SOCIETY IN PROSPECT AND REVIEW Never has a Washington season begun so early as this one. The middle of December finds the White House dinners in full sway, the President and Mrs. Wilson having dined with the Vice President and Mrs. Marshall, and the first state reception of the season in the White House due in two days. President and Mrs. Wilson already have had three large and formal dinner parties, the first one on December 7, in honor of Mr. Vance McCormick, chairman of the Democratic national committee; and on Tuesday of last week they entertained the Vice President and the members of the cabinet and their wives, with a number of other distinguished guests and a few young people. After this dinner a programme of music was given in the east room and the evening was a charming success. The First Lady of the Land never was more lovely than she was on this occasion. The President's niece, Miss Alice Wilson, of Baltimore, came over with her father for the evening. Miss Nataline Dulles, niece of Mrs. Lansing, made her first appearance at a state dinner, and Miss Margaret Wilson and Miss Bones were among the guests. On Thursday evening the visiting governors, former governors and governors-elect here for the conference this week, and their wives, were dined, with an interesting company. Friday evening the Vice President and Mrs. Marshall gave their annual dinner to the President and his wife, and had a senatorial company to meet them. The debutantes are in the full splendor of their glory, and the next three weeks will give them a supreme test of endurance, for luncheons, teas, dinners and dances not only follow one another closely, but pile up, with several in a day and not one to be neglected. There are no diplomatic buds, no cabinet buds, and few army, navy and congressional buds. But it is a strong residential year, with a number of debutantes in the smartest and most exclusive of the substantial old families. During the Christmas holidays the buds of the future, some of a year hence, others of two years, are vying with the older girls for busy days, and the social calendar shows scarcely a resting moment from the day they come home from school until they rush back to their studies in time to reach the first recitation class. And as for beauty sleep, there will be none. There will not be a night during the Christmas vacation when this younger set will not be dancing. Time was when dinner parties were composed of elderly, or at least middle-aged, people only, but now even the near-debutantes and their circle have a steady round of "dining out," with no fear of being considered "along in years," for there are dinners for all ages. Washington has given three of her most distinguished, most beautiful and most popular girls to foreign lands within two months, two of them having become princesses and the third a baroness. The first to wed was Miss Margaret Draper, heiress to several millions of her father's estate. She is now Princess Boncompagni of Rome, and her mother is now just about joining her and the prince in Paris, the three to proceed to the prince's home in Rome, where they will spend Christmas together, after which the prince will return to duty with his regiment. The second of these brides of foreigners was Miss Catherine Birney, daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Theodore V. Birney, who was married December 2 to Baron von Schoen, of the German embassy staff, and is just back now from the wedding trip. They returned for the marriage of Miss Catherine Britton to the Prince zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfuerst, of the Austro-Hungarian embassy staff. Baron and Baroness von Schoen will spend Christmas with the latter's sister, with whom she has made her home since the death of her parents, and then they will proceed to Mexico, whence the baron has been transferred. The marriage of Miss Britton and Prince zu Hohenlohe was not unexpected, but the wedding date was hurried about three months, the prince becoming an impatient wooer. He was assigned to duty at the Austro-Hungarian consulate in the summer and agreed to remain away for a year. He stood it as long as he could, and then returned to claim his bride. The consent of the prince's family has not been forthcoming, but the marriage has the sanction of the embassy, presumably by order of the new emperor, and it was a happy wedding scene. The bride is one of the famous beauties of Washington society. She was never lovelier than in her singularly simple wedding gown of satin with pearl trimmings, tulle sleeves, and enormous wedding veil. Society is dancing its way through the season. The fever is making inroads even upon the incessant auction-bridge playing, and he or she who neither dances nor plays auction has a dull time of it. Washington society is rather methodical in its dancing. Monday nights are given up to the subscription dances at the Playhouse, and another set at the Willard. Tuesday night the army dances are given at the Playhouse. On Wednesdays are the regular Chevy Chase Club dinner dances, and on Thursdays are those at the Navy Club. On Friday nights, beginning on January 5, will be the ten subscription dances at the Willard, and on Saturday nights there are dances everywhere. The private dances are scattered all through, afternoons and evenings, until there is scarcely a date left vacant on the calendar until Ash Wednesday.[46]

[46] Washington Post, December 17, 1916.

256. Clubs.—The particular attention of the prospective society editor may be called to club news. The work in literature, education, community betterment, general social relief, and kindred subjects now being undertaken by women's clubs is sometimes phenomenal and offers to live society editors a vast undeveloped field for constructive news. Too frequently the society page is filled with dull six-point routine, forbidding in style and still more forbidding in content, when it might be made alive with buoyancy and interest by added attention to new studies and interests in the women's clubs. What the women are doing in their study of the garbage question, in their campaigns against flies, in their efforts to provide comforts for unprivileged slum children,—such topics, properly featured and given attractive individual heads, may be made interesting to a large percentage of the intelligent women in the community and may be made instrumental in building up a strong, constructive department in the paper.

257. Typographical Style.—The prospective society editor will find it well, however, to study and to follow at first the typographical style of the society column in her paper. Some newspapers run each wedding, engagement, or social affair under a separate head. Others group all society stories under the general head of Society, indicating the different social functions, no matter how long the write-ups, only by new paragraphs. Sometimes this necessitates paragraphs a half-column long. In preparing lists of names in society reports, the editor should group like names and titles together. That is, she should group together the married couples, then the married women whose names appear alone, then the unmarried women, and finally the men. An illustration is the following:

Among the several hundred guests were Mr. and Mrs. S. Bryce Wing, Mr. and Mrs. Felix D. Doubleday, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Gouvernour Morris.... Among the debutantes and other young women present were Misses Gretchen Blaine Damrosch, Priscilla Peabody, Irene Langhorne Gibson, Rosalie G. Bloodgood.... The young men present included Messrs. Lester Armour, Edward M. McIlvaine, Jr., Edgar Allan Poe, William Carrington Stettinius, Nelson Doubleday, Herbert Pulitzer....

258. Spurious Announcements.—A word may be said in conclusion about getting society news. One of the first precautions to a prospective society editor is not to accept announcements of engagements, marriages, and births of children from any others than the immediate persons concerned. In particular, one should beware of such news given by telephone. Too many so-called practical jokes are attempted in this way on sensitive lovers and young married couples. Many newspapers have printed forms for announcements of engagements and weddings. These are mailed directly to the families concerned and require their signatures.

259. Sources for Society News.—In cases of important news, such as weddings and charity benefits, the editor generally has little difficulty in obtaining all the facts needed. Some social leaders are naturally good about giving one details of their parties. Others, however, shun publicity even to the extent of denying prospective luncheons, dinners, and card parties—particularly if they are small—after all plans have been made, and the details may be had only after they know the reporter has definite facts. To get these first facts is often one's hardest task. Frequently one can acquire the friendly acquaintance of some one in society who likes to have her name appear with the real leaders. Men, too,—even husbands,—often are not so reticent about their immediate social affairs and are glad to give pretty society editors advance tips of coming events. But the best sources are the caterers, the florists, and the hair-dressing parlors. The caterers are engaged weeks in advance. The florists provide the decorations. And the hair-dressing parlors are hotbeds of gossip. By visiting or calling regularly at these places one generally can keep abreast of all the society news in town. But always when getting news from such sources—or from any other for that matter—one must be sure of the absolute accuracy of all addresses, names, and initials. If one is not careful,—well, only one who has seen an irate mother talk to the city editor before the ink on the home edition is dry can appreciate the trouble that will probably result.

XVIII. FOLLOW-UPS, REWRITES

260. "Follow-ups."—"Rewrites" and "follow-up" stories are news stories which have appeared in print. The distinction between the two is that "follow-ups" contain news in addition to that of the story first printed, while "rewrites" are only revisions. Few news stories are complete on their first appearance. New features develop; motives, causes, and unlooked-for results come to light in a way that is oftentimes amazing. Sometimes these facts appear within a few hours; again they are days in developing; and occasionally, after they have developed, the story will "follow" for weeks, months, and even years without losing its interest. The Thaw, Becker, and Charlton stories ran for years. The first item about the Titanic disaster was a bulletin of less than half a stick; yet the story ran for months.

261. Constructive Side of "Follow-ups."—A reporter, therefore, must not consider a story ended until he has run to ground all the possibilities or until the new facts have ceased to be of interest to a large body of readers. Indeed, it is in the "follow-up" that the reporter has one of his greatest opportunities to prove himself a constructive journalist. There is every reason, too, for believing it will be in the "follow-up" that the big newspaper of the future will find its greatest development. At present, stories often are dropped too quickly, so quickly that the really constructive news is lost. A great epidemic sweeps a city, taking an unprecedented toll of life and entailing expenditures of hundreds of thousands of dollars. All the reporters grind out pages and pages of copy about the plague, but few follow the physicians and scientists through the coming weeks and months in their unflagging determination to learn the causes of the disease, to effect cures, and to prevent a recurrence of it as an epidemic. Yet such news is constructive and is of greater value probably to the readers than the somewhat sensational figures of the plague. For the scientists will conquer in the end, and all along the way their improved methods of cure and prevention will be of educational value to the public. So also with strikes, wrecks, fires, commercial panics, graft and crime exposures, etc.; the reporter is advised to follow the story through the weeks to come, not necessarily writing of it all the while, but holding it in prospect for the constructive news that is sure to follow.

262. Following up a Story.—The first story which the new reporter will have to follow up he will some day find stuck behind the platen of his typewriter. It will have been put there by one of the copy-readers who has read the local papers of the preceding morning or afternoon and has clipped this article as one promising further developments. The first thing to do is to read the whole story carefully. (As a matter of fact, the reporter really should have read and should be familiar with the story already. Familiarity with all the news is expected of newspaper men at all times.) Then he should look to see if the reporter writing the story has played up the real features. In his haste to get the news into print, the other reporter may have missed the main feature. A delightful case in point is a "follow-up" of an indifferent story appearing in a New York morning paper:

Because they were penniless and hungry, Charles Ewart, 31 years old, and his wife Emily, living at 646 St. Nicholas Avenue, were arrested yesterday in the grocery store of Jacob Bosch, 336 St. Nicholas Avenue, charged with shoplifting. When arrested by Detective Taczhowski, who had trailed them all the way from a downtown department store, seven eggs and a box of figs were found in Mrs. Ewart's handsome blue fox muff....

But the cause of the couple's pilfering was not poverty or hunger, as was shown by a clever writer on the New York World who covered the story that afternoon. Here is his write-up, in which the reader should note the entire change of tone and the happy handling of the human interest features:

CONFESSED SHOPLIFTERS Mrs. Emily Ewart, slender, petite, pretty, sat in the police department to-day, tossed back her blue fox neckpiece, patted her moist eyes with a lace-embroidered handkerchief, carefully adjusted in her lap the handsome fox muff which the police say had but lately been the repository of seven eggs and a box of figs, and told how she and her husband happened to be arrested last evening as shoplifters. As she talked, her husband, Charles Ewart, thirty-one years old, sat disconsolately in a cell, his modish green overcoat somewhat wrinkled, the careful creases in his gray trousers a bit less apparent, and his up-to-the-minute gray fedora a trifle out of shape and dusty. Nevertheless, he still retained the mien of dignity with which he met his arrest in the grocery store of Jacob Bosch at No. 336 St. Nicholas Avenue. Of course, you understand, it was really Mrs. Ewart's fault that she and her husband should stoop to pilfering from a hardworking grocer eggs worth 42 cents (at their market value of 72 cents a dozen) and a box of figs, net value one dime. At least, so she told the police. She too, she said, led him to appropriate a travelling bag worth $10 from a downtown department store. If it hadn't been for her, young Mr. Ewart might have gone right along earning his so much per week soliciting theatre curtain advertisements for the Bentley Studios, at No. 1493 Broadway, and might never have run afoul of the police. The Ewarts, so the young woman's story ran, came here from Chicago two weeks ago. Of their life in the Western city she refused to tell anything. But since coming to New York, she admitted, they had travelled a hard financial road. Detective Taczkowski's attention was first called to Ewart in a downtown department store yesterday afternoon, when Ewart tried to return a travelling bag which he said his wife had bought for $10. Investigation of the store's records showed Mrs. Ewart had bought a bag for $3.95, but that the $10 bag had been stolen. Ewart was put off on a technicality and the detective followed him when he left the store. Outside Ewart was met by his wife. Into the subway Taczkowski shadowed them and at last the trail led to the Bosch grocery on St. Nicholas Avenue. In the store, Taczkowski kept his eyes on Mrs. Ewart, in her modish gown and furs, while Ewart engaged a clerk in conversation. Suddenly, Taczkowski alleges, he saw an egg worth six cents disappear from a crate into Mrs. Ewart's handsome fur muff. Another egg followed, and another, he says, until, like the children of the poem, they were seven. When a box of figs followed the eggs, Taczkowski says, he arrested the pair. A search of the Ewarts' apartment at No. 646 St. Nicholas Avenue, the police say, revealed a great quantity of men's and women's clothing of the finest variety. Mrs. Ewart, the police say, admitted she had stolen the blue fox furs from a downtown store and the police expect to identify much of the handsome clothing found in the apartment as stolen goods. "We were hungry and had no money," Mrs. Ewart sobbed at police headquarters. "We had all that clothing, but not a cent to buy food. I am the one to blame, for I encouraged my husband to steal." Ewart and his wife were arraigned in Yorkville Court before Magistrate Harris to-day and were held in $500 bail each for further examination.[47]

[47] New York Evening World, November 11, 1915.

263. New Facts.—Generally in the "follow-up" it is the newly learned facts that are featured. In the case of a sudden death, for instance, it would be the funeral arrangements; in a railway wreck, the investigation and the placing of blame. The following stories illustrate:

Story in a Morning Paper Dashing through a rain-storm with lightning flashes blinding him, William H. Blanchard, manager for the Wells Fargo Express Company, drove his automobile off the approach of the open State Street bridge to-night and was drowned. Otto Eller, teacher of manual training in the West Side High School, escaped by leaping into the river. Eller says the warning lights were not displayed at the bridge. When the automobile was recovered, it was shown that the car was not moving fast, as it had barely dropped off the abutment, a few feet from shore. The bridge was open because its operating equipment had been put out of order by a stroke of lightning.

The Follow-up The body of William H. Blanchard, manager of the Wells Fargo Express Company, who lost his life when he drove an automobile into an open drawbridge, was recovered this morning about 100 feet from where the accident occurred. Investigations have been started by the coroner and friends to place the blame for the accident. The electrical mechanism of the bridge was out of commission on account of a storm and it was being operated by hand. Spectators declare no warning lights were on the bridge.

264. Results Featured.—Frequently the lead to the follow-up features the results effected by the details of the earlier story:

Original Story The total yield of the leading cereal crops of the United States this year will be nearly 1,000,000,000 bushels less than last year. The government estimates of the crop issued to-day showed sensational losses in the spring wheat crop in the Northwest, a further shrinkage in winter wheat, and big losses compared to a month ago and last year in corn and oats. Both barley and rye figures also indicate greater losses compared to a year ago than were shown in the July government report.

The Follow-up Next Day American wheat pits had a day of turmoil to-day such as they have not seen since the stirring times when war was declared in Europe. Influenced by the startling government report showing enormous losses in the spring wheat crop, prices soared even more sharply than the wiseacres had anticipated. They were 5 to 8 cents higher when the gong struck, the report, released after the close of 'change Tuesday, having had its effect over night. At the close they registered a gain of from 10-5/8 to 11-3/8 cents for the day. Wheat had gone above $1.50 a bushel. Two months ago it was around $1.05.

265. Probable Results.—Where no more important details can be learned, it sometimes is wise to feature probable results.

A break in diplomatic relations between the United States and Germany as a result of the torpedoing of the Lusitania by a German submarine is the expressed belief to-day of high Washington officials.

266. Clues for Identification.—In stories of crime, when the offenders have escaped, the lead to the follow-up may begin with clues for establishing the identity of the criminals.

If a piano tuner about forty years of age, wearing a pair of silver spectacles and accompanied by a petite, brown-eyed girl twenty years his junior, comes to your house for work, telephone the Boston police. They are the two, it is alleged, who robbed the Mather apartments yesterday.

267. Featuring Lack of News.—In rare cases the very fact that there is no additional news is worth featuring.

Up to a late hour to-night nothing had been heard of Henry O. Mallory, prosecuting attorney in the Howard murder case, who disappeared yesterday on his way to Lexington.

268. Opinions of Prominent Persons.—An otherwise unimportant follow story may sometimes be made a good one by interviewing prominent persons and localizing the reader's interest in men or women he knows.

That the new eugenics law passed by the state legislature of Wisconsin yesterday is doomed to failure from the start, is the opinion of Health Commissioner Shannon, who was in Madison when the final vote was taken.

269. Summary of Opinions.—Sometimes, indeed, it is well to interview a number of local persons and make the lead a summary of their views.

Widely different opinions were expressed by prominent physicians, professors, clergymen, and social workers throughout this city to-day on the ethics of the course taken by Dr. H. J. Haiselden of Chicago in allowing the defective son of a patient to die.

270. Connecting Links.—In all these stories, the reader should note, sufficient explanatory matter has been included to connect the incidents readily with the events of the preceding days. This is important in every follow-up; for always many readers will have missed the earlier stories and consequently will need definite connection to relate the new events with preceding occurrences. It is also important for these connecting links to be included in, or to follow immediately after, the lead, because they give the reader necessary facts for understanding the new information—give him his bearings, as it were,—without which he will not read far into the story.

271. "Rewrites."—While most stories are not complete on their first appearance, it sometimes happens, nevertheless, that the first publication of an item contains all the facts of interest to a paper's readers and that priority of publication has been gained by another journal. Yet the story will be of interest to the readers of one's own paper and must be published. It is the duty of the rewrite man to handle such a story, and to handle it in such a way that it shall bear no resemblance to the story published by the other paper. For this reason the most skillful reporters on a daily are the rewrite men. They must find new features for old stories, or new angles of view, or new relations of some kind between the various details.

272. Bringing a Story up to the Minute.—The first requisite in rewriting is the necessity of making old news new, of bringing it up to the minute. No matter when the events occurred, they must be presented to the reader so that they shall seem current. Currency is all but a necessity to life, vigor, interest in a yesterday's event. Here is an item of news in point. Suppose the following story from an afternoon paper is given a reporter on a morning daily:

Charged with running his car thirty miles an hour, Dr. Harry O. Smith, prominent city physician with offices in the Vincennes Building, was arrested on Kentucky Street this afternoon by Motorcycle Policeman DuPre. After giving bonds for his appearance to-morrow, Dr. Smith left in his machine for Linwood, where he was going when stopped by Policeman DuPre. Concerning his arrest Dr. Smith refused to make any other statement than that he was on his way to see a patient.

The reporter cannot see Dr. Smith to obtain additional facts, because the doctor is out of town. Nor can he expect any more news, since the case will not come up until some hours after his paper will have been in the hands of its readers. It is also against journalistic rules to begin with "Dr. Smith was arrested yesterday." That yesterday must be eliminated from the lead. Here is the method one rewrite man used to get out of the difficulty:

Even doctors will not be allowed to break the city speed laws if one Cincinnati motorcycle policeman has his way.

Another way in which he might have avoided the troublesome yesterday would be:

One of the first cases on police docket this morning will be the hearing of Dr. Harry O. Smith, prominent Cincinnati physician with offices in the Vincennes building, who was arrested on a charge of speeding yesterday by Policeman DuPre.

Or he might have begun:

Whether the life of a sick patient is worth more than that of a healthy pedestrian may be decided in police court this morning.

In each of these rewrites it will be noted that the story has been brought down to the time of the appearance of the paper.

273. New Features.—The next thing to seek in the story to be rewritten is a new feature. Generally this is obtained in bringing the story up to date. If not, the reporter may examine, as in the "follow-up," to see whether the first story plays up the best feature, or whether it does not contain another feature equally good, or one possibly entirely overlooked. Failing here, he may look forward to probable developments, as an investigation following a wreck, a search by the police following a burglary, or an arraignment and trial following an arrest. Failing again, he may consider whether some cause or motive or agency for the fire or divorce or crime may not have gone unnoticed by the other man. Or best of all, he may try to relate the incident with similar events occurring recently, as in the case of a number of fires, burglaries, or explosions coming close upon each other. Whatever course he chooses, he should use his imagination to good advantage, taking care always to make his rewrite truthful. Here is the way a few rewrite men have presented their new old stories:

Result Featured

DEFECTIVE BABY DIES The question whether his life should have been fought for or whether it was right to let him die is over, so far as the tiny, unnamed, six-days-old defective son of Mrs. Anna Bollinger is concerned. The child died at the German-American hospital, Chicago, at 7:30 last night, with Dr. H. J. Haiselden, chief of the hospital staff, standing firmly to his position that he could not use his science to prolong the life of so piteously afflicted a creature.

Connection with Preceding Events

WILD MAN CAUGHT The wild man who has been frightening school children of Yonkers, scaring hunters in the woods, and causing hurry calls to the police from timid housewives, has been captured by the reserves of the Second precinct. He was caught last night in Belmont woods, near the Empire City race track.

Entirely New Feature Played Up

TWELVE-YEAR-OLD GIRL SUICIDE Ruth Camilla Fisher knew a country wherein her beauty was specie of the realm. It was bounded by the ninth and twelfth birthdays. Its inhabitants consisted of Fritz, an adoring dachshund; "papa," who was a member of the school board and a great man; and innumerable gruff little boys, who, ostensibly ignorant of her observation, spat through vacant front teeth and turned gorgeous somersaults for her admiration. She was happy and the jealous green complexion of the feminine part of her world bothered her not at all. And unsuspectingly Ruth came singing across the borders of her ain countree to the alien land of knowledge and disillusionment. Though she knew she came from God, it was gradually borne upon her that her girl-mother wandered a little way on the path of the Magdalenes. She was an interloper who had no gospel sanction in the world, no visible parents other than a foster-father and a foster-mother. Perfectly respectable little girls began to inform her so with self-righteous airs and with the expertness of surgeons to dissect her from the social scheme that governs puss-wants-a-corner with the same iron rule that in later life determines who shall be asked to play bridge and who shall be outlawed. "Your parents aren't your own," was the taunt that Ruth heard from playmates. Some of the little girls added the poison of sympathy to the information. And Ruth Camilla Fisher at 12 found herself a stranger in a strange land. She extradited herself Tuesday night with a revolver shot in the temple. In the yard back of her foster-parents' home at 5319 West Twenty-fifth Street, Cicero, with one arm around the loyal Fritz, she put the revolver to her head and pressed the trigger....[48]

[48] Chicago Tribune, November 25, 1915.

CROOK LISTS DANCERS' NAMES The modern dance craze has brought a lot of informality into a heretofore very proper Chicago. Women whose husbands work during the daytime have considered it not at all improper to flock to the afternoon the dansants in many downtown cafes, there to fox-trot and one-step with good-looking strangers whose introduction if there was an introduction was procured in a sort of professional way.

Probable Effect

Consequently there were about forty women in Chicago who verged on total collapse yesterday if they chanced to read of the terrible experience of Mrs. Mercedes Fullenwider of 5432 Kimbark Avenue.

Probable Motive

ELSIE THOMAS NOT A SUICIDE If a finger print can tell a story, the police may be able to prove by to-morrow night that pretty Elsie Thomas, whose lifeless body was found in her room at 1916 Pennsylvania Street last night, was not a suicide. In the opinion of her brother, Wallace Thomas, who was on his way from Lindale to see her, Hans Roehm, who had promised to marry her, may have been responsible for her death from cyanide of potassium.

274. Condensation in Rewrites.—It may be added in conclusion that though rewrites are made to seem fresh and new, they are nevertheless old news after all, and hence are not worth so much space as the original story. Consequently, one will find that they usually run from half to a fourth the length of the original; so that in rewriting one need not hesitate—as the copy-readers tell the reporters—to "cut every story to the bone." One must be careful in rewriting, however, not merely to omit paragraphs in cutting down stories. Excision is not rewriting.

XIX. FEATURE STORIES

275. What the Feature Story Is.—The feature, or human interest, story is the newspaper man's invention for making stories of little news value interesting. The prime difference between the feature story and the normal information story we have been studying is that its news is a little less excellent and must be made good by the writer's ingenuity. The exciting informational story on the first page claims the reader's attention by reason of the very dynamic power of its tidings, but the news of the feature story must have a touch of literary rouge on its face to make it attractive. This rouge generally is an adroit appeal to the emotions, and just as some maidens otherwise plain of feature may be made attractive, even beautiful, by a cosmetic touch accentuating a pleasing feature or concealing a defect, so the human interest story may be made fascinating by centering the interest in a single emotion and drawing the attention away from the staleness, the sameness, the lack of piquancy in the details. The emotion may be love, fear, hate, regret, curiosity, humor,—no matter what, provided it is unified about, is given the tone of, that feature.

276. Difficulty.—But just as it takes artists among women to dare successfully the lure of the rouge-dish, and just as so many, having ventured, make of their faces mere caricatures of the beauty they have sought, so only artists can handle the feature story. The difficulty lies chiefly in the temptation to overemphasize. In striving to make the story humorous, one goes too far, oversteps the limits of dignity, and like the ten-twenty-thirty vaudeville actor, produces an effect of disgust. Or in attempting to be pathetic, to excite a sympathetic tear, one is liable to induce mere derisive laughter. And a single misplaced word or a discordant phrase, like a mouse in a Sunday-school class, will destroy the entire effect of what one would say. In no other kind of writing is restraint more needed.

277. Two Types.—Probably entire accuracy demands the statement that these remarks about the difficulty of the feature story apply more specifically to the human interest type, the type the purpose of which is largely to entertain. Certainly it is more difficult than the second, whose purpose is to instruct or inform. The one derives its interest from its appeal to the reader's curiosity, the other from its appeal to the emotions. The emotional type attracts the reader through its appeal to elemental instincts and feelings in men, as desire for food and life, vain grief for one lost, struggle for position in society, undeserved prosperity or misfortune, abnormal fear of death, stoicism in the face of danger, etc. The following is by Frank Ward O'Malley, of the New York Sun, a classic of this type of human interest story:

DEATH OF HAPPY GENE SHEEHAN Mrs. Catherine Sheehan stood in the darkened parlor of her home at 361 West Fifteenth Street late yesterday afternoon, and told her version of the murder of her son Gene, the youthful policeman whom a thug named Billy Morley shot in the forehead, down under the Chatham Square elevated station early yesterday morning. Gene's mother was thankful that her boy hadn't killed Billy Morley before he died, "because," she said, "I can say honestly, even now, that I'd rather have Gene's dead body brought home to me, as it will be to-night, than to have him come to me and say, 'Mother, I had to kill a man this morning.'" "God comfort the poor wretch that killed the boy," the mother went on, "because he is more unhappy to-night than we are here. Maybe he was weak-minded through drink. He couldn't have known Gene or he wouldn't have killed him. Did they tell you at the Oak Street Station that the other policemen called Gene Happy Sheehan? Anything they told you about him is true, because no one would lie about him. He was always happy, and he was a fine-looking young man, and he always had to duck his helmet when he walked under the gas fixture in the hall, as he went out the door. "He was doing dance steps on the floor of the basement, after his dinner yesterday noon, for the girls his sisters, I mean and he stopped of a sudden when he saw the clock, and picked up his helmet. Out on the street he made pretend to arrest a little boy he knows, who was standing there, to see Gene come, out, I suppose, and when the little lad ran away laughing, I called out, 'You couldn't catch Willie, Gene; you're getting fat.' "'Yes, and old, mammy,' he said, him who is who was only twenty-six 'so fat,' he said, 'that I'm getting a new dress coat that'll make you proud when you see me in it, mammy.' And he went over Fifteenth Street whistling a tune and slapping his leg with a folded newspaper. And he hasn't come back. "But I saw him once after that, thank God, before he was shot. It's strange, isn't it, that I hunted him up on his beat late yesterday afternoon for the first time in my life? I never go around where my children are working or studying one I sent through college with what I earned at dressmaking and some other little money I had, and he's now a teacher; and the youngest I have at college now. I don't mean that their father wouldn't send them if he could, but he's an invalid, although he's got a position lately that isn't too hard for him. I got Gene prepared for college, too, but he wanted to go right into an office in Wall Street. I got him in there, but it was too quiet and tame for him, Lord have mercy on his soul; and then, two years ago, he wanted to go on the police force, and he went. "After he went down the street yesterday I found a little book on a chair, a little list of the streets or something, that Gene had forgot. I knew how particular they are about such things, and I didn't want the boy to get in trouble, and so I threw on a shawl and walked over through Chambers Street toward the river to find him. He was standing on a corner some place down there near the bridge clapping time with his hands for a little newsy that was dancing; but he stopped clapping, struck, Gene did, when he saw me. He laughed when I handed him the little book and told that was why I'd searched for him, patting me on the shoulder when he laughed patting me on the shoulder. "'It's a bad place for you here, Gene,' I said. 'Then it must be bad for you, too, mammy,' said he; and as he walked to the end of his beat with me it was dark then he said, 'They're lots of crooks here, mother, and they know and hate me and they're afraid of me' proud, he said it 'but maybe they'll get me some night.' He patted me on the back and turned and walked east toward his death. Wasn't it strange that Gene said that? "You know how he was killed, of course, and how Now let me talk about it, children, if I want to. I promised you, didn't I, that I wouldn't cry any more or carry on? Well, it was five o'clock this morning when a boy rang the bell here at the house and I looked out the window and said, 'Is Gene dead?' 'No, ma'am,' answered the lad, 'but they told me to tell you he was hurt in a fire and is in the hospital.' Jerry, my other boy, had opened the door for the lad and was talking to him while I dressed a bit. And then I walked down stairs and saw Jerry standing silent under the gaslight, and I said again, 'Jerry, is Gene dead?' And he said 'Yes,' and he went out. "After a while I went down to the Oak Street Station myself, because I couldn't wait for Jerry to come back. The policemen all stopped talking when I came in, and then one of them told me it was against the rules to show me Gene at that time. But I knew the policeman only thought I'd break down, but I promised him I wouldn't carry on, and he took me into a room to let me see Gene. It was Gene. "I know to-day how they killed him. The poor boy that shot him was standing in Chatham Square arguing with another man when Gene told him to move on. When the young man wouldn't, but only answered back, Gene shoved him, and the young man pulled a revolver and shot Gene in the face, and he died before Father Rafferty, of St. James's, got to him, God rest his soul. A lot of policemen heard the shot, and they all came running with their pistols and clubs in their hands. Policeman Laux I'll never forget his name or any of the others that ran to help Gene came down the Bowery and ran out into the middle of the square where Gene lay. "When the man that shot Gene saw the policeman coming, he crouched down and shot at Policeman Laux, but, thank God, he missed him. Then policemen named Harrington and Rourke and Moran and Kehoe chased the man all around the streets there, some heading him off when he tried to run into that street that goes off at an angle East Broadway, isn't it? A big crowd had come out of Chinatown now and was chasing the man, too, until Policemen Rourke and Kehoe got him backed up against a wall. When Policeman Kehoe came up close, the man shot his pistol right at Kehoe and the bullet grazed Kehoe's helmet. "All the policemen jumped at the man then, and one of them knocked the pistol out of his hand with a blow of a club. They beat him, this Billy Morley, so Jerry says his name is, but they had to because he fought so hard. They told me this evening that it will go hard with the unfortunate murderer, because Jerry says that when a man named Frank O'Hare, who was arrested this evening charged with stealing cloth or something, was being taken to headquarters, he told Detective Gegan that he and a one-armed man who answered to the description of Morley, the young man who killed Gene, had a drink last night in a saloon at Twenty-second Street and Avenue A, and that when the one-armed man was leaving the saloon he turned and said, 'Boys, I'm going out now to bang a guy with buttons.' "They haven't brought me Gene's body yet. Coroner Shrady, so my Jerry says, held Billy Morley, the murderer, without letting him get out on bail, and I suppose that in a case like this they have to do a lot of things before they can let me have the body here. If Gene only hadn't died before Father Rafferty got to him, I'd be happier. He didn't need to make his confession, you know, but it would have been better, wouldn't it? He wasn't bad, and he went to mass on Sunday without being told; and even in Lent, when we always say the rosary out loud in the dining-room every night, Gene himself said to me the day after Ash Wednesday, 'If you want to say the rosary at noon, mammy, before I go out, instead of at night when I can't be here, we'll do it.' "God will see that Gene's happy to-night, won't he, after Gene said that?" the mother asked as she walked out into the hallway with her black-robed daughters grouped behind her. "I know he will," she said, "and I'll " She stopped with an arm resting on the banister to support her. "I I know I promised you, girls," said Gene's mother, "that I'd try not to cry any more, but I can't help it." And she turned toward the wall and covered her face with her apron.[49]

[49] Frank Ward O'Malley in the New York Sun; reprinted in The Outlook, lxxxvii, 527-529.

278. Informational Type.—The second type of feature story, the informational, is the one we find most frequently in the feature section of the editorial page and the Sunday edition. It includes such subjects as, "How to Jiu-jitsu a Holdup Man," "Why Hot Water Dissolves Things," "Duties of an International Spy," "Feminism and the Baby Crop," "Why Dogs Wag their Tails," "The World's Highest Salaried Choir Boy," etc. Stories of new inventions and discoveries, accounts of the lives of famous and infamous men, of barbaric and court life, methods for lowering the high cost of living, explanations of the workings of the parcel post system, facts telling the effects of the European war,—these are some of the kinds of news included. Timeliness is not essential, but is valuable, as in the publication of Halloween, Christmas, Easter, and vacation stories at their appropriate seasons.

279. Sources.—The sources of feature stories are everywhere,—on the street, in the club, at church, in the court room, on the athletic field, in reference books and government publications, in the journals of fashion, anywhere that an observing reporter will look. Old settlers and residents, particularly on their birthdays and wedding anniversaries, are good for stories of the town or state as it used to be fifty years ago; and their photographs add to the value of their stories. Travelers just returned from foreign countries or from distant sections of the United States provide good feature copy. Educational journals, forestry publications, mining statistics, geological surveys, court decisions, all furnish valuable data. The only requirement in obtaining information is personal observation and investigation.

280. Form.—The form of the feature story is anomalous. It has none. One is at liberty to begin in any way likely to attract the reader, and to continue in any way that will hold him. Possibly informal leads are the rule rather than the exception—leads that will arrest attention by telling enough of the story to excite curiosity without giving all the details. Note the suspensive effect of the following leads:

SAM DREAMS OF ROBBERS Two big black-bearded robbers, armed to the hat-band and vowing to blow his appetite away from his personality if he uttered a tweet, walked into the mind of Samuel Shuster on Wednesday night as he lay snoring in his four-post bed at No. 11 Market Street. One placed a large warty hand around Samuel's windpipe and began to play it, and the other with a furtive look up and down stage reached into his pocket and drew forth $350. With a scream, two yowls, and a tiger, Samuel awoke....

FIXES BROKEN LEG WITH NAILS Capt. Patrick Rogers of truck company No. 2 found a man leaning against the quarters at Washington and Clinton Streets early yesterday and demanded what he was doing. "I broke my leg getting off a car," said the stranger. "Gimme a hammer and some nails and I'll fix it." ...

AMERICAN WASTE If it were not for our industrial wastefulness, it is a fair guess that the income of the United States would be sixteen times Well, do you know that America burns up forty thousand tons of paper a day, worth fifty dollars a ton? That alone is $2,000,000 a day wasted....

FINDS WOMAN DEAD IN BARN Stephen Garrity of 1124 Seventy-third street stepped into a deserted barn at Seventy-fourth street and Ashland avenue yesterday afternoon to get out of the wind and light his pipe. He was just about to apply a lighted match to the pipe when he saw the form of a woman hanging to one of the rafters. A long black silk-lined coat hung so that Garrity could see a black skirt, a white waist, and black shoes. The woman had a fair complexion and brown hair. The match burned Garrity's fingers and went out....

281. Suspense Story.—In some feature stories the writers attempt to hold their readers' interest by making the narrative suspensive throughout.

"MISSOURI" IN CHICAGO "Missouri" Perkins is sixteen and hails from Kansas City. This morning he walked into the office of the Postal Telegraph Company on Dearborn Street and asked for a job. The manager happened to want a messenger boy just at that moment and gave him a message to deliver in a hurry. "Here's your chance, my boy," said the manager. "These people have been kicking about undelivered messages. Now don't come back until you deliver it." A while afterward the telephone rang. On the other end of the wire was a building watchman, somewhat terrified. "Have you got a boy they call 'Missouri?'" inquired the watchman. "We did have ten minutes ago," replied the manager. The watchman continued: "That 'Missouri' feller came over here and said he had to go to one of the offices. We don't allow no one up at that office at this hour and I told him he couldn't go." "Yes, yes," said the manager. "Well," said the watchman, "he said he would go, and I had to pull my gun on him." "But you didn't shoot my messenger," exclaimed the manager. "No," meekly came the response over the wire, "but I want my gun back."

282. Uniqueness of Style.—Again, a writer will resort to uniqueness of form or style to get his effect.

HIS WIFE, SHE WENT AWAY And He Did a Little Entertaining, Which Leads Up to This Story Mrs. Gladys I. Fick visited in California. Mr. Fick entertained while she was away. Mrs. Fick found it out. And got a divorce. Yesterday.

283. Unity of Impression.—Most frequently, however, the effort is to obtain unity of impression through close adherence to a single tone or effect. The story by Frank Ward O'Malley on page 225 has already been cited as an excellent story of pathos, and the following may be examined as a portrayal of childish loyalty:

SILENT ABOUT BULLET IN BRAIN A tragedy of childhood featuring the loyalty of 10-year-old Stephen Stec to his three years younger brother Albert, even when he felt death near, was brought out at Kenosha hospital to-day. X-ray pictures showed that the older boy had a bullet from a revolver embedded to a distance of three inches in the brain matter. The boy was shot by his younger brother Sunday afternoon, but after they had agreed to keep secret the story of the shooting, Stephen, with the stoicism of a Spartan, had refused to tell the story. When the X-ray picture revealed his secret he sobbed out, "He didn't mean to do it." Then he told the story. "Just Tired Out," He Says The two boys had been left at home alone on Sunday afternoon. Their father, Albert Stec, a prosperous market man, had warned them never to touch a revolver which lay in a drawer. Little Albert, not yet 6 years old, got the weapon, pointed it at the brother, and pulled the trigger. The bullet entered the back of the other boy's head. The mother, on her return home, found the boy on the floor with his little brother keeping a vigil. "I'm just tired out," the boy told his mother. She put him to bed and tucked him away under the covers. With the little brother playing about the bed he went off to sleep. Physician Stumbles Onto Secret Monday morning he appeared sick and remained at home from school. In the afternoon his mother became worried when he failed to recover from drowsiness which had overtaken him and she called Dr. J. N. Pait. The physician made an examination of the boy, but found nothing to account for his condition. Then he rubbed his hand over his head. The telltale blood revealed the fact that the boy had been injured. With the little brother holding on to his coat the boy walked bravely to an automobile and was taken to the Kenosha hospital, where the X-ray machine revealed his secret. All Functions Remain Normal This afternoon at the hospital it was declared that the boy showed no sign of fever and that his pulse was normal. "The case is a most remarkable one," declared Dr. Pait. "The boy is cheerful and every organ of the body is performing its functions, but at that there is the bullet in his brain. We expect sudden collapse in the case, but a boy as brave as he is should live." The little fellow made no complaint and when the smaller brother was brought to the hospital their greeting was of a most tender nature. "That big machine gave it away," was the way the injured boy broke the story of his seeming faithlessness to his trust.[50]

[50] Chicago Tribune, March 3, 1915.

284. Feature Story Writers.—Feature stories in the Sunday supplement are written generally by a regular staff of writers. Some of the staff are office men on the pay-roll of the papers. Others are regular contributors who fill certain amounts of space each week or month. Still others, specialists in their lines, write only occasionally, but deal in a scholarly, exhaustive way with their subjects. The feature stories in the news columns are written generally by the stronger men on the regular staff of reporters. Some papers have regular feature men on whom they rely for human interest stories. And any newspaper man who can handle such stories well may be sure of a place at an advanced salary over the ordinary reporter. Feature stories are coming more and more into prominence on the large dailies because of their appeal to all classes of society, and the beginner, as soon as he becomes acquainted with his surroundings and gains dexterity in the handling of news, is advised to try his hand at the human interest type. It will pay, and success in this field will give a much desired prestige.

XX. CORRESPONDENCE STORIES

285. Correspondence Work.—In style and construction correspondence stories are not different from the preceding types of news stories. They are taken up for separate examination because their value as news is reckoned differently, because the transmission of them by mail, telegraph, and telephone is individual, and because so many reporters have to know how to handle correspondence work. Statistics show that 20,000 of the 25,000 newspapers in the United States are country papers; and it is from the reporters on these weeklies and small dailies that the big journals obtain most of their state and sectional news. In addition, every large daily has in the chief cities its representatives who, while often engaged in regular reporting, nevertheless do work of a correspondence nature. It is highly advisable, therefore, that every newspaper man, because probably some day he may have to do correspondence work, should know how to gather, write, and file such stories.

286. Estimating the Worth of News.—A correspondent is both like and unlike a regular reporter—like, in that in his district he is the paper's representative and upon him depends the accurate or inaccurate publication of news; unlike, in that he is comparatively free from supervision and direction, and hence must be discriminating in judging news. It is the correspondent especially who must have the proverbial "nose for news," who must know the difference between information that is nationally and merely locally interesting, who must be able to tell when a column story in a local paper is not worth a stick in a journal a hundred miles away. The best way to develop this discrimination in appreciation of news is to put oneself in imagination in the place of a resident of Boston or Atlanta or Chicago, where the paper is published, and ask oneself if such-and-such an item of news would be interesting were one reading the paper there. For example, one has just learned that Andrew Jones, the local blacksmith, has had an explosion of powder in his shop, causing a loss of a hundred dollars, with no insurance. One should ask oneself if this story would be worth while to readers who know nothing of Andrew Jones or the town where the accident has occurred. Manifestly not; and the story should not be sent. But if one learns that the accident was caused by the premature explosion of a bomb Jones was making for the destruction of a bridge on the Great Southern and Northern Railway, then the information is of more than local interest and should immediately be telegraphed with full details. Every correspondent should recognize such differences in news values, for papers pay, not according to the amount of copy they receive, but according to the amount they publish. And on the other hand, when correspondents telegraph too many useless items, editors sometimes reverse charges on the unwise writers.

287. What Not to Send.—The first thing to know in correspondence work, therefore, is what not to send. Never report merely local news, such as minor accidents, burglaries, and robberies; obituaries, marriages, entertainments, and court trials of little known personages; murders of obscure persons, unless unusual in some way or involved in mystery; county fairs, fraternal meetings, high-school commencements, local picnics and celebrations; crop and weather conditions, unless markedly abnormal, as frost in June; praise of individuals, hotels, amusement gardens, business enterprises generally; in fact, any press agent stories. Stories trespassing the limits of good taste or decency should of course be suppressed. Local gossip affecting the reputations of women, preachers, doctors, and professional men generally should be held until it can be verified. Any sensational news, indeed, should be carefully investigated before being put on the wires. But as the Associated Press says in a pamphlet of instructions to its employees:

A rumor of sensational news should not be held too long for verification. If the rumor is not libelous it should be sent immediately as a rumor, with the addition that "the story is being investigated." Should the news, however, involve persons or firms in a charge that might be libelous, a note to the editors, marked "Private, not for publication," should be bulletined that "such and such a story has come to our attention and is being investigated."

While accuracy in The Associated Press despatches is of the highest value and we would rather be beaten than send out an untruthful statement, there is such a thing as carrying the effort to secure accuracy so far as to delay the perfectly proper announcement of a rumor. So long as it is a rumor only it should be announced as a rumor.

288. What to Send.—After cautioning the correspondent against sending stories containing merely local news, unfounded rumors, and details offensive to good taste, one must leave him to gather for himself what his paper wants. Big news, of course, is always good; but those special types of news, those little hobbies for which individual papers have characteristic weaknesses, one can learn only by studying the columns of the paper for which one corresponds. Some newspapers make specialties of freak news, such as odd actions of lightning, three-legged chickens, etc. Others will not consider such stories. One daily in America wants a bulletin of every death or injury resulting from celebrations of the Fourth of July. Another in a Middle Western state wants all sporting news in its state, particularly that concerning colleges and high schools. Still another, an Eastern paper this time, wants educational news—what the colleges are doing. Other kinds of information in which individual publications specialize are news of nationally prominent men and women, human interest love stories, odd local historical data, humorous or pathetic animal stories, golfing anecdotes, increase or decrease in liquor sales or the number of saloon licenses, etc.

289. Conducting a Local Column.—When conducting a column giving the news of a particular locality or neighborhood, the one thing not to write is that there is little news in the community this week or to-day. The readers of a column should not be allowed to suspect that one has little information to present. All about one are unnumbered sources of news if the correspondent can only find them—humorous incidents, reminiscences of old pioneers, stories of previous extremely wet, dry, hot, or cold seasons, recollections of Civil, Spanish American, and European War battles, etc. Such stories may be had for the asking and played up when there is "nothing doing this week." The use of good feature stories bearing directly on the life of the community will fill one's column, put money into one's pocket, and add readers to the subscription list of the paper.

290. Stories by Mail.—A correspondent's stories may be sent in any one of three ways—by mail, telephone, or telegraph. The mail should be used for any stories the time of publication of which is not important, such as feature stories, advance stories of speeches, elections, state celebrations, etc. One may use the mail for big stories, provided there is certainty of the letter reaching the office by 10:00 A.M. for afternoon papers and 8:00 P.M. for morning papers. If the news is big, it is best to put a special delivery stamp on the envelop and wire the paper of the story by mail. If there is doubt about mail reaching the paper promptly, use the telegraph every time. When sending photographs illustrating important news events, one should use special delivery stamps and wire the paper that the pictures are coming. In the case of advance speeches, where the manuscript is forwarded several days ahead, the reporter should specify not only the exact day, but the precise hour for release of the speech, and at the time stated he should wire definite release,—that the address has been given, the speaker beginning at such and such an hour. The necessity of keeping close future books and of keeping the state or telegraph editor in intimate touch by mail with coming events may be urged upon all correspondents. A single event properly played up by a skillful correspondent may be made productive, before its occurrence, of three or four attractive mail stories. And it is the quantity of such stories that adds to the reporter's much desired revenue.

291. Stories by Telephone.—The telephone is used when the mails are too slow or a telegraph office is not convenient, or when there is need of getting into personal communication with the office. In using the telephone one caution only may be given, that the correspondent should never call up the state editor with merely a jumble of facts at hand. Long-distance messages are costly and editors watch all calls closely in an effort to reduce tolls to a minimum. If possible, the correspondent should have his story written—certainly he should have it sketched on paper—before calling the office, so that he may dictate his news in the shortest possible time.

292. Stories by Telegraph.—The telegraph is for stories demanding immediacy of print, and certain rules govern their handling that every correspondent should know. Suppose at six o'clock some afternoon an automobile owned and driven by Otto Thomson, receiving teller for the local Commercial Bank, skids over a slippery, tar-covered pavement into a telegraph pole on one of the main streets of the town, killing him and severely injuring two women in the car. What should the correspondent do in such a case? The accident is good for a half-column in The Herald, the local morning daily, but because Thomson was only moderately prominent, one is doubtful if it is worth much in The World, the great daily a hundred miles away. After considering all the details, however,—Thomson's position locally and the fact that the city may be held liable for the excess of tar at a dangerous turn in the streets,—the reporter may conclude that the story is worth four hundred words. He is still doubtful, however, whether the city paper will consider it worth publishing. His message, therefore,—technically known as a "query"—should be:

Otto Thomson, receiving teller Commercial Bank, killed at six P.M. by automobile skidding into telegraph pole. Two women in car injured. Four hundred. 8:35 P.M. A. D. Anderson

This means that the correspondent is prepared to wire a 400-word story about the accidental death of Otto Thomson. It tells, too, that the query was filed at 8:35, so that blame may be placed if delivery is delayed. There is no need to ask if the paper wants further details or how much it wants. The message itself is an inquiry. One other important point about it is that it bulletins the news. It is not a "blind" query stating that "a prominent citizen has been killed" or that "a regrettable tragedy has occurred." It gives the facts concisely, so that the editor, if he wishes, may publish them immediately and may decide whether additional details are worth while.

293. Waiting for the Reply.—While the correspondent is waiting for the reply, he should begin his story and, if possible, have it ready by the time the dispatch comes. The most important details should be placed first, of course, so that if the state editor asks for fewer than four hundred words, the correspondent will have to kill only the last paragraph or so and send the first part of the story as originally written. There is no need of skeletonizing the story to lessen telegraphic charges: that is, of omitting the's, a's, an's, is's, etc. The small amount saved in this way is more than offset by the additional time and cost of editing in the office.

294. The Reply.—In fifteen or twenty minutes, or perhaps a half-hour, a reply will come, reading, say, "Rush three hundred banker's death." This means that the correspondent must keep his story within three hundred words,—an injunction which he must observe strictly. Woe to the self-confident writer who sends five hundred words when three hundred have been ordered. He will receive a prompt reprimand for his first offense and probable discharge for the second. If, however, he has used his time wisely since sending the query and has written his story rightly, he will have no trouble in lopping off the final paragraph and putting the three hundred words on the wire within a few minutes after receipt of the order.

295. No Reply.—The correspondent need not be surprised or chagrined, however, if no reply comes,—the paper's silence meaning that the story is not wanted. The accident may have been covered by one of the regular news bureaus—the Associated Press, the United Press, or possibly a local news-gathering organization. Or the bulletin itself may have been all the paper wanted,—due credit and pay for which the correspondent will receive at the end of the month. Or the story may have been crowded out by news of greater importance. This last reason is a very possible one, which every correspondent should consider whenever a story breaks. The space value of a paper's columns doubles and quadruples as press time approaches,—so that a story which would be given generous space if received at eight o'clock may be thrown into the wastebasket if received four hours later.

296. Hours for Filing.—The extreme hours for filing dispatches to catch the various editions are worth noting and remembering. For an afternoon paper the story should be in the hands of the telegraph operator not later than 9:00 A.M. for the noon edition, 12:00 M. for the three o'clock, and 2:00 P.M. for the five o'clock edition. If the news is extraordinary—big enough to justify ripping open the front page—it may be filed as late as 2:30 P.M., though the columns of an afternoon paper are practically closed to correspondents after 12:30 or 1:00 P.M. Any news occurring after 2:30 P.M. should be filed as early as possible, but should be marked N. P. R. (night press rate), so that it will be sent after 6:00 P.M., when telegraphic charges are smaller. For a morning paper news may be filed as late as 2:00 A.M., though the columns are practically closed to correspondents after midnight.

297. Big News.—When big or unusual news breaks,—news about which there is no doubt of the general interest,—the correspondent should bulletin a lead immediately, with the probable length of the story and the time of filing affixed. Thus:

Marietta, Ga., Aug. 17.—Leo M. Frank, whom the Georgia courts declared guilty of the murder of fourteen-year-old Mary Phagan of Marietta, was lynched two miles from here at an early hour this morning. Frank was brought in an automobile to Marietta by a band of twenty-five masked men who stormed the Milledgeville prison farm shortly after midnight. Two thousand. 8:35. Sherman

Then—particularly if the hour is nearing press time—the correspondent should follow as rapidly as possible with instalments of the detailed story, without waiting for a reply to the bulletin lead. When there is doubt about the length, editors would rather have one not take chances on delaying the news,—would rather have too much of a story than too little. Besides, a writer cannot get further than the second or third instalment before specific orders will arrive from the paper.

298. The Detailed Story.—After the lead, the details follow as in a normal story, the individual instalments being given the operator as fast as he can take them, each one marked "More" except the last, which is marked "30." Thus the continuation of the bulletin lead of the Frank lynching just given would be:

Not one of the armed prison guards, according to the best information now obtainable, raised a hand to prevent the mob accomplishing its purpose. Frank was taken from his cell and rushed to a spot previously chosen for the lynching, about a hundred miles from the prison. Not a soul, it is said, knew positively whether the men were his friends or his enemies until the lifeless body was discovered this morning. More. 8:45 P. M. Sherman

Then the final instalment might read:

The rope placed around Frank's neck was tied in such a way as to reopen the wound caused some weeks ago when a fellow prisoner attempted to kill him by cutting his throat. Loss of blood from the re-opened wound no doubt would have caused his death had he not strangled. Thirty. 9:15. Sherman

The "thirty" is the telegrapher's signal indicating the completion of the story.

299. Sporting News.—In handling sporting news a few specific instructions are needful, the first being the necessity of absolute impartiality in all controversies. Local rival sportsmen in their keen desire to win are continually breeding quarrels, which frequently make it difficult for the observer not to be biased; but the correspondent must be careful to present simple facts only, without editorializing. The need of filing all afternoon scores by 7:30 P.M., with 8:00 P.M. as the outside limit, should also be noted. Morning papers put their sporting news on inside pages and must make up the forms early. There is need of the utmost caution in having the news correct, particularly the box scores of baseball games, which have an unhappy way of failing to balance when one compares individual scores with the totals. In all contests where a seeming new record has been made, the correspondent should be sure of the record before telegraphing it as such. If there is the slightest doubt, report it as "what is said to be a record." Finally, one should be cautioned against reporting mere high-school contests, boxing bouts between local men, and other sporting news possessing limited interest only.

300. General Instructions.—In conclusion, a few general instructions may be given for the guidance of correspondents:

1. When forwarding time stories, advance manuscript of speeches, cuts, etc., send by mail. The express companies do not deliver at night.

2. In telegrams spell out round numbers; and mark the beginning of speeches by the word quote, and the end by end quote.

3. Keep the telegraph companies informed always of your street address and telephone number. It is well also to maintain friendly relations with the operators. Frequently they can be of valuable service to a correspondent.

4. Finish all incomplete stories. It sometimes happens that one will wire a dispatch of the beginning of a seeming big fire or a seeming great murder mystery, which the paper will feature as important news, but which later will prove of no worth. Such stories should be cleared up and the results made known to avoid keeping the paper in a quandary over the outcome.

5. When reporting fires, accidents, disasters, etc., locate the scene as accurately as possible. This is sometimes accomplished by reference to well-known buildings or landmarks, in addition to the exact street location.

6. When a big story breaks, go after it, no matter if there is need of incurring expense. Papers will stand any reasonable expense for valuable news.

7. Never forget the worth of sending time. Every minute is valuable.

8. Until you have received your first check, clip and keep every story printed. Most papers keep their own accounts with correspondents, but some require them to send in at the end of each month their "string:" that is, all their stories pasted together end to end. Payment is then made on the basis of the number of columns, the rates varying from $2 to $7 a column of 1500 words.



APPENDIX

STYLE-BOOK

I. HANDLING COPY

1. Definition.—Copy is any manuscript prepared for printing, and is written according to the individual style rules of each newspaper. The first thing for a reporter to do on beginning work in an office is to ask for the style-book, the manual for the guidance of reporters, copy-readers, and compositors. The chances are nine to one that the paper will not have such a book, since only the larger dailies print their rules of style, and that the reporter must study the columns of the paper and the changes made in his own stories for the individual office rules. If the paper happens to be the tenth one, however, the reporter should employ every spare moment studying the manual and should write every story, even his first one, as nearly as possible in accord with the printed rules, as the copy readers will insist on a strict observance of the regulations. Many of the rules will be mere don'ts, embodying common errors of diction. Others may be particular aversions of the editor or the head copy-reader and may have little regard for or relation to best usage. But such rules must be observed, even though they may be as absurd and contrary to all custom, as that of one metropolitan paper which makes its reporters write "Farwell-av," a usage peculiar to that journal. All such requirements may be found in the style-book, which, whenever in doubt, the reporter should consult rather than the columns of the paper, as the paper is not always reliable. Uncorrected matter is frequently hurried into the forms, causing variations that the rules of composition forbid.

2. The Typewriter.—The first requirement in preparing copy is a knowledge of how to handle a typewriter dexterously. In all offices the reporters are furnished with typewriters, and one is helpless until one learns how to use a machine. Longhand copy rarely is sent to the compositors nowadays. If such copy comes into the office, it is generally given to stenographers or reporters to type before being dispatched to the composing room.

3. Longhand Copy.—At times, however, when away from the office, one cannot obtain a machine and must write in longhand. In such cases, write with painstaking care for accuracy. Other things being equal, it is the legible copy that survives. Unusual proper names and technical words that are liable to be mistaken in copying should be printed letter by letter. If there is a possibility at any time of confusing an o with an a, or a u with an n, the u and a should be underscored and the n and o overscored. Quotation-marks should be enclosed in half-circles—thus, "/jag"/—to show whether they are beginning or end marks. And instead of a period, a small cross should be used, or else the period be enclosed in a circle.

4. Paper.—Writing paper is always supplied in the office. Even when one is a correspondent in a neighboring town, stationery, including self-addressed envelopes, is frequently furnished by the journal for which one corresponds. Some newspapers, however, do not provide writing supplies. In such cases the correspondent should choose unglazed paper of a neutral tint—gray, yellow, or manila brown. The paper most commonly used is unruled print paper 6 x 9 or 8-1/2 x 11 inches in size and of sufficient firmness to permit use of either ink or pencil.

5. Margins.—Except for the writer's name in a ring at the extreme left corner of the page, the top half of the first page of copy should be left blank, so that the headlines may be written there by the headline writer. All the sheets should have a margin of an inch at the bottom and at each side of the paper, and all other sheets than the first should have a margin of an inch at the top. The side margins are necessary for the corrections of the copy editors; the margins at the bottom are for convenience in pasting the sheets together; and the top margins are necessary for paging.

6. Paragraph Indention.—All paragraphs, including the first, should be indented an inch, irrespective of where the preceding paragraph has ended, and should be marked with the paragraph sign, a rectangle (L) placed before the first word. If two paragraphs have been run together thoughtlessly and it is necessary to separate them, insert the paragraph symbol () immediately before the word beginning the new paragraph and write the same symbol in the margin. If the paragraph completes the page, a paragraph sign also should be put at the end, to indicate to the compositor that he may conclude his "take" with a broken line. No other lines than the first lines of paragraphs—quotations and summaries of course excepted—should be indented.

7. Consolidation of Paragraphs.—When it is necessary to consolidate two paragraphs that have been written separately, draw a line from the end of the first to the beginning of the second and mark No in the margin. Use the same method when several lines or sentences have been canceled and the matter is meant to be continuous. Or when a new sentence has been indented unnecessarily, no paragraph being needed, draw a line from the first word to the left margin and mark No there. If a sentence ends at the foot of a sheet, but the paragraph continues on the next page, draw a diagonal line from the last word to the right corner at the foot of the page, and on the next sheet draw a diagonal line from the upper left corner to the first word of the new sentence. These lines indicate to the compositor that any "take" ending with the first page or beginning with the second is not complete and may not conclude with a broken line or begin with an indented one.

8. Crowded Lines.—Do not crowd lines together. When the copy is typewritten, adjust the machine to make triple spaces between lines. When it is necessary to write the copy in longhand, leave a quarter-inch space between lines. Crowded lines saddle much extra trouble upon copy-readers, compelling them to cut and paste many times to make necessary corrections. Exception to the rule against crowded lines is made only when one has a paragraph a trifle too long for a page. It is better to crowd the last lines of a page a trifle than to run two or three words of a paragraph over to a new page.

9. The Pages.—If a paragraph would normally begin on the last line of a page, leave the line blank and start the new paragraph on a fresh sheet of paper. One may not write on more than one side of a sheet, not even if there are only two or three words to go on the next page. In the offices of the big dailies each sheet is cut into takes, numbered consecutively, and sent to as many different compositors. Irremediable confusion would be caused for a foreman who tried to handle copy written on both sides, for each take would contain a part of some other compositor's copy. The new page, too, should be numbered at the top with an arabic, not a roman, numeral. And in order to prevent the figure from being mistaken for a part of the article, it should be enclosed in a circle.

10. Insertions.—The reporter should make as few corrections as possible. But where any considerable addition or insertion is found necessary on a page, instead of writing the addition in the margin or on a separate sheet, cut the page and paste in the addition. The sheet may be made the same length as its fellows by folding the lower edge forward upon the written page. If it is folded backward, the fold is liable to be unnoticed, and therefore may cause confusion.

11. "Add Stories."—When a story is incomplete, either by reason of the end of the page being reached or because all the story is not yet in, write the word More in a circle at the foot of the page, the purpose of the circle being to prevent the compositor from mistaking the word for a part of the story. "Add" stories,—stories that follow others already written or in type,—are marked with the catch line and the number of the addition. Thus the first addition to a story about a saloon robbery would be marked, "Add 1, Saloon Robbery"; and the second would be, "Add 2, Saloon Robbery." An insert into the story would be slugged, "Insert A, Saloon Robbery"; and the precise place of the insert would be indicated at the top of the inserted page: "Insert after first paragraph of lead, Saloon Robbery." Such directions are always enclosed in rings so that the compositor may not set them in the story.

12. Illustrations, Clippings.—If cuts or illustrations are to be printed with the copy, indicate as nearly as possible where they will appear in the printed story by "Turn rule for cut." That says to the compositor, "Make in the proofs a black ruled line for later insertion of a cut." The make-up editor may change the position of the cut to obtain a better balance of illustrations on the page or to avoid putting the picture where the paper will fold, but the direction will be worth while as an aid in placing the illustration accurately. Clippings included in the story should be pasted in the copy. Pins and clips slip easily and may cause loss of the clipping.

13. Underscoring.—Underscore once for italics, twice for SMALL CAPITALS, and three times for CAPITALS. Use wave-line underscoring to indicate display type. Many newspapers have abandoned italic type and small capitals altogether, because their linotype machines carry only two kinds of type, and black-face type is needed for headlines, etc. Because of this, where one formerly might underscore a word for emphasis, it is necessary now to reword the sentence altogether.

14. Corrections.—When it is necessary to strike out letters or words from copy, run the pen or pencil through them and draw a line between those to be set up together. Do not enclose in parentheses words to be erased. A printer will not omit, but will set up in type, parentheses and everything enclosed within them. When a letter or word has been wrongly stricken out, it may be restored by making a series of dots immediately beneath and writing the word stet in the margin. Two letters, words, or phrases that one wishes transposed may be so indicated by drawing a continuous line over the first and under the second and writing tr in the margin. A capital letter that should be a small letter may be so indicated by drawing a line downward from right to left through the letter. Because of the haste frequently necessary in writing copy, it has become a trick of the trade to enclose within a circle an abbreviation, a figure, or an ampersand that the writer desires the printer to spell out in full. Do not "ring" a figure or a number, however, without being sure it should be spelled out. It is much easier for a copy-reader to ring a number that needs to be spelled out than to erase an unnecessary circle. If it is necessary to have the printer set up slangy, misspelled, or improperly capitalized words, or ungrammatical or poorly punctuated sentences, put in the margin, Follow Copy. For illustrations of these corrections, the reader may examine the specimen proof sheet on page 276.

15. The End.—Mark the completion of the story with an end mark, a #, or the figure 30 in a circle, the telegrapher's sign indicating the end of a day or a night report. Then read carefully every page of the copy, correcting every error, no matter how slight. Finally, give it to the city editor, unfolded if possible, but never rolled. If it is inconvenient to keep the pages flat, they may be folded lengthwise. Folding crosswise makes the copy inconvenient to handle. The sheets should not be pinned together. The pin betrays the novice.

16. The Story in Type.—A reporter should read his story with painstaking care after it has appeared in print, to detect any errors that may have crept into it since it left his hands and to note what changes have been made at the city desk. It is told of a reporter, now a star man on a leading New York daily, that he used to keep carbon copies of all his stories and compare them word for word with the articles as they appeared in the paper. Only in this way can a writer change his style for the better and learn what is expected of him.

II. PUNCTUATION

17. Rules.—While every well-regulated newspaper has rules of its own governing the use of capital letters, commas, dashes, parentheses, and other marks of punctuation, and any article written by a reporter will be punctuated according to the individual style of the paper in which it is printed, no matter how it may have been punctuated originally, it is nevertheless worth while to offer the following general rules of punctuation for the guidance of news writers. And it would be well for every properly trained journalist to have these rules well in hand; for in the eyes of the editor and the printer, bad punctuation is worse than bad spelling, because the meaning of a misspelled word usually can be deciphered, while that of an improperly punctuated sentence is often hopeless. For one, therefore, who hopes to do successful journalistic work a thorough knowledge of the following rules of punctuation is practically a necessity.

1. Capital Letters

18. Proper Names.—Capitalize all proper names. A proper name is one that designates a particular person, place, or thing. In particular:

19. Titles of Books, etc.—Capitalize the first word and all the important words in the titles of books, newspapers, magazines, magazine articles, poems, plays, pictures, etc.: that is, the first word and all other words except articles, demonstratives, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs, relative pronouns, and other pronouns in the possessive case. A the preceding the title of a newspaper or a magazine is regarded as part of the title and is capitalized.

Right.—Two copies of The Atlanta Constitution were produced.

20. Names and Titles of the Deity.—Capitalize names and titles of the Deity and of Jesus Christ.

21. Names of the Bible.—Capitalize names of the Bible and other sacred books, of the versions of the Bible, and of the books and divisions of the Bible and other sacred books. Do not capitalize adjectives derived from such names.

Right.—The Koran, the Septuagint, the Old Testament, Psalms; but biblical, scriptural, apocryphal.

22. Titles of Respect, Honor, Office, or Profession.—Capitalize titles of respect, honor, nobility, office, or profession when such titles immediately precede proper names. Do not capitalize such titles elsewhere in the sentence. The prefix ex- before a title is not capitalized and does not affect the capitalization of the title.

Right.—The Rev. Samuel Plantz, President Wilson, ex-President Roosevelt, Senator Newlands.

Right.—The archbishop and the senator were in conference all the morning with Mr. Bryan, former secretary of state under President Wilson.

23. Names Indicating Nationality or Locality.—Capitalize names distinguishing nationality or locality: as, Yankee, Creole, Hoosier, Wolverines.