James White, a groceryman, was found dying yesterday with a bullet wound in his abdomen, in the cellar of his grocery store at 1236 Park street.

The next story on the murder would be concerned with the unraveling of the mystery, thus:

The preliminary inquiry yesterday by Coroner John F. Donalds, into the mysterious death of James White, the Park street grocer, resulted in the conclusion that White was murdered.

And so the stories might run on day after day following the solution of the case like the succeeding chapters of a continued novel, and each one gives the synopsis of the preceding chapters in its lead, as every good follow-up story should do.

Suicide stories seldom offer material for follow-up stories unless there is some mystery surrounding the case. Sometimes the present condition of a resuscitated victim of attempted suicide or the disposition of the estate of a suicide offers material for rewriting.

Serious storms and floods are usually followed up for several days. Readers are always interested in the present condition of the devastated region. Very often the list of dead and injured is revised from day to day, and any attempt to lend aid to the unfortunate victims is always a reason for a later story.

Any meetings, conferences, trials, conventions, or the like must be followed up day by day with succeeding stories. Each story is complete in itself, but each one adds one more chapter to the report of the meeting. This method of following a continued proceeding calls for a series of follow-up stories; examples of the stories that follow a continued legal trial will be given later under Court Reporting.

* * * * *

Many other illustrations might be given of follow-up stories that appear daily in the newspapers. In the last analysis, the follow-up or the rewrite story is nothing more than an ordinary news story, and as such must be written in the same way. It begins with a lead which plays up a feature and answers the reader's questions about the subject; the body of the story runs along like the body of any news story. But it is different in being a later chapter of a previous account; while complete in itself, it must not only indicate the previous story, but must tell its most important facts for readers who may have missed the previous story. It is simply a news story which is tied to a previous story by a string of cause and effect.

4. Following Up Related Subjects.—In this connection it may be well to mention another kind of follow-up story that is usually written in connection with big news events. It is written to develop and follow up side lines of interest growing out of the main story. In its most usual form it is a statistical summary of events similar to the great event of the day—such as similar fires, similar railroad wrecks, etc., in the past. Any big story attracts so much attention among newspaper readers that the facts at hand are usually not sufficient to supply the public's demand for information on the subject. To satisfy these demands editors develop lines of interest growing out of the main event. They interview people concerning the event and concerning similar events; they describe similar events that have taken place in the past; they summarize and compare similar events in the past—in short, they follow up every line of interest opened up by the big story and write stories on the result. These stories are of the nature of follow-up stories in that they grow out of, and develop, the main story in its greatest extent.

For example, the wreck of the ocean liner Titanic called for innumerable side stories because the public's interest demanded more facts than the newspapers had at hand to supply. Hence, the papers wrote up similar shipwrecks in the past, gathered together summaries of the world's greatest shipwrecks, interviewed people who had been in any way connected with shipwrecks or with any phase of this shipwreck, described glaciers and icebergs, estimated the depth of the ocean where the Titanic sank, described the White Star liner and other liners, pictured real or imaginary shipwrecks, and developed every other related subject. The real news in all this mass of material was very meager, but the related stories satisfied the greedy public and helped newspaper readers to understand and to picture the real significance of the meager news.

In the same way a disastrous fire, like the burning of the Iroquois Theater, calls for innumerable outgrowing stories. Even when the event reported in the main news story is not sufficiently important to call for related stories, it is often accompanied by a list (usually put in a box at the head of the story) of other similar events and their results. These follow-up stories of related subjects are, in form, very much like feature stories, although they usually conform to the follow-up idea of mentioning in their leads the main news event to which they are related.



X

REPORTS OF SPEECHES

Every profession has its disagreeable tasks; journalism has perhaps more disagreeable tasks than any other profession. All of a reporter's work is not concerned with running down thrilling stories and writing them up in a whirl of breathless interest. Our readers demand other kinds of news, and it is the reporter's task to satisfy them faithfully. There is probably no phase of the work that is quite so irksome as the reporting of speeches, lectures, sermons, etc., and there is probably no phase of the work about which most reporters have fewer definite rules or ideas. Read the reports of the same speech in two different papers and note the difference. They seldom contain the same things and more seldom do they tell what the speaker said, in the way and the spirit in which he said it. It is irksome work and difficult work to condense an hour's talk into three stickfuls, and few reporters know exactly how to go about it.

The report of a speech or a sermon or a lecture may come to a newspaper office in one of two ways. A copy of it may be sent to the paper or the reporter may have to go to hear the address and take notes on it. Very often the speaker kindly sends a printed or typewritten copy of his speech to the editor a few days in advance with the permission to release it—or print it—on a certain date, after the speech has been delivered in public. If the speech is to be printed in full, the task is a mere matter of editing and does not trouble the reporter. Very few speeches receive so much space. The others must be condensed and put in shape for printing.

After all, the usual way to get a speech is to go to the public delivery of the speech and bring back a report of it. At first sight this is a difficult task and green reporters come back with a very poor resume. However, a word or two of advice from the editor or some bitter experience eases the way. Some advice may be given here to prepare the would-be reporter beforehand.

Some reporters who know shorthand prefer to make a stenographic report of the entire speech and rearrange and condense it in the office. This method is advisable only in the case of speeches of the greatest importance; it is too laborious for ordinary purposes, since the account includes at most only a part of the speech. The best way, doubtless, to get a speech is to take notes on it. And yet this must be done properly or there is a danger of misinterpretation of statements or of undue emphasis upon any single part of the speech. The report of a speech should be as well balanced and logical as the speech itself, differing from the original only in length and the omission of details. The speech report must be accurate and truthful or the speaker may appear at the office in a day or two with blood in his eye. A few rules may be suggested as an aid to accuracy and truthfulness.

In the first place, do not try to get all the speech; do not try to get more than a small part of it—the important part. There are two ways of doing this. If the speech is well arranged and orderly it is easy to tell when the speaker has finished one sub-division and is beginning another. Each division and subdivision will naturally contain a topic sentence. Watch for the topic sentences and get them down with the briefest necessary explanation to make them clear. Political speeches or impromptu talks are, on the other hand, not always so logically arranged. Sometimes it is possible to get the topic sentences, but more often it is not. Then watch for the interesting or striking statements. You will be aided in this by the audience about you. Whenever the speaker says anything unusually striking or of more than ordinary interest the audience will show it by signs of assent or dissent. Watch for these signs, even for applause—and take down the statement that was the cause. If the statement interested the original audience it will interest your readers. Naturally, mere oratorical trivialities must not be mistaken for striking statements.

When you get back to the office to write up the report of the speech you will feel the need of direct quotations—in fact, the length of your report will be determined by the number of direct quotations that you have to use in it—as well as by editorial dictum. It would be entirely wrong to quote any expressions of your own because they are somewhat like the speaker's statements, and it is impossible to quote anything less than a complete sentence in the report of a speech. Hence you will need complete sentences taken down verbatim in the exact words of the speaker. Make it a point to get complete sentences as you listen to the speech. Whenever a striking statement or an interesting part of the speech seems worth putting in your story get it down completely. You will find yourself writing most of the time because, while you are writing down one important sentence, the speaker will be uttering several more in explanation and may say something else of interest before you have finished writing down his first statement. Strict attention, a quick pencil, and a good memory are needed for this kind of work, but the reporting of speeches will lose its terrors after you have had a very small amount of practice.

Just as any news story begins with a lead and plays up its most striking fact in the first line, the report of a speech usually begins with the speaker's most striking or most important statement. As you are listening to his words watch for something striking for the lead—something that will catch the reader's eye and interest him. But you must exercise great care in selecting the statement for the lead. Theoretically and practically it must be something in strict accordance with the entire content of the speech and, if possible, it should be the one statement that sums up the whole speech in the most concise way. Somewhere in the discourse, at the beginning, at the end, or in some emphatic place, the speaker will usually sum up his complete ideas on the subject in a striking, concise way. Watch for this summary and get it down for the lead. However, there may be times when this summary, though concise, will be of little interest to the average reader and you will be forced to use some other striking statement. Then it is perfectly permissible to take any striking statement in the speech and use it for the lead, provided that the statement is directly connected with the rest of the discourse. But be fair to the speaker. Do not play up some chance remark as illustrative of the entire utterance; don't bring in an aside as the most interesting thing in his speech. If a preacher forgets himself to the extent of expressing a chance political opinion, it would obviously be unfair to him for you to play up that remark as the summary of his sermon. Your readers would get a false impression and the preacher would be angry. If he considers the chance remark of real importance in his sermon he will back it up with other statements that will give you an excuse for using it. In brief, watch for the most interesting and most striking statement in the entire speech, and in selecting this statement be fair and just and try to avoid giving a false impression of the speaker or of the speech. If you follow this rule you will never be in any danger of getting your paper into difficulties.

Another rule in reporting lectures, speeches, etc., applies to the writing of all newspaper stories. Write your report at once while the speech is still fresh in your mind. Your report must preserve the logic and continuity of the speech—it must be a fair resume. Your notes will be at best mere jottings of chance sentences here and there. Do not allow them to get cold and lose their continuity. Write the report at once.

* * * * *

The writing of the report of a speech, lecture, or sermon is the same whether it is taken from a printed or stenographic copy of the discourse or from notes. It is perhaps easier to write from your notes because you have the important parts of the speech picked out, ready for use, by the aid of the rest of the audience. Before you can resume a printed copy of the speech you must go through it and pick out the important sentences which you wish to quote and decide upon the most striking statement for the lead. There is no definite rule that can be followed in this except to take the topic sentences whenever they are stated with sufficient clearness. When you have decided on the statements that you wish to quote you have really reduced the speech to a form practically identical with the notes taken from verbal utterance, and the writing in either case is the same.

The lead of the report is very much like the lead of any other news story—for the report of a speech is really a news story. As soon as the speech is mentioned, the reader unconsciously asks a number of questions about it and the reporter must answer them in the first sentence. As in any other news story the questions are: What? Who? Where? When? and perhaps How? and Why? Reduced to the case of the speech report, they amount to what did he say, who said it, where did he say it, when, and perhaps how and why did he say it. You may answer the what by giving the subject of the discourse or by giving a striking statement in it. In every report the answer to some one of the questions is of greater interest and must be placed in the first line. If the speaker is of more than ordinary prominence his name makes a good beginning. If an ordinary person makes a speech at some meeting of prominence the when or where takes precedence over his name. But in most cases the reporter will find that none of these things is of sufficient importance for the beginning. Most public utterances that he will be called upon to report will be made by ordinary men in ordinary places and at ordinary times, and the most interesting part of the story will be what was said. Sometimes it suffices to give the title of the speech, but more often a striking statement from the speech makes the best beginning. However, although the speaker, the time, the place, etc., are overshadowed in importance by the subject or content of what the speaker says, they must be included in the same sentence with the title or striking statement. That is, in short, we catch the reader's interest with a striking statement from the speech and then delay the rest of the report while we tell who said it, when, where, etc. The necessity of this is obvious.

In accordance with the foregoing there are several possible ways in which to begin the lead of the report of any speech. It would be wrong to say that any one is more common or better than the others; the choice of the beginning must rest with the reporter. And yet there are various things to be noted in connection with each of these beginnings.

1. Direct Quotation Beginning.—Sentence.—The quotation that is to have the first line must of course be the most striking or the most interesting statement in the speech. If it consists of a single sentence—and it cannot be less than a sentence—the report may begin thus:

"Participation in government is not only the privilege, but the right, of every American citizen and should be considered a duty," said the Rev. Frederick W. Hamilton, president of Tufts College, who spoke on "The Political Duties of the American Citizen" at the monthly men's neighborhood meeting in the Roxbury Neighborhood House last night. Boston Herald.

Here the reporter has given us a sentence that is practically a summary of the speech, has told us who said it, when and where, and has completed the paragraph with the title of the speech. Sometimes the title of the speech is not of great importance and its place in the lead may be given to a little summary as in the following:

"The modern man isn't afraid of hell," was the concise explanation which W. Lathrop Meaker gave in Franklin Union Hall yesterday afternoon and evening of the fact that the churches are losing their grip on the average man. New York Sun.

A question which embodies the content of a speech may often be quoted at the beginning; thus:

"Will the Baptist church continue to maintain an attitude of timidity when John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil is mentioned?" asked the Rev. R. A. Bateman, from East Jaffrey, N. H., of the ministers assembled in Ford Hall last evening at the New England Baptist conference. Boston Herald.

The opening quotation may sometimes be made an excuse for a brief description of the speaker or his gestures as in the following. This is good at times but it may easily be overworked or become "yellow" in tone.

"There is no fire escape," remarked Gypsy Smith, the famous English evangelist, yesterday before the fashionable audience of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church. He held aloft a Bible as he made this declaration during an eloquent sermon on the possibility of losing faith and wandering from the narrow way. New York World.

2. Direct Quotation Beginning.—Paragraph.—You notice that in each of the foregoing the quoted sentence is incorporated grammatically into the first sentence of the lead. It is followed by a comma and the words "said Mr. ——," "was the statement of ——," "declared Mr. ——," etc. This construction is possible only when the quoted sentence is short and simple. When it is long or complex, it is well to paragraph it separately and to put the explanations in a separate paragraph, thus:

"If the United States had possessed in 1898 a single dirigible balloon, even of the size of the one now at Fort Myer, Virginia, which cost less than $10,000, the American army and navy would not have long remained in doubt of the presence of Cervera's fleet in Santiago harbor." This statement was made today by Major G. O. Squier, assistant chief signal officer of the army, in an address on aeronautics delivered before the American Society of Mechanical Engineers at 29 West Thirty-ninth street. New York Mail.

This same construction must always be used when the statement quoted in the lead consists of more than one sentence, as in the following:

"The climate of Wisconsin is as good for recovery from tuberculosis as that of any state in the union. It is not the climate, but the out-of-doors air that works the cure." So said Harvey Dee Brown in his tuberculosis crusade lecture in Kilbourn park last night. Milwaukee Free Press.

It is to be noted that the statement quoted in the lead is never split into two parts, separated by explanation. The quotation is always gathered together at the beginning and followed by the explanation.

3. Indirect Quotation Beginning.—This method is best adapted to the playing up of a brief resume of the content of the speech. It is sometimes called the "that-clause beginning" because it always begins with a that-clause which is the subject of the principal verb of the sentence—"was the statement of," "was the declaration of," etc. The that-clause may contain a resume of the entire speech or only the most striking statement in it. Here is one of the latter:

That the cruise of the battleship fleet around the world has taught the citizens of the United States that a powerful fleet is needed in the Pacific was the statement of Rear Admiral R. C. Hollyday, chief of the bureau of yards and docks of the navy, at a luncheon given to him by the board of trustees of the Chamber of Commerce at the Fairmont Hotel yesterday. San Francisco Examiner.

It is not always necessary to use the phrase "was the statement of." A variation from it is often very good:

That it is the urgent mission of the white people of America, through their churches and Sunday-schools, to educate the American negro morally and religiously, was the sentiment of the twelfth session of the International Sunday-school Convention last night, voiced with special power and eloquence by Dr. Booker T. Washington, the chief speaker of the evening. Louisville Courier-Journal.

That the Irish race has a great destiny to fulfill, one greater than it has achieved in its glorious past, was the prophecy of Prof. Charles Johnston of Dublin university in his lecture at the city library Sunday afternoon. Wisconsin State Journal.

It is perfectly good usage to begin such a lead with two that-clauses or even with three. The two clauses in this case are of course treated as a singular subject and take a singular verb. It is usually best not to have more than three clauses at the beginning and even three must be handled with great care. Three clauses at the beginning, if at all long, bury the speaker's name too deeply and may become too complicated. Unless the clauses are very closely related in idea, it is usually better not to use more than two. Naturally when more than one that-clause is used in the lead, all of the clauses must be gathered together at the beginning; never should one precede and one follow the principal verb. Here is an example of good usage:

NEW YORK, Feb. 25. That America is entering upon a new era of civic and business rectitude and that this is due to the awakening of the moral conscience of the whole people was the prophecy made here tonight by Governor Joseph W. Folk of Missouri. Chicago Record-Herald.

4. Summary Beginning.—This is a less formal way of treating the indirect quotation beginning. It is simply a different grammatical construction. Whereas in the that-clause beginning the principal verb of the sentence is outside the summary (e. g., "That ... was the statement of"), in the summary beginning the principal verb of the sentence is the verb of the summary and the speaker is brought in by means of a modifying phrase; thus:

MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 1. Both the free trader and the stand-patter are back numbers, according to Senator Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana, who delivered a tariff speech here tonight. Milwaukee Free Press.

Federal control of the capitalization of railroads is the solution of the railroad problem suggested by E. L. Phillipp, the well-known Milwaukee railroad expert, in the course of a speech at the third annual banquet of, etc. Milwaukee Free Press.

The summary beginning may be handled in many different ways and allows perhaps more grammatical liberty than any other beginning. The summary may even be given a sentence by itself as in the following. This kind of treatment may easily be overdone and should be handled with great caution:

If you have acute mania, it is the proper thing to take the music cure. Miss Jessie A. Fowler says so, and she knows. Miss Fowler discussed "Music Hygienically" before the "Rainy Daisies" at the Hotel Astor yesterday and prescribed musical treatment for various brands of mania. New York World.

5. Keynote Beginning.—Very closely related to the summary beginning is the keynote beginning, in which the subject of the main verb is an indirect presentation of the content of the speech. Whereas the summary beginning displays its resume in a complete sentence, the keynote beginning puts the content of the speech in a single noun and its modifiers. Thus:

The ideal state university was the theme of a speech delivered by, etc.

The mission of the newspaper to tell the truth, to stand for high ideals, and to strive to have those ideals adopted by the public was the keynote of an address delivered by, etc.

6. Participial Beginning.—This is less common than the other kinds of indirect quotation beginnings but it is often very effective. The summary of the speech or the most striking statement is put into a participial phrase at the beginning and is made to modify the subject of the sentence (the speaker). It must of course be remembered that such a participial phrase can be used only to modify a noun, as an adjective modifies a noun, and can never be made the subject of a verb. Here is an example of good use of this beginning:

Upholding the right of public criticism of the courts on the theory that there can be no impropriety in investigating any act of a public official, Judge Kennesaw M. Landis last night addressed the students of Marquette College of Law and many members of the Milwaukee bar. Milwaukee Free Press.

Just as it is perfectly possible to begin an indirect quotation lead with two that-clauses instead of one, it is also possible to use two participial phrases in the participial beginning; as:

Pleading for justice and human affection in dealing with the delinquent child, and urging the vital need of legislation which shall enforce parental responsibility, Mrs. Nellie Duncan made an address yesterday which stirred the sympathies of an attentive audience in the First Presbyterian Church. San Francisco Examiner.

Although the participial phrase usually gives the summary of the speech, not infrequently the participial construction is used to play up the name of the speech or some other fact and the summary comes after the principal verb of the lead; thus:

Paying tribute to the memory of President William McKinley last night at the Metropolitan Temple, where exercises were held to dedicate the McKinley memorial organ, Judge Taft told in detail of his commission to the Philippine service and his subsequent intimate connection with the President. New York Tribune.

7. Title Beginning.—There are two reasons for beginning the report of a public utterance with the speaker's subject or title. The title itself may be so broad that it makes a good summary of the speech, or it may be so striking in itself that it attracts interest at once. In the following examples the title is really a summary of the speech:

NEW YORK, Dec. 15. "The Compensation of Employes for Injuries Received While at Work" was taken by J. D. Beck, commissioner of labor of Wisconsin, as the theme of his address before the National Civic Federation here today. Milwaukee Free Press.

"The Emmanuel Movement" was the subject of an address by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue yesterday morning. New York Evening Post.

In the following stories the reporter began with the title evidently because it was so strikingly unusual and also because it was the title of a strikingly unusual speech by an unusual man. This kind of title beginning is always very effective:

"Booze, or Get on the Water Wagon," was the subject on which Rev. Billy Sunday, the baseball evangelist, addressed an audience of over 4,000 persons at the Midland Chautauqua yesterday afternoon. For two hours Sunday fired volley after volley at the liquor traffic. Des Moines Capital.

"If Christ Came to Milwaukee" was the subject of the Rev. Paul B. Jenkin's Sunday night in Immanuel Presbyterian Church. Milwaukee Sentinel.

8. Speaker Beginning.—It is obvious that this is the easiest beginning that may be used in the report of a speech. But just as obviously it is the beginning that should be least used. Just as in writing news stories a green reporter always attempts to begin every lead with the name of some person involved, in reporting a public discourse he has a strong desire to put the name of the speaker before what the speaker said. But the same tests may be applied to both cases. Are our readers more interested in what a man does than in the man himself; do our readers go to hear a given speaker because they wish to hear what he has to say or because they wish to hear him? Whenever the public is so interested in a man that it does not care what he says, then you may feel safe in beginning the report of what he says with his name. This test may be altered, especially in smaller cities, by previous interest in the speech; if the speech has been expected and looked forward to with interest, then, no matter if the speaker is the President himself, his name is not as good news as what he has to say. Even if the lead does begin with the speaker's name, the reporter usually tries to bring a summary of the speech or the most striking statement into the first sentence after the name. For example:

Speaker Joseph G. Cannon placed himself on record last night in favor of a revision of the tariff in accordance with the promise of the Republican party platform and declared that so far as his vote was concerned he would see to it that the announced policy of revision would be written in the national laws as soon as possible. The words of the speaker came at a luncheon given to six rear admirals of the United States navy by Alexander H. Revell of Chicago in the Union League Club, at which the need of more battleships and increased efficiency of the fighting forces of the republic were the principal themes of discussion.

This example was chosen because, while it is written in accordance with the rules of the speaker beginning, it is obviously too long and complicated—over 110 words. It would be better to gather it together and condense it as in the following:

Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot opened the second day's session of the national conservation congress yesterday by an address in which he expressed his entire satisfaction and his confidence in the attitude of President Taft toward conservating the national resources. Milwaukee Sentinel.

ST. PAUL, Minn., Feb. 10. Booker T. Washington of Tuskegee, Ala., in an address at the People's Church tonight predicted that within two years the liquor traffic would be driven out of all the southern states but two. Milwaukee Sentinel.

There are obviously other beginnings that cannot be classed under any of the above heads. Some of them, much like the "freak" leads that may be seen in many newspapers of the present day, may be called free beginnings for want of a better name. These free beginnings are quite effective when properly handled but the novice must use them with fear and trembling. They may be witty or they may be sarcastic, but they are usually dangerous. The difference in the eight beginnings discussed above is mainly one of grammatical construction; the same fundamental ideas govern them all. Their purpose is always to play up a striking statement or a summary of the speech report and to give at the very outset the necessary explanation concerning the speech.

THE BODY OF THE REPORT

The body of the report of a speech is not so distinct from the lead as the body of an ordinary news story. In the news story it is safe to assume that many readers will not go beyond the lead, but in the report of a speech this is not so true. It is less possible to give the main facts in the lead of a speech report and the rest of the story is more necessary. Hence it must be written with as great care as the lead.

The body of the report should consist of direct quotation in so far as possible. The reader is interested in what the speaker said and it is impossible to make a summary in indirect discourse as convincing as the actual quotation of his words. Be sure that the quotations are the speaker's exact words or very nearly his exact words, so that he cannot accuse you of misquoting him. The spirit of his words must be in the quotation, anyway.

In these quotations nothing less than a complete sentence should be quoted. Do not patch together sentences of indirect and direct quotation, like the following—He said that some of us are prone to let things be as they are, "because the philanthropic rich help in our times of trouble and in sickness." Such quotation is worse than no direct quotation at all. Of course, this does not mean that one cannot add "said the speaker" to a direct quotation, but it means that "said the speaker" can be added only to quotations that are complete sentences. Furthermore whenever it is necessary to bring in "said the speaker," or similar expressions, they should be added at the end of the quoted sentence—the least emphatic part of a newspaper sentence.

Obviously a condensed report of a speech can only quote sentences here and there throughout the speech—the high spots of interest, as we called them before. These must not be quoted promiscuously and disconnectedly. The original speech had a logical order and set forth a logical train of thought. These should be followed as far as possible in the report. Bring in the quotations in their true order and fill the gaps between them with indirect discourse to knit them together and to give the report the coherence of the original speech. But do not carry this indirect explanation to the extent of making your copy a report of the speech in indirect discourse with occasional bits of direct quotation to illustrate. Remember that, after all, the direct quotation is the truly effective part of the speech.

Whenever a paragraph contains both direct and indirect quotation, the direct quotation should always precede the indirect. But it is much better to paragraph the two kinds of quotation separately, making each paragraph entirely of direct, or entirely of indirect, quotation. If a paragraph must contain both, begin it with the direct so that as the reader glances down the column he will see a quotation mark at the beginnings of most, if not all, of the paragraphs. By the same sign, when your notes are lacking in direct quotations, bring in as many of the quotations as possible at the beginning of the report and let the indirect summary occupy the end where it may be cut off by the editor if he does not wish to run it.

Here is a good illustration of a part of the body of a good speech report—it is the second paragraph of one of the stories quoted under the "Speaker" beginning above:

"I can not account for the moral revolution that is sweeping over the South," he continued. "The sentiment against whisky is deeper than the mere desire to get it away from the black man. That same sentiment is found in counties that contain no negro population. People who say that the law will not be enforced have not been in the South. B. T. Washington's speech, Milwaukee Sentinel.

You will notice that although the above paragraph is composed entirely of direct quotation it has no quotation mark at the end. This is, of course, in accordance with the old rule of rhetoric which says that in a continuous quotation each paragraph shall begin with a quotation mark but only the last shall be closed by a quotation mark.

To illustrate the errors that may be made in reporting speeches we might write the above paragraph as follows:

Mr. Washington continued by saying that he could not account for the revolution that is sweeping over the South. "The sentiment against whisky is deeper than the mere desire to get it away from the black man." He says that "the same sentiment is found in counties that contain no negro population." People who say that the law will not be enforced "have not been in the South," according to Booker T. Washington.

The clumsiness of this mingling of direct and indirect quotation is very clear, as is the weakness of beginning with an explanation that is really subordinate.

Much more could be said about the reporting of speeches. Very few things will make a man so angry as the misquoting of his words. Therefore, whatever other faults your report of a speech may have, let it be accurate and truthful.



XI

INTERVIEWS

If you compare any interview story with any speech report in any representative newspaper, you will readily see how a discussion of interviews easily becomes an explanation of the differences between interview stories and speech-reports; that is, how the report of an interview differs from the report of a public utterance of a more formal kind. There are few differences in the written reports. Each usually begins with a summary or a striking statement and consists largely of direct quotation. Were it not for the line or two of explanation at the end of the introduction, it would be practically impossible to tell the one from the other, to tell which of the reports sets forth statements made in a public discourse and which gives statements made in a more private way to a reporter.

The difference lies behind the report, in the way the reporter obtained the statements and quotations. And the whole difference depends upon the attitude of the man who made the statements—whether his words were a conscious or an unconscious public utterance. When a man speaks from a platform he utters every sentence and every word with an idea of possible quotation—he is not only willing to be quoted but he wants to be quoted. But when he speaks privately to a reporter he usually dreads quotation. Of course, he expects that you will print a few of his remarks but he is constantly hoping that you will not remember and print them all. He speaks more guardedly, too, since he is not sure of the interpretation that may be given to his words. Hence it is a very different matter to report what a man says in public and to get statements for the press from him in private. Any one can report a speech but great skill is required to get a good interview—especially if the victim is unwilling to talk.

The first matter that a reporter has to consider is the means of retaining the statements until he is able to write his story. It is a simple matter to get quotations from a speech because it is possible to sit anywhere in the audience and write down the speaker's words in a notebook as they are uttered. But the notebook must be left behind when you try to interview. When a man is not used to being interviewed nothing will make him reticent so quickly as the appearance of a notebook and pencil; he realizes that his words are to appear in print just as he utters them and he immediately becomes frightened. Ordinarily so long as he feels that what he says is going into the confidential ear of the reporter—and out of the other ear just as quickly—he is willing to talk more freely and openly and to say exactly what he thinks. This, of course, does not apply to prominent men who are used to being interviewed and prefer to have their remarks taken down verbatim. Such an interview, however, is little more than a call to secure a statement for publication.

It might be well to settle the notebook question here and now when it assumes the greatest importance. The stage has hardened us to seeing a reporter slinking around the outskirts of every bit of excitement writing excitedly and hurriedly in a large leather notebook. So hardened are we to the sight that some new reporters buy a notebook just as soon as they get a place on a newspaper staff. But real reporters on real newspapers do not use notebooks. A few sheets of folded copy paper hidden carefully in an inside pocket ready for names and addresses and perhaps figures are all that most of them carry. Many people dread publicity and the appearance of a notebook frightens them into silence more quickly than the actual appearance of a representative of the press. This is true in the reporting of any bit of news, in the covering of any story—and it is ordinarily true in interviewing for statements that are to be quoted. Of course, an exception to this must be made in the case of some prominent men who prefer to issue signed written statements when they are interviewed.

The impossibility of using a notebook or writing down a man's words in an interview seriously complicates the task of interviewing. Some reporters train themselves until they are able to remember their victim's words long enough to get outside and write them down. Others are satisfied with getting the ideas and the spirit of what is said together with the man's manner of talking. A few characteristic mannerisms thrown in with a true report of his ideas will make any speaker believe that you have quoted him exactly. Whichever method is pursued, the reporter must always be fair and try to tell the readers of the paper the man's true ideas. The exigencies of the case give the reporter greater liberty than in quoting from a speech but he must not abuse his liberty.

The success of an interview depends very largely upon the way in which a reporter approaches the man whom he wishes to interview. It is never well to trust to the inspiration of the moment to start the conversation. The reporter must know exactly what he wishes to have the man say before he approaches him and must already have framed his questions so as to draw out the answers that he wishes. People are never interviewed except for a purpose and that purpose should suggest the reporter's first question. No matter how willing the man is to tell what he thinks he will seldom begin talking until the reporter asks him a definite question to help him in putting his thoughts into words. All of this should be considered beforehand. The reporter should have outlined a definite campaign and have a series of questions which he wishes to ask. If he has written the questions out beforehand, the task becomes an easier one—he merely fills in the answers on his list later and has the interview in better form than if he had tried to trust entirely to his memory. To be sure, the questions may open up unexpected lines of thought and he may get more than he went for, but he must have his questions ready for use as soon as each new line is exhausted. A skilled reporter frames the interview himself and keeps the result entirely in his own hands through the campaign that he has outlined beforehand. Unless he knows exactly what he wants to get, a wary victim may lead him off upon unimportant facts and in the end tell him nothing that his paper has sent him to get. A reporter must keep the reins of an interview in his own possession.

A good reporter takes great care in his manner of addressing a man whom he is to interview. A well-known newspaper follows the rule of asking its reporters never to do what a gentleman would not do. A reporter who is trying to interview must always be a gentleman and must not ask questions that a gentleman would not ask. If the victim is a prominent man of great personality it is not hard to follow this rule—in fact, it is impossible to get the interview by any other method of approach. But when one is trying to interview a person of humbler station, the case is different. It is very easy then to fall into a habit of demanding information and turning the interview into an inquisition. But the reporter who keeps his attitude as a gentleman gets more real facts even when his victim is of the most humble social status. Therefore, never approach your victim as if he were a witness and you a cross-questioning lawyer. Do not say: "See here, you know more about it than that," and thus try to force unwilling information from him. Go at him in a more round-about way and lead him to give you the facts unwittingly perhaps.

A young reporter often feels an impulse to become too personal with the man whom he is interviewing. He must always remember that he is not there for a friendly chat but as a representative of a newspaper, sent to get concise facts or opinions. This attitude must be maintained even with the humblest persons. Any desire to sympathize, criticize, or advise must be checked at the very start. The point of view must always be kept.

* * * * *

Although the main difference between writing interview stories and reporting speeches lies in the very act of getting the quotations and words of the speaker, there are certain aspects in which the writing of an interview story is different. The actual form of the two stories is almost identical and yet there is a tone in the interview story that is lacking in the report of a speech. This may be called the personal tone.

The very name of the speaker obviously plays a much larger part in the interview story than in the speech report. We may be more interested in what a man says in a public discourse than we are in the man, but when we interview a man we want his opinions not for themselves so much as because they are his opinions. An interview with the President on the tariff is not necessarily interesting in the new ideas that it brings out, for we have many other ways of knowing the President's opinions on the tariff question; but the interview is worth printing because every one is interested in reading anything that the President says, although he may have read the same thing many times before. A man is seldom interviewed unless he is of some prominence—that is why he is interviewed, and so in the resulting story his name plays a very important part. In fact, his name is usually the feature of the story; most interview stories begin directly with the name of the man whose statements are quoted.

Although a man may be interviewed simply because of his prominence and popularity, there is usually another reason for the interview. We are interested not only in hearing him say something but we wish to hear him say something on a certain topic. The interview thus has a timeliness, a reason for existence. Since this timeliness is the reason for printing a certain man's statements, the reporter's account must indicate that timeliness near the beginning. That is, the first sentence of an interview story must not only tell who was interviewed and the gist of what he said, but it must tell why he said it. The interview must be connected with the rest of the day's news. This comes out very definitely in the custom which many newspapers have of printing the opinions of many prominent men in connection with any important event. Perhaps it is because we wish to know their opinions on the subject or perhaps it is simply because we are glad to have a chance to hear them talk—at any rate many editors make any great event an excuse for a series of interviews. This is illustrated by the opinions of the various labor leaders that were printed with the story of the recent confession of the McNamara brothers. In such a case, the reporter must make the reason for the interview his starting point in the report and must indicate very plainly why the man was interviewed.

This idea of timeliness is very often carried to the extent of making the interview merely a denial or an assertion from the mouth of a well-known man. There may be an upheaval in Wall Street. Immediately the papers print an interview in which some prominent financier denies or asserts that he is at the bottom of the upheaval. Naturally the report of the interview begins with the very words of the denial or the assertion. Very often a man when interviewed refuses to say anything on the subject. The fact that he has nothing to say does not mean that the interview is not worth reporting. In fact, that refusal to speak may be the most effective thing that he could say. The reporter begins by telling that his man had nothing to say on the subject and ends by telling what he should have said or what his refusal to speak probably means,—if the paper is not too scrupulous in such matters. At any rate, the denial or assertion or refusal to speak becomes the starting point of the report and furnishes the excuse for the interview story. The expanded remarks that follow the lead are of course important but they are not so important as the primary expression of opinion that the reporter went for.

The personal element in interviewing may be carried to an extreme extent. The man who is interviewed may so far overshadow the importance of what he says that the report of the interview becomes almost a sketch of the man himself. That is, the report is filled with human interest. The quotations are interspersed with action and description. We are told how the man acted when he said each individual thing. His appearance, attitude, expression, and surroundings become as important as his words and are brought into the report as vividly as possible. Such an interview may become almost large enough to be used as a special feature story for the Sunday edition, but when the human interest is limited to a comparatively subordinate position the report still keeps its character as an interview news story. Such a thing may be illustrated from the daily press:

"I would rather have four battleships and need only two than to have two and need four." Seated in the cool library of Colonel A. K. McClure's summer home at Wallingford, Rear Admiral Winfield Scott Schley, retired, thus expressed himself yesterday on the need of a larger and greater navy.

After all has been said about interviewing, the one thing that a reporter must remember is that an interview story is at best rather dry and everything that he can do to increase the interest will improve the interview. But all of this must be done with absolute fairness to the speaker and great truthfulness in the quotation of his ideas and opinions.

* * * * *

To come to the technical form of the interview story, we find that there are very nearly as many possible beginnings as in the case of the report of a speech. The interview story must begin with a lead that tells who was interviewed, when, and where, what he said (in a quotation or an indirect summary), and why he was interviewed. This is like the lead of a speech report in every particular except in the timeliness—the occasion for a speech is seldom mentioned in the lead, but a reporter usually tells at once why he interviewed the man whose words he quotes.

1. Speaker Beginning.—The very purpose behind interviewing makes the so-called speaker beginning most common. It is almost an invariable rule that the report of an interview must begin with the man's name unless what he says is of greater importance than his name—which is seldom.

The simplest form of the speaker beginning is the one in which the speaker's name is followed directly by a summary of what he said, as:

Dr. David Starr Jordan, president of Leland Stanford Junior University, said yesterday at the Holland House that in the development of American universities educators must separate the lower two classes from the upper two, the present freshman and sophomore classes to be absorbed by small colleges or supplemental high schools, making the junior year the first in the university training. He said the universities should receive only men, not boys. New York Tribune.

Another kind of speaker beginning may devote most of the lead to the explanation of the reason for the interview, giving the briefest possible summary of what was said: Thus:

Director Lang of the department of public safety is going to place a ban on the playing of tennis on Sunday. He doesn't know just yet how he is going to accomplish this, but yesterday he declared that he would find some law applicable to the case. Pittsburgh Gazette-Times.

One step further brings us to the entire exclusion of the result of the interview from the lead. In this case the reason for the interview occupies the entire lead and we must read part of the second paragraph to find what the man said; thus:

Charles F. Washburn, Richmond Hill's wizard of finance, promises to appear at his broker's office in Newark, N. J., this morning with a fresh bank roll, accumulated since the close of the market on Saturday. (The second paragraph tells what it is all about and the third quotes his words.) New York World.

It is to be noted that in each of the above leads the speaker's name is always accompanied by a word or two telling who he is and why he was interviewed. Furthermore the reporter himself has no more place in the lead than if he were reporting a speech—his existence and the part he played in getting the interview are strictly ignored.

2. Summary Beginning.—There are two common ways of beginning an interview story with a summary. First, the lead may begin with a that-clause which embodies the gist of the interview; this is like the that-clause beginning of the report of a speech; thus:

That the apparent apathy among the voters of the country is merely contentment with the present administration of affairs by the Republican party is the contention of ex-Senator John M. Thurston of Nebraska. Mr. Thurston was at Republican national headquarters today, etc. New York Evening Post.

Secondly the summary beginning is used in the case of an interview that is a denial or an assertion by the man interviewed. The lead begins with a clause or a participial phrase embodying the substance of the interview, and the name of the speaker is made the subject of a verb of denying or asserting; thus:

Declaring that his office is run as economically as possible, Sheriff H. E. Franke denied on Sunday that he had expended more than $688 for auto hire to collect $1,409.28 of alleged taxes. (The second paragraph begins with a direct quotation.) Milwaukee Sentinel. Although he had sharply criticised Roosevelt's special message condemning some of the uses to which the possessors of large fortunes are putting their wealth, President Jacob Gould Schurman, Cornell University, declined to discuss Roosevelt or his policies in Milwaukee yesterday. He said that he was not talking politics. (The rest of the report is a quotation of his views on college athletics.) Milwaukee Free Press.

3. Quotation Beginning.—Many reports of interviews begin with a direct quotation. The logic of this is that the expression of opinion is, in some cases, of more interest than the name of the man who expressed the opinion. Sometimes the name of the speaker is not considered worth mentioning and in that case a direct quotation is the only advisable beginning; thus:

"With the prices of food for hogs and cattle going up, it is natural that the food beef and pork for us humans should keep pace." This was the logic of an east-side butcher who discussed the probable rise in the prices of meat. Milwaukee Free Press.

Sometimes a short quotation is used at the beginning of the lead very much as a title is used in a speech report; thus:

NEW YORK, June 1. "A business proposition which should have been put in effect nearly twenty years ago," was John Wanamaker's comment today on the adoption of 2-cent letter postage between the United States and Great Britain and Ireland. Milwaukee Free Press.

If the quotation at the beginning consists of only one sentence the name of the speaker may be run into the same paragraph; thus:

"Judge McPherson's recent decision declaring Missouri's 2-cent fare confiscatory is an indication that vested interests are entitled to some protection and that legislatures must not go too far in regulating them," said Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, president of the Canadian Pacific road, on Sunday. Milwaukee Sentinel.

However if the quotation at the beginning contains more than one sentence it is best to paragraph the quotation separately and leave the name of the speaker until the second paragraph; thus:

"The American Federation of Labor will enter the national campaign by seeking to place labor candidates on the tickets of the old parties. An independent labor party is eventually contemplated. But there is not time to get results in that way in the next national campaign." So said H. C. Raasch, national president of the tile-layers, upon his return yesterday, etc. Milwaukee Free Press.

4. Human Interest Beginning.—This is a designation devised to cover a multitude of beginnings. A human interest interview may begin with a quotation, a summary, a name, or an action. The aim is necessarily toward unconventionality and the form of the lead is left to the originality of the reporter. A few examples may illustrate what is meant by the human interest beginning:

"There goes another string. Drat those strings!" Only Joseph Caluder didn't say "Drat." "Say, do you know that I have spent pretty nearly $1,000 for strings for that violin? Well, it's a fact. Listen." Etc. Milwaukee Sentinel.

Fire Marshal James Horan never bought a firecracker, but for many years he has celebrated Independence day in the thick of fires. He never owned a gun or revolver. His last prayer before trying to snatch a little needed sleep Friday night will be of the twofold form, etc. Chicago Post.

After what has been said about the body of a speech report, there is little more to be said about the body of an interview story. The same rules apply in both cases. The body of the report should contain as much direct quotation as possible. However nothing less than a sentence should be quoted—that is, every quotation should be a complete sentence, with indirect explanation. Whenever "Said the speaker" or "Mr. Brown continued" or any similar expression is worked into the direct quotation it should always be placed at the end of the sentence; never begin a quotation in this way:—Mr. Jones continued, "Furthermore I would say, etc." In the same way, when a paragraph contains both direct and indirect quotation, the direct quotation should be placed at the beginning. Whenever it is possible, construct solid paragraphs of quotation, and solid paragraphs of summary. The report as a whole must have coherence and a logical sequence; for this a limited amount of indirect quotation may be used to fill in the gaps in the logic of the direct quotation.

According to the usage of the best newspapers of to-day the reporter must never be brought into the report of an interview. His existence must never be mentioned although every reader knows that some reporter secured the interview. In the old days reporters delighted in bringing themselves into their stories as "representatives of the press" or "a reporter for the Dispatch," but that practice has gone the way of the reporter's leather-bound notebook. The interview may be told satisfactorily without a mention of the reporter; hence newspaper usage has put a ban on his appearance in his story.

GROUP INTERVIEWS

We have said that a man is seldom interviewed without a reason; there is always a timeliness in interviewing. Any unusual event of broad importance becomes an excuse for the editor to print the opinion of some prominent man on some phase of the event. Sometimes the event is of such importance that the editor wishes to print the opinions of several men on the subject; or more than one prominent man may be involved in the affair and the public may wish to hear the opinions of every one involved. In such a case when several men are interviewed in regard to the same event it is considered rather useless and ineffective to print their interviews separately and the several interview stories are gathered together into one story and arranged in such a way that they may be compared. There are several ways of doing this.

If the case or event is very well known, a lead or summary of the several interviews is considered unnecessary and the words of the various men are grouped together under a single headline. This may be illustrated by the interviews that were printed after the confessions of the McNamara brothers of Los Angeles in the recent dynamiting case. The Wisconsin State Journal may be taken as representative. This paper printed the statements of twelve prominent men interested in the case in a three-column box under a long head; thus:

Leaders Discuss the Case Samuel Gompers, president American Federation of Labor I am astounded; I am astounded; my credulity has been imposed upon. It is a bolt out of a clear sky. * * * * * John T. Smith, president Missouri Federation of Labor I can not believe it. But if the McNamaras blew up the Times building they should be fully punished. * * * * * Gen. Harrison Grey Otis, publisher of the Times The result may be and ought to be, etc.

If the case had not been of such broad interest a lead embodying a summary of the interviews might have preceded the individual statements. It might have been done in this way:

Great surprise has been expressed by the prominent labor leaders of the country at the confession of the McNamara brothers in Los Angeles yesterday. That organized labor had no connection with the work of these men and that they should be fully punished is the consensus of opinion. Samuel Gompers, president American Federation of Labor I am astounded; I am astounded; my credulity has been imposed upon. It is a bolt out of a clear sky. John T. Smith, president Missouri Federation of Labor I can not believe it. Etc.

In such a story as the above, the statements are usually printed without quotation marks; each paragraph begins with a man's name, followed by a dash and what he said. The grouping together of several interviews is often done less formally. The whole thing may be written as a running story, and sometimes the names of the persons interviewed are omitted; thus:

Proprietors of the big flower shops, the places from which blossoms are delivered in highly polished and ornate wagons, drawn by horses that might win blue ribbons, and where, in the proper season, a single rose costs three dollars, do not approve of the comments made by a dealer who recently failed. Among these sayings was one to the effect that young millionaires spend a thousand dollars a week on flowers for chorus girls who earn twelve dollars a week, and who sometimes take the flowers back to the shop to exchange them for money to buy food and clothes. "That's all nonsense," said one dealer. (This paragraph is devoted to his opinion on the matter.) "We have enough trouble in this business," said another dealer, "without having this silly talk given to the public." (This paragraph gives this dealer's opinion) New York Evening Post.

(Each paragraph is devoted to a single interview.)

The same paragraph may be done with more local color as in the following:

Chinatown feels deeply its bereavement in the deaths of the Empress Dowager and the Emperor of China. Chinatown mourns, but it does so in such an unobtrusive Oriental way that the casual visitor on sympathy bent may feel that his words of condolence would be misplaced. A reporter from this paper was assigned yesterday to go up to Chinatown and in as delicate a way as possible to gather some of the sentiments of appreciation of the merits of Kuang-hsu and his lamented aunt, Tzu-hsi. He was told that he might write a little about the picturesque though nevertheless sincere expressions of mourning that he might observe in Pell and Mott streets. Mr. Jaw Gum, senior partner in the firm of Jaw Gum & Co., importers of cigars, cigarettes, dead duck's eggs and Chinese delicatessen, of 7 Pell street, was at home. Mr. Gum was approached. "We would like to learn a little about the arrangements that are being made by the Chinese to indicate their sorrow at the deaths of their beloved rulers." "What number?" queried Mr. Gum. The question was repeated. "P'licyman, he know," remarked Mr. Gum sagely. (So on for a column with interviews and statements from several of Mr. Gum's neighbors.) New York Sun.

But this is very much like a human interest story—the reporter takes part in it—and we shall discuss that later.



XII

COURT REPORTING

Probably few classes of news stories present such a lack of uniformity and such a variety of treatments as the reports of court news. Legal stories belong to one of the few sorts of stories that do not tend to become systematized. But there is a reason for almost everything in a newspaper and there is also a reason for the freedom that reporters are allowed in reporting testimony. The reason in this case is probably in the fact that very rarely do two court stories possess the same sort of interest or the same news value.

We have seen that reports of speeches are printed in the daily press because our readers are interested in the content of the speech or in the man who uttered it. In the same way, our readers are interested in interviews because of the man who was interviewed, because of their content, or because of their bearing on some current event. On the other hand there is an infinite number of reasons why a court story is worth printing or why it may not be worth a line. Sometimes the interest is in the persons involved; sometimes in the significance of the decision. People may also be interested in a case because of its political or legal significance or merely because of the sensational testimony that is given. And again a very trivial case may be worth a large amount of space in the daily paper just because of its human interest—because of the pathos or humor that the reporter can bring into it. Thus the resulting reports are hard to classify. Each one depends on a different factor for its interest and each must be written in a different way so that its individual interest may be most effective. However there are general tendencies in the reporting of court news.

The news itself is comparatively easy to get. In a large city every court is watched every day by a representative of the press, either a reporter for an individual paper or for a city news gathering association. In some cities where there is no independent news gathering agency papers sometimes club together to keep one reporter at each court. The man who is on duty must watch all day long for cases that are of interest for one reason or another. Even with all this safeguarding sometimes an important case slips by the papers; often the reporter on duty considers of little interest a case that is worth columns when some paper digs into it. Every reporter however who is trying to do court reporting should learn the ordinary routine of legal proceedings; for example, the place and purpose of the pleas, the direct and cross examination of witnesses, and other legal business.

As we shall see when we begin to write court reports, it is necessary to exercise every possible trick to put interest into the story. In the actual court room all that relieves the dreary monotony of legal proceedings is an occasional bit of interesting testimony. And when the reporter tries to report a case he sometimes finds that interesting testimony is all that will lighten up the dull monotony of his story. Therefore while he is listening to a case he tries to get down verbatim a large number of the interesting questions and answers. Or if he is unable to be present he tries to get hold of the court stenographer's record to copy out bits of testimony for his account. Beyond this recording of testimony there is really little difficulty in court reporting except the difficulty of separating the interesting from the great mass of uninteresting matter.

As to the actual writing of the report of a legal trial, the one thing that the reporter must remember is that a case is seldom reported for the public's interest in the case itself. There is usually some other reason why the editor wants a half a column of it. That reason is the thing that the reporter must watch for and when he finds it he must make it the feature of his report to be embodied in the first line of the lead.

When we try to play up the most interesting feature of a court report we find that we must fall back upon the same beginnings that we used in reporting speeches and interviews. There are several possible ways of beginning such a story, depending upon the phase of the case or its testimony that is of greatest importance.

1. Name Beginning.—The proper name beginning is very common. It is always used when any one of prominence is involved in the story or when the name, although unknown, can be made interesting in itself—as in a human interest story. The name is usually made the subject of the verb testified, as in this lead:

A. F. Law, secretary of the Temple Iron Company, a subsidiary company of the Reading Coal and Iron Company, called before the government investigation of the alleged combination of coal carrying roads, testified today in the Federal building that four roads had contributed $488,000 to make up the deficit of the Temple company during three years of coal strikes. New York Sun.

The name of a well-known company often makes a good beginning:

The Standard Oil Company sent a sweeping broadside into the Government's case yesterday at the hearing in the suit seeking to dissolve the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey under the Sherman anti-trust law, when witnesses began to tell of the character of a number of men the Government had placed upon the witness stand. New York Times.

The name of the judge himself may be used in the first line:

Judge Mulqueen of General Sessions explained today why he had sentenced two prisoners to "go home and serve time with the families." This punishment was imposed yesterday when both men pleaded drunkenness as their excuse for trivial offenses. New York Evening Post.

2. Continued Case Beginning.—Many court reports begin with the name of the case when the case has been running for some time and is well known. Each individual story on such a case is just a continuation of a sort of serial story that has been running for some time and in the lead each day the reporter tries to summarize the progress that has been made in the case during the day's hearing. However each story, like a follow-up story, is written in such a way that a knowledge of previous stories is not necessary to a clear understanding:

The hearing yesterday in the Government's suit to dissolve the Standard Oil Company ended with a dramatic incident. Mr. Kellogg sought to show that the Standard compelled a widow, Mrs. Jones, of Mobile, Ala., to sell out her little oil business at a ruinous sacrifice. New York World.

In some cases this sort of a lead begins with the mere mention of the continuing of the trial:

At the opening of the defence today in the sugar trials before Judge Martin of the United States Circuit Court, James F. Bendernagal took the witness chair in his own behalf, etc. New York Evening Post.

3. Summary Beginning.—The lead of a court report often begins with a brief summary of the result of the trial or of the day's hearing:

What the Government has characterized as "unfair competition and discrimination" on the part of the Standard Oil Company continued to be the subject of the investigation of that corporation today before Franklin Ferris of St. Louis, referee, in the Custom House. New York Evening Post.

The summary may be presented in as formal a way as the that-clause beginning which we used in reports of speeches:

That the Adams' Express Company's business in New England in 1909 yielded a profit representing 45 per cent. on the investment, including real estate and, excepting real estate, a net income of more than 83 per cent., came out in the course of the hearing before the Interstate Commerce Commission, etc. New York Evening Post.

4. Direct Quotation Beginning.—A direct quotation of some striking statement made by the judge, by a lawyer, by a witness, or by any one connected with the trial may be used at the beginning of the lead. Here is a lead beginning with a quotation from the title of a case:

"Captain Dick and Captain Lewis, Indians, for and on behalf of the Yokayo tribe of Indians, vs. F. C. Albertson, T. J. Weldon, as administrator of the estate of Charley, Indian, deceased, Minnehaha, Ollagoola, Hiawatha, Wanahana, Pocahontas, etc." So runs the title of as unusual a case as jurists, etc. San Francisco Examiner.

5. Human Interest Beginning.—The human interest beginning is a more or less free beginning which may be used in the reporting of rather insignificant cases which are of value only for the human interest in them. The beginning is capable of almost any treatment so long as it brings out the humor, beauty, or pathos of the situation. Sometimes the story begins with a rather striking summary of the unusual things that came out in the testimony, as in this case:

How suddenly and how radically a woman can exercise her inalienable prerogative and change her mind is shown in the testamentary disposition made of her estate by Mrs. Jennie L. Ramsay. She made a will on July 4 last, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, leaving her property to her husband, and at 7 o'clock in the evening of the same day she made another will in which she took the property away from her husband. New York Times.

Here is an interesting illustration of the use of a trivial incident as the basis for a humorous lead:

Bang, an English setter dog, accused of biting 11-year-old Sophie Kahn, made an excellent witness in the City Court today when his owner, Hirman L. Phelps, a real estate dealer of the Bronx, appeared as defendant in a damage suit brought by the girl for $2,000. New York Evening Post.

The lead of a report of legal proceedings is very much like the lead of a report of a speech or an interview. It always begins with the most interesting fact in the case and briefly summarizes the result of the trial or the day's hearing. It is to be noted that the lead of such a story always includes a designation of the court in which the hearing was held and usually the name of the judge and of the case.

After the lead is finished a court report usually turns into a running story of the evidence as it was presented. This may be condensed into a paragraph, giving the reader merely the point of the day's hearing, or it may be expanded into several columns following the testimony more or less closely. In form, it is very much like the summary paragraphs in the body of a speech report. The result is usually more or less dry and reporters often resort to a means, similar to dialogue in fiction, to lighten it up. Some of the more important testimony is given verbatim interspersed with indirect summaries of the longer or less important speeches. Its presentation usually follows the ordinary rules of dialogue. Here is an extract from such a story:

After describing himself as a breeder of horses, Gideon said that he was a member of the Metropolitan Turf Association, the bookmakers' organization, but had never been engaged in bookmaking. He did not know where "Eddie" Burke, "Tim" Sullivan (not the politician), or any of the other missing "bookies" could be found. "You are a member of the executive committee of the Metropolitan Turf Association?" asked Isidor J. Kresel, assistant counsel of the committee. "Yes." "Now, what did your committee do in 1908, when the anti-race track legislation was pending?" "I don't know." * * * * * "How much did you pay in 1908?" "Two hundred and fifty dollars." "To whom?" "Mr. Sullivan." "What for?" "Death assessments." Gideon said that the little he knew of the doings of the "Mets" was from conversation with the bookies. Etc., etc. New York Evening Post.

Sometimes this direct testimony is given, not in the dialogue form, but as questions and answers. Thus:

In reply to other questions, Bendernagel said he ordered the office supplies, looked after the insurance on the sugar, and was responsible for the fuel, some 700 tons of coal a day. Question. How much money was paid through your office in the course of a year? Answer. Four million dollars. Q. So yours was a busy office? A. Exceedingly so. Q. How long were the raw sugar clerks in your office? A. About twenty years. Etc., etc. New York Evening Post.

Some papers would arrange these questions and answers differently, paragraphing each speech separately as in dialogue:

Question. Did you regulate their duties in any way? Answer. No. Q. Were you connected with the docks? A. No; that was a separate department. It had its own forces, and they worked under Mr. Spitzer. He had entire charge. Etc., etc.

The court records take cognizance only of the actual words uttered in the testimony, but a newspaper reporter never fails to record any action or movement that indicates something beyond the words. Very often action is brought in merely for its human interest; thus:

"How long has it been since you have had a maid?" asked Mr. Shearn sadly. "Not for some time," she said. "Away back in 1907, I think." "What did it cost you for two rooms and bath at the Hotel Belmont, where you lived last year?" "About $300 a week altogether. The rooms cost $20 a day." There were tears in her eyes when she explained that she could no longer afford to keep up her own automobile. Etc., etc. Milwaukee Free Press.

This sort of dialogue is dangerous and may easily be overworked, but it is very often extremely effective. One word like "sadly," above, may convey more meaning than many lines of explanation.

* * * * *

These quotations are usually interspersed with paragraphs which summarize the unimportant intervening testimony. The running story attempts to follow the progress of the hearing in greater or less detail, depending upon the space given to the story, just as a speech report attempts to follow a public discourse. Dry and unimportant facts are briefly summarized, interesting parts of the testimony are quoted in full. The running story is usually written while the hearing is in session or taken from a stenographic report of the hearing. After the running story has been completed, the reporter prepares a lead for the beginning to summarize the results or to play up the most significant part of the story. If the running story is short a lead of one paragraph is sufficient, but if it is long, the lead may be expanded into several paragraphs.



XIII

SOCIAL NEWS AND OBITUARIES

The study of newspaper treatment of social news is a broad one. Every newspaper has its own system of handling social news and the general tendencies that are to be noted deal rather with the facts that are printed than with the manner of treatment. Every newspaper gives practically the same facts about a wedding but each individual newspaper has a method of its own of writing up those facts. One thing that is always true of social news reporting is that the amount of space given to social items varies inversely with the importance of the newspaper and the size of the city in which it is printed. A little country weekly or semi-weekly in a small town does not hesitate to run two columns or more on Sadie Smith's wedding. The report runs into minute details and anecdotes that all of the "Weekly's" readers know before the paper arrives. But the editor prints everything he can find or invent simply because all of his readers are more or less personally connected with the affair and are anxious to see their names in print and to read about themselves. The liberty that such an editor gives himself is of course impossible in a larger paper.

On the other hand, a daily in a city of average size would reduce such a story to a stickful and a metropolitan daily would run only a one-line announcement in the "List of marriages," unless the story was especially interesting. The same thing applies to all social stories. Some metropolitan newspapers do not run social news at all.

All of this is true because social news is governed by the same principles that regulate all news values. Unless a society event has some feature that is interesting impersonally—that is, of interest to readers who do not know the principals of the event—it is of value only as a larger or smaller number of the paper's readers are personally connected with the event. Hence in a small town where every one knows every one else, society news is of great value. In a large city a very small proportion of the readers are connected with the social items that the paper has to print and are therefore not interested in them—accordingly the newspaper either cuts them down to a minimum of space or does not run them at all.

Therefore in our study society news falls into two classes: social items that are of interest only in themselves to persons connected with the events; and big society stories or unusual social events that are of interest to readers who are not acquainted with the principals.

1. Weddings.—The wedding story reduced to its lowest terms in a metropolitan paper consists of a one-line announcement in the list of "Marriages" or "Marriage Licenses"; thus:

SMITH-JONES Feb. 14, Katherine Jones to Charles C. Smith. New York Times.

If the paper runs a few columns of social news and the persons concerned in the wedding are of any importance socially, the wedding may be given a stickful. Such an account would confine itself entirely to names and facts and would be characterized by very decided simplicity and brevity. Usually nothing more would be given than the names and address of the bride's parents, the bride's first name, the groom's name, the place, and the name of the minister who officiated. Occasionally the name of the best man and a few other details are added, but never does the story become personal. It is interesting only to those who know or know of the persons concerned.

For example:

SMITH-JONES The marriage of Miss Katherine M. Jones, elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Randolph Jones, 253 Ninth street, and Charles C. Smith was celebrated at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon at the First Methodist Church, 736 Grand avenue. Rev. William Brown, rector of the church, performed the ceremony.

It will be noted that in the above story the name of the bride is written out in full, "Miss Katherine M. Jones." Many newspapers, however, would simply give her first name, thus: "Katherine, elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Randolph Jones."