| |
|Boston, Oct. 21.--Willie Hoppe, the champion, led |
|Koji Yamada, his Japanese challenger, 1,000 to 743 |
|points at the close of their second night's play for|
|the 14.1 balkline billiard championship at |
|Convention Hall this evening. Yamada's total |
|to-night was 396. As was the case last night, both |
|men played carefully, which accounted for the long |
|time necessary to finish the game. |
| |
|Hoppe's high run was 104, and came late in the |
|contest, his average being 19 6-26. Yamada's best |
|run was 82, and as it came soon after a run of 75, |
|it enabled him to take the lead from the American |
|for the first time in the match. His average was 13 |
|22-25. |
| |
|Yamada in the first half of the game gave a pleasing|
|display in which for the first time he showed |
|brilliancy at the masse. Hoppe was not up to form |
|during the early innings and got his points only by |
|hard struggle. Both players had a good deal of open |
|table shooting to do. The score: |
| |
|Hoppe--49, 30, 2, 31, 3, 0, 22, 5, 23, 24, 4, 0, 8, |
|0, 17, 7, 55, 0, 44, 11, 104, 31, 0, 24, 5, 7--500. |
|Average, 19 6-26. |
| |
|Yamada--9, 2, 1, 45, 30, 0, 75, 0, 45, 4, 2, 82, 0, |
|1, 31, 1, 0, 0, 9, 2, 3, 0, 1, 7, 3--347. Average, |
|13 22-25.[34] |
[34] _Atlanta Constitution_, October 22, 1915.
=248. Obtaining Information.=--In reporting games and contests one will
have little difficulty in obtaining all needed information. Tickets are
provided gratis and admit always to the best seats, known as the press
seats, or the press-box, where all the newspaper men are grouped
together. If the contest is an outdoor meet, the press-box is usually on
the top of the bleachers. Here are installed telegraph and telephone
wires, the papers often having private wires from their offices to the
field. If the wires have not been installed and it is necessary to
report between quarters or halves, or inning by inning, one should have
the local telegraph company provide at least two messengers to take the
bulletins as fast as one writes them. And one's notes should be so taken
that the bulletins may be given the messengers within a few seconds
after it is possible to report.
=249. Personal Opinion in Sporting Stories.=--On page 165 mention was
made of four kinds of sporting news stories, and the reader's attention
was called to the fact that three of the four--those dealing with
athletic events before their occurrence, those dealing with the same
events afterward, and those relating to sports in general--vary somewhat
from the normal type of newspaper story. This variance lies in the fact
that the three are hybrids, partaking of the nature of both the pure
news story and the editorial. In an earlier chapter we have seen that
the purpose of the news story is to present news; of the editorial, to
interpret. We have seen that the avowed purpose of the editorial is to
influence opinion. And so with these three types. They may be either
presenters or interpreters of sporting news, or both. In the following
story the writer is bent on telling the lineup of the Michigan team for
the game against Cornell, the condition of the men, etc., but he is also
bent on proving to his readers that Michigan has a chance to win,--which
makes his story half editorial and half news.
| =MICHIGAN HAS A CHANCE= |
| |
|Ann Arbor, Mich., Nov. 5.--(Special).--We might lead|
|this story with something original and say that both|
|teams were awaiting the whistle. Instead, we will be|
|unique and assert that Michigan has a chance to win.|
| |
|A victory over Cornell would make a success of a |
|season that has a good start toward being a failure.|
|Michigan's chance for victory depends on its line. |
|There is grave doubt in the minds of some that |
|Michigan has a line. Yost believes it has, because |
|he has seen his center, his two guards, and his two |
|tackles charge and block in practice. He hasn't seen|
|them do anything in games but look sick. But he |
|knows they can do something else and he is wondering|
|if to-morrow will be the day when they prove it to |
|the public and to Cornell. |
| |
|If the Michigan line should play tomorrow as it |
|played against the Aggies and against Syracuse, the |
|best back field in the land would be null and void. |
|But if the Michigan line comes to life, performs as |
|it has done when Assistant Coaches Schultz, |
|Almendinger and Raynsford were scrimmaging against |
|it and using all the words they knew as lashes to |
|drive it to action, then Cornell will find itself |
|up against the toughest foe it has faced this year. |
| |
|Yost admits he has a good back field. His |
|combination of one senior, one junior and one |
|sophomore--Catlett, Maulbetsch and Smith--would, he |
|believes, gain acres of ground against any team in |
|the country if the line would give them half a |
|chance. |
| |
|Smith, to be sure, is in bad shape. He is going to |
|start the game, but few expect him to last through. |
|Bay City gave him to Michigan, and before he was |
|hurt he showed enough to convince his coach that he |
|has the makings of another Galt. |
| |
|He is of the versatile type, and besides being a |
|good ground gainer himself, he is of great |
|assistance as an interferer and a handy man on |
|defense. He backs up the line when the other side |
|has the ball. At present almost everything ails him,|
|save possibly barber's itch and the h. and m. |
|disease that helped make Niles famous. |
| |
|Maulbetsch, Yost says, is a better defensive man |
|than last year. As for his plunging prowess, he is |
|probably just as classy as ever, but a man can't |
|plunge very far when two or three opposing linemen |
|are sitting on him, as they were in the M. A. C. and|
|Syracuse games. |
| |
|Catlett is a streak of speed, and since this is his |
|third year of varsity football, he is playing more |
|intelligently than ever. Roehm, the quarterback, was|
|one of Hughitt's understudies last season. He is |
|light, but fast and willing. |
| |
|Thus in the back field we have a good all round man,|
|a wonderful line plunger, a speed demon, and an |
|agile, hard worker. All of which assets won't be |
|worth a yesterday's transfer unless the line |
|holds....[35] |
[35] Ring W. Lardner in the _Chicago Tribune_,
November 6, 1915.
=250. Advance Stories.=--The details which one may include in advance
stories of athletic meets are innumerable. Some of the more important
particulars, however, are predictions of the outcome, the effect of the
contest on future events or on the rank of the teams, names of the
players and the officials, absence of important men, opinions of the
men, their trainers, or their followers, weak spots in their play, local
or national interest, time and place of the contest, ways of reaching
the field or grounds,--in fact, any details that will interest one's
readers in the approaching game. Such preliminary writeups require good
reporters--men who can observe closely and analyze carefully, and hence
can give their readers reasonable predictions of the success of the
teams in which they are interested. The following may be taken as a
typical preliminary story:
| =PROMINENT OFFICIALS AT GAME TO-DAY= |
| |
| +-------------------------------------------+ |
| |=Facts About To-day's Football Game= | |
| | | |
| |=Teams=--Army and Navy. | |
| | | |
| |=Place=--Polo Grounds. | |
| | | |
| |=Time=--2 P.M. | |
| | | |
| |=Corps of Cadets and Brigade of Midshipmen | |
| |march on the field=--1 to 1.30 P.M. | |
| | | |
| |=Weather Forecast=--Fair and warm; rain | |
| |late in the afternoon or night. | |
| | | |
| |=Routes to the Grounds=--Eighth and Ninth | |
| |Avenue "L" and Broadway subway. | |
| | | |
| |=Directions for Finding Seats=--On the back| |
| |of each ticket are printed directions for | |
| |locating the seats in the various sections.| |
| +-------------------------------------------+ |
| |
|When the referee's whistle sends the Army and Navy |
|teams charging into each other this afternoon at the|
|Polo Grounds, most of the United States government |
|officials, army, navy and marine corps officers will|
|be gathered in the seats and boxes around the |
|sidelines to cheer 1915's football season on to its |
|death in the spectacularly most brilliant game of |
|the year. |
| |
|President Wilson, doomed again to neutrality, will |
|divide his time between the Army and Navy sides of |
|the field. Mrs. Galt will arrive with him shortly |
|before 1 o'clock on the train which brings besides |
|them one of the largest and most distinguished |
|delegations of government officials, army and navy |
|officers, who ever saw an Army-Navy game. |
| |
|Secretary Garrison will be whooping it up for the |
|Army on the cadets' side of the field. Secretary |
|Daniels, reinforced by his twenty-one-year-old son, |
|will be right there where the Blue and Gold of the |
|Navy waves, and take it from the Navy this Secretary|
|is some rooter when he gets going. |
| |
|Secretary McAdoo will be there--but why attempt to |
|name all or many of the prominent folk. Cabinet |
|officers, admirals and generals, all take a back |
|seat to-day. In the full glare of the limelight |
|stand the twenty-two gridiron fighters from West |
|Point and Annapolis. To-day there is only one firing|
|line; it's the chalk-marked field at the Polo |
|Grounds. |
| |
|The Midshipmen arrived here Thursday and went to the|
|Vanderbilt yesterday. The Army team, coaches, |
|trainers, and advance delegation of officers |
|arrived, making the Hotel Astor their headquarters. |
|Every train from Washington, from Annapolis, from |
|West Point, which pulled into New York thereafter |
|was packed with Army and Navy adherents. |
| |
|And Broadway was ready with its usual welcome. The |
|Vanderbilt, Astor, Waldorf, McAlpin, and Martinique |
|were profusely decorated with the flags and with |
|Army and Navy colors. Generals met cub lieutenants |
|in the cafes and dining-rooms (where seats had been |
|reserved both for last night and to-night weeks in |
|advance), all eager to get some late "dope" on the |
|game. |
| |
|Store fronts were gay with the Navy Blue and Gold |
|and the Army Black and Gold and Gray; street hawkers|
|were disposing of the winning colors. New York was |
|on its biannual football spree last night. The Army |
|and Navy were in town.... |
| |
|Betting? Well, as a Navy man put it, "We've got a |
|few iron men with us." Yes, they all came "heeled." |
|Navy men are asking 2 to 1 and getting it in spots. |
|But as the hours slipped by and the old Army-Navy |
|feeling grew, there was no telling the odds--each |
|man bet as the impulse of the moment prompted him, |
|anywhere from 3 to 1 to even money. |
| |
| Probable Line-up To-day |
| |
| Army Wgt. Navy Wgt. |
| Neyland 170 L.E. Von H'mb'g 180 |
| Jones 200 L.T. Ward 177 |
| O'hare 192 L.G. Kercher 185 |
| McEwan 192 C. Goodstein 172 |
| Meacham 176 R.G. Smith 199 |
| Weyand 197 R.T. Gilman 187 |
| Redfield 163 R.E. Johnson 169 |
| Gerhardt 145 Q.B. Craig 147 |
| Ford 171 L.H. Westphal 184 |
| Oliphant 163 R.H. Davis 153 |
| Coffin 162 F.B. Martin 161 |
| |
| T'l weight 1931 lbs. T'l weight 1914 lbs. |
| Avg. wgt., 175.6 lbs. Avg. wgt., 174 lbs. |
| |
|Referee, W. S. Langford, Trinity; umpire, F. W. |
|Murphy, Brown; field judge, J. A. Evans, Williams; |
|head linesman, Carl Marshall, Harvard.[36] |
[36] _New York World_, November 27, 1916.
=251. Review Stories.=--Stories written days after a game are generally
of an analytical nature, their purpose being to review the play or
contest and explain why one team or contestant was successful and the
other a failure, or why one method of play, attack, or defense proved
better than others. Sometimes, however, such stories are merely
individual incidents learned late, but of interest nevertheless to the
readers. An analytical story is the following:
| =NEW RULES UPSET TEAMS= |
| |
|With the advent of October, the month which |
|generally ushers in the football seasons, the defeat|
|of Yale by Virginia was one of the most conspicuous |
|cases of the old adage that history will repeat |
|itself in football as well as in any other line of |
|athletic endeavor. |
| |
|In former years supposedly stronger elevens have met|
|with unexpected setbacks from teams which were |
|thought to be only tools in the helpful development |
|of the big elevens for the harder and more important|
|contests to be played later in the season. In the |
|old days of the five-yard rule and mass play, |
|schedules could be outlined with so much accuracy |
|that a coach or athletic director seldom made |
|mistakes in his schedules. |
| |
|In those days the chart was framed so that each |
|succeeding game would be harder to win.... The teams|
|were sent into the game to test the pet plays of the|
|coaches, such as the revolving mass on tackle, hard |
|concentrated attacks on and off the tackles, with |
|the runner being pushed and pulled by his |
|teammates.... |
| |
|If plays as outlined by the coaches did not make the|
|necessary distances, then the teams practically |
|settled down to a man to man contest, and football |
|history records the number of games which ended |
|either in scoreless ties or knotted counts. |
| |
|Following this old custom, the big teams select the |
|opponents who in the old days were easy to beat in |
|the first games. It is true some changes have been |
|made in schedules, but it is only reasonable to |
|assume that the coach of a large eleven would be |
|foolish to schedule an opening contest with a team |
|which he thought had a chance to beat his own |
|aggregation. |
| |
|Using Yale as an example, the authorities at New |
|Haven would never have scheduled the Virginia game |
|unless they thought in their own minds that Old Eli |
|would trot off the field an easy winner. On the last|
|Saturday in September the Blue eleven had an easy |
|time winning from Maine, 37 to 0. |
| |
|Following the changes in the rules, coaches nowadays|
|cannot afford to take a chance with any team, |
|whether they have a heavy, strong team or a well |
|balanced eleven. The players do not get accustomed |
|to the excitement of actual combat so early in the |
|season, and the least little thing which goes wrong |
|in their offensive or defensive play will unbalance |
|them for the remainder of the contest. |
| |
|Harvard, last year's eastern champion, was compelled|
|to play a lot of football to win from the |
|Massachusetts Aggies by a single touchdown. Had |
|Percy Haughton, the Crimson coach, thought his team |
|would experience such a hard game so early in the |
|season, the contest would not have been listed. The |
|Crimson eleven, in other words, was opposed by a |
|team which had been thoroughly groomed in every |
|department of the game, the Aggies apparently |
|realizing what a victory would mean to them.[37]... |
[37] Walter H. Eckersall in the _Chicago Tribune_,
October 10, 1915.
=252. General Stories.=--The last type of sporting news story, that
relating to a sport only in a general way, may be considered briefly. In
this type the actual news value is small. The interest of the story lies
rather in its informative worth, the writer's purpose being to present
general, but significant, facts that will interest followers of the
sport. Usually it is expository. Its nature is well illustrated by the
following subjects chosen practically at random: "Batters in the
American Association Weaker in 1916 than in 1915"; "Title Holders in the
Ring Play Safety First--Refuse Long Battles"; "Tennis Gaining in
Popularity"; "Is Baseball a Back Number?"; "Any Man Can Play Par Golf";
"Ty Cobb's Place in Baseball History." Such stories are valuable in the
Sunday edition, and in addition to giving general surveys of various
sports, help to interest readers when athletic news is scarce. They are
the feature stories of sports.
XVII. SOCIETY
=253. What Society News Is.=--The society editor's work concerns itself
with the social and personal news of the city and county in which the
paper is published or from which it draws its patronage. It is almost
entirely local, news of the state or of other cities being of value only
in so far as it affects women and men of one's own town through former
exchanges of courtesy or hospitality, or for similar causes. Nor does it
concern itself with the unconventional, the abnormal. Elopements,
clandestine marriages, unusual engagements, freakish parties, and
similar extraordinary social and personal news do not come within the
sphere of the society editor, but take regular, and usually prominent,
places in the news columns.
=254. Difficulty.=--The society editor's work is with the conventional
in the local fashionable world, and for this reason probably no other
kind of news demands so consistent care, discrimination, and habitual
restraint. She--the society editor is practically always a woman--must
recognize readily relative social distinctions, to know what names and
functions to feature in her column or section, and to be able to present
the details of those functions acceptably to the various social groups
about which and for which she is writing. The latter requisite in
particular is difficult. For in attempting to give appreciative accounts
of weddings, dances, receptions, she is liable to overstep the narrow
limits of conventional usage and make herself ridiculous by extravagance
of statement; or else, in trying to avoid unnecessary display of
enthusiasm, she is led into use of trite, colorless words and stock
phrases. She must by all means take care not to say that "the handsome
groom wearing the conventional black and the lovely bride arrayed in a
charming creation of white satin consummated their sacred nuptial vows
amid banks of fragrant lilies and beautiful, blushing roses to the
melodious strains of Mendelssohn's entrancing wedding march."
=255. Illustrations.=--The following stories of engagements, weddings,
dinners, dances, receptions, club meetings, and charity benefits have
been selected at random to show the accepted methods of handling society
write-ups. At the end are added a few personal items--_personals_, they
are generally termed--and a single "society review." The restraint and
dignity of tone of the stories are worth close study.
| =ENGAGEMENTS= |
| |
|Mr. and Mrs. George A. Stewart, of 311 North |
|Parkside Avenue, announce the engagement of their |
|daughter, Gladys, to Charles M. Sailor, a son of Mr.|
|and Mrs. Samuel Sailor, of 25 South Central |
|Boulevard. |
|The first debutante of the season to become engaged |
|is Miss Bessie Allen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. |
|George Osborne Allen, whose engagement to Harry O. |
|Best was announced Saturday. Mr. Best is a son of |
|Mr. and Mrs. George R. Best, of 131 East |
|Fifty-fourth street. He was graduated from Harvard |
|in 1913 and is a member of the Knickerbocker Club of|
|this city, and also of the Balustrol Golf Club. He |
|is a member of the firm of Best and Flom, 136 Walker|
|Street. Mr. Best is the third in direct line to bear|
|his name, being a grandson of the late George R. |
|Best, one of the most noted architects of this city.|
|The wedding will take place in the spring. |
| =WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENTS= |
| |
|In the Church of the Heavenly Rest on Tuesday |
|afternoon at 3:30 will be celebrated the wedding of |
|Miss Doris Ryer, daughter of Mrs. Fletcher Ryer of |
|San Francisco, Cal., to Stanhope Wood Nixon, son of |
|Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Nixon. The wedding ceremony will |
|be witnessed by a large number of relatives and |
|friends from California and several of the principal|
|Eastern cities where the families of both the bride |
|and her fiance are prominent. |
| |
|Gov. Charles S. Whitman is to act as Miss Ryer's |
|sponsor and will give her away. Miss Phyllis de |
|Young, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Michael H. de Young |
|of San Francisco, will be the maid of honor and the |
|bridesmaids will be the Misses Pauline Disston of |
|Philadelphia, Ray Slater of Boston, Mary Moreland of|
|Pittsburg, Elizabeth Sands of Newport, Frances Moore|
|of Washington, and Helen Flake of this city. |
| |
|Walbridge S. Taft will be the best man. The ushers |
|will be Henry S. Ladew, Patrick Calhoun, Henry |
|Rogers Benjamin, Ammi Wright Lancashire, Esmond P. |
|O'Brien and Hugh D. Cotton. |
| |
|Following the wedding ceremony there will be a |
|reception in the ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton. The |
|engagement of Miss Ryer and Mr. Nixon was announced |
|last autumn. The bride-to-be has passed the greater |
|part of the last two winters in New York with her |
|mother and during the summer season has been |
|identified with the colony in Newport, R. I.[38] |
[38] _New York Sun_, January 21, 1917.
| =WEDDING= |
| |
|Miss Celia Cravis, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Myer |
|Cravis, of 1817 North Thirty-second Street, became |
|the bride of Harry Cassman, of Atlantic City, |
|Thursday. The ceremony was performed at 6:30 o'clock|
|in the evening in the green room of the Adelphi |
|Hotel by the Rev. Marvin Nathan, assisted by the |
|Rev. Armin Rosenberg. |
| |
|The father of the bride gave her in marriage. Her |
|gown of white satin was given a frosted effect by |
|crystal bead embroidery and was made with court |
|train. Her tulle veil was held by a bandeau of |
|lilies of the valley. A white prayer book was |
|carried and also a bouquet of orchids, gardenias and|
|lilies of the valley. |
| |
|The maid of honor was Miss Katherine Abrahams, |
|wearing blue satin trimmed with silver. She carried |
|a double shower bouquet of tea roses and lilies of |
|the valley, and a yellow ostrich feather fan, the |
|gift of the bride. |
| |
|The bridesmaids, Miss Estelle Freeman, Miss Tillie |
|Greenhouse, Miss Estelle Sacks and Miss Leonore |
|Printz, were dressed in frocks of different pastel |
|shades, ranging white, pink, blue and violet. Each |
|carried a basket of roses and a pink feather fan. |
|Miss Madeline Cravis and Miss Sylvia Gravan, the |
|flower girls, wore pink and carried baskets of pink |
|roses. |
| |
|Herbert W. Salus acted as best man. The ushers were |
|Lewis E. Stern and Walter Hanstein, of Atlantic |
|City; I. S. Cravis and Henry Gotlieb. |
| |
|A reception for about 250 guests followed the |
|ceremony. After a tour of the South, Mr. and Mrs. |
|Cassman will be at 217 South Seaside Avenue, |
|Atlantic City.[39] |
[39] _Philadelphia Public Ledger_, December 17, 1916.
| =TEAS, DINNERS, LUNCHEONS= |
| |
|Miss Alice Williams, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward|
|T. Williams, was presented to society yesterday |
|afternoon at a tea in the home of her parents, 1901 |
|Eighteenth Street. Miss Williams was born in |
|Shanghai, China, during her father's connection with|
|the United States legation there, and she has lived |
|most of her life in the Orient. Mr. Williams was |
|charge d'affaires of the United States at the time |
|of the recognition of the new Chinese republic. At |
|the time of the outbreak of the war in Europe Miss |
|Williams was a student in Paris. Mr. Williams is now|
|the head of the Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs in the|
|State Department. |
| |
|Mrs. Williams presented her daughter, with no |
|assistants save three of her daughter's young |
|friends, Miss Helen Miller, Miss Virginia Puller and|
|Miss Ethel Christiensen, who presided in the dining |
|room. The drawing room and dining room were both |
|transformed into bowers of blossoms, sent to the |
|debutante, which were charmingly arranged. Mrs. |
|Miller wore a graceful gown of black net and lace |
|over black satin. The debutante wore a becoming |
|costume of rose silk and silver trimming and carried|
|sweet peas a portion of the afternoon, and the bunch|
|of roses sent by Mrs. Lansing, wife of the Secretary|
|of State, the rest of the time. Miss Miller and Miss|
|Christiensen were each in white net and tulle and |
|Miss Puller wore blue and white.[40] |
[40] _Washington Post_, November 26, 1916.
|Mrs. Fred Enderly, who has recently returned after a|
|long absence in the East, was specially honored with|
|a Halloween birthday dinner given by Mrs. Lottie |
|Logan, of No. 1532 Ingraham Street Tuesday evening. |
|The table was in yellow, with a floral center of |
|chrysanthemums and favors of black cats, diminutive |
|pumpkin people and other suggestive Halloween |
|conceits. The guests were whisked up to the |
|dressing-rooms by a witch, and Mrs. George H. |
|Rector, attired in somber soothsayer's robes, told |
|fortunes. Place-cards were written for Mr. and Mrs. |
|Enderly, Mr. and Mrs. Archibald Hart, Mr. and Mrs. |
|George Rector, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Henderson, Mr. and|
|Mrs. George McDaniel, Mrs. Fred Detmer, Miss |
|Wilhelmina Rector, Miss Talcot, Messrs. Mark Ellis, |
|Jack Bushnell, L. D. Maescher and O. H. Logan.[41] |
[41] _Los Angeles Times_, November 5, 1916.
| =RECEPTION= |
| |
|Mr. and Mrs. Henry V. Black of Broadway, Irvington, |
|gave a reception this afternoon for their debutante |
|daughter, Miss Latjerome Black. Receiving with Mrs. |
|Black were Mrs. P. F. Llewellyn Chambers, Mrs. |
|Frederick Sayles, Mrs. Charles Coombs, Mrs. Benjamin|
|Prince, Mrs. Theodosia Bailey, Mrs. Charles Hope, |
|Miss Caramai Carroll, Miss Dorothy Brown, Mrs. |
|Robert C. Black and Miss Dorothy Black. Receiving |
|with Miss Black were the Misses Marion Townsend, |
|Helen Sayles, Dorothy Clifford, Marion Becker, Helen|
|Geer, and Genevieve Clendenin. Miss Black wore a |
|dress of white silk embroidery and pink roses. The |
|decorations were of autumn leaves and |
|chrysanthemums. |
| |
|Among the guests were Dr. and Mrs. Albert Shaw, Mrs.|
|Edwin Gould, Mrs. Howard Carroll, Mrs. Finley J. |
|Shepard, Miss Anne Depew Paulding, Mrs. William |
|Carter, Miss Millette, Mrs. John Luke, Mrs. Adam |
|Luke, Mrs. H. D. Eastabrook, Mrs. John D. Archbold, |
|Mrs. Henry Graves, and Dr. and Mrs. D. Russell.[42] |
[42] _New York Sun_, September 24, 1915.
| =DANCE= |
| |
|Elaboration of detail marked the oriental ball given|
|by the Sierra Madre Club at its rooms in the |
|Investment Building last evening. More than 400 |
|members and guests attended in garb of the Far |
|East--costumes whose values ran far into the |
|hundreds. The club rooms were draped in a |
|bewildering manner with tapestry of the Celestial |
|Empire and the land of Nippon, and the rugs of |
|Turkey and Arabia. |
| |
|It was a most colorful event--sultans robed in many |
|colors with bejeweled turbans; Chinese mandarins in |
|long flowing coats; bearded Moors, who danced with |
|Geisha girls of Japan, gowned in multi-colored |
|silken kimonos; petite China maids in silken |
|pantaloons and bobtailed jackets; Salome dancers of |
|the East, in baggy bloomers and jeweled corsages, |
|and harem houris in dazzling draperies. |
| |
|Preceding the dancing, a remarkable dinner, |
|featuring the choicest foods of the Orient, was |
|served by attendants wearing the dress of Chinese |
|coolies. The rare old syrups of the Orient were |
|enjoyed by the diners, while the fragrant odor of |
|burning incense lent an air of subtle mysticism. |
| |
|Among the 400 guests present were:[43] |
[43] _Los Angeles Times_, February 18, 1917.
| =CLUB MEETING= |
| |
|At this week's meeting of the New England Women's |
|Press Association, Miss Helen M. Winslow, chairman |
|of the programme committee, presented Joseph Edgar |
|Chamberlin of _The Transcript_, who spoke on "The |
|Work of Women in Journalism." Mr. Chamberlin gave |
|many personal reminiscences of women writers whom he|
|had known in his connection with various |
|publications. He expressed regret that women are not|
|doing more in editorial work, as in the earlier |
|years of their entrance into the newspaper field, |
|and the belief that it would be of advantage to |
|journalism and to the public if they gave more |
|attention to writing of this character rather than |
|that directed almost exclusively for women's |
|departments and others of superficial value. Mr. |
|Chamberlin paid especial compliment to the work of |
|Margaret Buchanan Sullivan, Jeannette Gilder, Jennie|
|June Croly and Kate Field. Mr. Chamberlin spoke in |
|high praise of Miss Cornelia M. Walter (afterward |
|Mrs. W. B. Richards) who was editor-in-chief and had|
|full charge of _The Transcript_ from 1842 to 1847. |
|The executive board voted to co-operate with the |
|Travelers' Aid Society and Mrs. Ralph M. Kirtland |
|was elected chairman of the committee to formulate |
|plans.[44] |
[44] _Boston Transcript_, December 9, 1916.
| =CHARITY BENEFIT= |
| |
|On Thursday afternoon at 4 o'clock Mrs. W. K. |
|Vanderbilt of 660 Fifth Avenue will open her house |
|for a benefit entertainment in aid of the Appuiaux |
|Artistes of France. Viscountess de Rancougne is to |
|give her talk on the work being done in the French |
|and Belgian hospitals and in the bombarded towns and|
|villages, illustrated with colored slides from |
|photographs taken by herself. An interesting musical|
|program also has been arranged for the afternoon, |
|with Miss Callish, Mr. de Warlich, and Carlos |
|Salzedo appearing. Mrs. Kenneth Frazier of 58 East |
|Seventy-eighth Street is receiving applications for |
|tickets at $5 each. On the Executive Committee are |
|Kenneth Frazier, Ernest Peixotto, Edwin H. |
|Blashfield, Charles Dana Gibson, Joseph H. Hunt, and|
|Janet Scudder. Mrs. W. Bourke Cockran, Mrs. Howard |
|Cushing, Mrs. E. H. Harriman, Mrs. Philip M. Lydig, |
|Mrs. H. P. Whitney, and Miss Grace Bigelow make up |
|the committee in charge.[45] |
[45] _New York Times_, February 20, 1916.
| =PERSONALS= |
| |
|Mrs. Robert R. Livingston and her son, Robert R. |
|Livingston, have returned from a trip to the Pacific|
|Coast and are at their town house, 11 Washington |
|Square North, until they open Northwood, the |
|Livingston estate near Cheviot-on-Hudson. They spent|
|about six weeks on the coast. |
| |
|Mr. and Mrs. C. Oliver Iselin will return to their |
|country place at Glen Head, L. I., late in April for|
|the early summer. They are now occupying Hopelands, |
|their place at Aiken, S. C. |
| |
|Mrs. and Mr. Francis de R. Wissmann have returned |
|from a trip of some weeks to San Francisco and have |
|been at the Gotham for a few days before opening |
|Adelslea at Throgs Neck, Westchester, for the |
|summer. |
| |
|The Rev. Dr. J. Nevett Steele of 122 West |
|Seventy-sixth Street, vicar of St. Paul's Chapel, |
|who has been ill with pneumonia since March 13, is |
|now convalescing and will soon be able to resume his|
|church duties. |
| |
|A son was born yesterday to Mr. and Mrs. Theodore |
|Roosevelt, Jr., at their home, 165 East |
|Seventy-fourth Street. The child is a grandson of |
|Col. Theodore Roosevelt and will be named Cornelius |
|Van Schaick Roosevelt, after his |
|great-great-grandfather. This is the third child of |
|Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt. Their first boy, Theodore |
|Roosevelt, III, was born June 14, 1914. Mrs. |
|Roosevelt was Miss Eleanor B. Alexander, daughter of|
|Mrs. Henry Addison Alexander of 1840 Park Avenue. |
| =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_.
=24. Names of Athletic Teams.=--Capitalize names of athletic teams: as,
_Giants_, _Cubs_, _Badgers_, _Tigers_, _Maroons_.
=25. Festivals and Holidays.=--Begin the names of festivals and holidays
with capital letters: as, _Easter_, _Thanksgiving_, _Christmas_, _Labor
day_.
=26. Societies, Political Parties, etc.=--Write with capitals the names
of clubs, secret societies, religious denominations, colleges, political
parties, corporations, railroads, and organizations generally: as
_Riverview Country club_, _Elks_, _Baptist church_, _Mills college_,
_Republican party_, _Santa Fe railroad_, etc.
=27. Ordinal Numbers.=--Ordinal numbers used to denote sessions of
congress, political divisions, and city wards are written with capital
letters: as, _Sixty-second congress_, _Tenth precinct_, _Third ward_,
etc.
=28. Names of Buildings, Squares, Parks, etc.=--Names of buildings,
blocks, squares, parks, drives, etc., are capitalized: as, _Times
building_, _Temple block_, _Yellowstone park_, _Sheridan road_, etc.
=29. Common Nouns Joined with Proper Names.=--Capitalize any common noun
joined with a proper name and meaning the same thing, when the common
noun precedes. Do not capitalize the common noun if it follows the
proper name. Thus: _Columbia university_, _University of Chicago_,
_First Presbyterian church_, _Church of the Savior_, _National Bank of
North America_, _First National bank_, _Memorial day_, _Fourth of July_.
=30. Boards, Committees, Legislative Bodies, etc.=--Do not capitalize
names of boards, bureaus, offices, departments, committees, legal,
legislative, and political bodies, etc., when standing alone: as,
_school board_, _weather bureau_, _war office_, _health department_,
_nominating committee_, _assembly_, _state senate_, _lower house_, _city
council_.
=31. Prefixes "von," "de," etc.=--Do not capitalize the prefixes _von_,
_de_, _di_, _le_, _la_, etc., except when they begin a sentence: as,
_Capt. von Papen_.
=32. Toasts.=--In toasts, capitalize all the important words in the
phrase indicating the person, the place, or the cause to which the toast
is made: as, "My Country--May it always be right; but, right or wrong,
my country."
=33. Nouns Followed by Numerals.=--Do not capitalize a noun followed by
a numeral indicating position, place, or order of sequence: as, _lot
14_, _block 3_; _article III_, _section 6_, _act v_, etc.
=34. Resolutions for Debate.=--In resolutions for debate, capitalize the
_Resolved_ and the _That_ following.
=Right.=--_Resolved_, That Missouri should establish
schedules of minimum wages for workmen,
constitutionality conceded.
2. The Period
=35. Roman Numerals.=--Omit the period after roman numerals: as, _Louis
XIV of France_.
=36. Abbreviations.=--Place a period after abbreviated words and after
single or double initial letters representing single words: as, _Wm._,
_Thos._, _Ph.D._, _LL.D._, etc.
=37. Contractions.=--Do not put a period after contracted words,
including nicknames: as, _Bill_, _Tom_, _can't_, _hadn't_, etc.
=38. Side-Heads.=--Put a period after side-heads, including figures at
the beginning of a paragraph. Compare, for example, the period after
_Side-Heads_ at the beginning of this paragraph.
3. The Colon
=39. Formal Quotations.=--A colon is used to introduce a formal
quotation.
=Right.=--The author also makes this significant
statement: "There is every reason to believe that
this disease plays a larger part in the production
of idiocy than has hitherto been admitted by writers
on insanity."
=40. Formal Enumerations.=--In lists of the dead, injured, persons
present, and similar enumerations of particulars, use a colon to
introduce the series.
=Right.=--Only four patrons appeared in this
morning's police matinee: Chip Owens, Allie McGowan,
Alfonso Blas, and Nick Muskowitz.
=41. Time Indications.=--In time indications and records place a colon
between hours and minutes, and minutes and seconds: as, _Gates open,
2:30_; _Time, 1:42_.
=42. General Usage.=--In general, use a colon after any word, phrase, or
clause when that which follows explains or makes clear what precedes.
4. The Semicolon
=43. Compound Sentences.=--A semicolon is used in compound sentences to
separate independent clauses that have no connective between. The
semicolon in such constructions, however, is fast disappearing from
newspaper columns. Complex constructions are avoided. Usage favors
making a separate sentence of the second clause.
=Right.=--Brown came first; Johnson followed five
seconds later, with Jones third.
=Permissible.=--The murder was committed sometime
before 12:00 o'clock; at 8:00 this morning the
murderer was in jail.
=Better.=--The murder was committed sometime before
12:00 o'clock. At 8:00 this morning the murderer was
in jail.
=44. Lists.=--In lists of dead, injured, guests, etc., where the name of
the town from which the persons come or the place of residence is given,
separate the different names by semicolons.
=Right.=--Among those present were: Allen Rogers of
Las Vegas, N. M.; Orren Thomas of Benton, Mo.; Mr.
and Mrs. Henry Barnes of Sioux City, Ia.
=45. Athletic Results.=--In football, baseball, and similar athletic
results, use a semicolon to separate the names of the teams and their
scores: as, _Cornell, 21_; _Syracuse, 14_.
=46. Instead of Commas.=--A semicolon may be used instead of a comma
when a clause or sentence is so broken up by commas as to need some
other mark of punctuation to keep the larger phrase- and
clause-relations clear.
5. The Comma
=47. Parenthetic Expressions.=--Parenthetic words, phrases, and clauses,
whether used at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence, are set off
by commas when they cause a marked interruption between grammatically
connected parts of the sentence. If in doubt about the need of a comma,
omit it.
=Right.=--He, like many others, believes firmly in
the rightness of the new movement.
=48. Words in Apposition.=--A word in apposition with another word and
meaning the same thing should be set off by commas.
=Right.=--Henry Owen, lineman for the local
telegraph company, was the only witness of the
accident.
=49. With "namely," "that is," etc.=--A comma is placed before _and_,
_namely_, _viz._, _that is_, _i.e._, _as_, _to wit_, etc., when
introducing an example, an illustration, or an explanation.
=50. Contrasted Words and Phrases.=--Set off contrasted words and
phrases with commas.
=Right.=--Hard work, not genius, was what enabled
him to succeed.
=Right.=--The faster they work, the better they are
paid.
=51. Introductory Words and Phrases.=--Introductory words, phrases, and
clauses at the beginning of a sentence, when they modify the whole
sentence and serve as a connective, are set off by commas.
=Right.=--Yes, he had even tried to bribe the
officer.
=Right.=--On the other hand, the prisoner had taken
her for a member of the gang.
=52. In Direct Address.=--Words used in direct address are set off by
commas.
=Right.=--Mark this, gentlemen of the jury, in his
list of forgeries.
=53. Explanatory Dates and Names.=--A date explaining a previous date or
a geographical name explaining a previous name is set off by commas.
=Right.=--On April 2, 1916, she was arrested at
Chicago, Ill.
=54. Phrases Indicating Residence, Position, or Title.=--Omit the comma
before _of_ in phrases indicating residence, position, or title.
=Right.=--Among the out-of-town guests were Miss
Helen Hahn of Gainesville, Mrs. Henry Bushman of
Athens, and Orren Cramer of Atlanta.
=Right.=--Dwight O. Conklin of the Bessemer Smelting
Company was the chief speaker.
=55. Academic and Honorary Titles.=--Academic and honorary titles are
set off from proper names and from each other by commas: as, _President
O. N. Fowler, Ph.D., LL.D._
=56. Names Followed by Initials.=--Baptismal names or initials following
a surname are set off by commas: as, _Arendale, Charles V._
=57. Words, Phrases, and Clauses in a Series.=--The members of a series
of two or more words, phrases, or clauses standing in the same relation
and not connected by conjunctions, are separated by commas. When the
series consists of three or more members and a conjunction is used to
connect only the last two, the comma may or may not be put before the
conjunction. Better usage, however, favors the inclusion of the comma.
=Right.=--The teller was kicked, beaten, and robbed
by four masked men.
=58. After Interjections.=--Interjections that are but slightly
exclamatory are followed by commas.
The following distinctions in the use of the
interjections _O_ and _oh_ may be noted: _oh_
generally takes a comma after it, _O_ never; except
at the beginning of a sentence, _oh_ is written with
a small letter, _O_ always with a capital; and _oh_
is used always by itself, while _O_ properly comes
only in direct address: as, _O Lord of life_.
=Right.=--Ah, the happy days and the happy city!
=Right.=--Oh, but the way the boys splashed!
=59. Short Quotations and Maxims.=--Set off short informal quotations
and maxims with commas.
=Right.=--He was last heard to say, "If I don't
return in time, call up the office."
=60. In Large Numbers.=--Use commas to separate large numbers into
groups of three figures each: as, $2,518,675. Omit the comma, however,
in dates and in street, telephone, and automobile numbers.
=61. Athletic Scores.=--In football, baseball, and similar records,
place a comma between the name of the team and its score: as, _New
Orleans, 7_; _Memphis, 4_.
=62. Biblical Passages.=--Place a comma between chapter and verse in
citations of biblical passages: as, _John 2, 15_.
=63. Resolutions for Debate.=--In resolutions for debate, put a comma
after _Resolved_.
=Right.=--_Resolved_, That women should be given the
right of suffrage.
=64. General Usage.=--In general, use a comma to mark any distinct pause
not indicated by other marks of punctuation, and to make clear any word,
phrase, or clause that may be obscure without a comma. But do not use
commas except when they are a distinct necessity. Omit them except when
they are needful for emphasis or for the clearness of the sentence.
6. The Dash
=65. Sudden Break in Thought.=--Use a dash to mark a sudden suspension
of the thought or a violent break in the construction of the sentence.
=Right.=--"You mean to say--Just what are you
talking about?" he questioned awkwardly.
=66. Date Lines.=--In stories written under a date line place a dash
between the date or the _Special_ and the beginning of the story. Thus:
Sylvester, Ga., Jan. 21.--Five negroes were taken
from the county jail and lynched at an early hour
this morning.