the animal, but she couldn’t see it that way, calmly ducked and continued to cavort about in the water.
Finally the doe became bored, dove under the edge of the slip, and was lost to sight momentarily. She then appeared on the other side of the ferry house. Before the crowd could reach her, she scrambled ashore opposite Terry Terhune’s Dairy Lunch, looked wonderingly into Gantert Bros,’ thirst quenching parlors, dashed up Dempsey Avenue and with a whisk of her tail disappeared up the mountain beyond Palisade Park.
“Well, suffering Jumbo!” said Tom Flynn, “these guys don’t know nothing about deer catching,” and he went sadly back to his coal car.
Several weeks ago three deer escaped from the Harriman preserves up the river, and the doe of yesterday’s chase is supposed to be one of them.
Originality in the treatment of the ordinary material of a news story is illustrated in the following beginning of a report of a conference on rural problems.
The little red schoolhouse and the big yellow ear of corn, how to develop each and how to correlate their interests, was the problem discussed yesterday afternoon by a committee[Pg 80] of the Wisconsin Bankers’ association and a number of distinguished educators and public officials. After the meeting at agricultural hall was over, it was apparent that the problem of the big ear of corn was in a fair way of solution, but the little red schoolhouse still remained an enigma.
The various speakers painted glowing pictures of how two ears of corn could be made to grow where one or none is growing now, and how farm life could be beautified and uplifted so that the boys and girls would quit rushing to the cities to add to the poverty of the nation and would remain on the soil to add to the country’s wealth. How to hook the country schoolhouse on this uplift movement did not seem so easy. The various educators present who knew something of the problem it presented, smiled at the altruistic simplicity of the bankers in taking up the problem and were loud in their praise of the monied men for so doing. The bankers could count on co-operation, they said.
The meeting was an informal conference between the committee on agricultural development and education of the Wisconsin Bankers’ association and other organized activities along allied lines, and was held in a classroom of agricultural hall. L. A. Baker, of New Richmond, chairman of the committee, presided.
How a bit of police court news may be worked up into a story the lead of which piques the reader’s curiosity, is shown in the following story from the New York Sun:
It took only two eggs in the hands of Annie Gallagher, a cook, buxom and blond, to spoil a sunset. That is why Annie was in the West Side police court yesterday. She had been summoned by Jacob Yourowski.
Yourowski, who is a sign painter, works at 355 Columbus avenue, next door to 64 West Seventy-second street, where Annie is employed. He was painting a sunset as a background for an advertising sign last Monday when the trouble began.
“I was on the ladder,” he told Magistrate Steinert, “when I was struck by some eggshells. I watched the open window where this woman is employed and pretty soon I saw her peeking out. At first I took it as a joke.”
“Pretty soon there were some more shells. I caught her looking out the window. So in a playful manner I made believe to throw back at her.”
“Judge, then the eggs came at me strong. They weren’t only shells; they had the goods. Pretty soon my sunset looked like an omelet. Then I got mad.”
“Yes,” interrupted Annie, “and in his anger he threw ice in the window at me. One piece struck me and hurt me. Then I got mad and dumped the hot water on him.”
The cook was held in $300 bonds to insure future good behavior.
Another example of an opening that stimulates the reader’s desire to know more of an unusual incident is seen in the following story:
If it hadn’t been for a woman’s curiosity Wadislaus Brinko, who owns a Lithuanian rooming house at 231 East Hain street, wouldn’t have confessed to the police yesterday that he shot and killed Jacob Watus, a roomer in his house, on Oct. 23.
A coroner’s inquest was proceeding in a routine way the day following the shooting and the jury was about to render a verdict of death by suicide, when Mrs. Anna Hannok, 416 Highland place, appeared on the scene. She had been attracted by the crowd outside the undertaking rooms, she said.
[Pg 82]The testimony up to the time of Mrs. Hannok’s appearance had plainly indicated suicide. Suddenly she electrified the jury by pointing to Brinko and crying:
“Ask him where he got the gun.”
The inquiry, interrupted by this dramatic incident, was adjourned until yesterday. Shortly before the inquest was resumed, Brinko broke down and admitted that he had killed Watus. He asserted, however, that it was an accident.
Distinctive beginnings which are also calculated to attract attention by reason of the question form are shown in the following stories taken from the Chicago Tribune:
(1)
Have you lost a $1,000 bill?
No, this isn’t a joke; have you?
Somebody was so careless as to drop a $1,000 bill in the lobby of the Majestic Theatre on Friday afternoon. And if some theatre-goer had held his head a trifle lower he might have seen the currency and not stepped on it.
The bill was dropped near the box office as the audience was entering the house for the matinee. Just when it fell to the tile floor and how long it was kicked around nobody knows. Herbert Klein, the doorman, happened to glance at the floor and saw a piece of paper. Persons were walking over it. He took another look and then he reached for it. Walking back to the door where the light was better he slyly took a peek at it. He saw the big yellow “M” and whistled. He hurried to the office of A. S. Rivers, treasurer of the theatre. He did not wait for the elevator.
Mr. Rivers placed the $1,000 bill in the vault, where he thinks $1,000 bills belong. He was somewhat surprised yesterday when there was no inquiry for the money. Then he became suspicious. Thinking the bill might be[Pg 83] one of the notes of the $173,000 in government money that disappeared from the Chicago subtreasury two years ago, he notified Capt. Thomas I. Porter and Peter Drautzberg of the secret service bureau.
The number of the bill was sent to the treasury department at Washington. It is not known whether the government possesses the numbers of the $1,000 bills which were missed from the subtreasury.
(2)
