Chapter VIII: Part III: , Chapter XVI. In holiday celebrations also the feature may be (1)

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speeches or athletic contests, or else parades of floats, fraternal orders, soldiers, etc. Usually, however, the occurrence of some untoward accident that mars the occasion itself furnishes a story feature of greater importance than the monotony of the parade and the contests.

=207. Current Magazine Articles, etc.=--News stories of articles appearing in current magazines, books, government publications, educational journals, and the like are of the same type as stories of addresses. The lead may feature the theme, the title, the author, a single sentence, an entire paragraph, the society or organization publishing the article or report, or even the motive back of the article. And the body follows usually with direct quotations summarizing the whole. Such news stories generally are very readable, particularly if they are timely. But the reporter must be careful to avoid extended analysis or learned comment. A long catalogue of errors with the page on which each may be found is good in scholarly magazines, but worthless in news columns. The reporter's office is to write for the entertainment and enlightenment of the public, not for the instruction of the author about whose article he is writing. Hence he should report only those details that are of interest to the readers of his journal.

=208. Courts.=--Court, trial, and inquest stories are but a combination of the methods of handling interviews and speeches, the questions and answers of the attorneys and witnesses being the interviews, the arguments of the lawyers and the decisions of the court being the speeches. The writing of the court story as a whole follows closely the method already outlined for interviews and speeches. The lead, however, varies greatly accordingly to the stage of the court proceedings. If a verdict has been brought in, the guilt or innocence of the defendant, the penalty imposed, or an application for a rehearing may be featured, and the body of the story continues with a statement from the prisoner, quotations from the speeches of the opposing attorneys, and the judge's charge to the jury. If the trial has reached only an intermediate stage, the lead may feature the cause of the court proceedings, a significant bit of testimony, the name of an important witness, the point reached in the day's work, the probable length of the trial, any unusual clash of the attorneys over the admission of certain testimony, or possibly the prisoner's changed attitude resulting from the long nervous strain. Then the body, as in reports of speeches, may follow with interesting bits of quotation from the testimony or from the arguments of the attorneys, with summarizing paragraphs of the evidence and the proceedings as a whole. Occasionally, in order to bring out significant points in the depositions, it may become necessary to quote verbatim questions and answers in the cross-examination, but generally a more readable story may be had by reporting the testimony continuously and omitting the questions altogether. Even when playing up a court decision, it is rarely wise to quote large extracts verbatim, owing to the heaviness of legal expression and the frequent use of technical terms. Only when the form of the decision, as well as the facts, is vital, should the language of the decree be quoted at length. And even then it is better, as a rule, to print the entire decision separately and write an independent summarizing story. When writing up trials continued from preceding days, one must be careful to connect the story with what has gone before, explaining who the persons are, the cause of their appearance in court, and where the trial is being conducted. Only in this way can readers who have not kept up with the trial understand the present story.

=209. Humorous Court Stories.=--A word of caution must be given against the temptation to write court stories humorously at the expense of accuracy and the feelings of those unfortunate ones drawn into public notice by some one's transgression of law or ethics. The law of libel and its far-reaching power has been dwelt on in Part II, Chapter X, and it need not be emphasized here that libel lurks in wrong street numbers, misspelled names, misplaced words and phrases, and even in accidental resemblance between names and between personal descriptions. But the reporter should be cautioned against warping facts for the sake of making a good story. Those who stand before the bar of justice, no matter for what cause, how wrong or how right, are keenly sensitive about even the publication of their names. Indeed, it is fear of newspaper notoriety that keeps many a man from seeking and obtaining that justice which is due every individual at the hands of the law. The present writer has seen many an innocent person in a state of nervous collapse over a barbed thrust made by a satirizing humorist in the columns of a paper. No criticism is made of true reports; objection is made only to those warped for the sake merely of producing a good story. In a leading Southern paper appeared the following:

| =FROGEYE HAD A RIVAL= |
| |
| Come er lef'! come er right! come er rag an' |
| shawl! |
| Come to yo' honey-bunch straight down de hall! |
| Up towa'd de front do', back towa'd de wall, |
| Gimme room to scramble at de Potlicker Ball! |
| |
|"What's this?" demanded the judge ferociously. |
|"Another Potlicker row? I'm going to have to do |
|something about you folks. You're always in hot |
|water." |
| |
|The defendants--a weird assortment of the youth and |
|beauty of the Black Belt, their finery somewhat |
|damaged after a night behind the bars--shifted |
|uneasily on their respective number nines. A |
|cross-eyed mulatto had the courage to speak, albeit |
|a trifle morosely. |
| |
|"Us ain't in no hot water, jedge," she drawled. "Us |
|ain't been doin' nothin' but dancin'." |
| |
|"What's your name, girl?" inquired the clerk. |
| |
|He was answered by Frogeye, who celebrated his |
|latest release from gaol by attending the Potlicker |
|Ball. "Dat's Three-Finger Fanny," stated Frogeye in |
|a voice of authority. "She done start de hull |
|rucus." |
| |
|Three-Finger Fanny bridled. Before she could open |
|her mouth, Frogeye plunged into the tale: "Ef it |
|hadn't er been fo' dat three-fingered, cross-eyed, |
|blistered-footed gal we'd er been dar dancin' yit. |
|But she an Bugabear spill de beans. She come up ter |
|me an' say, 'Mister Frogeye, kin you ball de Jack?' |
|I tells her she don't see no chains on me, do she? |
|An' we whirl right in. Hoccome I knowed she promise |
|dat dance ter Bugabear? We ain't ball de Jack twice |
|'roun' fo' heah he come wid er beer bottle shoutin' |
|dat I done tuk his gal erway. I'se 'bleeged ter |
|'fend mahse'f, ain't I, jedge? Well, den!" |
| |
|The conclusion of Frogeye's story lacked climax, but|
|apparently the judge got the gist of it, for he |
|said: "It seems to me all of you dancers need a |
|summer vacation. They say there's nothing like a |
|little arm work to improve the grip. Thirty days, |
|everybody!" |

But every reader knows that in one round-up of negro malefactors, characters such as Frogeye, Three-Finger Fanny, and Bugabear are not going to be arrested at one "Potlicker Ball." The story is a good one if the reader will suspend his sense of realism sufficiently to enjoy it. But in its purport to be a true account of an arrest and a trial of certain persons, it makes one doubt first the story, then the newspaper that printed it, and finally newspapers in general. And so develops one of the main causes of criticism of the modern newspaper. A reporter must resolve to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. A journal loses its power the moment it is wrong.

XV. ACCIDENT, CRIME

=210. Accident and Crime Stories.=--Accident and crime stories are grouped together because they are handled alike and because they differ from each other only in point of view, or in the fact that in the one some one is guilty of lawbreaking, while in the other the participants are merely unfortunate. The two, of course, frequently overlap, since a death or a wreck which at first may seem purely accidental may later prove to have been the result of a criminal act. In this chapter, however, accident stories will be taken to include fires, street-car smash-ups, railroad wrecks, automobile collisions, runaways, explosions, mine disasters, strokes of lightning, drownings, floods, storms, shipwrecks, etc. In the list of crime will be placed murders, assaults, suicides, suspicious deaths, robberies, embezzlements, arson, etc. Of the accident class, the method of writing a fire story may be taken as a type for the whole group.

=211. Lead to a Fire Story.=--Ordinarily the lead to a story of a fire should tell what was destroyed, the location of the property, the extent of the damage, the occupants or owners, the time, the cause, and what made the loss possible,--answering, in other words, the questions _who_, _what_, _when_, _where_, _why_, _how_, and _how much_. Thus:

|Fire originating in a pile of shavings crawled |
|across a 100-yard stretch of dry Bermuda grass at an|
|early hour this morning, destroying the cotton |
|warehouse at 615 Railroad Street, owned by J. O. |
|Hunnicut, president of the First National Bank. The |
|loss is $25,000 with no insurance. |

=212. Lives Lost or Endangered.=--The fire lead may feature any one or more of a dozen individual incidents. Loss of, or danger to, life, unless other features are exceptional, should take precedence over every other particular.

|Six women are dead and ten seriously injured as a |
|result of the destruction by fire, Tuesday morning, |
|of the Gold and Green Club, 1818 Chestnut Street, |
|entailing a loss of $30,000. |

=213. Lists of Killed or Wounded.=--In writing a story where a number of persons have been killed or injured, the reporter should observe the following directions:

1. Separate the names of the dead from those of the injured, putting the list of dead first.

2. Record the names in alphabetical order, placing surnames first.

3. Put each name, with the age, address, occupation or business, nature and extent of the injury, and any care given, in a separate paragraph.

4. Underscore the names with wave lines so that they shall be printed in display type.

=214. Acts of Heroism.=--Acts of heroism involving danger to or loss of life are always good for features.

|Remaining at her post through the thick of the fire |
|that destroyed the heart of Necedah to-day, |
|Wisconsin's only woman telephone magnate, Miss Hazel|
|Bulgar, proved the heroine of the day. While the |
|flames threatened her building, she took the |
|switchboard herself, called the fire departments of |
|all neighboring cities, and transmitted calls for |
|help. |

=215. Remarkable Escapes.=--Remarkable escapes from burning buildings, in their appeal to the elemental struggle for life, make valuable features.

|Using a window blind and a single thread of |
|telephone wire as a means of escape, Carl Hardiman, |
|24, 216 Northcliff avenue, swung himself into space |
|four stories above the level of the street at 8:00 |
|o'clock this morning and crawled hand over hand from|
|the burning wax factory to a telephone pole across |
|the street. |

=216. Humorous, Pathetic, or Daring Incidents.=--Humorous, pathetic, or daring incidents are worth featuring strongly, particularly when they involve children, aged persons, or animals.

|Tige, aged 4, was only a collie dog, but he will |
|have the biggest funeral to-morrow ever given a |
|member of the Lilliman family. He dragged two of the|
|children out of the blazing kitchen at 487 |
|Birmingham avenue and was so badly burned trying to |
|save the nine months baby, Dan, that he died this |
|morning. Every hair was burned from his body. |

|Just inside the front entrance, within six inches of|
|God's fresh air and life, the bodies of 21 girls, |
|ranging in age from 6 to 18 years, were found this |
|morning after the fire that destroyed the St. |
|Patrick's Girls' school. |

=217. Cause of Fire.=--The cause of the fire, if unusual or mysterious, may be featured.

=218. Buildings or Property.=--The particular buildings, if especially valuable by reason of their age, location, or cost of construction, may be features.

|Historic Grace Episcopal Church in South Wabash |
|Avenue, considered one of the finest examples of |
|French Gothic architecture in the city since it was |
|erected nearly fifty years ago, was destroyed to-day|
|in a fire that did damage estimated at $500,000. |
| |
|The main building of the Union Switch and Signal |
|Company, of the Westinghouse interests, at |
|Swissvale, where thousands of shells have been |
|manufactured for the Allies, was swept by fire this |
|afternoon, entailing a loss estimated at $4,000,000.|
|Officials of the company said that the origin of the|
|fire had not been determined. |

=219. Other Features.=--Similarly, one may feature any one of a number of other particulars: as, the occupants of the building, the owners, any prominent persons involved, the amount and character of the damage, the amount of insurance, how the fire was discovered, how it spread, when the alarm was given, the promptness or delay of the fire department, etc. Any one of these particulars may be featured, provided it has unusual importance or interest.

=220. Body of the Fire Story.=--The body of the fire story may continue with such of the details enumerated in the preceding paragraphs as are not used in the lead. Somewhere in the story the extent of the damage and the amount of insurance should be given. Those are sufficiently important particulars to be included always. Greater emphasis and action can be given the story, particularly in case of loss of life or great damage, by quoting direct statements of eye-witnesses or of persons injured. A janitor's account of how the fire started, or how he discovered it, or a woman's story of how she knew the night before that something terrible was going to happen, always adds greatly to the interest.

=221. Rumors at Fires.=--In reporting a fire, however, particularly a big one, the reporter should guard against the wild rumors about the extent of the loss, the number of persons injured or burned to death, the certainty of arson, etc., which usually gain currency among the spectators. Such stories are always exaggerated, and they account for the fact that first news accounts of fires are frequently overdrawn. The reporter should never take such stories at their face value, but should investigate for himself until he knows his details are accurate. Or if he cannot prove them either false or true, he should omit them entirely or record them as mere rumors. Above all, he must keep his head. With the hundreds--sometimes thousands--of spectators pushed beyond the fire lines, the roar of fire engines, the scream of whistles, the wild lights, and the general pandemonium, it is often difficult to remain calm. Yet it is only by keeping absolutely cool that one can judge accurately the value of the information obtained and can put that information into the best news form. Only the reporter who at all times retains entire possession of himself is able to write the most forceful, interesting, and readable fire stories.

=222. Accident Stories in General.=--Accident stories in general follow the same constructive plans as those given for fires. The lead should play up the number of lives lost or endangered, the cause of the accident, the extent of the damage or injury, the time, and the place, answering the questions _who_, _what_, _when_, _where_, _why,_ and _how_. Any one of these may be featured according to its importance. If a number of persons have been killed or hurt, and their names are obtainable, a list of the dead and the injured should be made as indicated on page 150. Then the body of the story may continue in simple chronological order, reserving unimportant details until the last. The following is a good illustration of an accident story:

| =DU PONT BLAST KILLS 31= |
| |
|Wilmington, Del., Nov. 29.--Thirty-one men were |
|killed and six fatally injured to-day in an |
|explosion of approximately four tons of black powder|
|in a packing house at the Upper Hagley yard of the |
|E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., on Brandywine Creek,|
|three miles north of this city. |
| |
|The cause of the explosion is not known. One |
|official says, "There is not a thread on which to |
|hang any hope that the origin will be definitely |
|ascertained." |
| |
|After the blast, termed the worst in the last |
|twenty-five years, it was recalled that notices |
|recently had been tacked on trees and fences near |
|the yards, and even on fences within the plant, |
|warning workmen to quit the mills by Jan. 1. At the |
|time, the posting of the notices was believed to be |
|an attempt by German sympathizers to intimidate the |
|men. Extra guards were ordered about the plants and |
|the United States Secret Service began an |
|investigation, it was reported. |
| |
|Du Pont Company officials have ordered a searching |
|investigation, and every employee who was near the |
|destroyed building will be put through an |
|examination in an effort to get some clue as to the |
|cause of the explosion....[21] |

[21] _New York World_, December 1, 1915.

It is worth noting, in this story, the shrewdness with which the reporter plays up the probable cause of the accident, adding to the actual facts and promising possible further developments in to-morrow's paper.

=223. Stories of the Weather.=--The weather takes its place in the accident division of news stories because of its frequent harmful effects on life and property. Men's pursuits are all a gamble on the weather. Usually a story about the weather depends for its value largely on the felicity of its language, though when there has been severe atmospheric disturbance, resulting in loss of life, destruction of property, or delayed traffic, a simple narrative of events is sufficient to hold the reader's attention. The following are different types of weather story, the first being of the pure accident type, the second, of the more commonplace daily routine.

| =TERRIFIC STORM KILLS 4= |
| |
|Rain, hail, snow, sleet, gales, thunder and |
|lightning combined in an extraordinary manner early |
|yesterday to give New York one of the most peculiar |
|storms the city ever experienced. Four persons died |
|and scores were injured. Unfinished buildings were |
|blown down, roofs were blown off, and signs |
|demolished. |
| |
|The storm played havoc with the railroads, delaying |
|trains and adding to the difficulty of moving |
|freight. It made so much trouble for the New Haven |
|that the company last night issued a notice saying |
|that "on account of storms and accumulation of |
|loaded cars" only live stock, perishable freight, |
|food products, and coal would be carried over |
|portions of the line. |
| |
|Adrift in the gale, fifteen canal barges and cargo |
|scows from South Amboy, N. J., went ashore at Sandy |
|Hook after those on board, including twenty women |
|and children, had suffered from exposure and one man|
|washed overboard from the barge Henrietta had been |
|drowned. The California and the Stockholm, with |
|passengers on board and inbound, were delayed by the|
|storm and will reach port to-day. |
| |
|The wind in Newark unroofed the almshouse, injuring |
|two aged women, blew down buildings, smashed |
|windows, and crippled the entire wire service of the|
|city....[22] |
| |
|(Then follows a detailed account of the dead, the |
|injured, and the delay of traffic.) |

[22] _New York Herald_, December 27, 1915.

| =COLD WAVE ON WAY HERE= |
| |
|Indianapolis to-day stands on the brink between rain|
|and snow. Before to-morrow dawns it may bend |
|slightly one way or the other, meteorologically |
|speaking, and the result will be little flakes of |
|snow or little drops of water. It is forecast that |
|to-morrow its feet will slip entirely and it will be|
|plunged into the abyss of cold weather. The forecast|
|is the work of the weather man, who has some |
|reputation locally and elsewhere as a forecaster of |
|questionable accuracy. |
| |
|Cold weather is drifting this way on northwest |
|winds, says the weather man, and soon will be hard |
|by in the offing, ready to pounce on Indianapolis. |
|The fate of Indianapolis is to be the fate of |
|Indiana also, and of the entire Middle West, for the|
|weather man is no respecter of localities, and when |
|he once gets started forecasts with utter |
|abandon.... |
| |
|The Northwest has experienced a drop of 20 degrees |
|in temperature and the cold wave is rapidly sweeping|
|this way. It is due to reach Indianapolis to-morrow |
|morning. The local forecast is for cloudy to-night |
|and Wednesday, with probabilities of rain or snow, |
|and colder Wednesday. It was the same for the state,|
|but rain was predicted for the south part and snow |
|for the north. |
| |
|The temperature in Indianapolis at 7 o'clock this |
|morning was 38 degrees, a drop of 6 degrees being |
|recorded in the last twenty-four hours. The coming |
|cold wave is expected to give this part of the |
|country its first real touch of winter. The |
|temperature hovered near the zero mark in the |
|northwest. The weather bureau reported snow in |
|Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, and Minnesota.[23|]

[23] _Indianapolis News_, October 28, 1913.

To write this second type of story interestingly means that the reporter must exert himself especially, since the daily routine of weather reports soon becomes wearing in its monotony,--so much so that one finds it exceedingly difficult to present with any degree of originality the same old little-varying facts from day to day. Yet one's readers are always interested in just this item of news, and one can be sure of more expectant readers for this particular story than perhaps for any other single item in the paper.

=224. Deaths and Funerals.=--Stories of deaths and funerals may be included in the monotonous class of accident news. There is this additional difficulty in writing death and funeral stories, however, that in attempting to write sympathetically, appreciatively, of the person who has died, and so meet the expectations of surviving friends and relatives, one is running always on the border line of bathos. It is probably easier to make oneself ridiculous in such stories than in any other kind of news article. As a result, most newspapers require their reporters to confine themselves to bare statements of facts concerning the dead person's life.

=225. Content of Death Stories.=--There are a few facts which all death stories should contain. The person's name, age, street address, and position or business should normally be included in the lead, with possibly a statement of the cause of his death. The duration of his illness may well follow. Then may come the names of surviving relatives and any relationships with persons well known, locally or nationally. If the person is married, the date of the marriage, the maiden name of the wife, and any interesting circumstances connected with the marriage may be recalled. The length of residence in the city should also be included, with possibly a statement of the person's birthplace and the occasion of his settlement in the city. If the person is a man or a woman of wealth, an account of his or her holdings and how they were acquired is always interesting. The story may close with the names of the pallbearers, the time and place of the funeral, the name of the minister officiating, and the place of burial. The following story of the death of Justice Lamar, while not observing the order of events just given, is an excellent illustration of a dignified presentation of the facts in a man's life. (The article has necessarily been abbreviated because of its length.)

| =JUSTICE J. R. LAMAR DIES= |
| |
|Washington, D. C., Sunday.--Mr. Joseph Rucker Lamar,|
|Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United|
|States, died to-night at his home in this city after|
|an intermittent illness of several months. The |
|immediate cause of his death was a severe cold, |
|which he contracted ten days ago, and which proved |
|too great a strain for his weakened heart. |
| |
|Justice Lamar's health began to fail early last |
|summer and he was obliged to absent himself from his|
|duties on the bench. His physicians advised a long |
|period of rest, as they feared that over-work would |
|seriously affect the action of his heart. |
|Accordingly, he spent the greater part of the summer|
|at White Sulphur Springs and returned to Washington |
|about two months ago feeling much improved. |
| |
|His condition was not such, however, that it |
|permitted him to attend the sessions of the Court, |
|although he was able to take outdoor exercise. Two |
|days before Christmas he contracted a heavy cold and|
|was obliged to go to bed. Specialists were |
|consulted, but he gradually grew weaker until this |
|afternoon, when he sank into unconsciousness and |
|passed away peacefully just before nine o'clock. |
| |
|At his bedside when the end came were Mrs. Lamar and|
|their two sons. Chief Justice White arrived at the |
|Lamar home within a few minutes after the death of |
|his colleague. |
| |
|The funeral ceremonies will be in accordance with |
|the custom of the court. It is probable that the |
|services will be held on Tuesday and that interment |
|will be at the family home in Ruckersville, Ga. |
| |
|Justice Lamar was born at Ruckersville, Elbert |
|county, Ga., on October 14, 1857, the son of the |
|Rev. James S. and Mary Rucker Lamar. He attended the|
|University of Georgia. He was graduated from Bethany|
|College, West Virginia, in 1877. After a year in the|
|Washington and Lee University Law School, he was |
|admitted to the bar at Augusta, Ga. There he lived |
|until appointed to the Supreme Court. |
| |
|He was a cousin of the late Associate Justice L. Q. |
|C. Lamar, of Mississippi, who was a member of the |
|United States Supreme Court from 1888 to 1893. |
| |
|When Justice Lamar went on the Supreme Court bench |
|he was little known beyond the borders of his own |
|state. Mr. Taft became acquainted with him a short |
|time before his inauguration when the |
|President-elect was playing golf at Augusta. Justice|
|Lamar had been a member of the Supreme Court only a |
|few months, however, when his ability was |
|recognized. His opinions were regarded as |
|masterpieces of logical reasoning and applications |
|for rehearings were made in few cases he helped to |
|decide. |
| |
|Justice Lamar was selected by President Wilson as |
|the principal commissioner for the United States in |
|the ABC mediation at Niagara Falls in 1914 between |
|this country and Mexico over conditions in the |
|neighboring republic. |
| |
|Justice Lamar made many notable contributions to the|
|legal literature of his state. Among them were |
|"Georgia's Contribution to Law Reforms," "A History |
|of the Organization of the Supreme Court," "Life of |
|Judge Nesbit" and "A Century's Progress in Law." |
|More than two hundred of his opinions are embraced |
|in six volumes of Georgia Reports. |
| |
|Justice Lamar married, on January 30, 1879, Miss |
|Clarinda Pendleton, a daughter of Dr. W. K. |
|Pendleton, president of Bethany College. He is |
|survived by his wife and two children, Philip Rucker|
|Lamar and William Pendleton Lamar.[24] |

[24] _New York Herald_, January 3, 1916.

=226. Obtaining the Information.=--The gaining of information about a man who has just died is not difficult. One should be cautioned, however, against seeking details from members of the family. If the person is of little prominence, one should go first to the undertaker. He will have all the details about the funeral--the names of the pallbearers and of the minister, the time and place of the funeral, the place of burial--and probably all the facts about the person's life that the family wishes made public. If the undertaker does not have this information, he will be able to tell the reporter from whom it may be obtained. Additional facts may sometimes be had from the county and state directories, and even from the city directory. Old residents or close friends, too, often are able to give interesting details about the person's life, his failures and his successes, and in this way a reporter can publish an appreciative account without editorializing on the man's accomplishments. If the one who has died is of decided prominence, the reporter can find accounts of him in the various _Who's Who_ volumes and probably a rather full obituary all ready in the morgue. One must be careful in using the morgue write-up, however, to bridge naturally and easily the gap between the new and the old material, so that the reader shall not suspect he is reading a story partly written years ago. The following is an illustration of poor coherence between the two parts:

|Paris, August 12.--Pol Plancon, the opera singer, |
|died to-day. He had been ill since June. |
| ------- |
|Pol Plancon was a bass singer and made his Paris |
|debut in the part of Mephistopheles in 1883. He came|
|to the Metropolitan Opera house in New York in 1893,|
|where he sang with Melba, Calve, Eames, Nordica and |
|Jean and Edouard de Reszke. Plancon sang for many |
|years at Covent Garden, London.... |

In this case it is too obvious that the first two sentences constitute the bare cable bulletin and that the second paragraph is the beginning of the morgue story.

=227. Crime Lead.=--In the lead to a crime story, one may feature either the names of the persons involved, the number of lives lost or endangered, the motive of the criminal, the nature of the crime, clues leading to the identification and arrest of the criminal, possible effects of the crime, or even public sentiment resulting from the deed. Of the possible leads, probably the names of the persons involved, either of the criminal or of those whose rights were infringed, are most often played up. Thus:

The other features, however, may be found at random in any paper. Illustrations are:

_Number of Lives Lost_

_Motive_

|To get money to pay for his grandmother's funeral, |
|Robert Hollyburd, 24, 1917 Monaco St., yesterday |
|robbed the cash register of the Lengerke Brothers, |
|sporting goods dealers, at 1654 Bradley St. |

_Nature of the Crime_

|The most brutal murder ever committed in Calloway |
|county was discovered at an early hour this morning |
|when the body of Dr. Otis Bennett, literally hacked |
|to pieces, was found in the basement of his home. |

_Clues_

|The Davenport police have in their possession a |
|large bone-handled knife which has been identified |
|as the property of Hugo O'Neal, colored, of Cushman.|
|The knife was found under Col. Andrew Alton's |
|bedroom window after an attempted robbery of his |
|home at an early hour this morning. O'Neal has not |
|been seen since yesterday. |

_Results_

|Tim Atkins is probably dying at his shanty on Davis |
|Street as a result of a difficulty between him and |
|Isom Werner over a woman they met on their way home |
|from the circus last night. |

=228. Body of the Crime Story.=--The body of the crime story, like that of the accident, follows the lead in a simple chronological narration of events. Interest may be added by quoting direct statements from persons immediately connected with the crime,--how it feels to be held up, how the robber gained entrance to the building, how the bandits escaped. In stories of burglaries and robberies the value of the stolen goods and any ingenious devices for gaining entrance to the house, stopping the train, or halting the robbed party should always be given. It may be added that, unless the purpose is entirely obvious, as in robberies and burglaries, due emphasis should be given to the motive for the crime. One should be on one's guard, however, against accepting readily any motive assigned. The star reporter never takes anybody at his word--the police, the detectives, or even the victims--in any statement where crime is involved. He investigates for himself and draws his own conclusions.

=229. Caution against Libel.=--An additional caution should be added here against libel, because of the strong temptation always to make an accused person guilty before he has been adjudged so. According to American law, a person suspected of or charged with crime is innocent until he has been proved guilty. In writing crime stories, therefore, the reporter must be doubly careful to have a supposed criminal merely "suspected" of misappropriating funds, or "alleged" to have made the assault, or "said by the police" to have entered the house. And in order to present an unbiased story, the side of the supposed malefactor should be given. In the intense excitement resulting from a newly committed crime, or in the squalid surroundings of a prison cell, an accused person does not appear to his best advantage, and it is easy for the reporter to let prejudice sway him, perhaps causing irreparable injury to innocent persons. The race riot in Atlanta, in 1905, in which numbers of innocent negroes were murdered, was a direct result of exaggerated and sensational stories of crime printed by yellow newspapers. And the whole long trial and verdict against Leo M. Frank were directly affected by the same papers. If the opinion of readers is to be appealed to, the reporter should leave such appeals to the editorial writers, whose duty it is to interpret the news and sway the public whenever they will or can. The reporter's duty, as far as possible, is to present mere facts.

XVI. SPORTS

=230. Slang.=--In writing stories of athletic meets and games the reporter will find that in matters of language he has almost complete freedom. For this there are two reasons: the fact that it is necessary half the time to get final results of contests into print within a few seconds or minutes after the outcome has been decided, and the fact that athletic devotees--"fans" in American slang--are not naturally critical. Time is the all-important element with them. The results of a baseball game are wanted within a few seconds after the last man has been put out in the final inning. Whether the writer says the Red Sox defeated the Tigers, or nosed them out in the ninth, or handed them a lemon, means little to the followers of the game provided the information is specifically conveyed that Boston beat Detroit. Slang is freely used,--so much so that the uninitiated frequently cannot understand an account of a game. The "fans" can, however, and they constitute the public for whom reporters on the sporting pages maintain they are writing. If, then, one can brighten up his sporting stories--make them sparkling, electric, galvanic--by using slang, he will find them acceptable to any editor. The only caution to the beginner is that he must be sure every detail is clear to the "fans." Slang can easily be overdone,--much more easily than one would suppose,--with the result that an otherwise good story is choked with near humorous, foggy jargon. Better no slang than a story cloyed with it.[25]

[25] It is the belief of the author that the sporting page has
not yet reached its highest level of language and that the
younger of us will live to see as pure English used on the
sporting page as in the other news columns. The purpose of
this volume, however, is not to present the work of the
reporter as it ought to be, but as it is--a fact which
accounts for the above paragraph and its recommendation of
the use of slang in sporting news stories.

=231. Four Kinds.=--An examination of sporting news stories shows four kinds: (1) those dealing with athletic events before their occurrence; (2) those reporting the events; (3) those analyzing and explaining the events and their results; and (4) those dealing with the sport in general. The second of these, the story reporting an athletic event, is not unlike the types of news stories examined in the two preceding chapters and may be discussed first, reserving for later analysis the other three because of their divergence from the normal type of news article.

=232. The Lead.=--The lead to a story reporting an athletic event follows with few exceptions the same general principles as the leads already examined. Unlike those studied in the preceding chapters, however, the lead to such a story often is written last, because of the necessity of writing a running account of the game as it progresses, yet of giving final results in the lead. The feature most frequently played up is the final result, with additional mention of the causes of victory or defeat, the equality or inequality of the opposing players, and any important incidents. Always too, of course, the names of the teams, the time, and the place are given. But the score is regularly the feature,--so much so that if one is in doubt about what to feature in an athletic contest, one can always play a trump card by featuring the results. Thus:

|One hit and one score was all the Senators could |
|make off the Yankees at Washington this afternoon, |
|but that was enough. Joe Gedeon made the hit, a |
|three bagger, and Milan passed him home when he |
|dropped Nunamacher's high fly to center. |

|A tie score was the best the Maroons could do for |
|the Hoosiers Saturday on Marshall Field. The count |
|was 7-7 when Umpire Hanson called the game in the |
|eleventh inning on account of darkness. |

=233. Names of the Teams.=--Almost as frequent is the featuring of the names of the opposing teams, with the final score included at the end of the lead.

|Cornell's 1915 football team wrote its name in |
|football history in blazing letters on Franklin |
|Field this afternoon when at the end of one of the |
|most stirring contests ever seen on that gridiron |
|the scoreboard read: Cornell, 24; Pennsylvania, 9. |

=234. Cause of Victory or Defeat.=--The cause of a team's victory or defeat often makes an effective feature for the lead.

|With the aid of a bewildering assortment of plays, |
|the Syracuse University football team defeated the |
|Oregon Agricultural College here to-day, 28 to 0. |

=235. Individual Players.=--Stellar work by individual players--even poor work when responsible for the loss of the game--often makes necessary the featuring of their names.

|Jim Thorpe and George Kelly led an assault on the |
|Dallas pitchers this afternoon while Pol Perritt and|
|Fred Schupp were baffling the local talent at home |
|plate. The net result was a shutout for Dallas and |
|five runs for New York. |

|Wildness on the part of Foster and timely hitting by|
|Oldring and Strunk enabled Philadelphia to defeat |
|Boston again to-day, the score being 6 to 2. |

=236. Other Features.=--Even the kind of weather, the condition of the grounds, the size of the crowd, or the effect of the play on the crowd may be featured:

_The Weather_

|High winds and bad light made the marksmanship poor |
|at the local shoot yesterday, the best score being a|
|93, made by Lawrence Bowen. |

_Condition of Grounds_

|The annual football game between Lawrence and Beloit|
|yesterday, resulting in a 14 to 6 victory for |
|Lawrence, might better have been called an aquatic |
|meet. The best swimmers won. |

_Size of the Crowd_

|Fifty-nine thousand football fans saw the warriors |
|of Old Eli take the Tiger's pelt yesterday at New |
|Haven. The count was 13 to 7. |

_Effect on the Crowd_

|A disgusted crowd of 8,000 Sunday baseball fans saw |
|the Brewers lose to the Colonels yesterday, 2 to 14.|

It will be noted in these leads that the final score, while not always featured, is nevertheless always included.

=237. The Body.=--The bodies of stories reporting athletic contests are all but unlimited in their methods of handling, depending on the nature of the sport and the length of the story. If the sporting editor has limited the reporter to two sticks, the body may contain the lineup, the names of the officials, mention of those starring or playing particularly poorly, when and how the scoring was made, the condition of the field and the weather, and the size of the crowd. If the editor wants a fuller report, the more important plays, told chronologically, may be added. If he wishes a detailed account, all the plays should be given, the reporter following the chronological order after a full, summarizing lead. In big athletic events, the sporting editor often assigns two men, one to write a general account, the other a detailed story. In such stories it is the reporter writing the general summary who compiles the summarizing figures boxed at the beginning, giving the total attendance and receipts and making comparison with preceding events. A typical baseball story is the following:

| =YANKS BEAT THE SENATORS= |
| |
|Through some change of policy on the part of the |
|concern which is conducting the weather this spring,|
|the sun, which has not been at large much in recent |
|days, was permitted to shine on the Polo Grounds |
|yesterday. The Yankees reveled in the sunlight and |
|chalked up their first victory of the season, |
|beating Washington by a score of 3 to 1. A crowd of |
|more than 20,000 people left their umbrellas and |
|raincoats at home and sat in at the Yankee jubilee. |
| |
|Charley Mullen, one of the Yanks' utility men, was |
|rushed into the fray in the sixth inning as a pinch |
|hitter for Wallie Pipp. Two runners were riding the |
|bases at the time, and when Mullen flayed a single |
|to left he also propelled Baker and Gedeon over the |
|plate with the two units which marked the margin of |
|the New York victory. The Yankees played just the |
|kind of baseball everybody hoped they would and that|
|was just a bit better than the best Washington had |
|to offer. |
| |
|A lot of people from the Edison Company who know |
|First Baseman Judge of the Washington club well |
|enough to call him Joe, presented him with a diamond|
|ring. Judge used to play with the Edison team before|
|he took to the merry life of a professional. Judge |
|shattered baseball tradition after modestly taking |
|the gift by going in and playing a fine game, |
|fielding well and knocking out a clean hit. Most |
|players after receiving a present at a ball game can|
|be counted on to strike out. |
| |
|Among the more or less prominent people present was |
|the man for whom Diogenes, a former resident of |
|Greece, has long been looking. There was no doubt |
|about his being the object of the quest of Diogenes |
|because when a ball was fouled into the grand stand |
|and he caught it, he threw it back into the field |
|instead of hiding it in his pocket. |
| |
|Ray Fisher, who gave up his life unselfishly to |
|teaching school up in Vermont until he found how |
|much money there was in tossing a curved ball, did |
|the twirling for the Yankees and on the few |
|occasions when he was in trouble his teammates came |
|to his support like a rich uncle. In the fourth |
|inning it looked as if Fisher was about to take the |
|elevator for the thirty-sixth floor, but Frank Baker|
|came to his aid and yanked him out of trouble. |
| |
|It was this way: Judge, first man up in the fourth, |
|singled to center. Shanks was hit on the wrist and |
|Jamieson laid a bunt half an inch from the third |
|base line, filling the bases. Henry spun a teaser |
|right in front of the plate and Nunamacher made a |
|quick play by grabbing the ball and forcing Judge |
|out as he was about to score. The base line circuit |
|was still playing to S. R. O. McBride rapped a |
|hopper down back of third base. Baker reached out |
|his bare hand, nabbed the ball, touched third and |
|forced Jamieson. He relayed the ball over to first |
|in time to double up McBride, and Fisher was saved |
|from a serious attack of heart failure. That was |
|only one of three double plays the Yankees staged |
|for Fisher's welfare. |
| |
|Harry Harper, a southpaw from Hackensack, N. J., |
|pitched for Washington until the Yankees went to the|
|front in the sixth, and then he was succeeded by |
|Francesco Gallia, who hails from Mexico or |
|thereabouts. |
| |
|The Yankees threatened damage in the first inning. |
|After Maisel had fanned, Gilhooley was safe on |
|Morgan's fumble and Magee sent him to second with a |
|single. Baker lifted a high fly to right field, and |
|after the catch Gilhooley raced to third and was |
|safe by half an inch. Gedeon fouled to first for the|
|third out. |
| |
|The Senators got their run in the second. With one |
|down, Jamieson was safe on Baker's high throw over |
|first, the runner traveling to second. Henry died at|
|first, and McBride punched a two-bagger to right |
|center, which sent Jamieson home. The Yankees tied |
|the score in the next inning, when, with two out, |
|Magee walked. Baker and Gedeon started a double |
|steal. It looked as if Gedeon would be a sure out at|
|second, but he got back to first safely. Pipp ended |
|the fun by fanning. |
| |
|In the sixth Baker singled to left, and Gedeon |
|placed a Texas leaguer back of first, which none of |
|the Senator fielders reached. Baker was late in |
|starting for second, and Jamieson made a bad throw |
|to catch him, so both runners advanced a cushion. |
|Mullen, batting for Pipp, cudgeled the ball to left,|
|and Baker and Gedeon counted. That was all, and it |
|was plenty to win. The score: |
| |
| NEW YORK WASHINGTON |
| AB R H PO A | AB R H PO A|
|Maisel, cf. 3 0 0 4 0 | Morg'n, 2b. 3 0 0 3 2|
|Gil'hy, rf. 4 0 0 1 0 | Fost'r, 3b. 4 0 2 0 1|
|Magee, lf. 3 1 2 2 0 | Milan, cf. 4 0 0 2 0|
|Baker, 3b. 3 1 1 2 3 | Judge, 1b. 4 0 1 8 0|
|Ged'n, 2b. 4 1 3 5 3 | Sh'nks, lf. 3 0 0 1 0|
|Pipp, 1b. 2 0 0 8 0 | Jam's'n rf. 4 1 1 1 0|
|Mul'n, 1b. 2 0 1 3 0 | Henry, c. 2 0 0 5 1|
|P'k'gh, ss. 4 0 0 1 4 | M'B'de, ss. 3 0 1 1 1|
|Nu'ker, c. 2 0 0 1 1 | Harper, p. 2 0 1 0 1|
|Fisher, p. 3 0 0 0 2 | Wil'ms, c. 1 0 0 3 1|
| ----------- | Johnson[26] 1 0 0 0 0|
| | -----------|
| Total 30 3 7 27 13 | Total 31 1 6 24 7|
| |
| [26] Batted for Gallia in ninth inning. |
| Errors--Morgan, Milan, Jamieson, Baker. |
| |
|Washington 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0--1 |
|New York 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0--3 |
| |
|Two-base hits--McBride, Harper, Foster. Stolen |
|base--Gedeon. Double plays--Gedeon and Pipp; Baker |
|and Pipp; Peckinpaugh and Gedeon. Left on bases--New|
|York, 7; Washington, 6. First base on errors--New |
|York, 1; Washington, 1. Bases on balls--Off Fisher, |
|2; off Harper, 3; off Gallia, 1. Hits and earned |
|runs--Off Harper, 6 hits, 3 runs in six innings; off|
|Gallia, 1 hit in two innings. Hit by |
|Pitcher--Fisher, (Shanks). Struck out--By Fisher, 1;|
|by Harper, 4; by Gallia, 2. Umpires--Messrs. Owens |
|and Connolly. Time of game--Two hours and eleven |
|minutes.[27] |

[27] _New York Times_, April 16, 1916.

Worth noting particularly in this story is the regulation style of indicating the lineup and the score at the end. The writer's originality of expression and his happy choice of individual incidents also add greatly to the interest of the story. The lead, for instance, is unusually good.

=238. Football.=--The following is a typical football story:

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