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R I.TRKSKNTATI \- IC A M I'.K RAN E 1 )1T< )KS 
 
ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 A MANUAL IN NEWSPAPER MAKING 
 FOR COLLEGE CLASSES 
 
 BY 
 
 H. F. HARRINGTON 
 
 DIRECTOR OF COURSES IX JOURNALISM, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 
 
 AND 
 
 T. T. FRANKENBERG 
 
 STAFF OHIO STATE JOURNAL 
 
 GINN AND COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 
 
COPVRKJHT, 1912, BY H. F. HARRINGTON AND T. T. FRANKENBERG 
 ALL KKillTS KKSr.UNKL) 
 
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 (■INN AND COMI'ANV • I'KO- 
 J'KlliToKS • HOSKJN • U.S.A. 
 
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 The journalist's opportunity is beyond estimate. To him is given the keys 
 to every city, the entry to every family, the ear of every citizen when he is in 
 his most receptive moods, powers of approach and persuasion beyond those 
 of the Protestant pastor or the Catholic confessor. He is no man's priest, but 
 his words carry wider and farther than the priest's and he preaches the gospel 
 of humanity. He is not a king, but he nurtures and trains the king and the 
 land is ruled by the public opinion he evokes and shapes. If you value this 
 good land the Lord has given us, if you would have a share in this marvelous 
 salvation and lifting power of humanity, look well to the nurturing and training 
 of the king. — Whitelaw Reid, New York Tribime. 
 
 271021 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Experience has been the stern schoolmaster of most present-day 
 newspaper men. The road to recognition and to influence has 
 presented manifold obstacles. In earlier days the aspirant in the 
 field of journalism, beginning as a "printer's devil" who inked 
 the rollers and swept out the back office, or as a callow "cub" 
 reporter who "fell down" on important assignments, found every 
 stage of his progress marked with hard knocks and meager pay. 
 It is the remembrance of what they themselves have gone through 
 or perhaps the fresh impression of some ambitious young fellow 
 who is working out his salvation under their very eyes, that prompts 
 these experts in the profession to declare that the newspaper office is 
 and can be the only proper place to learn the newspaper business. 
 Indeed, there are many newspaper men, even to-day, who are so 
 firmly convinced of the primary importance of the city editor's blue 
 pencil as the one essential in the reporter's education that the college 
 candidate for reportorial work is not infrequently made the subject 
 of pointed jests. The collegian is full of unpractical learning, old- 
 timers say, too superior in his own conceit to learn from his fellows, 
 fond of florid adjectives and of verbose rhetoric, not adapted for the 
 swift gathering and writing of the news. Many of these impeach- 
 ments are unfortunately true. The newcomer is handicapped by 
 the fact that, before he can succeed, he must unlearn not a few 
 things ingrafted by college training. He must keep on the level 
 of common, everyday people and must remember he is writing for 
 a newspaper and not for fame. As the days pass his style begins 
 to lose its grandiloquent cast and his mind grows more discrimi- 
 nating and analytical. When once the college man has learned 
 what newspaper work requires of him he has a better chance to 
 succeed than the untrained man at the opposite desk. 
 
 The importance of experience in a newspaper office cannot be 
 minimized. Its instruction is sure, sound, practical. The mistake 
 
 vii 
 
viii ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 is in considering it the only school qualified to fit the young reporter 
 for journalistic labors. If the older professions — law, medicine,^ 
 the ministry — insist that their practitioners undergo a preliminary -" 
 special course of training before entering upon actual work, why- 
 should not the profession of journalism exact the same preparation ? /' 
 Within the last few years this fact has been borne in upon the col- 
 leges in no uncertain terms. To meet the demand for more special- 
 ized stud}', college curricula were first enlarged by installing a few 
 experimental courses that prepared for journalism. The fascination 
 of the study attracted students in increasing numbers. Later, the 
 course was developed, systematized, and given into the charge of 
 corps of experienced newspaper men who united journalistic train- 
 ing with teaching ability. Success was immediate. To-day the 
 movement is sweeping the Middle West and reaching out to the 
 East, establishing courses in a modest way in this college center, 
 starting presses and linotypes for the making of college news- 
 papers in that; and becoming, in some university communities, 
 the head of a large publication department from which are issued 
 all forms of the institution's printing. Journalistic training is one 
 of' the most vital and significant of all educational problems. In 
 the short time it has been established no course of study has made 
 more rapid strides or has brought a more humanizing element 
 into college instruction. 
 
 It should be clearly understood, however, that preparation in 
 journalism now being undertaken in colleges is in no sense antago- 
 nistic to the established canons of the newspaper. Such instruction 
 docs not attempt to substitute classroom work for actual service 
 on an exacting daily under skilled and experienced direction. It 
 does not aim to send out full-fledged newspaper men. It merely 
 endeavors to make the road to the practice of journalism the easier 
 by removing many of the difiiculties in the path, and it does this by 
 teaching the young aspirant some of the things he will be expected 
 to do and the best methods of doing them. The undergraduate is 
 prepared for journalism just as students are prepared for medicine, 
 for law, and for agriculture. Under the guidance of teachers who 
 have themselves gone through some of the informing experiences 
 of the daily grind, the young man or woman is, first of all, taught 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 that newspaper style is impersonal, compact, and direct in its appeal. 
 The student is instructed in the newspaper vocabulary and news- 
 paper usages. He is shown how to write a story so that he may 
 bring out the picturesque feature in the opening paragraph, accom- 
 plished by numerous exercises and by actual assignments through- 
 out the city. In time the student begins to cultivate a sense of 
 news values and to catch the spirit of the quest. The work of the 
 reporter, with many suggestions for guidance in his search for news, 
 is discussed, as is the organization of the newspaper proper, from 
 the operation of the linotype to the manifold problems and policies 
 of the editorial chair. In several institutions the work has gone 
 forward to such an extent that a clinic has been installed, affording 
 a laboratory course where students work with type and presses and 
 printed sheets. A daily paper is issued, written, edited, and printed 
 by university undergraduates under the supervision of a ciu^ editor, 
 who, in most cases, is the instructor in journalism. " "' 
 
 Nor does the work stop with the gathering, writing, and pub- 
 lishing of news. College training insists upon other things equally 
 important. It places firm emphasis upon honesty and accuracy in 
 the assembling of the facts. It teaches that the character of the 
 newspaper man is not the least important element in his equipment. 
 In brief, it outlines a code of journalistic ethics that leaves out of 
 consideration the questionable practices of the charlatan reporter 
 and refuses to indorse the sensational methods of the "yellow" 
 press. It aims to raise the standards of journalism and to make it 
 the potent force for good that it should be in every community. 
 
 College training in journalism does not even conclude its task 
 when it has taught recognition of the fine points of newspaper 
 administration. That is an instinct that the college may hope to 
 nurture. What the university does aim to do is to lay a broad foun- 
 dation of knowledge that will fit the college man for a higher 
 position and for larger usefulness. The school of journalism recog- 
 nizes that the reporter has need of a wide range of information on 
 all kinds of subjects if he would achieve preeminence. It endeavors 
 to supplement specialized study in newspaper practices with thorough 
 training in the science of government, in English literature and 
 composition, in practical sociology, in the modern languages, in 
 
X ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 modern history, in any subject that is humanizing and broadening. 
 
 Onlv as the reporter appreciates the bigness of his field and grasps 
 
 the trend of every underlying movement uplifting mankind will 
 
 he become the safe interpreter of the times and the far-seeing 
 
 prophet of the future. The old journalism insisted upon the ability 
 
 to secure news as the fundamental requirement in the reporter ; the 
 
 (new journalism will place its finger of emphasis upon trained intel- 
 
 f lects, ready hands, and courageous hearts. More and more the 
 
 public is turning to the press of the land for its opinions and its 
 
 information. The mission of the new'spaper is sure and definite. 
 
 If it is to fulfill its destined mission and prove faithful to its grave 
 
 responsibility, it must be by the enlisting of a higher grade of 
 
 trained observers than ever before. They must be critical students 
 
 of present-day life if they would interpret it aright. The trumpet 
 
 call is for real men, prepared in college hall and in newspaper 
 
 office, to uphold the lamp of truth. ^ 
 
 f^ To-day increasing numbers of trained college men and women 
 
 / are going into journalism. In many of^ces all the reporters have 
 
 \ undergone university training. The berth of the man of insufficient 
 
 (« education, limited outlook, and indifferent habits is insecure — just 
 as it is in all other professions. The readiness with which the col- 
 lege man, versed in newspaper practices, secures a position on the 
 large city paper is sufficient proof of the service being done by 
 
 ' journalistic courses and schools. Nor is the city paper the only 
 paper benefited. The country press is reaching a higher plane of 
 
 '•, usefulness than ever before as college men take the helm. This is 
 no reflection upon the man educated in the school of experience 
 or through personal effort, to whom all possible praise is due. It 
 is simply a prediction that, in the future, the training of the re- 
 porter and the editor will be considered the legitimate duty of the 
 college to the end that many stumblingblocks may be cleared away 
 and the way to recognition made smoother and surer. The news- 
 paper office is to take up the student's education at the point 
 where the college leaves off. The fusing of the preparation given 
 by the university with the practical training contributed by the 
 newspaper office will result in a finer type of journalist and will 
 redound to the glory of both mediums of instruction. 
 
PREFACE XI 
 
 The present book needs no explanation. It has been written be- 
 cause there seemed to be no available textbook to direct the minds 
 of young men and women into the right channels and the discipline 
 necessary for newspaper work. True, there are many discussions 
 of the newspaper, but none — so far as known — that combines 
 theory with practice. The authors of this book are conscious 
 of individual shortcomings and professional handicaps and have 
 been at times disheartened because of the lack of sufficient guides, 
 yet they have been encouraged to do pioneering work by the hope 
 that those who follow will find the path not altogether untrod. 
 Their effort has been to supplement varied personal experience in 
 the newspaper business by conference and correspondence with 
 fellow laborers in the editorial sanctum and the college hall. To 
 those who notice in this book an English not altogether academic, 
 it should be said that excerpts from newspapers are reproduced with- 
 out alteration of spelling or construction. An effort has been made 
 to preserve the free, easy style of newspapers, throughout the text. 
 
 An attempt has been made to present the subject in an interest- 
 ing and systematic way. The student is shown not only how others 
 write but how he himself should write to do acceptable work. For 
 the arrangement of chapters and many helpful suggestions special 
 thanks are due to Professors J. V. Denney, C. S. Duncan, and L. A. 
 Cooper of the English department of Ohio State University ; to 
 F. B. Pearson of Ohio State University; to E. L. Shuman, author 
 of '' Practical Journalism " ; to Captain Paul Mason, whose news- 
 paper experience has extended over the United States ; to Evaline 
 Harrington, who has given assistance in the reading of proof ; and 
 to many others who have shown interest and cooperation. Special 
 recognition is due Rowena Hewitt Landon for a careful revision of 
 the manuscript, incident to which were many valuable suggestions 
 which have been incorporated in the text. Nor would it be fair to 
 pass over those earnest students of Ohio State University through 
 whom many experiments were necessarily made. By their help 
 many hints and plans contained in this book were demonstrated. 
 
 H. F. H. 
 T. T. F. 
 Columbus, Ohio 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. Journalistic Style 
 
 II. Words and Phrases . 
 
 III. The Structure of a News Story 
 
 IV. What is News? . 
 V. Gathering News . 
 
 VI. Types of News Stories 
 VII. The Reporter 
 VIII. The City Editor 
 IX. Other Desk Positions 
 X. Interviews . 
 
 XI. Dramatic Criticism and Other Criticism 
 XII. Editorials, Paracjraphs, and Bureaus 
 
 XIII. Head W^riting and Make-up 
 
 XIV. Getting the Paper printed 
 XV. The American Newspaper 
 
 XVI. Country Journalism . 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Journalistic Style 
 
 Words and Phrases 
 
 The Structure of a News Story 
 
 Skeletons of News Stories 
 
 Suggestions for Feature and News Stories 
 
 General Instructions to Reporters and Copy 
 
 Glossary of Newspaper Terms 
 
 INDEX 
 
 EXHIBITS 
 
 Readers 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 14 
 
 25 
 36 
 
 45 
 S7 
 7S 
 93 
 106 
 
 119 
 
 134 
 144 
 164 
 172 
 189 
 210 
 
 221 
 223 
 23S 
 254 
 267 
 279 
 283 
 
 293 
 297 
 301 
 
SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS 
 
 The teaching of journaHsm is still in its infancy. Unlike other 
 subjects which have long found recognition in college catalogues, 
 it is largely without precedent or law. Methods must be worked 
 out by the individual instructor and their merit and usefulness 
 in great measure determined by personal approximation of what 
 is important and what less essential. There are few textbooks to 
 simplify the work, while the history of the evolution of the news- 
 paper from the shadowy beginnings to the mighty power it now is 
 can be traced only in uncertain lines on the pages of magazines 
 and through somewhat untrustworthy witnesses. There is little 
 that is authoritative, possibly because the nien most interested in 
 journalism as a profession are too close to their subject to see 
 it in unprejudiced perspective, or lack the inclination to analyze 
 the divergent influences that are already beginning to shape the 
 journalism of to-morrow. 
 
 It is because of the bigness of the task and the absence of ac- 
 cepted standards of judgment that a greater weight of responsibility 
 is placed upon the instructor who takes upon himself the burden 
 of teaching students who are to become the newspaper men of the 
 future. That he should be a newspaper man himself is almost 
 essential ; but that he should also be something of an idealist, 
 thoroughly alert to the shortcomings of the craft, is also quite as 
 important. Newspaper work needs young blood ; but it imperatively 
 demands keen minds and warm hearts. As a profession journalism 
 is rapidly casting off the frivolities and insincerities that have to 
 some extent enmeshed it. The teacher who simply details a 
 thumb-by-thumb system of training, fitting the young writer to be 
 a reporter in return for a meager wage from week to week, fails 
 in his mission. He should rather be training young men and 
 women for leadership, inspiring in them a laudable ambition for 
 
SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS xv 
 
 constructive work and for helpful service to humanity. The in- 
 structor who can imbue his students with something of the immense 
 responsibility of newspaper work and, to some extent, give them a 
 vision of better things is doing the finest service in the cause 
 of the new journalism. Objection may be offered to this view on 
 the ground that it is ethereal, vague, indefinite, not suited to the 
 present-day needs of present-day newspapers. Just here is the mis- 
 sion of university courses in journalism — to sound a courageous 
 note of idealism that will not rest content with the commercial sor- 
 didness too often marring the operations of the American press. 
 The hope for brighter days is to be in the hands of educated young 
 men, who will treat the newspaper not as a plaything to please a 
 capricious fancy, but as a great dynamo for generating the thought 
 and opinion of the intelligent public. The first things the teacher 
 should strive to instill, therefore, are seriousness of purpose and 
 honesty of heart. 
 
 Inculcate in the student's mind, unceasingly and uncompromis- 
 ingly, the principle that the reporter's business is to get the facts 
 and to get them accurately. This office axiom cannot be unduly 
 emphasized. If, in practice assignments, a young man undertakes 
 to guess or to infer, he should be sent back for additional infor- 
 mation, be it only the correct spelling of a man's name. If the 
 student undertakes to " fake " a story, the offense entails summary 
 dismissal from the class and loss of credit. 
 
 The development of this handbook has been determined both 
 by experience in the classroom and by practices of newspapers 
 themselves. By the method herein presented the student is first 
 given thorough drill in the writing of the news story and in the 
 vocabulary employed, supplemented by exercises, assignments, and 
 practical suggestions which will be found in the back part of the 
 book. These written productions are carefully examined by the in- 
 structor and returned with comment. In many instances, especially 
 at the outset, students are instructed to rewrite their first " stories." 
 As the students become more proficient in writing, more difficult 
 assignments are given them. The discussion of the organization 
 of the newspaper is then begun. For obvious reasons, the chapters 
 on The American Newspaper and Country Journalism are reserved 
 
xvi ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 until the student can bring to them deeper interest and richer 
 understanding. Specimen stories have been included as models 
 of structure and style. 
 
 Teachers will find practical newspaper men of experience willing 
 to talk to the classes of their own successes and failures. Such 
 recital of reminiscences and detailing of suggestions will be found 
 both interesting and profitable. Another helpful method is to have 
 the teacher impersonate some man or woman who is familiar with 
 the facts of a desired story, thus allowing the students an oppor- 
 tunity to arrive at the facts through more or less skillful questioning. 
 It has been found advisable to send out the advanced students on 
 "live" assignments about town, such as lectures, meetings, enter- 
 tainments, and to have them seek interviews with prominent people. 
 Where a college paper is published, much of this matter may be 
 printed there. This encourages initiative among the students and 
 is a material help to the paper. 
 
 Where assignments are given in gathering news in the devious 
 ways of a good-sized city, many things of profit may be learned by 
 contrasting the published newspaper reports with the stories written 
 by the students themselves. Such a procedure is also illuminating 
 in the analysis of news selection and methods of presentation. 
 
 The work in this book is designed to cover an entire college 
 year, for a course of not less than two hours a week. The matters 
 discussed may be made subjects of classroom recitation or incor- 
 porated into lectures. Where the instructor is able to elaborate the 
 topics by his own experiences as reporter and editor, increased 
 interest will result. The book itself has undergone two years of 
 criticism and in its present arrangement has been taught with 
 gratifying success in representative colleges of the Middle West. 
 
ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 PART I. THE COLLECTING AND 
 WRITING OF NEWS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 JOURNALISTIC STYLE 
 
 Bearing in mind that a newspaper is intended to convey infor- 
 mation, that its material is facts and not fancy, that its purpose is 
 .to be interesting rather than to be admired, the beginner 
 general in journahstic effort will realize that his style of writing 
 
 appea must differ materially from that usually taught in the 
 
 academic literary courses or adopted by those following a career of 
 more formal letters. A proper appreciation of what he is trying to 
 do, and of the vast mixed audience to which he must appeal, will 
 aid the news writer materially in gaining an intelligent compre- 
 hension of the task before him. 
 
 His mission is to bring specific facts to the attention of busy 
 men and women of varying degrees of intelligence and of diverse 
 social conditions. Rhetorical figures, elaborate explanation, and 
 details of nonessential nature tend to destroy the three essential 
 characteristics of a good news story, namely, dramatic effective- 
 ness, compactness, and clarity. Clear, direct statements of fact are 
 wanted. To tell what happened is the first business of the reporter; 
 to tell how it happened may come next. This has led to the defi- 
 nition of the proper reportorial style — ''an impersonal, unimpas- 
 sioned medium that deals with the concrete things of actual life." 
 Newspaper style must be virile, straightforward, honest. If it can 
 suggest atmosphere and tremble with action, so much the better. 
 
i^ ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 To the first injunction, that prolixity of style discourages a multitude 
 of readers, is added the second, that space is always valuable. This 
 puts additional premium on brevity . To those of even meager edu- 
 cation it is wortli while pointing out that a good newspaper story 
 is as well-knit as a Homeric narrative, as compact as the parables 
 of the Bible. It is well always to bear in mind that the story of 
 the Creation, the greatest event ever chronicled in written form, is 
 told in 400 words. 
 
 The young reporter should studiously avoid those bookish and 
 scholastic terms with which his college career may have tinctured 
 his style. A moment's thought will convince him that as only one 
 in ever)- hundred persons gets a college education, so only one out 
 of every hundred readers will probably appreciate the characteristics 
 w^hich chiefly suggest his college attainments. Simple, homely, 
 conversational methods reach the largest number of readers. Free- 
 dom from affectation marks the best journalistic style of to-day, 
 affording thereby a sharp contrast to the stilted, formal style in 
 vogue half a century ago. 
 
 An analytical mental attitude toward the story to be written, a few 
 moments spent in careful thought, so that the writer may determine 
 in his own mind what are the essential facts, without attempting 
 to interpret them, will aid the beginner materially in acquiring the 
 style best adapted to his work. He will learn by experience to 
 marshal the big things first, and let the others trail along or be 
 omitted altogether. He will learn to put in the details only where 
 they are absolutely necessary to a proper understanding of the 
 particular incident he recites. 
 
 In the following brief story attention is called to the repression and 
 directness of the style. Many minor details are taken for granted. 
 There are no digressions down attractive byways, and no effort to 
 employ pompous phrasing. The structure is firm, sure, compelling. 
 
 Robert Jonas, 10 years old, of 30 Humboldt street, Williamsburg, was 
 drowned yesterday afternoon while playing on a scow at the foot of South 
 Fifth street. 
 
 lonas with two other boys had been digging in the rubbish with which the 
 scow was loaded. Peter Henderson, the boat's captain, ordered the boy on 
 shore. The captain's dog gave chase and Jonas was too badly scared to notice 
 
JOURNALISTIC STYLE 3 
 
 that the gap between the scow and wharf where he was standing was too wide 
 for him to jump. He made the attempt and fell between the scow and the wharf. 
 
 His companions reached the dock safely and called to Henderson to rescue 
 Jonas. They said that Henderson made no attempt to aid the boy. 
 
 Henderson was locked up in the Bedford avenue police station on a charge 
 of homicide. 
 
 The injunction to write short, pithy sentences is one of the first 
 commandments issued to the beginner by the city editor. It is a 
 Effe t n useful rulc because it brings terseness of expression and 
 sentence compactness of Structure, due to the absence of quaU- 
 fying phrases and participial constructions. A short- 
 breathed sentence is like the crack of a whip. It arouses jaded 
 intellects to attention. "And San Francisco was," in the opinion 
 of experienced newspaper men, was the most forceful first sentence 
 written in all the hundreds of accounts printed of the great earth- 
 quake there. The short sentence is effectively serviceable in stories 
 of intense excitement. The following paragraph is taken from the 
 report of a fife in which a man almost lost his life, and indicates 
 the employment of the short sentence to bring out action : 
 
 Suddenly a man appeared in one of the fire-rimmed windows on the fourth 
 floor. With a blow he shattered the windowpane and shouted and beckoned 
 for rescue. The excitement of the crowd below knew no bounds. They 
 crowded by hundreds under the window despite the exertions of the police. 
 They called to him. exhorted him, promised him, urged him to be calm. Then 
 to the horror of the watchers the man disappeared. But only for a moment. 
 He reappeared. The crowd yelled for joy. Two firemen pushed their way to the 
 front with ladders. He met the climbing firemen halfway. His appearance on 
 the ground w^as a signal for demonstration. The crowd gathered around him and 
 cheered itself hoarse. Onlookers struggled for the honor of shaking his hand. 
 He was carried to Long and High streets. A driver took him in his cab to a hotel. 
 
 The " bing-bing-bing " theory of sentence structure is at present 
 in vogue in many offices. Long sentences are for the time being 
 under the ban. As a result the structure of this " beans-rattling-in- 
 a-gourd " type of paragraph often becomes painfully monotonous. 
 
 It is the part of wisdom not to discard the complex sentence. It 
 has a real mission in that it is especially efficient in marshaling an 
 array of facts more or less intimately connected. The long, running 
 sentence is particularly useful in the development of an opening 
 
4 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 paragraph. \Vhate\'cr the type of sentence adopted, the reporter 
 should not fail to exercise individual judgment and common sense 
 if he is to make his story smooth and effective. He must seek a 
 rigid economy of time, space, and attention, a quality desirable in 
 every well-knit newspaper story. 
 
 \'\' hile in a general way it should not be forgotten that newspaper 
 '"^ style is notable for its terseness, brevity, and vigor, it should not be 
 Dullness inferred that it is therefore wooden and commonplace, 
 a crime Abundant use is made of every opportunity to paint a 
 
 picture or to sketch a dramatic incident. There are many misde- 
 meanors in journalism ; there is but one crime, that of being dull. 
 Nowadays originality of diction is far from discouraged, individ- 
 uality is constantly sought, new ways of saying things in an attrac- 
 tive, buoyant fashion are welcomed. Readers will forgive immaterial 
 inaccuracies sooner than intolerable stupidity in writing the news. 
 '' To be interesting tell the truth audaciously," is a good motto. 
 
 The importance of this quality of readability in a newspaper 
 story is aptly touched upon by Charles A. Dana, whose paper, the 
 New York S7i?i, is itself a splendid example of the blending of 
 accuracy and attractiveness in its news reports. Mr. Dana said in 
 the course of one of his lectures to young men : 
 
 The reporter must give his story in such a way that you know he feels its 
 qualities and events and is interested in them. He must learn accurately the 
 facts, and he must state them exactly as they are ; and if he can state them 
 with a little degree of life, a little approach to eloquence, or a little humor in 
 his style, why his report will be perfect. It must be accurate ; it must be free 
 from affectation ; it must be well set forth, so that there shall not be any doubt 
 as to any part or detail of it ; and then if it is enlivened with imagination, or 
 with feeling, with humor, you have a literary product that no one need be 
 ashamed of. Any man who is sincere and earnest, and not always thinking 
 about himself, can be a good reporter. 
 
 Many of the foregoing considerations bearing upon journalistic 
 style will be more readily appreciated by inspection of newspaper 
 "A Fight for stories. The following story, headed "A Fight for a 
 a Life" Life," Concerned with the all-day and all-night strug- 
 
 gle to save \V\\\ Hoar, diver, pinned in the mouth of a pipe 62 
 feet under water, is a capital example of vigorous, realistic news 
 
JOURNALISTIC STYLE 5 
 
 qualities. The reader is made to see the entire picture through 
 the reporter's trained eyes. The report was written by Lindsey 
 Denison, of the New York Siin staff, and is regarded as "a 
 remarkably strong story" by George B. Mallon, city editor of the 
 Sun, through whose courtesy it is herewith presented in full. 
 
 BooxTOX, N. J., April 12. — Bill Hoar, diver, is caught at the mouth of a 
 pipe sixty-two feet under the surface of the Boonton reservoir. He has been 
 there since 3 o'clock Monday afternoon. If he is alive he has shown no sign 
 of life since noon to-day. 
 
 Though no diver, so his fellow craftsmen say, has ever lived more than 
 twenty-four hours under w^ater, they are still working at the pumps, sending 
 down a stream of air into Bill Hoar's helmet. For the first fifteen hours of 
 his imprisonment Hoar knew what was being done toward his rescue, and 
 growing ever weaker he made noble efforts to help, signaling cheerfully again 
 and again, with his life line, '" All right ! All right ! Haul away ! " and ^' Wait 
 and try again." 
 
 To-night, Hoar's employer, J. S. Bundick, is hurrying from New York with 
 a special train, the second that he has sent out for Hoar's rescue, and a fresh 
 crew of divers with a lot of extraordinarily strong apparatus. The new crew 
 cannot possibly get to work before daylight. They hope to bring Hoar to the 
 surface. They will work as hard and as earnestly as though they expected to 
 bring him up alive. It is but the truth, though, to say that they will be very 
 much surprised if he has not died hours before. 
 
 So far as the divers who have been down to-day can discover. Hoar was the 
 victim of his own indiscretion. It was a tremendously ticklish job he was sent on. 
 He himself reported, after two trips he made to the bottom yesterday morning, 
 that he had never been on such a " scary job " in his life before, but that he had 
 things fixed down below so that he had no fear of any accident any further. 
 
 THE SITUATION AT THE BOTTOM 
 
 The Boonton dam is almost finished. A few weeks ago a great company 
 of men and women, stockholders and officers of the Jersey City Water Supply 
 Company, went out and celebrated its completion, a little prematurely, to be 
 sure, but with the most elaborate festivities. Part of the fun was the leading 
 of the whole party of merrymakers, including the womenfolk, through one 
 of the two four-foot sluice pipes which runs through the bottom of the dam. 
 There was no water in the dam then, of course, and the party entered at the 
 bottom and walked out into the bed of the great basin a third of a mile wide 
 and a mile and a half long, which is now the bottom of a lake held by the 
 dam. It is at that end of the pipe from which the merry party emerged that 
 Bill Hoar is now pinned in a grip which no ingenuity of the engineers and 
 no power of man, horses or steam has been able to break. 
 
6 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 In the middle of the four-foot sluice pipe, at the bottom of a shaft running 
 straight from the top of the dam to the bottom, is a gate valve by which the 
 quantity of water in the dam is to be regulated. 
 
 This valve got out of order more than a week ago, after the dam had been 
 hlled up. It stuck so that the gates were eighteen inches apart and could not 
 be opened or closed. 
 
 An expert from the works in Troy where the valve was made came out 
 here and worked over it for a week. The valve could not be budged. It 
 became necessary to shut off the flow of water at the mouth of the pipe. 
 Now. the pipe does not begin at the dam itself, but runs out under water for 
 a hundred feet and opens on a cement platform fifteen feet square. The 
 mouth of the pipe is in a perpendicular wall which rises ten feet above the 
 platform, 
 
 DIVER HOAR SENT DOWN 
 
 To close the opening effectively this plan was devised : A great ball, made 
 of wood, fifty-two inches in diameter, or four inches larger than the inlet 
 opening in the apron, was weighted with lead and lowered toward the open- 
 ing. It was hoped that the suction would catch the ball, draw it into the 
 hole and cut off the flow of water through the pipe. At the first attempt, 
 which was late last week, the ball broke away from the rope by which it w^as 
 lowered. Chief Engineer George G. Harness, who had devised the plan, sent 
 to J. S. Bundick, master diver, of ^^ South street. New York, for a diver. 
 Bundick sent out Bill Hoar, who found the ball on the bottom of the dam 
 and connected it again with the lowering cable. 
 
 Hoar, when he came up from the job, described the suction of the water 
 into the mouth of the four-foot pipe as terrific. He was all the time afraid, 
 he said, that it would catch him, no matter how far away from the opening 
 of the pipe he kept. 
 
 The ball was lowered again and this time rolled into the inlet opening, and 
 was caught by the suction. But the water did not stop flowing from the 
 outlet of the pipe on the other side of the dam. It came out in a diminished 
 volume, but still in a torrent which made it out of the question to attempt to 
 reach the broken valve which was making all the trouble. Bill Hoar was 
 sent for again, to find out what was wrong. He reached Boonton yesterday 
 morning early and went down. 
 
 STUFFING CREVICE WITH SANDBAGS 
 
 When he came up he reported that a five-inch hawser, which had been tied 
 into one end of the ball to make it easier to handle, had got in between the 
 downstream side of the ball and the bottom of the pipe and kept the opening 
 from being closed altogether. The ball was rolling from one side of the pipe 
 to the other and the water rushing past its sides and bottom into the pipe 
 made the diver's situation " scary a plenty," he said. 
 
JOURNALISTIC STYLE 7 
 
 There was a consultation of engineers, and it was decided to try to fill the 
 crevices between the sides and bottom of the ball and the edges of the pipe 
 with sandbags ; for Hoar had reported that any diver who attempted to 
 reach the jammed rope or to cut it would be drawn in and crushed to death 
 by the suction. 
 
 Bill Hoar went down with eight sandbags at 9 o'clock. He came to the 
 surface at 10 o'clock and said that he had stopped all leakage on one side of 
 the ball and that there was no suction on that side to speak of. With more 
 sandbags he went down again, and when he came up at noon he said that 
 there was now no danger at all in walking around on the platform, although 
 there were several crevices through which the racing waters tugged mighty hard 
 at everything within reach. He thought that three more bags would close them. 
 
 At about 2 o'clock he started on the trip from which he has not yet re- 
 turned. He went down from a slipshod raft which floated on the top of the 
 reservoir, 40 feet or more from the top of the dam. He wore the ponderous 
 clothing which story-tellers call a "diver's armor." The suit weighs 180 
 pounds in all. There is the helmet, a globular brass arrangement wuth a glass 
 window in front and arrangements for air supply from a pump constantly 
 rotated by two men on the raft. Then there is the water-tight overall suit to 
 which the headpiece is screwed so that no water can reach the man inside of 
 it. On the feet are diver's shoes weighted with eighteen pounds of lead each. 
 
 FIRST SIGNAL OF DANGER 
 
 On the raft there were two men at the pumps, Jim Conners and Bill 
 Keech, a negro. Charley Uobson, who has worked with Hoar for years and 
 with whom the diver had a code of signals which allowed them to understand 
 one another by jerks of the rope almost as clearly as though they were face 
 to face on dry land, speaking, held the life line. 
 
 Bill Hoar had not been down more than fifteen minutes before he signaled 
 over the life line with three jerks of the rope. 
 
 '' Haul away," was Dobson's interpretation of the signal. He knew some- 
 thing must have gone wrong, for Hoar had not been down nearly long enough 
 to put in place all of the sandbags he had with him. He hauled on the 
 rope. It tightened. But he could not bring the diver up an inch. He pulled 
 with all his might. Bill Keech left Conners to run the pump for a moment 
 and grabbed the life line. It did not budge an inch. 
 
 " Wait a bit," signaled Dobson, with one twitch of the rope. 
 
 " All right," said the diver, '' I '11 wait," twitching the rope once in reply. 
 Then again, a moment later, he signaled with three twitches, " Haul away! " 
 
 For half an hour the signals passed back and forth. Every few minutes 
 the men on the raft would haul with all their might and main, until they were 
 afraid of breaking the rope. They could not move it. Then came a steady 
 twitching of the rope. 
 
8 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 HELP NEEDED BELOW 
 
 " Bill says he wants a diver down there to help him," shouted Dobson. 
 Now. just how Dobson knew this it is not for any layman to undertake to 
 explain. No such signal had been prearranged between them. But the 
 twitches came, and as the ev'ent proved Charley Dobson knew exactly what 
 they meant. 
 
 By this time word had been sent over to the office of the construction en- 
 gineers and contractors that the diver was in trouble. The road from the top 
 of the dam to the offices is not easy. There are three derricks at work on the 
 top of the dam yet. piling up bowlders. that weigh tons each. There are spots 
 where there is no foothold, between the lake on one side and the ninety-foot 
 stone slope on the other, where a man has to climb along hand over hand, 
 digging his toes into the crevices in the rocks. There is a hundred-foot ladder 
 down the back of the dam, a long railroad trestle over the overflow stream and 
 then a hill to climb. 
 
 Out from the offices came George G. Harness, the engineer in charge, a 
 man as red-headed as Bill Hoar himself, but younger and of far less sturdy 
 build. He had been keenly worried from the beginning by his responsibility 
 for sending a diver down to the outlet pipe. With him were Superintendents 
 Blake and Lawrence of the J. S. Quayley Contracting Company, who are 
 doing the stonework of the dam. Halfway up the ladder a messenger from 
 the float met them shouting : 
 
 " The diver says he needs another diver to get loose." 
 
 Back down the ladder went Mr. Harness and flying up the hill to the offices 
 where the telephones were. There were no more divers nearer than New 
 York and he knew it. It was the work of but a few minutes to get Mr. Bundick 
 on the telephone in his South street office in New York and tell him that his 
 man was in trouble under sixty-two feet of water and wanted help. 
 
 AID FROM NEW YORK BY SPECIAL TRAIN 
 
 Bundick is a mild old fellow with a drooping gray mustache. He is the 
 last man one would pick out of a crowd as a hustler. But he hustled then. 
 By 4 o'clock (and it was 3 when he got his message) there was a special train 
 going out of Hoboken with Bill Olsen, one of his best divers, on board, a full 
 diver's equipment and a crew of helpers. Bundick himself did not go. He 
 stayed in New York to send more help if it were needed. 
 
 Bill Olsen's special rolled into the Boonton yards at a minute or two before 
 5 o'clock. It was switched to the tracks which have been laid to the dam and 
 was at the dam ten minutes later. The regular trains take about an hour and 
 a half to run between Hoboken and Boonton. They couldn't travel too fast 
 for Bill Olsen. He knew Bill Hoar well. They had worked together for three 
 years under Bundick and in the Dock Department before that. Just as soon 
 
JOURNALISTIC STYLE 9 
 
 as might be, or in about two hours (the thing cannot be done in less time, 
 divers say), Olsen was in his suit, with his pump running and his Hnes coiled 
 and was on his way down to find out what was the matter with Bill Hoar. It 
 was now about half past 7 and dark. 
 
 SENDING HOPE BY SIGNAL 
 
 All through the five long hours since Hoar had signaled for another diver 
 Dobson had been talking to him by twitches of the rope, saying, '' Help coming," 
 '' Hold on, we '11 get you up." " Steady." Hoar's answers came back without 
 any impatience and with perfect faith. " All right," '' I '11 hold out," and now 
 and then, '' Try another haul." But the haul was always in vain. Conners 
 and Keech, their backs nearly breaking over the pump cranks refused to leave 
 their places. 
 
 "We want to see Bill come up," they said when Mr. Harness urged them 
 to go away and get rest and let some one else take their places. 
 
 RESCUE-DIVER OLSEN'S STORY 
 
 Let Olsen tell how he found Bill Hoar : 
 
 '' He was down on the cement platform up against the wall, half leaning over 
 the pipe. It was so dark I couldn't make out much, but I took hold of him 
 and put my helmet up close and I shouted, ' Hey, Bill ! ' And then I shouted 
 again, just that way, ' Hey you. Bill ! ' I could hear that Bill was shoutin' 
 back, though I could n't no more tell what he was sayin' than he could tell 
 what I was sayin'. But I could see he knew who I was and he put out his 
 hand and shook hands with me. I knew then he was glad to see me, under- 
 stand. He put my hand down to his left leg and it was sucked down into the 
 middle of a lot of sandbags. He made motions to show he had kicked it in, 
 kickin' a sandbag into place and tryin' to keep back out of the suck. But the 
 suck had caught him and was holding him. I got him around the stomach 
 and pulled and he braced his leg against that damn ball and we both shoved 
 for all we knew how. But it was n't no go. 
 
 " Then I took my knife and slashed into the sandbags. Thinkin', under- 
 stand, that letting the sand out of them would loose his foot. But it was n't 
 the bags, it was the suck ; and the more they was loosed the more his foot 
 went in. So I quit that and came up." 
 
 A PLAN OF RESCUE FAILS 
 
 It was for but a little time that Bill Olsen stayed on the surface. His re- 
 port as to the lay of things at the bottom gave Mr. Harness a plan at once. 
 He sent for a block and tackle. To this he tied a great bundle of sandbags. 
 He ran a rope through the block and sent the bundle of bags three hundred 
 feet out into the dam on a boat and sunk them. Then the men on the raft 
 took one end of the rope and Bill Olsen took the other down and tied it about 
 
lO ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Bill Hoar's waist. It was hoped that when the men above pulled their 
 strength would draw Hoar away from the pipe toward the middle of the 
 reservoir and so free him. But instead the cement bags dragged in toward 
 the imprisoned man. 
 
 He was more firmly fastened than the anchor. 
 
 The anvil from the blacksmith's shop, the biggest and heaviest thing that 
 the boats could float, was then tied to the sandbags, which were carried out 
 and sunk again. Bill Olsen went dow^n again. 
 
 "Every time I went down." said he afterwards, "Bill shook me by the 
 hand, much as to say, ' I know you 're doin' your best.' " 
 
 FAILURE 
 
 But again the anchor gave way. Hoar still clung. It was now long past 
 midnight. Hoar had been down over nine hours, longer than most men be- 
 lieved a man could live at that depth. The straining at the ropes must have 
 racked him pitifully. Olsen found him lying on his back on the cement plat- 
 form and his grip was not as strong as it had been. Olsen tried with a crow- 
 bar to pry the great ball, which weighed 1320 pounds, one side. It was a great 
 risk for Olsen to take, for it put him in the danger of being caught just as Hoar 
 had been. But he did it. The ball moved a little, swung and caught Olsen's 
 hand and crushed it. He pulled himself out of the suction and lay down for a 
 moment by Bill Hoar, almost insensible. 
 
 When he came up again. Dr. Taylor, who stayed out on the dam all night 
 to be ready for the first opportunity to succor Hoar, told Olsen that he must 
 not go down again. 
 
 Bill Olsen half shut his bloodshot eyes, put his mangled hand behind him 
 and growled : 
 
 " I 'm goin' down an' get my pal Bill ! " 
 
 HORSES USED 
 
 He signaled for his helmet and went down again, and again. At about 9 
 o'clock this mcjrning 900 feet of inch-and-a-half rope were laid out from the 
 nearest shore to the float and a team of four horses was attached to it. Olsen 
 took down the end of the rope and tied it to a bight about Bill Hoar, who was 
 still able to move and to shake his hand. The horses were started. 
 
 The rope broke. Then and there, in the hearts of the engineers ended all 
 real hope of ever getting Bill Hoar out alive. Olsen came up, half delirious 
 and quite unable to do anything more. He was carried off to the cottage of 
 Foreman Connolly and put to bed. He was able to get up at 6 o'clock, and 
 went to his home, in Brooklyn, last night. He beUeves Bill Hoar is dead and 
 that all has been done that can be done. 
 
 " I would n't ask Bill to do any more for me," he says, simply enough. 
 
JOURNALISTIC STYLE II 
 
 " ONE MORE ATTEMPT " 
 
 But on an early train came John Myers, Bill Hoar's closest friend and 
 companion for fifteen years. Fresh and full of hope, he was sure he could get 
 Hoar up. He went down at lo o'clock. He found that Hoar had managed 
 to pull himself up to the side of the ball and was resting against it. He does 
 not believe Hoar recognized him. 
 
 " I knew well enough," he said, '' that he could n't hear me. But, seeing 
 him so, I caught myself saying : ' Bill ! Bill ! Say, get a move ! We '11 get you 
 up ! ' He moved one arm a little. I straightened him out and pulled and hauled. 
 But it was no use. I went back up.'' 
 
 Hoar had not signaled the surface much while the other divers were 
 working. After Myers's report Bundick himself, who had come out with 
 Myers, went down. He came up thoroughly discouraged and with a feeling 
 almost of certainty that Hoar was doomed, if not dead already. But at i o'clock 
 the faithful Dobson, who had stayed out all through the night, wizened-up 
 little old man that he is, tried the signal. 
 
 " Hold on a little ! " 
 
 He did it rather from force of habit, never expecting a reply again. To his 
 surprise came three sharp tugs : 
 
 " Haul away ! " 
 
 Following these came the quivers which meant to Dobson : 
 
 '^ Send a man down." 
 
 Dobson told Myers, and ]\Iyers snatched up a diving suit and put pumpers 
 to work and hurried down. He came up half an hour later, utterly disconsolate. 
 He was sure Charley Dobson was wrong. He knew it. He had found Bill 
 Hoar, stretched out, with his left leg still pinioned, utterly limp and lifeless. 
 He was sorry, he said, that he had ever gone down ; it would hurt him the rest 
 of his life. 
 
 Except for the working of the pumps sending air into Bill Hoar's helmet, 
 nothing more has been done. Conners and Keech took a little rest this after- 
 noon, while others ran the pumps, but at dark they were back again. Bundick 
 went to New York for more divers and more apparatus and a hydraulic jack. 
 He cannot possibly get back and get to work before daylight. It seems to be 
 all over with Bill Hoar. 
 
 If this last effort of Mr. Bundick's fails, it is understood to be the plan of 
 the engineers to try to remove the broken valve in the middle of the dam alto- 
 gether, and then to haul away the ball at the inlet and let the water sweep Hoar's 
 body through the pipe into the channel, where it can be recovered for burial. 
 
 There is yet another plan under discussion. It is to stop up the four-foot 
 pipe at the outlet, and thus to release the ball and Hoar. This is easier to talk 
 about than to do. The effort was made when the valve first got out of order. 
 Eighteen carloads of sandbags were dumped over the outlet and bound about 
 with planks and iron ropes. The water rushed through them as through a sieve. 
 
12 f:ssentials in journalism 
 
 The student will observe that, in the story from Boonton, N.J., 
 the essential things are all told in the first paragraph of four lines. 
 Comment on The man's name, his dilemma, the length of time he 
 the story \^^(\ been under water, the strong improbability of his 
 being alive, and the fact that efforts to save him were still in 
 progress, are detailed in 44 words. Immediately following the 
 first paragraph, lest the reader should not grasp how extraordinary 
 the situation was, the fact is developed that no man ever before 
 lived 24 hours under water. Throughout the story the style is 
 simple and clear. There are no obscure sentences. In no place 
 does the reporter give his own opinion on the subject or use a 
 personal pronoun. Everywhere he has inserted full names and 
 addresses. A very valuable effect is secured by the use of the 
 nicknames of the divers — Bill Hoar, Jim Conners, Bill Keech, 
 and Charley Dobson. "William Hoar," repeated as often as it 
 was necessary to use the name, w^ould have made the story sound 
 stiff and stilted. 
 
 Observe that, whenever possible, conversation is direct and 
 quoted verbatim. Note that a little after the middle of the narra- 
 tive, the reporter obtains variety by throwing part of his recital 
 into the mouth of one of the divers. See the care with which he 
 has preserved the colloquial phrasing of this man's conversation. 
 The expressions are homely and vigorous. It will be noted that 
 the description of the big ball does not come until toward the 
 close of the story, and at a point where its dimensions are essen- 
 tial for an understanding of the fact which the reporter wished to 
 develop. Nowhere in the story has the reporter used so much as 
 a line or a phrase to work upon the sympathies, of his reader. He 
 has assembled his facts simply, and in the order of their dramatic 
 sequence, putting the big things first, and developing the minor 
 details as necessary. 
 
 The story will long stand as a model of expert composition on 
 the part of a clever newspaper man. 
 
 The beginner, conscious of his own clumsiness in attempting 
 to state his facts in concise, vigorous fashion, may well ask the 
 question, "How may I secure this coveted journalistic style.?" 
 The answer is simple, " By working for it." 
 
JOURNALISTIC STYLE 1 3 
 
 The first suggestion offered is to see clearly. Once the inex- 
 perienced writer appreciates the significance of details and recog- 
 Acquiring nizes their relative importance, he will find less difficulty 
 a style j^ giving them adequate expression. Writing is a sec- 
 
 ondary process, largely dependent for its effectiveness upon clear 
 perception. 
 
 Practice in the writing of newspaper stories under the critical 
 eye of a discriminating city editor will bring facility as the days go 
 by. Experience will' teach the beginner many things. Mistakes 
 and failures will serve as guideposts. 
 
 Probably the most helpful suggestion, however, is that made by 
 J. Frank Davis, a veteran city editor, in his advice to an ambi- 
 tious beginner in newspaper work : 
 
 Read Dickens until you can go out and describe the man you meet with 
 almost as much detail as he did. 
 
 Read Shakespeare until you have absorbed something of the marvelous 
 vocabulary he commanded. 
 
 Read the Bible until you have a glimmering of how its writers condensed. 
 Paul's address on Mars Hill takes up little more than a " stick " of newspaper 
 type. The entire story of the crucifixion is told in two sticks. Beside that, 
 no book in the world contains such powerful, dramatic English. No book in 
 the world is so much quoted. No book in the world. I believe, will help the 
 newspaper man to learn to write for newspaper readers so much as the Bible. 
 
 Read newspapers — newspapers of the kind whose stories are interesting 
 whether or not you know the places and the people mentioned in them. 
 
 There is no need of trying to copy the style of these writers whose works 
 you read. Just absorb them, and if you have it in you to write there will come 
 out, sometime, a style of your own. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 WORDS AND PHRASES 
 
 William Cullen Bryant, for many years editor of the New 
 York Eveitmg Post, in advice to a young editor, summed up the 
 The value of niatter of word discrimination in a few telling exhor- 
 simpiicity tations applicable to all who would learn the art of 
 effective expression. 
 
 ''Be simple, unaffected," urged Mr. Bryant with the authority 
 of his editorial chair. " Be honest in your speaking and writing. 
 Never use a long word where a short one will do. Call a spade 
 by its name, not a well-known oblong instrument of manual labor. 
 Let a home be a home and not a residence ; speak of a place, not 
 a locality, and so on of the rest. When a short word will do, you 
 always lose by a long one. You lose in clearness, you lose in 
 honest expression of meaning, and, in the estimation of all men 
 who are capable of judging, you lose in reputation for ability. 
 Elegance of language may not be in the power of us all, but 
 simplicity and straightforwardness are." 
 
 These bits of counsel apply particularly to newspaper compo- 
 sition where, if anywhere, clear, incisive prose of the kind written 
 by Rudyard Kipling and Stephen Crane is demanded. News- 
 paper style is a medium more notable for its boldness than for its 
 sentimentality of phrasing. At its best it is singularly free from 
 studied affectation and mannerisms, erring, if at all, in that it may 
 sometimes offend in the use of words and phrases that are too 
 frank, too matter-of-fact. A word of caution is therefore necessary 
 at the very outset, even though the general truth of Mr. Bryant's 
 affirmation may be accepted. The use of expressions that cast 
 discredit on any person or institution should be carefully avoided, 
 — so also those words and phrases that may give to vice, crime, 
 or salacious episodes an alluring or suggestive coloring. 
 
 14 
 
WORDS AND PHRASES 1 5 
 
 It is not to be inferred that, because the modern newspaper 
 places its approval upon a style shorn of sentimentality and ver- 
 bosity, with simplicity as its keynote, there is no room 
 the for imagination and individuality in news writing. The 
 
 conventional gj-^^^- deficiency confronting most reporters is an im- 
 poverished vocabulary. Long continued routine writing tends to 
 the frequent use of the commonplaces of everyday speech, without 
 giving them serious thought. Newspaper style has been declared 
 bromidic. The charge has much truth in it. Popular slang ex- 
 pressions appear more persistently in newspaper columns than in 
 any other type of writing, since it is in the newspaper that the 
 world finds itself mirrored in its every whim and caprice. At 
 the same time the charge of slovenly English is not entirely just, 
 as will be discovered in an examination of such papers as the 
 New York Herald and Siui, the Chicago Tiibiinc, and the Kansas 
 City Star, where the purist in language will find words used with 
 precision and originality and skillfully employed in the fashioning of 
 expressive phrases. The general truth that much newspaper Eng- 
 lish of to-day needs improvement in two features — correct gram- 
 mar and forceful rhetoric — remains unassailed despite these 
 noteworthy exceptions. The very conditions under which the 
 newspaper is produced — together with the educational deficiencies 
 of many of the men who gather the news — have resulted in 
 creating a style frequently marred by inaccuracy, threadbare con- 
 ventions and weak, meaningless phrases that creep in despite the 
 efforts of copy readers to weed them out. The "yellow journal " 
 is probably deserving of more blame in this regard than any 
 other type of newspaper. To careless writers, under lax office 
 regime, an unmarried woman is apt to be a " pretty society girl," 
 a "handsome and accomplished daughter," or a "winsome lass," 
 whenever or wherever mentioned in print ; all business men are 
 " prominent " ; every child who gets in the way of an automobile 
 is a " tiny tot " who " toddles " into the path of the " approaching 
 monster." Such an indiscriminating vocabulary includes "fatally 
 injured millionaires," "thirty-two caliber, pearl-handled revolvers," 
 "dashing fire engines," " crisp five-dollar bills," " plucky women, " 
 "gentlemen Raffles," " not-expected-to-recover strangers," "wild 
 
1 6 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 panics," " snug sums," and similar stock terms. Happily, the 
 very exaggeration of the style is bringing about its own downfall. 
 
 Possibly the greatest fault with these conventional expressions 
 is their inaccuracy. Take the word lurid as an instance, a term 
 applied to fires regardless of kind or size. To most people this 
 word means a brilliant blaze ; correct usage, however, defines it as 
 "pale yellow; ghastly pale; wan; gloomy; dismal." The word 
 terrible has a use, but not in the description of every accident ; 
 beautiful, as typical of a host of other adjectives, has lost force 
 through too general application. The main objection to this in- 
 discriminate juggling with language is that there has been no 
 thoughtful selection on the part of the writer. He has been guilty 
 of misrepresenting the facts. 
 
 There can be no more important morsels of advice given to 
 the young reporter than these : ( i ) acquire new words every 
 week ; (2) know the distinct shade of meaning ; (3) cultivate 
 the habit of using synonyms ; (4) aim at freshness, not at eccen- 
 tricity. 
 
 While in a broad sense the best newspaper style is simple, 
 robust, specific, so much so that men who graduate from this field 
 Newspaper i^^*^ ^^^^ ^^ novel writing often carry these elements 
 English with them, still there is a more minute classification 
 
 which the young reporter will have to learn and acquire. Every 
 paper of importance has a few rules of English or of style which 
 are more or less peculiar to it. In most cases these rules are, or 
 seem to be, arbitrary- ; but there is a manifest value in uniform- 
 ity, which leads the paper to insist on its rules being followed. If 
 a word has two recognized spellings — the word tJieatJ-e or 
 theater as an illustration — it is important that some definite 
 form be followed. The expression " living in a street " or " living 
 on a street " is another instance. Some newspapers bar split in- 
 finitives. Others rule against participial phrases. Some papers 
 have adopted to a limited extent the simplified spelling. The 
 academic idea of paragraphing is abandoned in many offices, 
 while, on the other hand, a style much affected by papers striving 
 for a startling effect is to paragraph each sentence. To repeat, it 
 
WORDS AND PHRASES 
 
 17 
 
 should be understood that these rules are arbitrary. They may be 
 founded in reason, or they may.. be only the result of whim. The 
 success of the reporter will be in conforming to them, because 
 they are rules, not because they are right or wrong. As editor of 
 the Evening Post, Mr. Bryant collected many expressions which 
 he tabulated in his " Index Expurgatorius." Since then many 
 additions have been made by newspaper editors. From various 
 sources the following list has been compiled. It will be found 
 helpful to the beginner who wishes to familiarize himself with 
 newspaper usages : 
 
 A. Use a before words beginning with a consonant sound, expressed or 
 implied ; as, '' a horse," " a wonderful book." Should not be used to begin 
 an opening paragraph in a newspaper story. Use an before words beginning 
 with //, in which the h is not sounded ; also before words beginning with 
 vowels. 
 
 A dollar per diejn. Latin objectionable. Say, " a dollar a day." 
 
 A number of. Not sufficiently definite. Specify. 
 
 A distance of. Not necessary. '' The man fell 50 feet " is enough. 
 
 About ^00 were present. Omit about. 
 
 Aged JO years. Preferable to jo yea?-s of age. 
 
 Abnost fatally injtii'ed. Trite. Specify the injuries. 
 
 At the corner of. At is sufficient ; as, " at Spring and High streets," unless 
 you wish to specify the exact corner. 
 
 At four o'clock. Put the hour before the day ; as, '' at four o'clock yesterday 
 afternoon." Avoid " at an early hour this morning." 
 
 Above. Incorrecdy used in speaking of numbers or measurements. Better 
 say '' the foregoing statement" instead of " the above statement." 
 
 Accord. Rather pompous. Give is simpler and stronger. 
 
 Administer. Used with reference to medicine, governments, or oaths. 
 Blows are not administered, but dealt. 
 
 Ain't. Colloquial. Omit except when quoting conversation. 
 
 Along the line of. Worn threadbare. 
 
 All. Proper usage confines it to number ; as, " All were present." 
 
 Allude. Do not confuse with refer. 
 
 Alteiiiative. Indicates a choice of two things. Incorrect to speak of '' two 
 alternatives " or '' one alternative." 
 
 Amateur. Should not be confused with no7>ice or apprentice. 
 
 And. A connective. Seldom used in beginning a sentence. Proper usage 
 does not recognize it before which or who, unless these words have preceded 
 in the same sentence and in the same construction. 
 
l8 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Any 7C'(7y, shape or form. Lengthy and trite. 
 
 Appear., seem. Often interchanged. Appear is more of the visual, while 
 seem is more of an intellectual process. Unnecessary to u.se to be in con- 
 nection with either word. 
 
 Appertains. Say pertains. 
 
 AppreJiend. Too often used in stories of crime. Better use arrested or 
 captured. When tJiink will do, use it. 
 
 Artiste. A French form now little used. Don't call anybody an artist 
 or a hero unless he is one. 
 
 At length. Do not confuse with at last. 
 
 Audie?ice. Literally people who hear. There can be no audience of spec- 
 tators at a ball game or a prize fight ; but an audience can attend a concert. 
 
 Authoress. Say author dind poet. 
 
 Autopsy. An autopsy is made or performed, not held. 
 
 Avocatioji. Do not confuse with vocation., which is a man's business or 
 profession. An avocation is his amusement or hobby. 
 
 Awful. Colloquial, with meaning of superlative. Real meaning almost 
 obscured. 
 
 Bag., as verb. In stories of crime say captui'e. 
 
 Balance. Used in connection with weights and measures. Not synony- 
 mous with rest or remainder. 
 
 Banquet. Do not confuse with dinner. 
 
 Beat, meaning to overcome. Defeat is better. 
 
 Beggars desoiption. Trite. 
 
 Beside — besides. The first word means by the side of; the second, /;/ 
 addition to. 
 
 Bids fair. Worn tawdry by much use. 
 
 Blood. Much overdone in stories of crime. Use it sparingly. 
 
 Boston {Mass.). Boston is sufficient without the state, as is also New York, 
 Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and the names of other towns of similar 
 size and importance. 
 
 Build. Preferable to ej'ect or construct. 
 
 Burst. Past participal is burst., not bursted. 
 
 By. '' A man by the name of Jones " is indefinite. Better say " a man 
 named Jones" or give the full name. 
 
 Calculate. The word has a mathematical connotation and should not be 
 used as a synonym for expect, think, presume. 
 
 Canine. Dog will serve your purpose. 
 
 Capital. The building is the capital ; the city is the capital. 
 
 Casket. Coffifs, is more definite and is used in stories of deaths and 
 funerals. 
 
 Casualty. ShoTHd not be confused with disaster, accident, mishap. 
 
 Chief magistral^. Stilted. State his official position. 
 
WORDS AND PHRASES 
 
 19 
 
 Claim. Has lost something of its integrity. When you mean assert, don't 
 use claim. 
 
 Comtnence. Begin is shorter and stronger. 
 
 Conflagra^oji. Say Jire or blase., unless the fire is widespread and very 
 disastrous. 
 
 Consummatio/i. Consult dictionary before using. Avoid saying, '' The 
 marriage was consummated." 
 
 Convene. Delegates, not a convention, may convene. 
 
 Coiitribtite. Rather heavy word ioix give. 
 
 Cortege. Procession is better in stories of funerals, unless of a state ceremony. 
 
 C?ime. Often used as synonym for 7>ice and sin. Crime is a violation of 
 the law of the state ; vice refers to a violation of moral law ; sin is a violation 
 of religious law. 
 
 Darky. Better say negro. People are sensitive. 
 
 Dead body. A person is not a body until he is dead. 
 
 Deceased. Many ludicrous statements have been made with this word. 
 Better mention the man's name or say dead. Do not use decease as a verb. 
 
 Depa7ied this life. Euphuistic substitute for died. 
 
 Destroyed by Jire. Why not burned .'* 
 
 Depot. A French word that may apply to a variety of things. When you 
 are speaking of a railway station, don't use depot. 
 
 De7'oi( ring element. Often used in interchange with cr;'^^^y^^;;;^j-. When 
 Jire will do say so. 
 
 Dock. Do not confuse with pier or wharf. 
 
 Don't., doesn't. Colloquial; permissible in newspapers. Don't, the con- 
 tracted form of ''do not," belongs to /, lue, you, and they; doesn't, the 
 contracted form of '' does not," is correctly used with he, she, it, or corre- 
 sponding nouns. 
 
 Dove. Should not be used for dived. 
 
 Dull thud. Ready to be pensioned. State the fact. 
 
 During. Often confused with /;/. During answers the question : How 
 long? ///, the questions: When.? At what time.? As, "He was in Paris 
 during September " ; '' The telegram was received in the forenoon." 
 
 Elicit. Literally, " to draw out against the will." Used inaccurately by many 
 reporters. 
 
 Evejit. Should be carefully distinguished from incident, affair, occurrence, 
 or liappening. 
 
 Every. Sometimes inaccurately used instead of all. Cannot be applied to 
 a thing which is inseparable. Refers to singular antecedent and requires 
 singular agreement in verb and modifying pronouns. 
 
 Exposition. Often used incorrectly for exhibit. 
 
 Farther. Denotes distance. In other connections use further. 
 
 Floral offering. A stock expression to be avoided. 
 
20 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 For. Phrases like '' for three weeks '' should not be overworked. 
 
 For a period oJ\ for the purpose of. For is sufficient. 
 
 Fon/ier. ]Vcferablc to i\v- in such expressions as " former Judge Brown." 
 
 Forivards. Omit the final .v in this word and words of like character. 
 
 Gentle)ncii. An l^iglish term. Better use is man. Gent is insufferably 
 vulgar. 
 
 Getting aloni^ as well as can be expected. Trite. Give exact information, 
 quoting the physician if possible. 
 
 Glad rags. Cheap slang. 
 
 Graduate, as a verb. Colleges graduate, students are graduated. 
 
 Groom. Quite a different person from bridegroom. 
 
 Hung. In stories of executions say hanged. Avoid iho. fatal ?ioose. 
 
 Hymeneal altar. Florid substitute for cJiancel. 
 
 Hu?'led into eternity. Strenuous circumlocution for hanged. 
 
 Immense. Carelessly used. Literally, " what cannot be measured." 
 
 ///. /;/ a street is preferable to on a street. Houses are part of the street 
 in which people live ; beggars live 0}i the streets. 
 
 /// the fracas. Cheapened by inaccurate newspaper usage. Specify what 
 happened. 
 
 /;/ tJiis city. Mention the name of the town. 
 
 Inaugurate. Implies solemn ceremonies, such as inducting into office. 
 Begin is a better and simpler word for ordinary purposes. 
 
 Individual, as a noun. Indefinite. Give the man's name, or refer to your 
 subject more specifically. 
 
 Lady. Use wo/nan unless you are drawing social distinctions. 
 
 Large and enthusiastic audience. Sadly overworked. 
 
 Late. Unnecessary in such a sentence as '' The funeral will be held from 
 the late residence." 
 
 Leaves a widow. How can he? Better say wife. 
 
 Leg. When you mean leg, don't say lijnb. 
 
 Leave. Often confused with let. Leave, as a verb, must have an object 
 unless used with the meaning " to depart." 
 
 Loafer. Use of this word is uncalled for and questionable. 
 
 Locked up. Unnecessary in stories of arrest. 
 
 Lu?'id. I ncorrectly used for bright, glaring. Literally, pale, gloomy, ghastly. 
 
 Mai'ry. The woman is married to the man by the clergyman. 
 
 Matter. Use infrequently. 
 
 Mr. To be used when the man's Christian name is not given, otherwise 
 omitted except in formal writing, as in the society columns. The title of the 
 husband should not be used with the abbreviation Mrs., — " Mrs. Dr. Smith." 
 (iive the full name, "Mrs. William Dana Smith." 
 
 Murderous. Do not confuse with deadly or dangerous. 
 
 Obsequies. Better s,?c^ funeral. 
 
 i 
 
WORDS AND PHRASES 21 
 
 Occur. Anything occurs when accident or chance enters into it, as a wreck, 
 an explosion. Events take place by arrangement, as funerals or weddings. 
 
 On. Unnecessary in referring to days of the week ; as, " on next Tuesday." 
 Say "July 25," not '' July 25th." Conversely, '' the twenty-fifth of July." 
 
 One of the most unique. Worn out and trite. Unique is sufficient and 
 even this may be superlatively inaccurate. 
 
 ^ Over. Not to be used when inore than is meant; as, ''They made over 
 $50 at the concert.'' 
 
 P. M. State exact time of the day and say afternoon and evening. Appli- 
 cable to A.M. also. 
 
 Pants. \^ulgar. Say trousers. 
 
 Parties. Often used when persons are meant. 
 
 Participate. Lengthy. Take part is much better. 
 
 Past. Not synonymous for last ; as, '' the past two weeks." The /^j/ week 
 is not necessarily the last week. 
 
 Perform. Do not use to mean that a person plays the piano. 
 
 Posted. Mail, not men, should be posted. Say informed. 
 
 Preside at the puncJi bowl. Hackneyed. 
 
 Purchase. Buy is shorter and stronger. 
 
 Put in an appearance. Say, " the man appeared." 
 
 Recipient. Stilted form for " Mrs. Smith received many gifts." 
 
 Recuperate. Recover is simpler and stronger. 
 
 Reliable. Say trustwortJiy. 
 
 Remai/is. Say corpse or body. 
 
 Render. Lard and judgments, not songs, are rendered. 
 
 Reside. Live is shorter and stronger. 
 
 Retire. What 's the matter with go to bed or leai'e ? 
 
 Rev. Title should be used in speaking of ministers. If full name is not 
 known, say " the Rev. Mr. Harris." 
 
 Reverts back. Back is unnecessary. 
 
 Rodent. Say rat. 
 
 Same. Often used instead of the antecedent. Better use the pronoun or 
 repeat the noun. 
 
 Sea of upturned faces. Worn threadbare. 
 
 Section. Often misused for region. Section is a definite division. 
 ^^ Seems. Say would seem. 
 
 Sewer., sewage^ sewerage. Sewer is the drain ; sewage, the filth drained ; 
 sewerage, the system of sewers. 
 
 Sheeny. Say Hebrew or few. 
 
 Social. Lin necessary to say social dance. 
 
 State. Discriminate carefully between state and say. State has the more 
 specific meaning. 
 
 Suicide. Should not be used as a verb. 
 
2 2 • ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Suspicion. Not to be used as a verb. Say suspect. 
 
 Sustain. Injuries are not sustained., but received. A bridge sustains a 
 weight. 
 
 There ivas. Avoid this construction in beginning a paragraph. 
 
 They say. Indefinite. Say " it is said " or state your authority. 
 
 ThrougJi^ v^'xXSxget. Usejinish. 
 
 Tonsorial artist. Say barber., but do not use the word as a title ; as, 
 " Barber John Smith." Do not make titles. 
 
 Ult.. in St., prox. Avoid these words. Say last month., this month., next 
 month. 
 
 I'ery. Do not use more than once a week. To say that he is '* a very 
 good man '' may mean that he is only passably good. 
 
 Via, per diem. Say by way of, a day and a week. 
 
 Whence. Incorrect to use " from preceding whence." Tautological. 
 
 Who are. Relative clauses may often be omitted, making the sentence 
 firmer ; as, " All citizens who are interested " ; " all interested citizens." 
 
 Witness, as verb. Where see will do use it. 
 
 Worth of goods. Say "goods valued at ." 
 
 Xmas. Not to be used as a substitute for Christmas. 
 
 Yesterday. Now used in most dailies instead of the days of the week. 
 Should not be used to begin a paragraph unless time is the important feature. 
 
 It is not to be inferred that the list given is to be learned by 
 heart. The terms should be read whenever the beginner is in 
 doubt until they become a part of his equipment and are used 
 instinctively. Once acquired, the peculiar marks of the newspaper 
 vocabulary seldom disappear. Their correct use is a fine achieve- 
 ment in accuracy of statement. 
 
 Ccmtions. I. Discriminate carefully in the use of the following 
 synonyms : 
 
 Wealth, property ; glory, fame ; try, attempt ; road, highway ; earth, soil, 
 ground ; deny, refuse ; doubt, question ; pay, salary, wages, earnings ; tired, 
 fatigued ; forgive, pardon, excuse ; allude, refer, mention ; healthful, whole 
 some ; distinction, difference ; argument, proof ; chance, accident ; visitor, 
 guest ; notorious, famous, noted ; ancient, antiquated ; pride, vanity ; have, 
 possess. 
 
 II. The word only, when misplaced in the sentence, is liable to 
 result in ambiguity. In conversation emphasis interprets the exact 
 use of only, but such interpretation is, of course, lacking on the 
 printed page. From the earliest times only has stood before or 
 
WORDS AND PHRASES 23 
 
 after the word it limits; as, "The matinee is only for women"; 
 ''The matinee is for women onlyy Here the sense is easily con- 
 strued in either construction, with preference given possibly to 
 the second version. Difficulties ensue when two important words 
 are employed and when the construction " is involved. In such 
 event Abbott says, " The best rule is to avoid placing cmly be- 
 tween two emphatic words, and to avoid using only where alone 
 can be used instead." Note this example : " Melba only responded 
 to one encore." The meaning of this sentence is clouded, because 
 the emphasis may go in either direction. Only may be a selective 
 word that applies to Melba as distinct from other performers, or 
 it may refer to the response. The ambiguity may be avoided by 
 placing only before Melba, if the first interpretation is intended ; 
 as, ''Only Melba responded to one encore," or after responded or 
 encore if the second meaning is in the mind of the writer ; as, 
 "Melba responded only to one encore," "Melba responded to one 
 encore only'' 
 
 HI. Correlative expressions, such as " not only . . . but also," 
 should be followed by similar elements of the sentence ; as, 
 "John not only sang, but also declaimed," not "John not only 
 sang, but also James " ; " You will find the books either in the 
 desk or on the table," not "You will either find the books in 
 the desk or on the table." 
 
 IV. When several infinitives are used in the same sentence 
 care should be taken to show on what each depends. 
 
 V. Avoid split infinitives or so-called squinting construction, as 
 ' ' to carelessly remark ' ' should be ' ' carelessly to remark " or " to 
 remark carelessly." 
 
 VI. Avoid the colloquialism of using the word and instead of 
 to where the infinitive of purpose is needed. Write " The police 
 
 •will try to secure evidence," not " try and secure evidence." 
 
 VII. When there is a choice between two terms for an idea, 
 one specific and the other general, it is better to choose the specific. 
 
 VIII. Confusion of words that resemble each other in form 
 usually comes from carelessness, but it is not uncommon. Such 
 words as effect and affect, immigrant and emigrant, capital and 
 capitol should be carefully distinguished. 
 
24 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 IX. The majority of our short, everyday words, such as prepo- 
 sitions, conjunctions, names of common things, and verbs that 
 denote famihar actions, come from the Anglo-Saxon. Because 
 these terms are simple and familiar — and not at all on account 
 of their derivation — they are to be preferred to the correspond- 
 ing classical terms. When a word of classical origin is the more 
 common it is preferable. 
 
 X. Avoid the four frequent errors in the use of too many words : 
 
 (a) Prolixity, — the introduction of too many details, unnecessary to clear- 
 ness, destructive to force. 
 
 (d) Tautology — the repetition of an idea. 
 
 (c) Redundancy — -the use of a word serving no grammatical or rhetorical 
 purpose in the sentence. 
 
 (d) Verbosity — circumlocution, the use of a long expression in place of 
 an equivalent shorter one. 
 
 XI. Remember that verbal reputableness, the quality of a word 
 which renders it " good English," is sanctioned by usage. It is a 
 recognized fact that '' nothing can make a word bad if the best 
 writers and speakers use it and nothing can make it good if it is 
 avoided by writers who care for the purity of their diction." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY 
 
 Few newspaper readers are aware of the fact that the construc- 
 tion of a news story is radically different from the construction of 
 Revealing ^ novcl or a sermon. Indeed there are not a few 
 the facts newspaper men whose instincts tell them how to write 
 a stor}^, but whose minds are not sufificiently discriminating to 
 analyze the plan on which the story is built. 
 
 Almost every day the city editor is brought face to face with 
 this unfamiliarity with newspaper practices. A minister or public 
 speaker may drop into the office with a carefully written manu- 
 script which begins with a high-flown introduction and mounts to 
 a climax. When the cut and simplified product appears in the 
 paper the author protests that ruthless liberties have been taken 
 with his "copy." Then, there is the problem of the young re- 
 porter, who because he has taken a course in English literature 
 and descriptive writing in college too often thinks he knows how 
 to write everything from an advertisement to an editorial. Such 
 an one has not a little to unlearn as well as much to learn. Prac- 
 tical experience in a newspaper office is, in and of itself, a liberal 
 education for an alert beginner. The telegraph editor meets a sim- 
 ilar difficulty with the paper's representative in a small town. It 
 requires time, observation, and experience to teach an out-of-town 
 correspondent the value of a local incident when estimated with 
 reference to its interest to the general public. 
 
 Such misconceptions would not exist once the young reporter 
 and the newspaper reader clearly realized the plan that gives back- 
 bone and structure to every newspaper story, be it long or short. 
 The preacher, the novelist, the novice reporter, and the out-of-town 
 correspondent usually follow the conventional method of unwind- 
 ing their themes and incidents thread by thread. The skillful 
 reporter of experience virtually reverses the process, often putting 
 
26 
 
 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 the climax in the introductory sentence and concluding with the 
 nonessential details. The trained reporter reveals his news 
 speedily. With the essential features of his story distinctly in mind 
 he recites the facts simply, painting in details with broad strokes. 
 A critical glance at a well-constructed newspaper story will make 
 clear the plan of development as suggested. The accompanying 
 An example example from the Detroit Fire Press may be roughly 
 of structure divided into five sections, beginning with the most 
 important facts and ending with the less essential. 
 
 Summarizing 
 Paragraph 
 
 Effect 
 
 Cause 
 
 Surrounding 
 Circumstances 
 
 MiNtjR Details ■{ 
 
 Separated for two months from her husband, Mrs. Annie 
 Davis, 31, killed her two children, Elsie, 3, and Ellis, 5, and 
 took her own life in her apartment at 820 Fourth avenue, 
 Brooklyn, early today. Neighbors in the apartment house 
 noticed an odor of gas and finally traced it to the Davis apart- 
 ment, where the mother and two children were found dead 
 l^ in bed. 
 
 Dr. Esher, hastily summoned from the Norwegian hos- 
 pital, declared that they had been dead for several hours. A 
 tube attached to an open gas jet was lying on Mrs. Davis's 
 pillow. The two children were clasped in her arms. All 
 ■\ three were attired in night clothing. 
 
 Word was immediately sent to the husband. Ellis. W. 
 Davis, who has been living in a rooming house at 228 Scher- 
 merhorn street, Brooklyn, since separating from his wife. 
 He hurried to the Fourth avenue apartment, 
 r No cause is known for the triple tragedy beyond the 
 I woman's brooding over the separation. Mrs. Davis was de- 
 i clared by neighbors to be deeply interested in religion. An 
 I open Bible, which had apparently slipped from her hand as 
 I she succumbed to the fumes of the gas, lay half open upon 
 l^ the floor by the bedside. 
 
 r The Davis apartment was well furnished, and the family 
 I was believed to have been in comfortable circumstances. 
 I A note left by Mrs. Davis was addressed to her husband. 
 I It read: 
 
 I " Lizzie has the insurance book. I am sorry, but this is 
 the easiest way out of it all. The children are asleep and 
 wont know anything about it. I can't stand it any longer. 
 
 (Signed) " Annie." 
 r Funeral arrangements have not as yet been completed. 
 !_ Relatives have been notified. 
 
THE STRUCTURE OE A NEWS STORY 27 
 
 In the opening paragraph the reporter has seized upon the 
 cause of the tragedy as the most significant feature, not neglecting 
 to bring in the essential facts concerning the death of Mrs. Davis 
 and her children. The whole stor)^ is summarized in this para- 
 graph. The second and third paragraphs add the effect as next 
 in importance. The third division gives further particulars bearing 
 upon the cause. The fourth contributes some of the surrounding 
 circumstances of less moment, and the fifth rounds out the story and 
 closes with the least significant details. The whole stor}- is compacdy 
 told according to a plan clearly defined in the mind of the reporter, 
 with precedence given to the facts of most engrossing interest. 
 
 This form of presentation is now so generally observed in 
 newspaper offices that the young reporter will save himself a deal 
 A word of of trouble in speedily conforming his method to the 
 explanation accepted custom. This is not so arbitrary a require- 
 ment as it would seem and results in convenience to both the 
 public and the newspaper office. The busy man in the street car 
 or in the counting room has neither time nor inclination to read 
 through paragraph after paragraph that he may reach the real y 
 essence of a story at the end. He wishes the news prominently 
 displayed by means of a pithy headline to arrest his attention 
 and a concise opening sentence to arouse his interest. 
 
 There is another reason, largely a mechanical one, growing out 
 of office conditions. The average newspaper has difficulty in 
 handling the amount of news that reaches its desks every day. 
 Indeed, the difficult task is not in collection, but in selection. 
 Pressure of important news at a late hour or a crush of adver- 
 tising will frequently demand the killing of concluding paragraphs 
 of stories already in type. If they are written in this " upside 
 down" fashion only the least important facts of the story need 
 be sacrificed. On a morning paper, for instance, reporters begin 
 work at one o'clock. At that time much space is available and 
 afternoon assignments are usually written with detail. Evening 
 comes on and often with it many an exciting happening. News 
 does not develop by schedule. A big story — a disastrous fire, a 
 murder, a mine catastrophe, graft in the statehouse — may come ' 
 in at any moment and demand many columns of space. Obviously 
 
28 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 this fresh news is of more importance than the most of the 
 afternoon stuff. It is therefore necessary to condense less impor- 
 tant stories, many of which probably have been printed with 
 elaboration in evening papers. This condensation is accomplished 
 by cutting out the concluding paragraphs of stories already in 
 type, and by condensing " copy " yet to go to the compositor. 
 
 The opening paragraph in a news story is called a " lead " and 
 is designed to detail all the facts in tabloid form. A good "lead" is 
 Writing the difificult to write ; but if this much is well done the story 
 "lead" as a whole has a good chance of getting past the copy 
 reader without bearing many marks of the blue pencil. Many 
 reporters spend much time in so framing an introductory paragraph 
 that it may be both attractive and inclusive in the summary of facts. 
 With experience the ability to recognize the feature of the story 
 that should be given prominence in the " lead " becomes almost 
 a journalistic instinct. There is comparatively little difficulty with 
 the rest of the story after the opening paragraph has epitomized 
 the essentials in readable style. 
 
 The following " lead " is particularly happy and expressive in 
 its quick appreciation of the "human interest" that lies back of 
 many a story and in the mingling of this appeal to the heart with 
 a clear statement of the facts themselves. Notice how the feature 
 of the attending circumstances is first accentuated as of most 
 vital interest : 
 
 • Surrounded by heaps of half-finished toys, which he had intended to dis- 
 tribute among the children of the neighborhood as Christmas presents, Cjeorge 
 Freed, 70 years old, known as the Santa Claus of Francisville. was found 
 frozen to death yesterday in the back room of a deserted blacksmith shop at 
 Leland and Vineyard streets, where he lived. 
 
 It will be noticed that the foregoing paragraph, as all good 
 "leads," is made up of five elements: What.'* Who.'* Where.'* 
 When .-* Why ? Logically, these questions are not of equal impor- 
 tance. The actors, time, place, and event must all be considered 
 before the "lead" is written. The most significant should be 
 presented first. l^>very story has its own peculiar features which 
 should be dealt with intelligently, their relative importance, how- 
 ever, being determined somewhat by the requirements of the 
 
THE STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY 29 
 
 individual paper. A great danger is in accepting the obvious and 
 in writing certain types of stories in a time-worn conventional 
 way without searching for some distinctive fact worthy of em- 
 phasis. As an illustration, people are dying every day, but not all 
 of them are mentioned in the daily paper. There must be some 
 distinctive feature to make a mere death notice news. The re- 
 porter who writes all such stories of death in the same stereotyped 
 wav, without consideration of the attendant circumstances, is often 
 missing opportunities to vary monotony and to add a touch of 
 interest. Here is a typical 'Mead" of such a story, worth con- 
 siderable space because of the prominence of the man himself, 
 with which fact the paragraph opens : 
 
 Professor Goldwin Smith, one of the most distinguished educators and 
 writers of modern times, died at " The Grange," his home, to-day at the age 
 of 86 years. Dr. Smith was unconscious practically all of to-day, following a 
 serious turn in his condition last night. With him when the end came late in 
 the afternoon were only his physician, Dr. Grassett, and Arnold Haultfin, his 
 secretary. 
 
 Occasionally, however, some unusual cause of death or strange 
 phenomenon is of such importance as to warrant initial place, as 
 in the case of a farmer stung to death by angry bumblebees. 
 
 The cause and attending circumstances of a suicide almost 
 always furnish a compelling, not to say sensational, " lead," unless 
 the prominence of the person usurps that place. Here is one 
 concerning the death of a tinner under striking conditions : 
 
 Giving as his reason that he had lost his week's wages gambling, Henry 
 Wise. 30, a tinner, living with his wife and five children at 1 542 Central 
 avenue, drank nitric acid with suicidal intent and died Sunday night at the 
 city hospital. 
 
 It occasionally happens that the time element is the most im- 
 portant feature in a story and should have initial place. Notice 
 the following : 
 
 Yesterday, for the second time in five years, the Ohio house of represen- 
 tatives voted for a resolution formally making application for the calling of a 
 convention of the states to amend the federal constitution so as to provide for 
 the election of United States senators by direct vote of the people. The joint 
 resolution was offered by Price Russell of Wayne and was adopted under 
 suspension of the rules, without a dissenting vote. 
 
30 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 The foregoing " leads " have ah stated the news in an authori- 
 tative form. It should be noticed that many newspaper men upon 
 occasion emplo\- the rhetorical interrogation with good effect. Of 
 this form the following may be taken as a good example : 
 
 Will football undergo another overhauling by the intercollegiate rules 
 committee ? 
 
 That is the question the gridiron coaches, warriors and followers are asking 
 one another now. For this week, in New York, the gentlemen who frame the 
 rules will meet. And some changes are expected, possibly drastic ones. 
 
 While conversation is usually most serviceable in direct inter- 
 views and in utilizing a significant remark or a stirring passage of 
 an address as a key sentence at the outset, there are other advan- 
 tages arising from the direct quotation. The New York Sun uses 
 the monologue with capital results, often adding a personal tone 
 and a chatty freedom to an otherwise humdrum bit of news. 
 
 Apropos of this method notice how an interchange of comment 
 gives an attractive touch to this story of a baby raffle clipped from 
 an Ohio paper : 
 
 "Is it alive? Well, good gracious! I should say it is alive!" exclaimed 
 Herman Collin last night when asked about the " real live baby " he advertises 
 to give away Thursday night during the performance at Collin's garden. "It 
 can crow and cry, too, you bet ; just come down and see for yourself, that 
 night ! " 
 
 " Whose baby is it? " he was asked. 
 
 " Ah," replied Mr. Collin, " that I promised not to tell." 
 
 " Are the parents tired of it or why are they giving it up ? " was the next 
 question. 
 
 " That also I promised not to tell," said Mr. Collin, 
 
 " Is it a boy? Is it a white baby? How old is it? Has it got blue eyes? 
 What does it look like?" 
 
 Mr. Collin gave way somewhat under this fusillade and said: "Well, I'll 
 tell you ; it is a boy and maybe he'll be president some day, I don't know 
 what kind of eyes he's got. He is a white baby, of course, and about six 
 months old ; at least I suppose so, because he is still clinging to a bottle with 
 his chubby little fists." 
 
 In the foregoing examples of opening paragraphs, frequent / 
 mention has been made of the long "running" sentence whiclv 
 gathers together all the facts under its wing ; but the short sen- 
 tence is even better adapted for " leads " because more easily 
 
THE STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY 
 
 31 
 
 comprehended by reason of its epigrammatic force. One good 
 story of a rural visitor flimflammed out of a large wallet of bills 
 by a gold-brick sharper used '' STUNG " as an opening. In 
 this regard the S?ni can usually be depended upon to give a literary 
 finish and a happy twist to its " leads." In his requiem of old 
 San Francisco, Will Irwin, formerly a star man on that paper, 
 began his stor}^ thus : 
 
 The old San Francisco is dead. The gayest, lightest-hearted, most 
 pleasure-loving city of the western continent, and in many ways the most 
 interesting and romantic, is a horde of refugees living among ruins. It may 
 rebuild, it probably will ; but those who have known that peculiar city by the 
 Golden Gate, have caught its flavor of the Arabian Nights, feel that it can 
 never be the same. It is as though a pretty, frivolous woman had passed 
 through a great tragedy. She survives, but she is sobered and different. If it 
 rises out of the ashes, it must be a modern city, much like other cities and 
 without its old atmosphere. 
 
 Another Sji?i story, dealing with the narrow escapes of an adven- 
 turous trader in the South Seas, starts with a tripping quatrain thus : 
 
 They dressed him up with greens and sich, 
 
 Then put him on to bile ; 
 And the missionary tasted downright good 
 
 To them folks on the cannibal isle. 
 
 A cat has only nine lives. Capt. William Hall, sometime of County Water- 
 ford, Ireland, and at other times of Australia, Samoa and various other 
 addresses in the South Seas, and still again of Alaska and of Siberia, and at 
 the present time of Seattle, Wash., has lived more lives than any cat that ever 
 adorned a tail. Not that the captain has ever led a double life, but he has had 
 the varied existence of a hero of fiction. 
 
 Another form of "lead" used successfully by the New York i 
 SiiJi is in adopting the novelistic style of keeping up the suspense ^ 
 until the end. One typical example begins with an account of two 
 men talking on a street corner. A stranger approaches and passes 
 them ; both look at him, and through a peculiarity of his gait, 
 simultaneously recognize in him a noted criminal. The identity of 
 the man and of the two secret-service employees is not made known 
 until the concluding sentence. It may be noted, however, that this 
 method is not largely employed and is effective only when the story 
 has a kind of cumulative human interest aside from its news value. 
 
32 
 
 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Housewives long ago discovered that wilted lettuce may be 
 made crisp and fresh by sprinkling a little water on the leaves. 
 To freshen Newspaper men have recourse to the same trick when 
 up a "lead" \i becomes necessary to use stale information. To give 
 belated news an appearance of freshness, it is customary to lay 
 emphasis upon the latest development in the opening sentence 
 and to reserve the other details for the concluding sentences. 
 This applies, also, to stories that are being rewritten from earlier 
 editions, where effort is made to lay emphasis upon the latest 
 phase or incident. Such expressions as "It was learned late 
 yesterday" and "Word has been received" are used to conceal 
 the tardiness of publication in the case of a story that has just 
 leaked out or which has been exploited at length in another paper. 
 The following " lead " bears the earmarks of having been re- 
 wTitten from another paper, both in its summary of facts and in 
 its emphasis on the funeral arrangements : 
 
 Funeral services for Gustave Daubert, aged 66, civil war veteran, member 
 of the Buckeye Fishing Club, Capital Lodge, I. O. O. F., and (iermania 
 Lodge, K. of P., who is dead at his late home, 393 Thurman Avenue, will be 
 held at St. John's Evangelical-Protestant Church at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon, 
 with preliminary services at the home at i o'clock. 
 
 When a story is already in type it often becomes necessary 
 to write a new "lead" to take care of the latest development, some 
 fresh feature that has just come to light. If a robbery has been 
 committed and the man involved in the theft has escaped, naturally 
 the opening paragraph would spend more time on the happening 
 itself ; but if the robber is captured a few hours later, the " lead " 
 must be rewritten to incorporate that fact, since every newspaper 
 prides itself on its up-to-the-minute publication of news. 
 
 Sometimes a story is not complete in all its details, but adds 
 new facts every day as new developments occur. The skillful 
 newspaper man should not only watch for these developments, 
 but he must so weave them into the " lead " that there will be no 
 confusion on the part of the reader. It often happens that a 
 reader has not seen the first details of the story as published, so 
 he would be hopelessly at sea when later developments appear 
 without some explanation of the events leading up to them. To 
 
THE STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY 
 
 33 
 
 overcome this difficulty the reporter should insert explanatory 
 clauses that recall the first stages of the story and at the same 
 time place an emphasis on the newest feature. For instance, here 
 is the "lead" that introduces the story of the assault made upon 
 David Graham Phillips by a crazy musician : 
 
 New York, Jan. 23. — David Graham Phillips, editor, publicist and nov- 
 elist, was shot six times today as he approached the Princeton Club by 
 Fitzhugh Coyle Goldsborough, a Harvard man, who immediately afterward 
 committed suicide. 
 
 Mr. Phillips lingered for a day or so and much uncertainty was 
 felt as to the outcome of his wounds. The following day the story 
 was introduced in this fashion, adding the latest development, yet 
 making clear what had taken place previously : 
 
 New York, Jan. 24. — '' His chances are fair'" was this morning's report 
 from the bedside of David (iraham Phillips, in Bellevue hospital, where the 
 author was taken, yesterday afternoon, after he had been shot down in the 
 street by Fitzhugh C. Goldsborough, a musician with a fancied grievance, 
 who followed his murderous assault by suicide on the spot. 
 
 A subsequent story told of the death in the " lead." 
 
 The shrewd reporter should strive always to emphasize the 
 
 latest fe ature, even though it means a quick reconstruction of 
 
 the opening paragraph. 
 
 It is well for the beginner to keep the following axioms in mind : 
 
 The importance of good " leads " cannot be overestimated. 
 
 The writing of the opening paragraph requires skill and a high degree 
 of accuracy. 
 
 No "lead" should contain elements not found in the main body of the story. 
 
 In the writing of " leads," the reporter must not misrepresent the facts. 
 
 The facts introduced in the 'Mead" should not only inform but entertain 
 and capture the attention of the reader. 
 
 Details are not to be added for the sake of padding the story to 
 fill yawning columns. Strength, not merely length, is wanted. 
 While the newspaper story often recites the principal events again 
 and again from different angles, still the news feature itself must 
 have an intrinsic worth to warrant such procedure. There must 
 be ''human interest" enough to prompt exhaustive treatment. 
 Prominence of the people, picturesque features in the setting, and 
 
34 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 brisk action often demand space, depending of course upon the 
 freshness of the news and the immediacy of the event. If you 
 have a " scoop " and are deahng with an exciting episode just 
 unearthed, you are justified in going into detail, since you are 
 turning up new ground. If a story has already been printed in 
 full, you should present the facts in condensed form unless new 
 features have developed. A diamond holdup which occurs on a 
 fashionable street in broad daylight and with a prominent society 
 woman and a masked ruffian as actors is "clean copy" if you 
 are treating it first hand ; if the story has already been exploited, 
 seek new details and give the story some fresh touch. 
 
 The length of a story depends somewhat upon its environment. 
 Obviously, the details of a sensational trial, a murder or a fire, 
 near home, will hold public attention longer than the dry minutes 
 of a church meeting, miles away. 
 
 Some years ago an editor of a small city daily in Ohio wrote an 
 account of a drowning casualty in which five boys lost their lives 
 by the cracking of thin ice in a mill pond. The details were 
 written with great elaboration and put upon the wire to a Chicago 
 paper, for which the editor was correspondent. Soon came a 
 warning telegram. It read : " Delaware dead people not of inter- 
 est to Chicago residents." It was perfectly true. The fatality got 
 seven lines in the Chicago paper and a column in the local press. 
 The event was of slight interest to one, but of vast importance to 
 another community. Test the elaboration of details, therefore, by 
 the crispness of your news and the inherent worth of your story 
 accordingly as it relates to many hundreds of people. 
 
 Stories are not always written after the event has become a 
 matter of history. The "running" story comes in piecemeal 
 The "run- from the race track, the baseball diamond, or the prize 
 ning" story j-ing. The reporter puts upon the wire every swing of 
 the pugilist's arm and every crack of the bat, just as they occur. 
 When the "game, race, or mill is over, the details are complete, and 
 the only thing necessary is to write a " lead " for the entire sequence. 
 This sort of story, frequently seen in the sporting editions after the 
 game, is not eminently satisfactory. It lacks unity and compactness, 
 which are qualities much to be desired in newspaper accounts. 
 
THE STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY 35 
 
 In the matter of court trials radical departures have taken place 
 in the past ten years. The old method of printing questions of 
 the lawyers and the answers of the witnesses on the stand, {71 cx- 
 tenso, has given way to a more interesting procedure, which may 
 be compared to the novelistic method. The appearance of the 
 witness on the stand is described, his striking remarks and how he 
 made them are utilized, and every bit of comedy or tragedy likely 
 to arouse sympathy is treated with added vigor. It is necessary to 
 refer to the celebrated Thaw trial alone, in which the women journal- 
 ists vied with unemotional newspaper men, to make the new method 
 clear. This method of featuring legal news is a distinct advance 
 over the old stenographic report, whatever deficiencies it may have. 
 
 Crowd as much action into your '^ lead '' as possible. 
 
 Awaken the curiosity of your reader. 
 Pertinent Avoid beginning your " lead " with a, the^ ox yesterday^ unless 
 
 suggestions clearly expedient to do so. 
 
 Use nouns and verbs of simple strength, Anglo-Saxon words, rather than 
 foreign derivatives. 
 
 Do not take anything for granted in your '' lead."' The reader should know 
 just where an event took place and the actors in it. The fact that something 
 is familiar to you is no reason for supposing that the public knows all about it. 
 
 Put the freshest and timeliest feature of the story first, even if you have 
 to recast because of later developments. This is especially true of rewrites 
 from other papers. 
 
 Do not overwork the participle in your '' leads."* There are some news- 
 paper men who can write nothing else. 
 
 Plan the *' lead " of your story on the way back to the office. You will have 
 •es<; difficulty in getting started. 
 
 If you have a big story always ask for space limit at the city desk before 
 .>)U begin to write it. Never exceed the space first allowed for a story with- 
 01 i consulting the city editor. 
 
 Stop when your story ceases to be interesting. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 WHAT IS NEWS? 
 
 On the successful answer to the question, ''What is news?" 
 depends the career of any young man or woman entering the field 
 The difficulty ^f journalism. This answer has been a rock upon 
 of definition ^vhich have been split many ponderous definitions, upon 
 which have been wrecked much fine philosophy and many sophis- 
 tries. There are definitions galore, and as is often the case where 
 this is true, none of them really defines. 
 
 It is interesting to know, however, that the profession which is 
 most intimately concerned with -the knowledge of what is news 
 is reasonably well agreed upon the essential qualifications. News- 
 papers on a given day, taken from one end of the country to 
 another, will show a remarkable similarity in the things recorded. 
 In a great many, these events may be identical. 
 
 More than that, there are thousands of men and women who 
 daily select and write items recognized as news, and this they do 
 without one out of every hundred being able to give even an 
 approximate definition of what is news. In addition, the life of 
 these news gatherers is such that they frequently go from one com- 
 munity to another and from one management to another and find 
 their services available in communities where they have no personal 
 acquaintance or previous associations. This is indisputable evidence 
 that there is some underlying foundation of a quality which dis- 
 tinguishes what is news from what is not news, and that this quality 
 is recognized at least subconsciously. 
 
 On the other hand, it is equally true that in offices manned 
 entirely by experienced men, all acquainted with their community 
 and equipped' with years of practical training, considerable differ- 
 ence bf opinion will be found to exist concerning the relative news 
 value of certain stories, or whether, as a matter of fact, a certain 
 story is or is not news. 
 
 36 
 
WHAT IS NEWS? 1)7 
 
 Richard Harding Davis, the well-known story-teller, war cor- 
 respondent, and dramatist, after he had risen to national fame, was 
 Definitions asked what he considered a fair definition of news, and 
 contrasted }^g replied : "I can give you no better answer than 
 the one on which we were brought up in the Siin office. Mr. Dana 
 used to say, ' When a dog bites a man, that is not news, but when 
 a man bites a dog that is news.' " However appealing this dis- 
 tinction may be, — and it does embody a great deal of truth, — it 
 is interesting to note that the very paper upon which this distinc- 
 tion originated not so long ago printed more than a column story 
 about a man who had been bitten by a dog, and his troubles, which 
 subsequently led to his death, were wholly due to the fact that he 
 had been bitten by a dog. It is obvious, therefore, that even this 
 definition does not define. 
 
 A discriminating reporter on thq New York World when asked 
 the same question answered that news is that which will interest 
 a majority of any community, and therefore is only a relative term. 
 
 In response to the same inquiry proposed to a reputable publi- 
 cation of the South the following reply was returned : 
 
 News is the report of whatever acts or events affect the general welfare or 
 are so characteristic of life (though extraordinary) as to represent the possible 
 experiences of all The comnioii routine of existence, the round of duty, 
 pleasures conTrnitn lo ail, do not constitute news — for taithfulness to duty and 
 thf genrr-.! happiness, arc taken lor granted as the normal rule of life. Only 
 exceptional signs of progress or acts of benevolence or contributions to human 
 happiness are worthy of record as news. The fact that a story of crime is 
 news, while a fair day is not, implies no reflection on the universe. 
 
 Turning to the contemplation of printed records or events in 
 general, the world differentiates between news and history, between 
 The range news and fiction, between news and philosophy, between 
 of news news and gossip, and between news and poetry. Yrc news 
 in turn ma\' be either history, fiction, philosophy, gossip or poetry. 
 
 Ilistoiy is recognized as a chronicle of events past or passing, 
 esteemed to be of sufficient interest to the present ^iid to future 
 generations to warrant setting down. Truth is an essential attribute 
 to all real history which concerns itself, generally, with persons and 
 acts and policies of government. 
 
T^S ESSENTIALS JN JOURNALISM 
 
 Fiction is recognized as a chronicle of events more or less im- 
 aginary in character or imaginary in their relations one to another. 
 
 Philosophy is an orderly statement of beliefs and rules of con- 
 duct, an endeavor to solve the riddle of the universe, all the result 
 of careful thought and deep study. 
 
 Gossip consists in repeating all events, however trivial, true or 
 untrue, which relate essentially to the individual and to his conduct, 
 private or public. 
 
 Poetry, in its essence, is a statement wherein unusual, beautiful, 
 and heroic attributes of man and nature are set forth in a manner 
 calculated to develop and enhance these attributes in others. Ideal- 
 ization rather than literal truth is the province of poetry. 
 
 Yet the accounts of proceedings of Congress in the considera- 
 tion of a bill of national importance is at once history and news. 
 
 In the circles of finance, politics, and diplomacy it frequently 
 becomes the province of the writer of news to state such facts or 
 conditions as he is able to find, and place them in what seems to 
 him their natural or most significant combination. In this work 
 he is discharging all the functions of the writer of literature, and 
 yet what he writes is news and often good news. 
 
 From Plato to Kant, thoughtful men have expressed their inner- 
 most convictions on the problems of life, and men have called it 
 philosophy, but when the business men of the day or politicians 
 of the state express their convictions on the problems of the hour, 
 it is potential philosophy and positive news. 
 
 The public mind associates gossip with the small talk of women 
 or men gathered together for trivial purposes, but in the fields of 
 sport, drama, politics, fashion, and literature the veriest small talk 
 may be interesting, and that which is ^trivial to-day may within a 
 few hours be fraught with deepest significance. By reason of such 
 fact, newspapers uniformly Justify themselves in printing gossip of 
 this sort and contend, successfully, that it is news. 
 
 Poetry, aside from those occasional effusions of temporary or 
 local interest touching upon some specific event, which often find 
 their way into print, is concerned with the big, heroic things of 
 existence. Yet nowhere do the heroic events of life receive more 
 attention than in the newspaper office. Nothing is more eagerly 
 
WHAT IS NEWS? 39 
 
 or more extensively chronicled than exactly such conduct as has 
 been embalmed in the immortal phrases of " The Charge of the 
 Light Brigade " or " Horatius at the Bridge." 
 
 The reporter writing under the stress of the moment, less lib- 
 erall}' endowed b)- nature than is the poet with the power of 
 idealizing his expressions, and less equipped with a technical 
 proficiency in his language, is none the less surely dealing with 
 the essence of literature, though he is also writing new\s. They 
 differ in degree, not in kind. 
 
 If, then, news may be in turn history, literature, philosophy, 
 gossip, or poetry, it must follow that it is not a definite thing, in 
 News is a ^^^^ nothing within itself, but a quality of a thing. Con- 
 quality sidered as a quality and not as a quantity, the definition 
 of news becomes easier. Considered as a quality, it is easy to 
 understand why opinions concerning it differ so widely. As a 
 quality it must be apprehended by a sense faculty, and the sense 
 faculties differ with the individual. A red is not the same red to 
 two people whose eyes are not of the same physical construction. 
 The interval between two tones may be harmony or discord to the 
 ear that hears it, according to the fineness and training of that ear. 
 
 Taking the definitions given among newspaper men as to what 
 constitutes news, and considering' the observation regarding the 
 various forms which news may assume, it becomes apparent that 
 news is that characteristic of any happening which gives it an 
 appeal beyond the circle of those immediately concerned in it. 
 
 From this the problem enters the field of psychology, and the 
 one who best determines news is the one who best knows what 
 will interest the most peopIeT" — ■ 
 
 In a sense, everything that happens is a subject for news. 
 The practical difficulty encountered is twofold — first, the utter 
 impossibility of securing a satisfactory record of everything that 
 happens ; and, second, the fact that a large part of such a mass 
 of information would appeal only to a limited circle. The quality 
 of the unusual, the quality of humor, the quality of freshness in 
 any happening conspire to make it news, and its importance as 
 news is in an exact proportion to the number of people in the 
 community who will be interested in the event. 
 
40 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 That a happening, a personage, or a fact becomes a subject of 
 news because of some special quaHty which sets it apart from the 
 The defini- common round of events may be clearly seen by 
 tion tested ^YiQ examination of a typical newspaper story, clipped 
 from the New York Times. The story is an account of how a 
 Bronx tenement owner fell to his death from a fire escape while 
 hunting a burglar. It received conspicuous display in the columns 
 of the Times. As an example of the unusual making the common- 
 place a big new^s item, the account is reproduced. 
 
 While searching for burglars, who had robbed one of the apartments in a 
 tenement he owned at 1,317 Wilkins Avenue, the Bronx, Walter C. Rippel, a 
 saloon keeper who owned considerable real estate in the Bronx, slipped and 
 fell five stories from a fire escape last night, fractured his skull, and broke both 
 legs. He died a few minutes later in Fordham Hospital. 
 
 Rippel lived on the first floor of the Wilkins Avenue tenement, a five-story, 
 double-decker, and had received many complaints from his tenants, whose 
 rooms had been plundered. About three weeks ago Morris Rothstein's apart- 
 ment on the third floor was broken open and $500 worth of jewelry taken. 
 Rippel at that time made a vigorous demand for more police protection, but it 
 was not forthcoming. Then he told his tenants to report the next burglary to 
 him and he would do some policing on his own account. 
 
 Yesterday afternoon Mrs John Giles, who lives on the top floor of the 
 tenement, went shopping after locking her apartment. She returned about 
 5 o'clock to find the lock on the door missing. It had been neady cut out and 
 removed. When she tried the door it wouldn't open. She hurried down to 
 the first floor and met Rippel coming up. 
 
 " There have been burglars in my apartment." she cried, " and I think they 
 are in there now for I cannot open the door." 
 
 '' This is the chance I have been waiting for," exclaimed Rippel, without 
 waiting even to arm himself. " I'll be my own policeman." He ran upstairs 
 and tried to force the door, but it wouldn't budge. Then he hurried around 
 to the tenement adjoining, where the fire escape connects on the fifth floor, 
 excepting for about two feet and a half, with the fire escape in the rear of 
 the Giles apartment. Thomas Lufton, the janitor, wanted to go first, but 
 Rippel thrust him aside, with the remark that he wanted to make the capture 
 himself. 
 
 He climbed out on the fire escape and clutching the narrow railing tried to 
 step across the opening. He either misjudged the distance or his foot slipped. 
 With a cry that brought tenants to their windows on almost every floor 
 Rippel slipped through the opening, his clutch on the frail iron railing slipping 
 at the same time, and he plunged headfirst to the cement pavement of the 
 courtyard, five stories below. 
 
WHAT IS NEWS? 4 1 
 
 When Lufton, leading a group of excited women tenants, reached the court- 
 yard Rippel was insensible. The janitor ran for a policeman, while women 
 and children cried and wrung their hands. The policeman called an ambulance 
 from the Fordham Hospital. The surgeon found Rippel dying. He made all 
 haste to the hospital, and placed him on the operating table. It was a marvel 
 to the physicians that Rippel did not die the instant he struck. 
 
 When the excitement had quieted down somewhat Lufton and the police- 
 man forced the door of the Giles apartment. They found the place had been 
 ransacked and several valuables taken. The burglars were nowhere in sight. 
 It was discovered that after removing the lock and entering the apartment the 
 burglars had wedged the lock between the door jamb and the handle in such 
 a way that the door couldn't be opened from the outside. The only way they 
 could have escaped was down the fire escape. No one saw them depart. 
 
 Rippel was thirty-three years old and was in the saloon business with his 
 brother at Freeman Street and Southern Boulevard, the Bronx. He owned 
 several other saloons besides apartment houses in that part of the city. 
 
 Analysis of the foregoing story brings to light a combination 
 of news qualities. In the first place the report of the tragedy in- 
 dicates it is of recent occurrence. The announcement comes in 
 the nature of a shock. Narrowly considered, the episode is news 
 because it is fresh, new, timely. In the second place the occur- 
 rence has a tragic cast and is sufficiently out of the ordinary to 
 warrant exhaustive treatment at the hands of a reporter. The 
 established order of things is violated ; conventionality yields to 
 caprice, chance, or blind accident, lifting the event out of the 
 commonplace setting of the usual. Another quality giving sig- 
 nificance to the story is the fact that the victim of the accident 
 was a large property owner, whose circle of friends is also large. 
 The announcement of his death under ordinary circumstances 
 would be news, but if to that announcement is added the startling 
 element that he met death while pursuing a marauder who had 
 invaded his apartments, the circle of appeal widens. Fear of 
 burglars is more or less common to people the world over, 
 amounting in the minds of some to ungovernable terror or 
 obsession. The cause of the fatality, therefore, adds the character- 
 istic of '' human interest," that subtle quality that unites poor and 
 rich, young and old. Such a story — aside from its more local 
 application — is based upon elemental emotions, and connects that 
 tenement in the Bronx with every home in the country. As a 
 
42 ESSENl^lALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 matter of fact this was the element that sent the story hurrying 
 to every part of the country over the leased wires of press asso- 
 ciations. Indeed, it is this very quality of "human interest" — 
 this psychological, sensuous appeal to such universal instincts as 
 curiosity, humor, sympathy, and fear — that prompts certain news- 
 papers to neglect the trivialities of daily routine and to center their 
 attention upon the dramatics of life, springing from experiences 
 and adventures more or less common to all newspaper readers. 
 The appreciation of this fact accounts for the great popularity 
 of existing chains of newspapers which exploit real life in story, 
 picture, and headline. 
 
 Arbitrary distinctions have added to the confusion in the public 
 mind regarding the nature of news in its relation to the business 
 News and office. Newspapers, the country over, differentiate be- 
 advertising tween news and advertising ; yet, as a matter of fact, 
 much advertising is news, and a great deal of that which passes as 
 news is advertising. For practical purposes, matter that is more 
 directly profitable to the individual than to the community is called 
 advertising ; and matter that benefits the community rather than 
 the individual is called news. 
 
 The fact that a large department store is going to sell a cer- 
 tain commodity below cost is really a news item ; but the fact 
 that the store would presumably receive more benefit from this 
 publication than the public, prompts the paper to charge for that 
 information, while the fact that a candidate is in favor of a cer- 
 tain reform movement is not construed as advertising, on the 
 supposition that, if elected, his attitude is of more importance 
 to the community than to himself. A further distinction between 
 news and advertising is found in the fact of repetition. The 
 statement that a prominent artist is to appear in any capacity 
 before the public is news the first time it is printed. The second 
 time the sam.e fact is brought to the readers it is construed as 
 advertising. 
 
 Between the reporter, whose duties are exclusively concerned 
 with news gathering, and the advertiser, whose activities are wholly 
 taken up with the interests of a single concern, there is what is 
 known as the press agent, or publicity man. This factor, still new 
 
WHAT IS NEWS? 
 
 43 
 
 in the economy of American letters, is generally a man of trained 
 newspaper experience, representing some cause or concern whose 
 News and the operations are of considerable public interest. Theo- 
 press agent retically, each newspaper should have a representative 
 to look after and report the happenings of this concern. Practi- 
 cally, in all large cities this is impossible, and the firm or corpora- 
 tion, by employing some one skilled in newspaper practices, is 
 enabled to have its doings properly and liberally reported, while 
 the newspaper is saved the expense and difficulty of securing what 
 it recognizes as legitimate news. Here the incidental advertising 
 value is supposed to be fully compensated by the practical news 
 value of what is printed. Press agents frequently work in full 
 harmony with regular reporters and assist them in their work. 
 
 As news is a quality of things and not the thing itself, it follows 
 that there are gradations in the value of news. News must be like 
 a buckwheat cake — piping hot from the griddle. The 
 kinds of reddest items only are wanted, and those which are of 
 °^^^ a bright hue in the morning may pale to sickly pink 
 
 by the afternoon in the light of rapid development. 
 
 So, too, there is recognized the distinction between routine new^s 
 and special news, routine news being any happening of a reason- 
 able degree of public interest that can be counted upon as occur- 
 ring at stated intervals or with approximate regularity of frequency, 
 while special news — always the better news — covers those 
 unlooked for, irregular, mysterious, or startling occurrences in life 
 of which there is no warning, and for which there can be little 
 or no preparation. Uniformly these items have preference over 
 the others. 
 
 The question of the selection of news ordinarily brings up the 
 matter of taste and ethics, and upon this point it is hard to lay 
 down any arbitrary rule. The trained mind will not more often 
 err in the selection of news items from a given number of stories 
 than will the cultured taste in selecting pictures, books, or music. 
 The man of ethically sound mind will follow the- dictates of his 
 training as surely in the maze of murders, robberies, suicides, 
 scandals, and political appeals as he will in the matter of personal 
 pleasure, money, or the integrity of his own soul. 
 
44 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 It, still remains to be pointed out that a great majority of the 
 manifold subjects recognized as news admit of varied treatment, 
 Treatment and it is this variety in presentation which differentiates 
 of news them into "yellow," "sensational," or "conservative." 
 
 The newspaper man of wide experience may adapt himself to any 
 one of these three classes. The young newspaper man will most 
 readily fall into the class where his temperamental attributes make 
 him most at home. 
 
 Gathering news is like a soldier's obedience — not to be ques- 
 tioned. For the reporter there is no problem of whether or not 
 the news is good news — that belongs to his superior. Facts and 
 only facts are wanted. With the clearest insight of which he is 
 capable he must collect these facts, be sure of their setting, and 
 establish their relation one to another. If his observation is 
 correct and his logic true, his news is faultless and his service 
 invaluable. The question as to whether or not his report consists 
 of news proper to print will be determined by those in authority 
 over him. For the frequently met request to keep certain things 
 " out of the paper," the true reporter has one unwavering answer: 
 " That is beyond me, you will have to see the editor." 
 
 To confront every event that comes within his observation with 
 the questions : Is there any new phase .? Is there in this any- 
 thing of interest to the public.? Is it timely.? Is it true.? — to 
 look sharply, to think deeply, to write clearly, to question con- 
 cisely, to correlate correctly the episodes that make up any occur- 
 rence — these habits of thought will make the student a good 
 reporter and enable him to know what is news. 
 
 If to this mental attitude he adds a keen sympathy with hu- 
 man nature, a faculty of recognizing the unusual m ihe usual ; if 
 he can see deeply enough to get the cause behind the effect ; if he 
 can think truly enough to get the relation of the one to all ; if he can 
 feel keenly enough to grasp the essentials and idealize them, to 
 blend with the pungent phrase, simple, direct and clear, the heart 
 throbs of humanity, he cannot fail to be a good reporter, and has 
 within him the possibilities of becoming a great newspaper man 
 by rising to heights of usefulness and power to which only the 
 faithful may aspire. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 GATHERING NEWS 
 
 Recognizing news, or acquiring the news sense, as it is called, 
 is quite a different thing from collecting news. The best reporters 
 Distinctions ^^^ ^ity editors often recognize a news item or story 
 drawn which they realize is beyond their reach ; on the other 
 
 hand, the reporter may often start out on an assignment, the general 
 news features of which have been made clear to him by the desk 
 man. While the two activities, recognizing and collecting news, 
 necessarily go hand in hand, they are advantageously considered 
 apart. 
 
 Gathering or collecting news is, essentially, the bringing together 
 of the materials from which the finished story is to be woven, and, 
 for the purposes of this chapter, it is not a matter of concern 
 whether the reporter recognizes the news or whether his superior 
 has pointed it out to him. 
 
 Three things the reporter must bear in mind : first, facts, not 
 rumor or gossip, are wanted ; second, the relation of these facts. 
 Three view- ^ach to the Other, is to be sought ; third, the relation 
 points Qf these facts Uj the reading public is to be established. 
 
 Under the first head the reporter strives to arrive at the truth 
 and rejects the irrelevant and the false. 
 
 Under the second head he develops the form of his stor)^ and 
 gets a perspective and a sense of proportion. 
 
 Under the third head he comes to an understanding of _the 
 importance of the item he may be handling, it being- .;n ;ixioin of 
 newspaper work that an item is good in direct proportion to the 
 number of persons who are likely to be interested in it. 
 
 Tn a newspaper office nothing is haphazard, a general impres- 
 sion to the contrary notwithstanding. All the avenues that art 
 and science have created for the conveyance of thought — verbal 
 speech, mail, telegraph, telephone, wireless and other agencies 
 
 45 
 
46 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 — arc made to serve the newspaper. Neither is much of the 
 news that finds its way into print to be credited to luck, much 
 System ^^^^ ^^ ^ mysterious seventh sense, divination, or an\- 
 
 in news Other occult, uncanny process. Gathering news is the 
 ga enng j-ggult of a System and of a network of machinery 
 stretching out from the city editor's desk to the remotest parts 
 of the world. It is to fit into this labyrinth of activities and to per- 
 form its manifold functions intelligently that the young reporter 
 studies to prepare himself. 
 
 Under the chapter of the City Editor these forces and activities 
 are more fully discussed. The purpose here is to state with 
 added definiteness and clearness their operation along certain lines 
 with which the young man or woman will be expected to be 
 familiar if accorded a position on the staff of any well-regulated 
 daily newspaper. 
 
 In most offices the lighter tasks are given to a " cub reporter " 
 until the city editor has had time to become acquainted with his 
 -Pjjg ,,j,y^,gn particular talents and abilities. Strangely enough, one 
 first task of the first tasks a novice is liable to encounter is the 
 writing of an obituary notice. 
 
 The obituary notice is practically universal ; certainly it is 
 national. All newspapers print such accounts, every one seems to 
 read them, and always they contain about the same set of facts. 
 Here, as everywhere, facts are what is wanted. For the benefit 
 of the uninitiated it may be stated that those laudatory, ornate, 
 and verbose reports printed in newspapers under such captions as 
 "Entered Into Rest," "At Peace With Her God," etc., are not 
 obituary notices in the newspaper acceptance of the word, but are 
 paid advertisements, written by some friend or member of the 
 family. Such persons are privileged to say what they please, 
 regardless of facts. 
 
 The reporter assigned to an obituary, if not already in posses- 
 sion of the information, will set out to ascertain the person's 
 importance in the community. This is starting on the third of 
 the propositions enumerated above, but by so doing it saves the 
 new reporter a great deal of work. Then he secures from some 
 member of the family, or the nearest kin who can be reached, full 
 
GATHERING NEWS 47 
 
 name, cause of death, number and names of survivors, funeral 
 arrangements, place of interment, place of residence, and any 
 official capacity the person may have filled. 
 
 These are essential in almost every case. If the dead man has 
 been prominent politically, socially, or in a business way, other 
 facts will be pertinent. It then becomes proper to get place of 
 birth, parentage, early education, date of marriage, maiden name 
 of wife, and a few points about the man's success in whatever 
 field he may have been prominent. 
 
 It may give a novice a sense of shock to be told to prepare an 
 obituary notice of some person of prominence who is still alive. 
 As explained in the discussion of desk positions, it is even the 
 practice in the metropolitan offices to have written and ready 
 obituary notices of the President and prominent national officials, 
 the governor of the state, and municipal authorities. In excep- 
 tional cases, these are in type. The idea of the editor is that 
 news of the sudden death of one of these persons may be learned 
 at a time when every second would be precious. One of the essen- 
 tials of any such story of a death is a resume of the life that has 
 closed. To the reporter who is assigned the preparation of an 
 ante-mortem obituary the problem presented is practically the same, 
 except that it requires more tact to get personal information of 
 this sort before a man is dead. In the case of persons of anv 
 prominence the office library- usually will be found to supply the 
 more important facts, and with the addition of w^hat may be ex- 
 tracted by a few well-directed questions, the reporter is equipped 
 with his material. 
 
 In applying for his guidance the second rule stated at the 
 beginning of this chapter, the reporter will recall that timeliness 
 The element is an essential attribute of news, hence the last episode 
 of timeliness jj^ ^ man's life ^^ usually the first mentioned in the 
 artirle : that is the death, when, where, from wiiat cause, and under 
 what conditions. This is what is meant by observing the relation 
 of facts, one to the other. With the essential data in mind, an)- 
 one should be able to write an acceptable obituar)^ notice, although 
 this caution might be added : it is no part of the reporter's 
 province to express any opinion about the dead. 
 
48 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Another form of news gathering that comes early in the ex- 
 perience of the average reporter is that of handhng some part 
 Reporting a of the proceedings of a convention. The most impor- 
 convention ^-.^j-jj- ^y^^ typical are the conventions of the major 
 political parties,' but gatherings of other kinds are usually the 
 lot of a novice. 
 
 Within the memory of most newspaper men it has been the 
 custom of all but the large eastern dailies to give extensive accounts 
 of the proceedings of any important body, such as the meeting of 
 the state or national educational societies, meetings of lawyers, 
 preachers, and others. Where the staff will permit it and the event 
 is judged to be of sufficient importance, one man is placed in charge 
 and one or more men are assigned to assist him. In any event, 
 the procedure, so far as the principles are concerned, is the same. 
 The reporter takes note of events as they occur and keeps them 
 in chronological order. It is highly important to get all names 
 and titles absolutely correct. Very few addresses on a technical 
 subject are worth more than a few lines and the salient points usu- 
 ally will remain with the intelligent reporter. Where a man of 
 national importance delivers an address on a theme of general and 
 national significance, he usually will have with him manifold copies 
 of his address to be distributed to the reporters. In some cases, 
 where verbatim accuracy is required, a newspaper will employ a 
 stenographer to take the address if no copies have been supplied 
 in advance. Stenography is not considered a valuable feature of a 
 newspaper man's training. The man whose attention is concen- 
 trated in literally transcribing a speech has no thought for incidental 
 features, and these may be very important. 
 
 Deprived of the convenience of verbatim copy or stenographic 
 report, the reporter must make as full notes as possible. Few notes 
 and accurate are to be preferred to copious notes lacking accuracy. 
 A few lines of direct quotation are worth many lines of indirect 
 quotation. In writing the account of a convention it is customary 
 to preserve the chronological or routine order, unless some partic- 
 ular feature lifts one part of the program far above another. If 
 the President of the United States speaks in the middle of a pro- 
 gram, the other features of which are ordinary in import, then the 
 
GATHERING NEWS 49 
 
 President's address becomes the opening portion of the narrative 
 and the other facts are fitted in as judgment may dictate. 
 
 This sort of a news story is characterized by the fact that a part 
 of it can be written before the whole is completed, and in the prac- 
 tical operation of a newspaper this often becomes highly important. 
 During a recess a reporter may very properly write up what has 
 happened until then. After the lunch hour he may complete the 
 second part and in the afternoon a third part. Then, when the whole 
 thing is over, he will write what is variously termed the "lead" 
 or "introduction," and in this he will summarize the important 
 features of the entire day. In the meantime his earlier copy has 
 been placed in type, and the mechanical problem of composition 
 has been reduced to its smallest proportions. When two men or 
 more work on such an assignment, it is customary for the one in 
 charge of the report to assign the special work of each assistant. 
 When chief responsibility has been delegated to no one the re- 
 porters confer and reach some understanding regarding the feature 
 each will handle and what shall be the general scheme of treatment. 
 
 News is like crime in that it must be detected, and the reporter's 
 task is akin to that of an attorney, for he must gather the evidence. 
 Seeing both There is this difference, the reporter is in duty bound 
 sides ^Q ggg |3Q^i^ si(]gg ^^id, as an impartial judge, must give 
 
 each side his day in court. 
 
 The matter of insisting on facts is, therefore, never to be mini- 
 mized. Often the facts properly marshaled do not make as good 
 reading as rumor or guesses similarly handled. The reporter has 
 but one course to follow — to get all the facts. 
 
 A case in point occurred at a university maintaining an agricul- 
 tural department. A barn housing a lot of pedigreed swine burned. 
 All of the animals, however, were saved. A young student, cor- 
 responding for a paper, sent in a glowing account to the effect that 
 the work of years in classifying and separating the strains had been 
 lost. This looked very important, as the animals were supposed to 
 be worth thousands of dollars. 
 
 The real facts in the case, however, were these : each animal 
 wore a metal tag, by which it and its breed could be recognized 
 instantlv, and half an hour's work by a single intelligent person 
 
50 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 served tu put the animals back in tlie same divisions they had 
 occupied before the fire. The only loss was the loss of the build- 
 ing, a comparatively insignificant thing. The trained reporter, 
 content onl\- with facts, got less of an item but better results 
 than the untrained man who took some one's word for a condition 
 that did not exist. 
 
 The example just cited marks the transition from that form 
 of item where the facts are likely to be obvious and on the surface 
 Digging out to that form in which they have to be dug out and 
 the facts often differentiated, the real from the unreal. In this 
 latter class are all the more important assignments that come to 
 the lot of a first-class reporter. 
 
 The world of business often presents such a problem. The word 
 has reached the city editor that some big enterprise is afoot. 
 Either there are no names or there is no certainty that the names 
 given are the correct ones. Interested motives often prompt per- 
 sons who, under ordinary circumstances, would be found truthful, 
 to deceive in matters of business. 
 
 For the sake of example let it be supposed that there is a report 
 that a belt line is to be constructed about the city. This informa- 
 tion may have come to the city editor from New York. Most of 
 the enterprises of such a character are financed in the East, and 
 often plans are so carefully guarded in the home, city that the 
 project does not come to the local newspapers until outside 
 assistance is asked. 
 
 In a case of this sort secrecy is often of great value to the pro- 
 moters. The price of real estate and the attitude of city and county 
 authorities may change toward the capitalists if it is known that 
 they are seeking a franchise or the purchase of property for rail- 
 road purposes. They much prefer to work without publicity until 
 their plans are formulated past any need of changing. While the 
 reporter may recognize the pertinency of all this he must not let 
 it influence him. It is his province to find out about the project, 
 not to assist it. 
 
 Different men will have different methods of solving the prob- 
 lems that this case presents, but, on general principles, it is not best 
 to appeal at once to the men who are at the head of the concern. 
 
GATHERING NEWS 
 
 51 
 
 Not only are they likely to keep others from talking, but they will 
 be the most skilled in evading questions. The wide-awake reporter 
 will wait until he has every ounce of ammunition possible before 
 starting to storm the citadel. He will inquire at various points on 
 the supposed route of the belt line. He will hunt out engineers 
 most likely to have been retained for this work. He will find if 
 any strategic real estate has been changing hands lately. 
 
 All this work may result in very little net information, but it 
 may serve to strengthen materially any one of several theories form- 
 ing in the reporter's mind. Bearing in thought always the need of 
 getting both sides, he will hunt up those persons who would be most 
 materially benefited and those most decidedly annoyed by the pro- 
 posed project. Each side may have some information, and each 
 is more easily influenced to talk than the men who propose to 
 build the road. 
 
 A great deal has been done if the fact is established that some 
 definite project is afoot. Elimination will work out the right 
 answer. When, however, every bit of substantiating evidence has 
 been gathered, the reporter will work out the most plausible theory, 
 with which he will boldly approach the supposed leaders. Even if 
 they deny any connection with it, or deny that there is such a 
 project, that is a point gained. 
 
 A favorite device of reporters when dealing with any person who 
 seems loath to tell what apparently he knows, is to ask him if he 
 will deny that he is connected with the movement. If, in the face 
 of a denial, it still seems reasonable that he has some connection 
 with the enterprise it is always safe to say that So-and-So is com- 
 monly mentioned in connection with a project but that he denies it. 
 Many men who will evade a long series of questions will refuse to 
 deny that they are connected with any project when they know that 
 the denial is to be a matter of public record. 
 
 Not infrequently a skilled reporter will corner a man and get 
 from him in confidence a story of what is in prospect. This is a 
 dilemma which no one courts. A reporter is never in a position to 
 promise that his paper will not use a story, this being the province 
 of the editors. On the other hand, he is never to be excused for 
 violating a confidence. If the city editor has given the reporter 
 
52 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 an assignment and told him that there is reason to beUeve that 
 there is a story in it, nothing but a story will satisfy the man on 
 the desk. 
 
 To return to the illustrative case cited : supposing the most 
 unsatisfactory results have followed all inquiries, a glance will show 
 that there are still some facts which it would be pertinent to print. 
 First, and most important of all, is the report that comes from the 
 East that a belt-line project is on foot. Rumors, while intangible, 
 are seldom without some sort of foundation. If any one of the per- 
 sons has heard of this project, or anything resembling it, that is a 
 fact worth stating, and if the men supposed to be at the head of it 
 deny it, that also is a printable fact. It has happened many times 
 that the publication of just such a story has brought about some big 
 enterprise which had not been contemplated at the outset. If the 
 wide-awake reporter describes the probable course of such a belt 
 line, the factories it will pass, and the new territory it will open, to- 
 gether with the increased facilities it will give in freight handling, 
 he may arouse in capitalists an interest that has been dormant. 
 
 Passing from this form of " original research " news gathering 
 to the criminal, where the reporter must start with little but such 
 Handling a f^cts as are patent to any observer, the problems grow 
 story of in interest and in difficulty. In big cases the reporter 
 
 will make about as many original observations as do the 
 officers of the law, and, while he will continually interrogate them 
 and gather from them such facts as they may possess as well as 
 their theories, he will not fail to assemble his own facts and make 
 his own theories. 
 
 Sticking always to the facts, it is obviously printable news that 
 Chief X is of the opinion that the crime was performed by such 
 and such an individual, although as a matter of truth Chief X 
 may be all wrong in his conclusions. The chief, however, is an 
 officer of the law, appointed for the purpose of having theories in 
 just such cases, and if he is willing to divulge his opinions they 
 become pertinent because advanced by him. 
 
 If the reporter is, as he should be, a trained observer, he 
 approaches the task of unraveling a criminal mystery with quite 
 as much advantage as the police. For the most part, he will have 
 
GATHERING NEWS 
 
 53 
 
 a better disciplined mind, more alert faculties, and keener activity 
 than the officers engaged in the work. 
 
 The following example is an exact statement of the details of 
 what was done in a case. The false clews followed are given to 
 show that success does not attend the first efforts of the best 
 trained man, although the method employed from the first may 
 have been, and in this case seems to have been, correct. 
 
 A murder had been committed in the town of X, 150 miles 
 distant from the city of C, and in the same state. Evidence on 
 the body of the man found indicated that he had lived in C. His 
 identity was an absolute mystery. The authorities of X, before pro- 
 ceeding to locate the murderers, who apparently had escaped by 
 train, felt that they must establish the identity of the victim. 
 
 All the evidence in the case was sent to the police authorities of 
 C. At the end of two weeks they had made absolutely no progress 
 in identifying the dead man. At that time an officer from X came 
 to C and took a reporter into his confidence. The activities 
 from then on were the work of consultations, the reporter often 
 making the suggestions. The evidence at hand consisted of the 
 dead man's clothes and a death mask. The first examination of 
 the clothes disclosed that most of the wearing apparel had been 
 bought within a radius of a few blocks from the public square 
 of C. The various salesmen were interviewed. Not one of them 
 remembered selling the particular garments, except a clerk, 
 who said that he did recall selling such a coat, but he was 
 positive that the purchaser was still alive. As a death mask is 
 heavy and not convenient to carry about, the reporter had it pho- 
 tographed, both front view and side view, and kept these with 
 him for purposes of identification. The shoes when examined 
 were found to have a mark indicating that the seller kept a record 
 of them, and, by tracing this down, the date of the purchase was 
 ascertained. The day chanced, however, to be Saturday, when 
 the store employed several extra clerks, and nothing further than 
 the date could be learned. This, however, established the first 
 fixed point — a date at which the man must have been in C. 
 
 Another clew followed was the marking of the linen. The men 
 interested in the mystery compared it with the lettering on their 
 
54 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 own linen and, from the formation of the letters, thought that they 
 detected certain marking peculiar to a local laundry. The marking 
 expert of this laundry was called in and identified the mark, but 
 found upon reference to his books that three residents in C had 
 the same mark. All of these men were found to be living. The end 
 of this trail led to disappointment, but not yet to defeat. The ap- 
 pearance of the victim's clothing indicated that the wearer dressed 
 rather flashily, — that is, with no great refinement, — and it was 
 argued that a man of such personal taste would probably frequent 
 saloons and cafes in the same district where he had bought his 
 clothing. After visiting several resorts the investigators found a 
 waiter who thought he recognized the features of the death-mask 
 photographs. He said that an employee who was on the other 
 shift of the cafe service knew the patron and had sold him a coat, 
 which he recalled as similar to the garment held as evidence. 
 This other waiter was finally located, and recognized the coat as 
 one which he had bought at the place indicated by the garment tag 
 and had subsequently resold. He gave the essential information 
 by furnishing the man's name and the definite time of his resi- 
 dence in C as fixed by the sale date of the shoes. With these 
 facts the unraveling of the man's past was relatively easy. 
 
 The work of running down this information, and the many 
 worthless clews followed, occupied about six hours. The result was 
 a story a little less than half a column long. Often less effort 
 would yield more evident results, but the process cited may be 
 taken as typical. 
 
 It will frequently happen that a reporter cannot be present at an 
 event he is sent to report. This is peculiarly apt to be true of 
 Number of ^^ accident. Here again it is incumbent upon him to get 
 witnesses ^\^q views of the largest possible number of witnesses. 
 He will be very careful to state facts or the nearest approximation 
 of facts that can be obtained. Above all else he will refrain from 
 making deductions and drawing conclusions. This is a tempta- 
 tion not easily resisted by the beginner. He must learn, however, 
 that of almost every accident there are two versions, possibly 
 more. Any one may be guilty of causing a catastrophe and thus be- 
 come liable for damages. Any misstatement of conditions, however 
 
GATHERING NEWS 55 
 
 innocent, will prejudice the aggrieved party. So far as the repor- 
 ter's service is concerned it is never the business of a reputable 
 newspaper to take part in any personal controversy. 
 
 An example of the way a reporter should go about collecting 
 his facts may make clear some of the foregoing points. 
 
 A wreck has occurred. A fast-flying passenger train has entered 
 a siding upon which stood another passenger train, bound in the 
 A wreck and Opposite direction. There is a collision; many are killed, 
 its cause jhe entrance to the track is guarded by a switch, con- 
 trolled by an operating tower near by. All these are facts and may 
 be stated by the reporter with perfect safety ; indeed, they should 
 be stated. The reporter has made his first survey of general con- 
 ditions, followed by the gathering of such information as he can 
 secure about the dead and injured. In attempting to arrive at the 
 cause for the accident he discovers that the entrance of the spur 
 track is standing open. A natural impulse would be to say that the 
 wreck was caused by an open switch. This fixing of responsibility 
 might be a fatal error in point of truth and is, at any rate, wholly 
 outside reportorial duty. As a matter of fact the reporter, if he is 
 shrewd, should avoid saying what caused the wreck. He may ver)' 
 properly state that after the wreck the switch was found to be 
 open. There are, however, a number of conditions which may have 
 entered into the matter of the open switch, any one of them mak- 
 ing it utterly out of the question for this to have caused the wreck : 
 first, the derailed engine, in passing over the frog, may have 
 turned the switch ; second, the tower man, if he had failed to give 
 some necessary order to the fast train, might have opened the 
 switch after the wreck ; and third, if the crew of the wrecked 
 train had failed to observe orders to stop, they might have opened 
 the switch after the wreck in order to throw blame elsewhere. 
 
 The reporter on such an assignment, supposing it to be his 
 first of that kind, would very shortly discover that railroad subor- 
 dinates are not permitted by the rules of the railroad to give any 
 account of an accident involving their own road. If an official of 
 the road happens to be present, a guarded statement, as a usual 
 thing, may be obtained from him; but for the actual details the 
 reporter will have to rely on the haz)^ and widely varying versions 
 
56 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 of the people in the train. Even under normal conditions their 
 reports would vary, and under the stress of excitement attendant 
 upon a wreck, the element of error is greatly increased. 
 
 The reporter will, therefore, get as near a photographic impres- 
 sion of exact conditions as possible, and in writing his story will 
 harmonize, when possible, minor differences and, where marked 
 discrepancies occur, simply will quote the versions of various 
 persons, saying that it appeared thus and so to them. 
 
 Acutely developed powers of observation are of greatest impor- 
 tance in gathering news. They cannot be imparted by a textbook 
 any more than piano technique or skill with a brush can be so 
 imparted. Practice, eternal practice, and vigilance give to the mind 
 a power of almost instantaneous and photographic grasp of detail, 
 and this should be cultivated constantly. 
 
 The primary importance of the man who gathers the news may 
 
 be recognized by the fact that many large newspapers have in their 
 
 Importance employ reporters whose faculties are concentrated on 
 
 of the news this One activity. Often they do not write a line, some- 
 gatherer . , f. . _ _ - . 
 
 times only part or, an item. Many police reporters 
 
 stationed at headquarters telephone all their facts into the office, 
 where they are woven together by other hands. Instances abound 
 where old stagers are retained as reporters, not for their facility in 
 writing, but because of their ability to get and grasp the details of 
 a situation and because of their wide acquaintance. It often hap- 
 pens that the " copy " of these men must be revised thoroughly 
 before printed ; but the facts are all there, and perhaps no other 
 paper in town possesses these same facts. The veteran who 
 " scoops " the town has a surer berth upon the staff than the col- 
 lege graduate who applies impressive English to a commonplace 
 occurrence. 
 
 Note. For practical suggestions on methods of news gathering, the student is 
 referred to the Appendix. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 TYPES OF NEWS STORIES 
 
 Recent developments in the making of the Sunday newspaper, 
 that compendium of elaborately written news stories and special 
 articles, combined with a large bulk of Sunday adver- 
 speciais and tising, have opened up new avenues for the gifted 
 ea ures newspaper man. So insistent has become the demand 
 on the part of the reading public for a paper that furnishes enter- 
 tainment as well as information that almost every newspaper of 
 prominence is making an effort to give its clientele the kind 
 of porridge it relishes most. Much of this appetite has been 
 cultivated, of course, with the instincts of curiosity and physical 
 sensation as basic influences. 
 
 Tlie Sunday supplement, as it is called, requires brains and 
 personality in its making. Its province is all that is timely, new, 
 and strange in the world of to-day. For the compilation and proper 
 treatment of such episodes the office of the Sunday editor has been 
 created. It is he who superintends the making of the " Sunday 
 special," a type of story which depends upon an attractive presen- 
 tation by means of lively, stylistic effects and through more or less 
 realistic illustrations of events and people vitally interesting to the 
 public. In Sunday feature matter there is little chance for the 
 worn-out theme. Six days each week it is the business of this 
 editor to plan original features for the paper or to cull from the 
 great mass of manuscript coming into his office that part which 
 seems to him to suit the needs of the Sunday magazine. Not a few 
 of these special stories are written by the daily reporters themselves, 
 for these men probably know better than any one else the kind of 
 story desired. The task of the Sunday editor, however, is by no 
 means an ^asy one. He must strive for variety in subject matter 
 and diversity of form. Indeed, his position depends upon his skill 
 in giving this section the novel, picturesque stamp of individuality. 
 
 57 
 
58 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Possibly the best way to make clear the wide range of the Sunday 
 supplement in its weekly treatment of unusual incidents is to detail 
 the contents of one of the best of the Sunday magazine sections. 
 A recent number of the New York IVor/d contains a " literary " 
 section made up of the following special articles, most of them rather 
 gaudily illustrated. The first page is given over to an article on 
 " The First Pictures of the Tree of Life," as found on the mysteri- 
 ous seal cylinders of Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, and the Hittites. 
 Other articles are as follows: "My Visit to Brazil, the Biggest 
 Republic," by William Jennings Bryan ; " The Odd ' Turn- About ' 
 of White Girls and Indians" ; "What Alcohol does to the Brain," 
 by Dr. Johann Starke ; " The Puzzle of Inter-Racial Marriages " ; 
 "If YOU trained like Jeffries" ; "A Feast of Pythons" ; "Turtles 
 and Gazelles " ; "Queer Things Nature does " ; " The Questions 
 of Summer Drinks"; "An Interview with Sir John Falstaff " ; 
 Music — " I Love a Yankee Doodle Girl " ; " Stage Beauties of 
 To-day" ; " New York and the Rest of the Country," by Marie 
 Dressier. 
 
 It will readily be seen that the editor of such a section has made 
 an attempt to tempt the palate of all kinds and conditions of people. 
 There is plenty of amusement and plenty of solid information, while 
 not a few of the stories might be called ultra-sensational. Distin- 
 guished men have been secured as authors of several of these page 
 " features " because of the added force given by their signatures. 
 Indeed a semblance of authority always gives the Sunday article 
 greater weight. 
 
 Without discussing the ethics of the Sunday magazine in its 
 exploitation of manufactured news in impossible settings, it may be 
 noted that this type of weekly publication seems to show increasing 
 signs of popularity. Not a few of the large metropolitan papers make 
 considerable money in syndicating these magazine pages to smaller 
 newspapers throughout the country. Many newspaper men, too, are 
 writing Sunday "features" exclusively and are bringing to their 
 making keen observation of interesting places and people and a 
 fascinating method of making these interesting to other people. 
 Perhaps the most literary of all of these Sunday sections is the 
 New York S//;i, which publishes every week page after page of 
 
TYPES OF NEWS STORIES 
 
 59 
 
 bright, readable material — dependent more upon real events than 
 upon sensational episodes that may or may not have a basis in 
 reality. 
 
 The "feature story" is not so pretentious a type, but its place is 
 secure in almost every paper that desires to reach its readers. .The 
 " feature story " depends upon its timeliness and its seasonability to 
 give it place in the newspaper column. Frequently it is illustrated, 
 especially in the case of the United Press chain of newspapers, which 
 . makes a specialty of these " features," published usually on the edi- 
 torial page. Summer will bring its peculiar style of story. Some 
 new fad will give direction to another. An event in political circles 
 will furnish the text for still another type. The success of the writer 
 of " feature " matter depends upon his skill in selecting the person, 
 the episode, or the event having a real and immediate interest or 
 inciting insatiable curiosity on the part of the reading public. These 
 types of stories were formerly published almost exclusively in the 
 Sunday paper, but now they are making inroads into the daily. 
 This is especially true if they possess a considerable portion of 
 news value and a degree of '' up-to-dateness." 
 
 The following story may be sufficient to make clear how a ''fea- 
 ture" is worked up for the benefit of readers who delight in strange 
 experiences, breezily told. The story is concerned with the adven- 
 ture of a newspaper man in a racing car, traveling around a track 
 at the rate of more than a mile a minute. To use the expression of 
 the man who wrote it, '' It 's chock full of thrills." 
 
 A 'mile in 58 seconds i That is at the rate of more than 62 miles an hour. 
 
 Whirling around the oval with Louis Chevrolet at a speed only a few seconds 
 more than that of the fastest track mile ever negotiated — how does it feel ? 
 
 Well, like most other experiences in which you take your life in one hand 
 and your curiosity in the other and juggle them to see which will come out on 
 top, it is over so quickly that you have to think twice in rapid succession to be 
 sure just how you felt. 
 
 Chevrolet, who won the Cobe trophy, was out at the Columbus Driving 
 park yesterday afternoon getting his racer accommodated to the turns in the 
 track so as to be able to keep just a few lengths ahead of all the other fast 
 fellows who will dispute with him for first honors today and tomorrow. 
 
 Chevrolet made the remark that it was the fastest and finest track he had 
 ever driven on. He was delighted. 
 
6o ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 NO TIME TO GET GOGGLES 
 
 "You would like a turn over the tracks, yes, no?" said the big, husky 
 Chevrolet, as he momentarily removed his goggles, just to show that he has 
 big, sunny brown eyes. 
 
 The reporter said " yes." What else could he say? 
 
 Chevrolet made room for him on the only other seat that these racing 
 machines have. The mechanic, who rides with the driver in all races, had 
 disappeared. Then the " turn " was on and — over with. 
 
 There is no time even to get a pair of goggles. An obliging friend takes 
 your cap off and feverses it, jamming it down over your forehead with the 
 shield out behind, explaining that you are more apt to have it on your head 
 when you come back. Another acquaintance advises you to button your coat. 
 After you come back you wish you hadn't, for laundry is cheaper than dry 
 cleaning a suit, and anyone who has ridden with a racer must go somewhere 
 for renovation after it is over. 
 
 Chevrolet says nothing. For, with Chevrolet, to make a mile in less than 
 a minute is almost an every-day occurrence. Then, just because you are going 
 out with this man to jog a few miles, all your friends respectfully retire to 
 the rail and get out their stop watches. 
 
 EYES ARE RAINING TEARS 
 
 You take your seat. It is not an uncomfortable seat. It is low down, close 
 to the ground. The great, panting engines loom in front of you and come 
 quite to your chest as you sit in the narrow seat. There is nothing but the 
 floor for your feet — no rod to brace against, no handles to hold on to. 
 
 There is no preliminary jogging, no warming up for a mile or two. Away 
 from the judge's stand, as soon as the engines are at work, you strike the first 
 turn. You are not completely under way, as such things go with a 6o-mile-an- 
 hour car, and the driver takes the turn high. Then down the back stretch 
 you go. 
 
 The first sensation you get, as clutching your seat firmly you try to see just 
 how much you can see while cavorting along at cannon ball speed, is the reali- 
 zation that your eyes are raining tears. You do not experience any particular 
 sorrow, but if all your friends, and enemies, too, had suddenly departed this 
 life, you couldn't weep any more copiously or any saltier tears. 
 
 The great engines thunder in your ears. You are conscious of a seemingly 
 impassive, but really intensely alert, big fellow sitting by your side, smoking 
 a cigaret and watching. Oh, how he watches that track ahead of you ! 
 
 RUN INTO FENCE — NO 
 
 Before you have thought this all out you are at the second turn. Is he 
 driving straight at the inside fence? You feel sure he is. Only two feet away 
 it seems. You have no realizing sense of the terrific pace at which you are 
 
TYPES OF NEWS STORIES 6l 
 
 traveling. You feel an uneasy lurch of the rear wheels. You know that a 
 terrible cloud of dust is trailing behind you. Nearer the fence comes, and 
 then again those back wheels slip ever so litde and you do not strike it. A 
 glorious sense of self-security, half recklessness, half confidence, comes over 
 you and you think you would not be so very scared if you did hit the fence, 
 for it looks like nothing but a pasteboard fence. In your saner moments you 
 know that it is made of two-inch deal boards, with oak posts at frequent 
 intervals, but one can hardly be quite sane when going 60 miles an hour 
 for the first time in his life. 
 
 But you don't hit the fence. That is exactly the point. You whirl by the 
 grand stand. A couple of hundred onlookers are there, but you neither see 
 nor hear. This time the turn is negotiated very close to the pole. 
 
 TORRID BLAST OF DESERT 
 
 The hard, white track rolls beneath you as smooth as a billiard table. As 
 you tear on through the smoky air you meet the dust you raised on your first 
 round. You are being splattered with oil. Your face burns with the intensity 
 of the wind, driven like the torrid blasts of the desert against your unaccus- 
 tomed skin. Your eyes, your ears, your nose are filling with dust. So would 
 your mouth if you were fool enough to open it. 
 
 Again that awful turn. Your eyes bulge out of you as you try to see every- 
 thing, take in every sensadon, analyze your emodons as they are recorded on 
 a mile-a-minute cyclometer. You pass another car going 30 miles an hour and 
 it might as well have been nailed to the track for all the progress it seems to 
 be making. Yet out in the open, in quiet, slow, old Columbus, inconsiderate 
 cops have been known to " pinch " a man for driving his car 10 miles slower 
 than the 30. 
 
 After the second mile you do not notice your own sensadons so much. You 
 observe that the air is getting smokier and dustier with each round. You begin 
 to notice the slight yet powerful motions of the wrist whereby the driver brings 
 his car to answer his slightest move and always to avoid that horrible, ever- 
 approaching, ever-receding fence. Slowly you begin to conceive a sort of awe 
 for the man who can do all that. 
 
 HEART DRUMMING FAST 
 
 There is a 60-horsepower engine hurling two beings through space at a 
 rate that would take a man to Cincinnati in two hours. Four rubber tires are 
 all that are between you and destruction. Death lurks at every turn. The 
 man who is at the wheel is everywhere advertised as the '' death-defying " 
 Chevrolet. Yet he is calm, cool and collected. His impassivity equals that 
 of a college professor at a game of chess. One hairsbreadth, one waver, one 
 uncertainty and you, he and that car would be hurled into a ditch, probably 
 into eternity. It has happened so before this many times and oft. 
 
62 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Soon the only question in your mind, after having become partially 
 assured that you will not hit the fence, is just how long you could hold out 
 on this experience. Your heart is drumming at a great rate. Every muscle is 
 drawn and tense. And just as you begin to wonder, the driver shuts off the 
 power, glances over his shoulder and you get the first genuine scare of the 
 trip. For, when the machine has quieted down to a modest 25 or 30 miles 
 an hour, which it does in a surprisingly short time, he turns her nose sharply 
 about and the back wheels skid most alarmingly. You had made up your mind 
 that you could stand it to run, head on, at 60 miles an hour and hit the fence, 
 but to back into it without seeing it at a measly 25-mile gait, that would be a 
 humiliation. 
 
 MUSCLES ALL ATREMBLE 
 
 But you are not in for a humiliation. The car stops at exactly the right time. 
 
 You get out. You feel your knees knocking together and every muscle in 
 your body trembles. It is not fear, nor yet relief; it is a plain, prosaic case of 
 acquired vibration. The muscles of your body and your nerves do not stop as 
 soon as the engines of the auto are shut down. 
 
 Friends rush up to you. A thousand questions are fired at you. You 
 might almost be Browning's hero, who " Brought the good news to Aix." 
 Your pulses thrill with the exhilaration of hero worship. You have achieved 
 something ; you are some one ; you have ridden with Chevrolet. 
 
 "How are you, old man?" "How did it feel.''" "Glad you went?" 
 "Wouldn't have missed it, would you?" "Sick?" "Tired?" "Were you 
 afraid?" and hundreds of others are shot at you. Being a momentary hero 
 you' rise to the occasion, say modestly but firmly, " Great," mop the perspira- 
 tion, oil and dust from your features, smile and make for the nearest place to 
 wash your face. 
 
 And it is "great" — it really is — to ride a mile with Chevrolet, when all 
 the stop watches of your friends along the fence say "58 seconds flat." 
 
 It may not be amiss, by way of conclusion, to speak briefly of 
 the work of trained " feature " writers who are doing discriminating 
 work on the various magazines. One magazine, in particular, is 
 almost entirely made up of the contributions of newspaper men 
 and women employed on a metropolitan " yellow journal." At the 
 same time other magazines which pride themselves on reliability 
 are treating contemporaneous problems with honesty and care. 
 More time is taken for the collection and assembling of the facts 
 than is possible in the newspaper office and conclusions are not so 
 hastily deduced. Newspaper men, fresh from the newspaper office, 
 are doing splendid work, however, in making these magazines of 
 
TYPES OF NEWS STORIES 6^ 
 
 men and events capable exponents of all that is significant in 
 present-day life. Apropos of these higher journalistic standards, 
 Samuel S. McClure, editor of J\[cClure s Magarjinc, said recently 
 in an address on the '' Making of a Magazine " : 
 
 In magazine writing one must seek first for accuracy and understandability. 
 This means accuracy in fact, color and tendency. The magazine writer must 
 always keep in the middle of his facts, he should never get ahead of or behind 
 them. 
 
 It rarely ever happens that the person who knows the most about a thing 
 is able to write. Engineers, explorers and heroes are often at a loss when they 
 try to tell intelligibly about what they've discovered or done. 
 
 Every article that appears in McClure's is worked over patiently and thor- 
 oughly by the four members of my staff. Often a magazine article of from 
 six to eight pages will require three or four months of hard work to complete. 
 Work on our present series of articles on the White Slave Traffic was 
 commenced three years ago. 
 
 Editor and writer must always write for the people- who don't agree with 
 them. You must always be able to prove more than you claim — or else, 
 claim less. 
 
 Editing is really a series of creative acts. It should be an editor's ambition 
 to give to the world his expression of opinion as to the more serious events 
 of the nation. A journalist can prostitute his ability as well as an artist who 
 paints, not what he believes, but what will sell. Just as a woman is ruined 
 when she loses her virtue, so is a journalist ruined when he is false to his 
 ideals of true journalism. 
 
 The journalist must know men and the motives that move them to do both 
 good and evil. 0/ie intense passion for truth, truth before all else, should 
 dominate Jiini. 
 
 Much has already been said of the reporter as a news gatherer, 
 but it is to the police department that great credit is due in the 
 The "police gathering of information regarding suicides, murders, 
 story" misdemeanors, fires, and petty crimes. These get into 
 
 the paper because of the watchfulness of the police and because 
 of the trained news sense of the police reporter stationed at 
 headquarters or at the substations. 
 
 In order to understand how the reporter works in cooperation 
 with the police it is necessary to discuss the organization of the 
 police department and the methods of keeping in touch with hap- 
 penings all over the city. Without taking any particular munici- 
 pality into consideration it is sufficient to say that the police 
 
64 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 department is usually under the direction of a chief of police who 
 has supervision over the captains and sergeants in the various dis- 
 tricts. In most cities the headquarters' office is connected with all 
 the districts by telephone, reports coming in from patrolmen at 
 stated intervals. The officer in charge, therefore, is in direct touch 
 with every part of the town. When a robbery or an altercation 
 occurs the patrolman sends in a report to the headquarters' office 
 or to the nearest station in his district, in many cases asking that 
 a patrol wagon be sent for a prisoner in his custody. Reports of 
 such a nature, together with any complaints, are placed upon the 
 police ''blotter," a large ruled book which gives a brief summary 
 of any accident, crime, suicide, or sudden occurrence, perhaps after 
 this fashion : 
 
 District 28, 11:45 a.m., James Robinson, 48, #214 W. Lin- 
 wood Ave., fell from scaffold while painting smokestack. Taken 
 to St. Francis Hospital in city ambulance No. 2. Will die. 
 Sheets, Sergeant. 
 
 Many police departments give reporters free access to the blotter ; 
 others issue bulletins which contain only the news the chief of 
 police wishes divulged. Many tips of excellent stories never reach 
 the reporters because premature publication would put suspected 
 criminals on their guard ; reporters guard confidentially the facts 
 of other stories until arrests are made. The public often has the 
 conviction that the city is unmolested by criminals whereas news 
 items of burglaries and holdups are being withheld by the police. 
 
 To the experienced news gatherer the police station blotter is 
 crowded with possible stories. Behind the commonplace accident 
 often lurks a striking cause or a round of mystery waiting for his 
 investigation . I nstincti vely he sees his one report and passes another, 
 but he is responsible for any story he neglects to handle. In some 
 instances, police departments allow reporters to talk to the patrol- 
 men when they call up from their districts, if such conversation is 
 not too prolonged. In other instances the reporter must establish a 
 first-hand connection with the source of news. Suppose, as an ex- 
 ample, that a patrolman discovers a fire after midnight. He sends in 
 an alarm from the nearest fire-alarm box, then gathers all possible 
 
TYPES OF NEWS STORIES 65 
 
 information regarding the origin of the fire, the owners of the prop- 
 erties, and the probable loss, not neglecting to do what he can in 
 the way of rescue. If the fire is in a crowded business, residence, 
 or tenement district, the alarm will bring the police patrol and a 
 squad of patrolmen to guard against accident. A second alarm 
 brings out the reserves and more fire apparatus to fight the flames. 
 In most cases reporters do not respond to the first alarm, confident 
 that the report gathered by the department will cover the facts suf- 
 ficiently, if indeed the fire need be reported at all in the papers. 
 When the second alarm sounds, however, the alert newspaper man 
 is face to face with one of the hardest and most exciting tasks that 
 can come to him. Sometimes he may jump on the patrol wagon and 
 be rushed to the scene on a " hurry-run," not infrequently cabs and 
 street cars are mustered into service ; but he must get there. The 
 firemen must be consulted, the patrolmen questioned, and the occu- 
 pants of the building interviewed in an attempt to arrive at the 
 cause and the attending circumstances. To gain admission through 
 the fire lines, police reporters carry either a police badge marked 
 " Reporter" or a card signed by the proper officials, which gives 
 them authority to enter the zone of danger in the search of news. 
 Much of the news collected is telephoned to the office, where it 
 is written by other hands. 
 
 The accompanying story of a fire, clipped from the New York 
 World, is a good example of this kind of reporting. Necessarily the 
 newspaper man who covered the story was himself on the scene of 
 conflagration and must have talked with firemen, patrolmen, and 
 spectators in the gathering of the facts. The fire is worth a place 
 on the first page of the World because of the heroism of Fireman 
 James McGrath, who risked his life to rescue a cripple and two 
 little children. The story follows : 
 
 Twice within an hour last night Hook and Ladder Company No. 54 of 
 Brooklyn had to respond to dangerous tenement-house fires, and at each place 
 Fireman James McGrath of that company distinguished himself for bravery. He 
 effected the rescue of a helpless old man and two little children, death threatening 
 him while he did his work. 
 
 Five hundred men, women and children, huddled before the house at No. 
 148 Grand street, peered aloft through the smoke with straining eyes, and 
 cheered McGrath as he swung four stories high from one window to another on 
 
66 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 a sagging, rusty-hinged old shutter, dived into a cloud of blinding smoke, and 
 dragged crippled, sixty-year-old Sebastian Kempf out upon the sill, and stood 
 there with the old man in his arms in the swirling, choking smoke until other 
 firemen ran a ladder up and brought both down to safety. 
 
 With his aged wife, Kempf lived in top floor rooms. There are eight fam- 
 ilies in the house. Mrs. Kempf was preparing supper at an oil stove when it 
 exploded. Flaming oil shot all over the little room. The aged woman ran into 
 the hallway screaming for help. The other families fled out of the house in 
 confusion. 
 
 FOUGHT HIS WAY INTO HOUSE 
 
 Mrs. Kempf w^as appealing to the men half incoherently when the Hook 
 and Ladder company arrived. McGrath caught the old woman by the arm 
 and learned of her helpless husband in the room above. 
 
 Armed with an axe, he went up through the smoke. But when he tried to 
 get into the room where Kempf was smoke was so thick he had to turn back. 
 But he hacked his way into the adjoining apartment out of line of the draught 
 and got out on the window sill. He abandoned his axe and clutched the 
 shutter with both hands. It creaked dangerously and some in the crowd 
 yelled up : 
 
 " For God's sake, don't try it ! It will come down with you." 
 
 But McGrath did try it and gained the other window sill. Then he went in 
 after Kempf and brought him out. The old man was taken to the Williams- 
 burg Hospital. So also was Joseph Burns, a fireman, struck on the head by 
 a falling axe handle. 
 
 Forty minutes later, the hook and ladder company rushed to No. 303 Kent 
 avenue, also a four-story house. It was opposite the Havemeyer sugar refinery, 
 where there is now a strike. 
 
 CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND 
 
 McGrath, his face, hands, and uniform still bearing the stains of the other 
 fire, was told by Mrs. Bella Bargo that her two children, James and Joseph, 
 three and five years old, had been lost while following her through the smoke 
 beclouded hallways while she ran ahead with her smallest child in her arms. 
 The fireman went up in search of the children and found them unconscious in 
 the third floor corridor. He caught up a child under each arm and started back. 
 But the smoke strangled him and flames were shooting across the lower stair- 
 ways. So he turned and fought his way upward toward the roof. 
 
 Four or five times he fell with his burdens, but in the end he brought the 
 two little boys out on the roof and was able to cross to an adjoining house. 
 Then he carried the youngsters to the street and restored them to their mother. 
 
 At the same fire a bereaved father and mother had staggered and fought 
 their way through the smoke to save from incineration the corpse of their baby 
 daughter which they bore to the street in her coffin. 
 
TYPES OF NEWS STORIES 67 
 
 The report of a suicide or of a murder which reaches head- 
 quarters through the channel of some patrolman also furnishes an 
 opportunity for a detailed story, depending, of course, upon the 
 circumstances and the prominence of the people involved. Here, 
 for instance, is a story that came through the police department. 
 The reporter has taken advantage of the " tip " and has worked 
 up, from the meager outline originally received, the following 
 story taken from the New York Times: 
 
 Weary of the heat of his tenement home in East Fourteenth Street, and 
 despairing of being able to find work in any of the city tanneries, Charles 
 Schmidt, a middle-aged leather worker, went up to Washington Bridge yester- 
 day and walked out on it from the i8ist Street approach till he reached the 
 first embrasure over the grassbordered Speedway. There he seated himself 
 on the parapet, so that his feet dangled over the driveway, 1 50 feet below, and 
 put three bullets from a heavy revolver into his heart. 
 
 All three bullets, according to an ambulance doctor, who examined the man 
 afterward, passed through the heart, and he must have died instantly. Toppling 
 from the high parapet, his body startled scores of Speedway folk and Harlem 
 River boatmen as it hurtled down to the green turf which borders the drive- 
 way. A drop of red even splashed a novel which a young woman, seated on 
 one of the benches in the shadow of the tall graystone bridge, was reading. 
 Looking up and seeing the dead leather worker's body rolling over and over 
 down the grassy slope toward her, the woman fainted. 
 
 For the last four years Schmidt, with his wife and mother-in-law, had lived 
 on the top floor of the tenement at 436 East Fourteenth Street. Schmidt 
 seemed hard hit when, just about the time the hot weather began, the tannery 
 in which he worked laid off some of its men, and he found himself out of work. 
 He went to other tanneries, but they, too, were laying off men. The savings 
 of the Schmidts began to dwindle. Then the hot wave of the last week came, 
 and Schmidt began to complain that the heat of the cramped tenement rooms 
 was more than he could bear. 
 
 Telling his wife that he was going to make another attempt to find work, 
 he left his rooms at about 7 o'clock yesterday morning. What he did during 
 the next few hours no one knows. But at a few minutes before noon he was 
 seen walking west from Amsterdam Avenue along 181st Street toward the 
 bridge. 
 
 The sun was so hot on the shadowless bridge that it was deserted. There 
 was no one to stop him, therefore, when the man prepared for death by 
 removing his coat, waistcoat, collar, and shirt, placing them on a bench. 
 
 Mounted Policeman William Lewis on the Speedway heard the shots, and 
 started to gallop toward the bridge even before Schmidt's body reached the 
 ground. 
 
68 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Lewis summoned Dr. Dworetsky from the Washington Heights Hospital, 
 but he could only pronounce the man dead. 
 
 Schmidt's body was taken to the West 15 2d Street Police Station, and 
 there was identified through the receipt of a registered letter in one of the 
 pockets. It was taken to the Morgue, but will be buried by his wife. There 
 was only 42 cents in Schmidt's pockets, and the clothing was much worn. 
 
 The leather worker was a man of powerful physique, and Dr. Dworetsky 
 called attention to the fact that he had been able to fire three bullets through 
 his heart, although the first might have been expected to bring instant death. 
 
 In the case of accidents or attempted suicides the reporter must 
 keep in touch with hospitals and physicians. The best method is 
 to visit them personally or to send a young reporter to find out 
 the condition of the injured and the injury. In every emergency 
 encountered on the police run the cooperation of friends in the 
 department or hospital is almost indispensable. Most patrolmen 
 relish the idea of having their names in print, especially if they 
 are associated with some daring rescue or arrest. The reporter 
 should take advantage of such instincts and should see to it that 
 these patrolmen get deserved recognition, without abusing their 
 confidence. At times, grouchy, tight-mouthed officials will be en- 
 countered. It is a class difficult to deal with, but some attempt 
 should be made to win their confidence even if friendship is out 
 of the question. 
 
 Another fertile field of news allied with the police department 
 is the magistrate's court. Here during the day appear lawyers, 
 detectives, criminals, and suspects. Many a good "feature" 
 awaits the curious reporter. In some cities the culprit is led up 
 upon the "bridge" in front of the court room, facing the magis- 
 trate as he tells his story. Reporters are admitted behind the rail 
 and can usually pick up a good story or two from the remarks of 
 witness or culprit. Detectives also often give valuable tips which 
 lead to the unearthing of numerous stories. The bugaboo of a 
 libel suit intimidates many reporters, for in not a few instances 
 accusations of crime are found upon investigation to be not 
 warranted by the facts. 
 
 Many are the little touches of comedy and tragedy revealing 
 themselves in a crowded court room filled with eager spectators 
 and with a polyglot assortment of humanity. These glimpses of 
 
TYPES OF NEWS STORIES 69 
 
 human nature are worth infinitely more than the dull recital 
 of petty crimes, and most papers take advantage of them. The 
 following item, clipped from the New York Siui, is typical of 
 this type of newspaper story : 
 
 As Sadie Herman was passing on her way to the Essex Market police court 
 yesterday the East Side paused, held up its hands in amazement, decided she 
 was paying off a bet on the fight, and went on its sticky way. 
 
 Sadie was a most correct imitation of an animated feather duster. Feathers 
 were in her ears, her eyes, her nose ; she frequently stopped to free her mouth 
 of them or to scratch her back where they tickled. 
 
 She was on her way to court to complain against Mrs. Beckie Cohen, who 
 lives on the fifth floor of 87 Allen street, two flights above Sadie Berman. 
 Yesterday morning, it seems, Mrs. Cohen threw dust out of her window 
 which fluttered down and begrimed Sadie's wash. When Sadie remonstrated 
 Mrs. Cohen cut a feather pillow and dumped the contents full in her face as 
 she leaned out the window. 
 
 Magistrate O'Connor reprimanded Mrs. Cohen and then discharged her. 
 
 Here is another brief story, also to be credited to the Siui, which 
 brings in a bit of testimony and acquires a degree of interest through 
 its method of treatment : 
 
 Ralph E. Darling of W'est Orange, N. J., one of Thomas A. Edison's 
 assistants, was in the Yorkville police court yesterday on a charge of running 
 an automobile on Fifth avenue last Friday night at the rate of twenty-five 
 miles an hour. 
 
 " I was trying out Mr. Edison's new electric battery for automobiles,'' the 
 prisoner said to Magistrate Krotel. " I don't know how fast I was going but 
 the policeman is doubtless right about the speed." 
 
 '' Ever arrested before in this State for breaking the speed law ? '' asked 
 the Court. 
 
 '' No, sir." 
 
 '' I'll fine you #5." 
 
 Darling said that the new Edison battery would permit automobiles to run 
 more than twice the usual distance without recharging. As the battery is 
 made of nickel and iron instead of lead it will last indefinitely. 
 
 With the modern newspaper's broader outlook on life and 
 keener zest for human values, the human-interest story has taken 
 an enlarged place in the columns of the journal that would appeal 
 to a diversified range of sympathies. Most newspaper men recog- 
 nize the genus and are eager to print as many of these silhouettes 
 
70 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 of men and of things as possible ; there are a few, however, who 
 refuse to consider the "human-interest story," on the ground that it 
 -^ ,,^ is not news, not even '"near-news" narrowly defined. 
 
 The "human- ^ ' -^ 
 
 interest Several conservative editors are afraid of it because of 
 
 ^*°^^ its overexploitation by the '"yellow journal," which 
 
 delights in the delineation of an emotion that brings tears and 
 heart throbs by striking a common chord. 
 
 The difficulty with the so-called human-interest story lies in the 
 fact that it is illusive to define. Must it be founded in fact or 
 may it be fashioned from the imagination, furnishing a kinship to 
 literature itself because of its deeper appeal to human sympathies ? 
 Can it in any sense be considered as news ? Among editors there 
 is surprising diversity of opinion as to the worth of such a story. 
 The different estimates may be illustrated by an example. The 
 accompanying story was published on the first page of the New 
 York Sufi, which is sufficient evidence that the editor thought it 
 " good stuff." When the clipping was shown to five or six repre- 
 sentative editors in the Middle West with a request for professional 
 judgment, one editor declared he would not use it at all, another 
 consigned it to a back page, still another would use it as " filler," 
 and the rest put it in the miscellany column. This is the story : 
 
 A short woman wearing a white shirtwaist and a hat with three apples on 
 it grabbed by the neck a chunky young man who held a ticket in his right 
 hand in the waiting room of the Lackawanna Railroad station in Hoboken at 
 5:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon and screamed " Give me my ticket ! " 
 
 " Gug-gug-gug," gasped the gagged stranger as he struggled to release her grip. 
 
 The station cop went to the man's rescue and gently inquired what the 
 rumpus was all about. 
 
 " He's got my ticket," said the woman. 
 
 " I haven't," growled the man. " I paid for it and it's mine." 
 
 "Well, it looks Hke mine," explained the woman. "It's the same shape 
 and color. I put it in my bag, which I placed on the seat and I saw him 
 walk away from it." 
 
 " Why don't you look in your bag and make sure.? " suggested the cop. 
 
 The woman took a peek and found her ticket. 
 
 " Men shouldn't carry their tickets in their hands," said the policeman as 
 he backed away from the backing woma«i and backing man. 
 
 So far as news of an informational nature is concerned, this 
 story has practically none ; but to the editor of the Su;i it was an 
 
TYPES OF NEWS STORIES 
 
 71 
 
 incident worth recording because he thought it would bring a rip- 
 ple of amusement and perhaps call forth a masculine remark after 
 this fashion: ''Just like a woman." The story intrinsically does 
 deserve a place because it awakens laughter and makes the whole 
 world kin by one touch of comedy. It may be called a simon- 
 pure human-interest story. Many similar " features " are published 
 under such headings as " Little Tales of the Street and Town." 
 Here is one, for instance, that caused considerable comment at 
 the time of publication : 
 
 Floriculture, fairest of all arts, has received a severe set-back in West Seventh 
 avenue at the hands of a maiden fair. There is much mourning thereat, but 
 considerably more laughter. This is the story. 
 
 It was in the early days of the merry springtime when the Green Thing 
 made its appearance in the backyard. It was an unusual horticultural wonder 
 with slender green leaves and a soft fragrance. The fair florist discovered the 
 Green Thing as she tarried in her garden one morning making holes in 
 the moist earth with a trowel. That tender slip became her one joy. She 
 watered it every morning, she fed it with coffee-grounds, she warmed it with 
 her smiles. And the Green Thing grew and flourished. 
 
 " It is a Chinese lily of a very rare species," quoth the maiden, " some day 
 it will bloom." 
 
 So she kept on tending it. And all the time the Green Thing got higher 
 and higher and bigger and bigger and its fragrance could be discerned afar off. 
 
 Last week the blow fell. The maiden had gone out into her garden with 
 trowel and sprinkling-can to attend the Green Thing. But when she got there 
 she beheld no tender blades pushing their way through the dark mould. Dis- 
 rupted and forlorn upon the ground lay the Green Thing. The maiden looked 
 once, then burst into tinkling laughter. 
 
 The Green Thing, which she had cherished so lovingly from day to day, 
 was nothing more than a large, full-grown Onion. 
 
 Other forms of the "human-interest" feature introduce more 
 of the news element by the use of real people as actors in some 
 characteristic adventure. The concrete facts and the semblance of 
 authenticity will give the story a value aside from its emotional 
 appeal. As a bit of useful information the following story is 
 worth very little — it is only as the ingredient of human interest is 
 worked into it that it gets two hundred and fifty words and large 
 headlines in the New York Herald. The story is published with 
 the head intact, for this often strikes the tone and is in itself a 
 criterion of the value of the story : 
 
72 KSSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 GOOD STORY, BUT THE END IS SAD 
 
 Told in Broadway, It Shocks Two Women and Teller Goes to 
 
 Police Station. 
 
 In the pastoral environment of Broadway and Thirtieth street there stood 
 last night two men. he who had bought the dinner and he who had partaken 
 of the same, the latter listening patiently. After the party of the second part 
 had laughed himself almost into apoplexy his obdurate entertainer asked him : — 
 
 " Did you ever hear the story about the man that " — 
 
 Then followed the story, but the story did not last long. 
 
 Two women who were passing ran up to Policeman Eckstadt and demanded 
 that he arrest the raconteur. They did not know he had been engaged in story 
 telling, but they had heard the text of his discourse and certain words he had 
 employed had fallen harshly on their ears. 
 
 They told the policeman that they were Mrs. Rose Hydecker, of No. 64 
 Anderson street, Bayonne, and Miss Grace Stern, of No. 533 Court street, 
 Brooklyn. Shocked by the language, they urged the policeman to arrest the user. 
 The latter, who said he was William W. Russell, of No. 70 Kilby street, Boston, 
 thought so well of his little story that he tried to tell it to the policeman on his 
 way to the West Thirtieth street police station. His audience went with him. 
 
 At the station house the women were joined by Mr. Hydecker. Toward 
 Mr. Hydecker Mr. Russell looked with a look which seemed to mean that 
 throwing out the life line would be appreciated. After a talk with Mrs. Hydecker, 
 Mr. Hydecker persuaded the police to let Mr. Russell, the scintillating story 
 teller, go his way. 
 
 " I wouldn't offend anybody," said Mr. Russell, '' and I didn't see the 
 women at all when I came to the point of the story. And, believe me, that is 
 some story." 
 
 " Which.? " asked the patient audience. 
 
 " That one," said Mr. Russell, '' about the man who " — 
 
 It will be observed that this story mingles two elements, one 
 which entertains, another which informs, with probably the greater 
 emphasis on the episode itself. There are many such stories in 
 which it is difficult to draw the line between pure human interest 
 and news itself, yet readability is assured. The accompanying story 
 appeared in the Cleveland Plaiii Dealer and was telegraphed 
 from New York. It is clear Cleveland people had little interest 
 in the names of the participants in this spirited conflict ; but the 
 episode was so crowded with excitement and unique features that 
 
TYPES OF NEWS STORIES 73 
 
 it usurps the place of matter-of-fact news. As such it received 
 a double column head and a place on the first page. 
 
 New York, May 23. — The pet cat was in the kitchen of Fay's restaurant 
 at 255 W. I25th-st. tonight, shortly after 8 o'clock, when the cook's helper 
 placed on the floor a basket of lobsters he had just taken from the storeroom. 
 A lobster crawled out of the basket and the cat jumped for it. 
 
 The lobster was indignant when a paw struck the shell. The big claw fast- 
 ened on the cat's tail. Emitting ear splitting wails the cat raced upstairs and 
 into the dining room. 
 
 Miss Rose Leland of 516 W. I79th-st. had brought her Boston terrier Gus 
 to the restaurant. He was tied to her chair. 
 
 When the terrier saw the cat and the lobster he got busy. So did the lob- 
 ster. The dog made for the cat. The lobster grabbed him by the hind leg. 
 Howling, the dog made a jump and pulled the chair from under Miss Leland. 
 She screamed as she fell ; then she fainted. 
 
 William Mollin, the head waiter, ran up when he heard the scream. Cat, 
 dog and lobster got tangled up with Mollin's feet and threw him. Then the 
 dog got to snapping and the cat to scratching, while the lobster just hung on. 
 
 The restaurant was in an uproar. Every person had something to suggest. 
 No two suggestions were alike. One man thought the police reserves should 
 be called out. 
 
 *' Get a cannon," shouted somebody. '' Turn on the hose," came from 
 another. '' Get an ax," cried a third. '' Give that lobster a medal," suggested 
 a girl. 
 
 Manager Louis Bernard got a club and when he found a chance to use it 
 he persuaded the lobster to let go, A physician revived Miss Leland and the 
 cat went upstairs. 
 
 Up to this point the discussion has been centered upon stories in 
 which the news element is subordinated to the appeal to the feel- 
 ings. In many instances, however, it is the touch of nature, the 
 human-interest phase, that converts an episode into a capital news 
 story. Reporters in a certain inland city are still telling a story of 
 a wee slip of a girl, just eleven years old, who lay suffering on a 
 hospital bed, gilding the whiteness of the pillow with her curls. 
 Her father and mother had become estranged, separated ; but news 
 of the critical condition of the child brought them together at the 
 deathbed. A reconciliation ensued. It was a story with a direct 
 emotional appeal through the selection of details designed to awaken 
 parental instincts, and yet the reporter kept well within the facts. 
 The story is heightened as news because of the human interest. 
 
74 
 
 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 The fact of the matter is that it is this indefinable element of 
 sentiment, this saving salt of emotional appeal, that thrusts many 
 episodes into the province of news. The moment names are in- 
 cluded and local applications made, that moment the story ceases 
 to be an imaginative possibility and becomes a gripping actuality. 
 Here are two such stories, evidently written by the same man, which 
 show how human-interest episodes become news by reason of the 
 unique character of the episodes themselves and of the people 
 most concerned in them : 
 
 $20 PUMPED OUT OF DOG OH, CRUEL, CRUEL WORLD! 
 
 Terrier Swallows Bank Note, but 
 Gives It Up Again, 
 
 YouNGST(3WN, May 30. — The 
 fragments of a $20 bill, which was 
 swallowed by a fox terrier belonging 
 to County Jailer John Mclntyre and 
 rescued with the aid of a stomach 
 pump, will go to Washington to be 
 redeemed. 
 
 Mr. Mclntyre was counting his 
 money yesterday morning and was 
 called away for a time. The dog 
 chewed up one of the bills. Every 
 means was resorted to to recover the 
 money and finally a stomach pump 
 proved effective, every scrap being 
 brought to light. 
 
 Prize Angora Cat Ends His Life by 
 
 Jumping from a Second Story 
 
 Window. 
 
 YouxGSTOWN, May 23. — Billy, 
 a big Angora cat, ended his life last 
 night, when he jumped from the 
 second-story window of the home of 
 his owner, H. A. (jcbhardt. 
 
 The cat recently was passed up 
 by judges at a New York cat show. 
 His father carried off the blue rib- 
 bon which Billy coveted, and ever 
 since then Billy has been sullen and 
 evidently despondent. His howls dis- 
 turbed the peace of the balance of 
 Mr. Gebhardt's cat family. 
 
 The body of Billy has disappeared, 
 and Mr. Gebhardt has offered a re- 
 ward for its return. 
 
 Many reporters attempt the human-interest story ; relatively few 
 succeed in writing it well. Both in selection of theme and in treat- 
 ment of it the type can easily be overdone either by the converting 
 of a tender emotion into mawkish sentimentality or by the dull 
 recital of an episode flatly commonplace. Just when to stop is the 
 important thing. At its best the human-interest story requires a 
 clever, discriminating touch. 
 
PART II. THE WORK OF THE STAFF 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE REPORTER 
 
 It is as difificult to define the term reporter as it is to frame 
 the Renaissance or to describe Niagara. Every community, every 
 Misconcep- city has its own definition formed, perhaps, from a cur- 
 tions^con-^^ ^^0' observation of particular local examples of the rep- 
 reporter ortorial genus. As a result the real reporter at large 
 is apt to suffer by comparison with the ideal reporter who has 
 been garbed in a Joseph's coat of many colors and has been con- 
 sidered more as a type than as a man. Around him as a central 
 figure have been woven many strange misconceptions regarding 
 his mission, his habits, and his personality. To many people he is 
 little more than an irresponsible roustabout who roams the streets 
 in search of gossip and applies his eyes to ever\' keyhole, keenly 
 alert for printable episodes. Others, adopting the fiction of the 
 stage and of the novel, insist upon investing him with a glamour 
 of the picturesque. He appears to them in a Bohemian setting 
 and usually equipped with a large notebook and an elongated nose 
 for news. This is the man who goes to all the theaters on free 
 tickets, when he is not actively engaged in bombarding a reluctant 
 listener with a rapid fusillade of questions. While these conceptions 
 are largely gross exaggerations, there is still a modicum of truth 
 in them. Some reporters do live a care-free, knockabout sort of exis- 
 tence — soldiers of fortune by occupation and journalists by accident. 
 
 As a class reporters are as self-respecting and industrious, and 
 as well educated and well paid, as are men of similar age in 
 any of the professions. They have no more reason to fear stage 
 caricatures than have the American people to dread the effect 
 of comic-supplement pictures of Uncle Sam. 
 
 75 
 
76 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Charles Dickens was a reporter, and a good one — probably the 
 greatest in the history of the world. William Dean Howells was 
 a reporter, and so was '' Sunset " Cox. William H. Taft was a re- 
 porter, as was George K. Nash, a governor of Ohio. James Gordon 
 Bennett the elder, founder of the great New York Herald, was 
 a reporter; so were Whitelaw Reid and Daniel S. Lamont and 
 Robert J. W^ynne. Walter Wellman, since famous as an arctic 
 explorer, once was a reporter in a small Ohio town. 
 
 The list could be continued almost indefinitely of men who be- 
 gan life as newspaper reporters and reached exalted stations in 
 literature, statecraft, or other large fields of human activity. The 
 stage reporter, "whose only aim in life has been made to appear 
 to be the dodging of creditors or the procurement of one meal a 
 day," never had any real place in life, except as an example of 
 the abnormal, and no intelligent person ever supposed he had. 
 
 There may still be the occasional Paul Pry, with no high re- 
 gard for sensibilities or decency. Yet this brand of reporter is 
 no longer typical. Journalism has taken on a different cast and. 
 emerged from a trade that demanded little into a profession that 
 demands much. To-day the reporter goes about his business quietly, 
 keeping his self-respect, and applying honorable methods to the- 
 task of collecting the news. He may be inquisitive ; he is seldom 
 an ill-mannered boor. He may be a chartless vessel ; more often 
 he does know where he is going and what kind of a cargo he is 
 expected to carry home. His is a hard, exacting work, ric»t ur. 
 mixed with the fascination of the poetic. Many pleasant experi- 
 ences and associations brighten his life, but the conditions under 
 which he toils are crowded with late hours, frequent rebuffs, dis- 
 agreeable missions in all kinds of weather and all sorts of places. 
 The seamy side of life is the field of his investigations more fre- 
 quently than are aristocratic surroundings. Before him humanity 
 is stripped of its false colorings and reveals itself in all its con- 
 trasting strength and weakness, its foibles, shame, hypocrisy, and 
 sin. Small wonder then that this observer, a man of the crowd, is 
 tempted to become pessimistic, cynical, irregular in his habits. 
 
 But the reporter is not defined by telling what he is not. There 
 is nothing negative about him. He is just what his title declares 
 
THE REPORTER 77 
 
 him to be, a reporter, a man who carries back to his office exactly 
 what he has seen and heard and no more. Facts, facts, facts — 
 The reporter the outcroppings of humanity at its work and play — are 
 defined ^^g materials. In dealing with these the reporter has 
 
 a limited latitude. He is employed to do his paper's bidding, to 
 find something that affords the reader transient interest or pleasure, 
 or to uncover a bit of information the everyday citizen could not 
 otherwise secure. The moment the reporter assumes the functions 
 of a critic or a judge, that moment his services cease to be useful. 
 He does his full duty when he records an incident — political, 
 social, domestic — without an attempt to interpret it or to use it as 
 a text for moralizing. The new^spaper man endeavors to call back 
 these " pale shadows " of the passing show, that he may add, first 
 of all, to the sum total of information. His is an impersonal art, 
 a gratuitous service. Fame is not his reward ; merely a salary, 
 often a meager one. 
 
 The reporter, however, is far from being a seismograph to record 
 significant movements in the world's progress. He is rather a selec- 
 There- tive artist, his skill depending upon his recognition of 
 
 porter's art news values and his art in giving them readable shape. 
 Many reporters are mere messengers sent out by their city editors. 
 Give them a well-beaten track and a clearly defined mission and 
 they do good work. The ''star" men are those who do not fail 
 to recognize or ignore five columns of " first-page " copy to get a 
 five-line item simply because they are sent for that item. They 
 are not like pointer dogs that point at only one bird ; they attempt 
 to bag the entire covey. Does an amusing bit of human nature" in 
 slum or on boulevard strike the highly sensitized plate of their 
 minds .? That is recorded. Does a chance word or hint dropped 
 by a friend or acquaintance arouse their curiosity ? They do not 
 fail to take advantage of that. Every trail of a news story quickens 
 their alert senses, whether it leads near home or far afield. They 
 have the resourcefulness to piece together inferences and to add 
 two and two. They leap to conclusions, connecting cause and 
 effect, and in the compilation of the facts they are willing to slave, 
 and to spur every reserve power into service. The lure of a big 
 story crowded with mystery is like wine to their blood ; the very 
 
yS ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 difficulties of reportorial work add spice and fascination which 
 make the game the pluckiest and the most exciting in the world. 
 The foregoing considerations are sufficient to show that the 
 reporter is more than a mere average man, however similar he 
 The may be in general appearance. He is a trained ob- 
 
 ^^^^lifi-*^ ® server, a specialist who brings a rare combination of 
 cations nervcs, shrewdness, and intelligence to the business of 
 
 gathering news. Some of this ability to see things in a discrimi- 
 nating way must be innate. Training in a newspaper office will 
 aid incalculably in developing the news instinct. A college 
 education is an immense contribution, but unless a man is able 
 to read human nature and, without being told, to recognize a 
 news story when he sees it, he will always be immeasurably 
 handicapped. Newspaper offices are filled with half reporters. 
 Some possess the knack of digging up stories through their 
 genius for friendship, and yet are unable to put the story in 
 readable form ; others are able to clothe in irreproachable diction 
 the facts secured by their more energetic brothers, and yet are 
 completely at sea when turned loose on an important mission. 
 The '' all-round " reporter is a man who unites enthusiasm and in- 
 defatigable industry with a spirited, racy style ; one who has the 
 rare tact and magnetic social ability that turn his acquaintances 
 into oracles of news. In his kit of personality are to be found 
 hard common sense, a good memory, an eye for detail, self-confi- 
 dence that rises manfully above obstacles, a democratic liking for 
 people in every walk of life, a wide catholicity, and a receptive 
 mind open to all impressions. He must keep the edge of his 
 curiosity constantly whetted ; his interest must never lag. The 
 reporter's field is constantly changing. To-day he may record a 
 bank defalcation, to-morrow describe the plight of an aged woman 
 in a strange city, the next day tell the story of a distressing 
 suicide or investigate the cause of a fire or marshal the details of 
 a murder. It is his business to keep keenly alive to the hidden 
 meaning of the obvious occurrence. Firm in the conviction that 
 the streets teem with stories waiting to be discovered by the intelli- 
 gent explorer, the reporter waits, watches, searches. If the ex- 
 perienced reporter is sent to report a fire in a large tenement 
 
THE REPORTER 
 
 79 
 
 district, he will inspect the premises from cellar to garret for a touch 
 of human nature that displays the ludicrous, tragic, or pathetic, let 
 it be only the rescue of a pet canary by a doting mistress. If a 
 suicide is the field of his investigation, the veteran will delve 
 into the background, searching for the cause that prompted the 
 act. He is willing to dig, dig, dig ; sometimes without success, 
 yet with never- waning enthusiasm. 
 
 A favorite story to illustrate how a reporter works in the col- 
 lection of news is concerned with the death of the discharged 
 A case in clerk who was killed in the office of Russell Sage 
 poi^t some years ago, after he had thrown a bomb at the 
 
 financier. It will be recalled that the life of Mr. Sage was saved 
 at that time by a stenographer who acted as a safeguard, but that 
 the bomb thrower was mangled. The news of the attempted 
 assassination soon brought the New York reporters scurrying to 
 the scene. A long and tedious investigation was made in the 
 effort to establish the identity of the dead criminal, but to no 
 avail. His body and clothing bore no marks of identification. 
 Finally a young World reporter had the resourcefulness to cut a 
 button from the coat of the dead man. On the inside of that 
 button, etched into the metal, was found the name of a Boston 
 tailor. With this clew, together with samples of the fabric clipped 
 from the coat, the reporter boarded a train and hurried to Boston. 
 His investigation there established the identity of Mr. Sage's 
 assailant, who turned out to be a former employee, and the World 
 the next day printed an exclusive story which was a nine-days' 
 wonder. This occurrence is typical of how an energetic reporter 
 will weigh the facts, unsatisfied until the mystery is solved. His 
 investigations must necessarily be hasty, but the degree of accuracy 
 which obtains in most newspapers despite numerous handicaps is 
 really surprising. That mistakes do creep in is undeniable ; but 
 this is not so often the fault of the reporter as of his informant. 
 
 While much has been said of the inherent qualifications of a 
 reporter, it is not to be inferred that he cannot be trained. Horace 
 Greeley once said that the only way to learn the newspaper busi- 
 ness was to sleep on a newspaper and eat ink, a sentiment which 
 has been yoked with the other often-quoted dictum of his that 
 
So ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 "of all horned cattle, a college graduate in a newspaper office is the 
 
 worst." These views were vigorously assailed by Charles A. Dana, 
 
 who believed that the ability to read Latin was of ines- 
 
 The _ ... 
 
 reporter's timable scrvicc to the young journalist. Time has shown 
 education ^|^,^^ Dana was right. The newspaper has undergone a 
 marvelous transformation in the past fifty years, and has become 
 more than a mere recorder of the round of current events. In 
 its enlarged sphere the newspaper conveys information, furnishes 
 entertainment, enlists sympathy, mirrors the real life, the actions, 
 the feelings, the prejudices of the men and women who take part 
 in the great human drama. It is on terms of intimacy with all kinds 
 and conditions of people. To meet these new exactions increased 
 demands have been placed upon the shoulders of the reporter. He 
 cannot know too much or have too large a background. He can 
 make use of every scrap of information stored in his mind. The 
 tragedy is found in the fact that so few newspaper men realize their 
 poverty of equipment or feel the narrow range of their interests. 
 There are some men who can report only the daily routine of the 
 police station, others who can do well the court house or the city 
 hall and nothing else, still others who know politics and politicians 
 and stop at this. Few there are whose outlook is big enough to 
 include everything that is human and vital. In this regard the 
 college graduate, with a thorough training in the writing of clear 
 English and with a tight grasp on the significant movements in 
 history and on the tendencies that are remaking the world, has a 
 tremendous advantage over his narrow-gauge associate who seldom 
 reads and thinks less. The capacity to learn, to browse upon the 
 subject, — the practical training that comes through college courses 
 and through home reading, — will be found vital forces in the work 
 of gathering and writing the news. It is by uniting these educa- 
 tional contributions with the practical knowledge that is acquired 
 through actual contact with everyday people as the actors on the 
 everyday stage, that the reporter reaches that high grade of effi- 
 ciency which renders him a capable m^n and a real force in the 
 making of news. 
 
 It is taken for granted that the young applicant for journalistic 
 favors is intelligent and sincere. The profession has no time for 
 
THE REPORTER 
 
 dawdlers who are attracted by the glamour of being "' members 
 of the press," nor will it waste many moments on jaded dilettantes 
 in quest of new sensations. The young reporter must be thor- 
 oughly in earnest, willing to learn and to take hard knocks. He 
 must never think he has learned the game ; there is always some- 
 thing new to arouse his interest and to keep his mind constantly 
 on the alert. 
 
 The result of personal experience and critical study of news- 
 paper reporting as a profession may be crystallized into a few 
 Suggestions definite essentials underlying successful work, 
 to beginners Qf first importance is the reporter's personality. He 
 must necessarily be a good " mixer." He must get around among 
 the people. It is only in this way that he can acquire a knowl- 
 edge of the topics of constant public interest, commonly covered 
 by the newspapers. If, then, you are a candidate for reportorial 
 work and are not naturally of a social disposition, you must culti- 
 vate the habit, for a man of a retiring or diffident manner and 
 temperament will amount to little in news gathering. If you have 
 literary talent and lack the social instinct, you may become valuable 
 as a "hack" writer or desk man; but the desk man on metro- 
 politan newspapers does not draw the largest salary. You must 
 therefore cultivate the habit of conversation as well as of writing. 
 
 You should be able to meet all kinds of men on all kinds of 
 occasions, and even though your ultimate ambition is to become 
 an editorial writer or an editor, this wide contact with men and 
 knowledge of public affairs are absolutely necessary as a foundation 
 for intelligent and valuable work. You should learn all you 
 possibly can about men — their industrial activity, and their different 
 organizations and associations, public, political, social, educational, 
 and religious. The more you know about these things, the better 
 your equipment for newspaper work. 
 
 If you see a man doing an unusual thing, don't hesitate to 
 interview him in regard to it. Draw him out. and make him talk. 
 To lead your subjects on.to give up what they know, is a part of 
 your business as a newspaper man. If you can influence them to 
 talk in an unusual way, disclosing facts not generally known, your 
 success is assured. 
 
82 
 
 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Next to personality as a valuable asset must be ranked practical 
 experience. While courses in newspaper making and the advice 
 of nien wiio have been in the work are of service in training the 
 young reporter, nothing can take the place of actual experience 
 in a newspaper office under the direction of a hard-headed city 
 editor. The young aspirant should bring to his work a deter- 
 mination to learn. His salary at the outset will be hardly more 
 
 Turning News into Copy 
 
 Courtesy New York Herald 
 
 Local room of the New York Herald^ showing conditions under which reporters prepare 
 
 their matter for the city editor 
 
 than a living wage, but he must remember that he is a "green 
 hand " and that he has not yet proved himself capable and effi- 
 cient. The temptation is to return a low grade of work for the 
 pittance of salary received. Upon such a platform there can be no 
 real success. It is by doing more than you are required to do, and 
 by doing this to the top notch of your ability, that substantial in- 
 creases will come. If the city editor observes that you are getting 
 more news than your actual assignment, and that you are bringing 
 
THE REPORTER 83 
 
 into the office stories harvested from the route of an associate, 
 there is every reason to beUeve that your place will become all 
 the more secure. After all, the personal interest you contribute 
 counts for much. In one newspaper office a sign posted upon 
 the wall reads, " Enthusiasm is a commodity on this newspaper." 
 Every young reporter should bear this statement in mind and 
 approach his work with a zeal that will not only result in self- 
 satisfaction because of a task well done but will also win the 
 recognition of coworkers and those higher up. In the end it is 
 the estimate you place on yourself and on your business that tells. 
 If you approach it in a spiritless way, gathering your news 
 hastily and writing it indifferently, you yourself will suffer. The 
 reporter is in a position of immense responsibility. He can make 
 or blight a reputation. His printed word is law until refuted. He 
 should therefore approach this serious mission with the realization 
 of the high dignity of his profession and with the firm resolve to 
 do his best. 
 
 A third essential characteristic is industry. One of the great 
 temptations of the young reporter is to " loaf on the job." If he 
 is sent out on a hard mission, and if information is not forth- 
 coming after repeated trials, many a young fellow yields to the 
 allurements of an easy-chair in a hotel lobby or of a game of 
 cards. Afraid of losing his place, he later will deliberately '' fake " 
 a story, falling back upon his imagination for materials that should 
 have been garnered by hard work. To dupe the city editor once 
 is an easy thing ; to write a '' fake " story is a boy's achievement. 
 Each ruse will eventually result in dismissal, for no reputable 
 newspaper makes a business of publishing falsehoods or fairy 
 tales. The best advice that can be given to the reporter is to be 
 fair with the city editor. If he finds that he cannot reach a news 
 source, he should tell his chief, giving his reasons for failure. At 
 the same time he should make every effort to get what he was 
 sent for. Of course he may have leisure time, but even then he 
 should keep his ears and his eyes open. 
 
 Another suggestion that will be useful to the reporter just 
 beginning his work is to learn how to approach people. Every 
 man and every woman will reveal some distinguishing traits of 
 
84 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 character, some unique twist of personality, if the reporter learns 
 how to adapt himself to the varying types of individuals. To a 
 business man he must often state his business brusquely and 
 incisively. With others he may employ roundabout methods, 
 coming to the point after a tactful maneuver. It is by making 
 friends that success is assured. When prominent men of the 
 town call you up over the telephone to detail some particular piece 
 of information, or drop into the office to give you an exclusive 
 story, you may be sure that you are on the road to success and 
 are becoming more valuable to your paper. 
 
 Permanence in location is advantageous. It is a mistake to 
 desert a field, once you have made your news sources secure. 
 The tramp reporter who boasts of having worked in every state 
 in the Union may have some advantages in experience, but is 
 otherwise handicapped by lack of friends and unfamiliarity with 
 the city. The man who stays in one town and widens his list 
 of acquaintances, betraying no trust and keeping his source of 
 news inviolate, will become more valuable than the derelict. 
 
 General intelligence is absolutely necessary. Not only must 
 the reporter have this personal contact, but he must also keep 
 abreast of the times by the reading of magazines and papers. 
 How do other papers treat a news story ? How may an idea 
 encountered in a distant contemporary be utilized in the local 
 press .'* What are the newest fads .'' What measures are engaging 
 the attention of people elsewhere ? These are things the reporter 
 should know if he is to avoid the hackneyed and the commonplace. 
 
 A cheerful optimism will also be found a great ally in repor- 
 torial success. The story that brings a smile to the face of a 
 reader and a glint of sunshine to the breakfast table is worth 
 infinitely more than the story that is in bad taste or depressing. 
 
 Clearness and accuracy are indispensable. The beginner should 
 never take things for granted. An event may be perfectly familiar 
 to him, but absolutely strange to his reader. He should remember 
 that it is his business to outline all the facts and unearth all 
 the causes, that the reading public may know the episode in its 
 entirety. It is his duty to get the news, making no promises to 
 withhold any part of it by reason of personal friendship or by a 
 
THE REPORTER 85 
 
 bribe judiciously offered. The ''policy of the paper" does not 
 enter into consideration at all in a reporter's field of duty ; the 
 city editor attends to that. 
 
 Enterprise should be a word filled with meaning to the reporter. 
 It is not the story he is going to get that counts, but the story 
 that he does get before the other paper prints it. While it is most 
 desirable to publish news when it is fresh, investigation of the 
 facts should be none the less exacting. If libelous matter is n't 
 written, it can't " get into the paper by accident." Accuracy and 
 the reputation for reliability are great assets to the young reporter. 
 Even in the matter of names and the spelling of them too much 
 care cannot be taken. Nothing is of such importance to the 
 average human being as his own name. People will forgive abuse 
 in a newspaper more quickly than the habitual misprinting of 
 their initials. 
 
 Independence and initiative are terms of peculiar significance 
 to the new reporter. He should learn to make quick decisions, 
 depending upon his own judgment rather than upon the sugges- 
 tion of the city editor. Street directories and policemen are better 
 guides than careless passers-by. He should know the streets and 
 the location of the principal places of business and amusement. 
 He should strive to remember names and faces and to spare his 
 chief the answering of needless, not to say foolish, questions. 
 Dependence on others will never get him out of a tight box ; he 
 must learn to think for himself. 
 
 A charitable attitude toward the people and the city at large 
 should be cultivated. To be flippant about religion, races, nation- 
 alities, persons, causes, or the city in which one works is, to say 
 the least, in bad taste. To seek personal revenge for fancied 
 slights by attacking people covertly in the paper will prove the 
 worst kind of policy, and at the same time will seriously handicap 
 a reporter as an unbiased witness. 
 
 Some minor suggestions concern themselves with the incidentals 
 of news gathering. Don't burden the memory needlessly when 
 paper is cheap and a pencil is handy ; don't forget that a neat 
 personal appearance and temperate habits will increase your use- 
 fulness ; cultivate promptness in getting in copy, especially if you 
 
86 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 work on an afternoon paper ; learn to use the typewriter, but do 
 not trust too implicitly to the accuracy of your fingers ; don't use 
 cheap slang ; don't talk shop ; and keep " plugging." 
 
 Many years ago Charles A. Dana, editor of the New York Sim, 
 prepared a code of rules for his " bright young men," a code which 
 has never been superseded. It contains many fine newspaper 
 ideals, and may be followed with profit by reporters, young and old. 
 These " golden rules " are as follows : 
 
 T. Get the news, get all the news, and nothing but the news. 
 II. Copy nothing from another publication without perfect credit. 
 III. Never print an interview without the knowledge and consent of the 
 
 party interviewed. 
 \y . Never print a paid advertisement as news matter. Let every advertise- 
 ment appear as an advertisement. 
 Y . Never attack the weak or the defenseless, either by argument, by invec- 
 tive, or by ridicule, unless there is some absolute public necessity for 
 so doing. 
 VL Plight for your opinions, but do not believe that they contain the whole 
 truth or the only truth. 
 VII. Support your party, if you have one, but do not think all the good men 
 
 are in it and all the bad ones outside it. 
 VIII. Above all, know and believe that humanity is advancing; that there is 
 progress in human life and human affairs ; and that as sure as God 
 lives, the future will be greater and better than the present or the past. 
 
 Dana enlarged this code a few years later with these additional 
 maxims, which are here given in serial order : 
 
 IX. Never be in a hurry. 
 X. Hold fast to the Constitution. 
 XI. Stand by the Stars and Stripes. Above all, stand for Liberty, whatever 
 
 happens. 
 XII. A word that is not spoken never does any mischief. 
 
 XIII. All the goodness of a good egg cannot make up for the badness of 
 a bad one. 
 
 XIV. If you find you have been wrong, don't fear to say so. 
 
 Newspaper reporters of Civil War days and the decade following 
 were men chiefly noted for their dogged persistency in " chasing " 
 news, rather than for their proficiency in writing it attractively. 
 They were willing to undergo the rigors of battle, siege, and block- 
 ade to get the news first, nor did they scruple at the methods 
 
THE REPORTER Sj 
 
 employed. There are many stories that illustrate the fierce com- 
 petition of those eventful years — none more typical than that 
 The question related of President Lincoln on the occasion of his 
 of ethics yisit ^q West Point to consult with General Scott. Two 
 papers, the New York Times and the New York Herald, got wind 
 of the meeting. The Times immediately dispatched Joseph How- 
 ard, Jr., to West Point. He crossed the ferry in a rainy mist and 
 clambered aboard a stagecoach bound for the hotel on the parade 
 ground. The Times man soon became aware of the presence of 
 another passenger, whom he shrewdly guessed to be a rival re- 
 porter. To get him off the scent Howard curled himself up near 
 the door, and as the coach lumbered around a curve in the road, 
 lurched forward and dropped his hat out of the window. With 
 a word of annoyance he leaped out in pursuit of the disappearing 
 headgear, ordering the driver to keep on ; then, hurrying across 
 the fields, he got inside the hotel. He had been there before and 
 happened to know the clerk, so borrowed his uniform and sta- 
 tioned himself behind the hotel register, a benignant smile upon 
 his face and a pen in his hand. A few minutes later his comrade 
 of the coach entered. Howard whirled the register with a sym- 
 pathetic remark about the nasty weather. Conversation brought 
 out the information that the stranger had been commissioned by 
 the Herald to get the news of the conference between Lincoln 
 and Scott to take place at that hotel. The bogus clerk told his 
 confidant that the two men had been there, but had just left to 
 cross the ferry to meet some distinguished politicians from New 
 York. The clerk was sorry, but anxious to serve. He secured a 
 carriage for the Herald man, to convey him to a small hamlet sev- 
 eral miles south, where a rowboat and a patient boatman lay in 
 waiting. The reporter hurried away in the rain and mud. Hardly 
 had he gone before How^ard was back in his business clothes. 
 He soon found a talkative secretary who was present at the con- 
 ference, and wriggled the story out of him. Half an hour later 
 the wires were humming with it. In the meanwhile the Herald 
 man searched for the boatman, to no avail. Disgusted he tried 
 to find his way back, but the coachman obligingly lost the way. 
 When the irate reporter did arrive at the hotel after his fruitless 
 
88 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 chase he found that President Lincoln had gone to bed, and 
 could not be disturbed. The next day the Times beat the town. 
 
 This experience is only one of many that could be related to 
 show how a certain type of newspaper man is willing to lie, steal, 
 or deceive to get an exclusive story. The practice did not die with 
 the Civil War. Even to-day reporters, unworthy of their calling, 
 think nothing of rifling wastebaskets, of quoting men after they 
 have promised to " keep the names out of the paper," and of be- 
 traying every confidence, that they may get a good story printed. 
 This ability to get the news at any cost even if you have to "go 
 to the mouth of hell for it " — to use a newspaper term — passes 
 muster temporarily in certain circles as journalistic resourcefulness. 
 It cannot be excused on any ground. Thinking journalists no more 
 condone such work than they do embezzlement or physical violence. 
 On no reputable paper will a reporter be asked to lie, steal, or play 
 the eavesdropper. That somewhere, at some time, it may be in- 
 timated to him that such things are advantageous, need not be 
 denied. Throughout the length and breadth of the land there are 
 hundreds and thousands of newspaper men who can testify that, 
 after years spent in the practice of their profession, it never 
 has been necessary to forfeit self-respect or to betray confidence 
 reposed in them. 
 
 Indeed, to guard inviolate the source of information is the first 
 thing which every reporter must learn. If a man gives him a bit 
 of information on the condition that its source be not revealed, 
 then this obligation becomes as one of the Ten Commandments. 
 Many a good newspaper man has seen himself " scooped " rather 
 than betray such a confidence, but in the long run, as in all other 
 cases, the practices of honor pay. 
 
 It is a reporter's business to ask questions, not to tell what he 
 knows, and an ability to say nothing is sometimes a most valued 
 asset. He is thus prevented from doing an unwitting wrong to his 
 paper or to a source of news. 
 
 Will Irwin, formerly of the New York Sun, which takes for 
 granted a code of ethics on the part of its reporters, tells a story 
 in the American Magazine illustrative of the standards maintained 
 by reputable newspapers of to-day. 
 
THE REPORTER 89 
 
 On that critical day in the Life Insurance fight when the Frick report was 
 read in committee, a Siui reporter caught one of the committeemen and went 
 up with him to the station. The newspapers were scouring heaven and earth 
 to find out what was in the Frick document ; a copy was worth fine gold. 
 As the committeeman reached the train gate, he turned and said : 
 
 " Don't tell anyone that I put you on — but there is a stack of those re- 
 ports just inside the committee room. Five dollars to the scrub woman, and 
 you turn the trick, I think.'' 
 
 The reporter, a little new on the Siui^ did not like this piece of business ; 
 nevertheless, he telephoned to George Mallon, the City Editor, and laid it 
 before him. 
 
 " The Siui man who would do that trick would get fired," said Mallon. 
 
 In a speech delivered before the assembled newspaper men of 
 New York, where, if anywhere, questionable practices obtain, Henry 
 Watterson, who has occupied every position on a newspaper, from 
 top to bottom, after years of experience, summed up his wisdom 
 and advice in the following words : 
 
 I draw the line at straight lying and the station house. The city editor 
 should never consider himself a brevet chief of police, the reporter a semi- 
 professional detective. The newspaper, with the law, should assume the ac- 
 cused innocent until proven guilty ; should be the friend, not the enemy, of 
 the general public ; the defender, not the invader, of private life and the 
 assailant of personal character. 
 
 The newspaper is not a commodity to be sold over the counter like dry 
 goods and groceries. It should be, as it were, a keeper of the public conscience, 
 its rating professional, like the ministry and the law, not commercial, like the 
 department store and the bucket shop. Its workers should be gentlemen, not 
 eavesdroppers and scavengers, developing a spy system peculiarly their own, 
 nor caring for the popular respect and esteem. 
 
 I know that it is the fashion to call such sentiments old-timey, just as is the 
 custom to call old men courtly who are not actually vulgar and slovenly. Self- 
 respect can never grow obsolete, and self-respect is the bed rock of the public 
 respect. There will be shyster journalists as there are shyster lawyers, un- 
 worthy newspaper men as there are unworthy clergymen. But in each calling 
 the rule is bound to be otherwise, and they who seek the imprint of the higher, 
 instead of the lower brand, will be sure to find it. In short, my dear young 
 friends, I stand for the manhood, for thegentlemanhood of our guild, a profession 
 and not a trade. 
 
 I hope there is no one of you here to-night who will not be one day a 
 managing editor, at least a city editor, and whenever any one of you finds 
 himself in a position of authority, let him carry these few precepts in his mind 
 and in his heart : to print nothing of a man which he would not say to his 
 
90 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 face ; to print nothing of a man in malice ; to look well and think twice before 
 consigning a suspect to the ruin of printer's ink ; to respect the old and defend 
 the weak ; and lastly, at work and at play, daytime and nighttime, to be good 
 to the girls and square with the boys, for hath it not been written, '' of such 
 is the Kingdom of Heaven " ? 
 
 It is an axiom that newspaper reporters must never put them- 
 selves under personal obligation to public men, for by so doing 
 they might seriously impair their future efficiency. The sentiment 
 against a newspaper reporter's holding any public office and at the 
 same time following his profession is growing so strong that such 
 instances are rare. 
 
 In former years Washington newspaper correspondents frequently 
 held clerkships to Congress committees or enjoyed other federal 
 employment. The reasons why they should not do so were so 
 manifold and manifest that the correspondents took the matter in 
 hand themselves and put a stop to the practice by barring from 
 the press galleries of Congress all newspaper men who hold any 
 sort of federal employment or who are in any way interested in 
 pending legislation. The improved conditions resulting from this 
 rule are pleasing alike to the representatives of the government 
 and the representatives of the press. 
 
 In brief resume, to secure full measure of success the reporter 
 needs distinctive personality, practical experience, industry, knowl- 
 edge of his community, general intelligence regarding men and 
 measures, an optimistic spirit, clearness and accuracy in statement, 
 enterprise and initiative, all tempered with integrity, charity, and 
 mental breadth. 
 
 There are many discouraging features connected with the news- 
 paper business. The rewards for hard and faithful service are 
 Opportu- relatively few. There are really few great reporters 
 nitiesfor who are known outside the confines of their office or 
 who ever have the satisfaction of seeing their names 
 attached to a story. For the most of them there is small recom- 
 pense, as most veteran reporters will attest with a cynical smile. 
 About the only prizes that come to the average reporter — if he 
 is young in the profession — are found in the fascination of a work 
 freed from the commonplace tedium of gaslight routine. Unlike 
 
THE REPORTER 9 1 
 
 other recognized professions the tenure of a reporter is never 
 secure. By '' faUing down " on a story, by a quarrel with the city 
 editor, or by a breach of newspaper etiquette, he may find himself 
 a wanderer on the streets in search of a new job. At the same 
 time there is inward satisfaction that comes in the doing of good 
 work. To the skillful news gatherer many positions are open. 
 
 There are some well-defined channels that lead to promotion, 
 few as they are. City editors usually come from the ranks of the 
 reporters who have learned the varied phases of newspaper work 
 thoroughly and who unite generalship with practical knowledge. 
 The scale of wages will vary, ranging from ^25 a week on the 
 small dailies to perhaps $5000 a year on large metropolitan 
 papers. Assistants who go by the name of " copy clippers " are 
 also recruited from the ranks of the reporters who have made good, 
 and not a few managing editors, as well as editorial writers, were 
 once news gatherers. One of the most valued prizes is found in 
 the appointment as correspondent either in some metropolis or 
 upon a battlefield or with the fleet at wages often reaching $100 
 to $150 a week, including expenses. The great ambition of many 
 newspaper men is to strike out for other fields, preferably to try 
 New York journalism. A large per cent of so-called provincial 
 journalists fail in this venture because of insufficient preparation. 
 New York and Chicago offer slight recompense to the amateur. 
 These New York journalists demand the best of salaries and are 
 exceptionally well qualified for their work. Still another ambition 
 that spurs on reporters is the dream of owning their own papers. 
 Many do evolve into editors, but few there are who can save 
 enough money from their salar}^ to buy an equipment or who are 
 willing to go into heavy debt to purchase a newspaper plant. 
 
 Probably the most lucrative channel to attract ambitious news- 
 paper men, thoroughly versed in the trade of collecting and writ- 
 ing news, is found in magazine and trade-journal work. Some of 
 the best monthly publications are distinctly reportorial in tone and 
 are fashioned by trained reporters who bring discriminating obser- 
 vations and tireless zest to find the truth behind men and measures. 
 
 The journalist has also added a considerable contribution to the 
 making of the new literature, after leaving the newspaper behind 
 
92 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 him and becoming a story-teller. He has acted as a pioneer in 
 search of new themes, displaying a first-hand acquaintance with 
 neglected phases of life temperamentally seen, with eye always 
 alert for dramatic, human, and picturesque values. The list in- 
 cludes the names of Charles Dickens, dubbed by Charles A. Dana 
 " the greatest police reporter who ever lived " ; Mark Twain, who 
 has drawn the graphic picture of life on the Mississippi, of the 
 Western mining country and of tours abroad, painting a whole 
 gallery of whimsical characters ; Rudyard Kipling, the first man 
 to recognize the fictional possibilities of Afghan, of an uncouth 
 soldier or a child as portrayed in that mysterious country, India. 
 Less celebrated journalists who have become story writers include 
 Richard Harding Davis, David Graham Phillips, Winston 
 Churchill, Stephen Crane, Upton Sinclair, George Ade, Will 
 Irwin, O. Henry, Lafcadio Hearn, and many others who have 
 given realism a distinctive note. 
 
 It should be remembered, also, that the newspaper office has 
 sent its graduates into politics and business. Training in the 
 approach to people and in the illuminating treatment of facts 
 affords an equipment that fits the reporter for practical commercial 
 life. The development of an agreeable personality and the eager 
 quest for the fundamental cause back of the effect have been 
 found of inestimable service. Indeed, journalism has proved an 
 efficient training school for the varied phases of business activity. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE CITY EDITOR 
 
 The first personality the young journaHst encounters upon en- 
 tering his career is that of the city editor. So long as he remains 
 Office ^ reporter the city editor is, to all intents and purposes, 
 
 relationships his f^j-gt and his last Superior officer. In well-regulated 
 offices there is little direction, from whatsoever source, that does 
 not come to the reporter through the city '' desk." 
 
 While practically every city editor comes to his desk position 
 by having vindicated himself as a good reporter, there are many 
 conditions surrounding desk work which should be understood by 
 the reporter, whether he be called to the editorial desk or remain 
 a subordinate. In theory, on all newspapers, and in practice on 
 most of them, the city editor employs all the reporters. In some 
 offices he is expected to consult with his managing editor. Gener- 
 ally, in large cities, the word of the city editor is final when it 
 comes to selecting reporters. The same is usually true in dismiss- 
 ing them. For that reason very little opprobrium attaches to the 
 dismissal from many newspaper staffs. A man may be fully 
 competent as a reporter, and yet, because of some peculiarity 
 of his personality, or that of the city editor, the two may not 
 be able to work together successfully and changes may have to 
 be made. 
 
 The city editor is an executive, and so must be a disciplinarian. 
 It is necessary that a candidate for the staff have a personality that 
 not only will be agreeable to the city editor, but also will blend 
 with the remaining portion of the local force. A newspaper cannot 
 have a staff all of one complexion. The ideal staff has some one 
 person better fitted than others for each special task that may 
 present itself, together with the greatest degree of adaptability and 
 versatility on the part of all of its men. 
 
 93 
 
94 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 It is in recognizing and developing these conditions that the 
 city editor finds one of his highest missions. He is the mediator 
 between the management of the newspaper and the large body of 
 men who carry out the policy of the paper, often without knowing 
 exactly what that policy is. If the paper desires to emphasize a 
 certain set of conditions, or to develop a certain line of facts, the 
 city editor knows it and sets his men to the task, selecting 
 the most promising candidates upon his staff. 
 
 A newspaper may determine upon a campaign for better streets 
 in the city. The city editor sends men out to find where the 
 streets are bad, sends photographers to take pictures of particularly 
 unfavorable points, sends other reporters to interview road makers 
 and to find the cost of repairs, still others to see the municipal 
 authorities and to find out if these changes will be made and if 
 not why not, and probably secures interviews with the leaders of 
 each political party to see if the project cannot be made a matter 
 of issue in the coming campaign. Any given subject, as the one 
 cited, may have dozens of ramifications. This example merely 
 serves to show the part the city editor plays in carrying out the 
 policy of the paper. 
 
 The city editor must have the resourcefulness of a field general. 
 He must be prepared for every emergency and keep a clear head. 
 ^ Decisions must be reached almost instantaneously and 
 
 Gaynor is a method of Campaign formulated in the flip of a coin. 
 With the announcement of a big piece of news, it is 
 the city editor who must marshal his lieutenants and plan their 
 movements in order that information may be gathered quickly 
 and accurately. 
 
 The following is a part of an article written by Alexander 
 McD. Stoddart, assistant city editor of the New York Pirss, as 
 published in the Independent. It gives the story in detail of 
 how the city editor of a New York morning paper directed the 
 "covering" of the shooting of Mayor Gaynor. 
 
 When the " flash," or bulletin, as the first information is called, reached the 
 city editor, the afternoon newspaper men were all in the office awaiting assign- 
 ment. The morning newspaper men were in their beds. What happens in this 
 story is true (A both afternoon and morning newspapers, save that the staff of 
 
THE CITY EDITOR 95 
 
 the one is at talking distance in the office, whereas the morning staff is still 
 slumbering (9.30 a.m.). The morning newspaper is here dealt with. 
 The first bulletin read : 
 
 " Mayor Gaynor was shot this morning while on the deck of the Kaiser Wilhelm 
 der Grosse in Hoboken. It is rumored he is dead." 
 
 The city editor read it at a glance. The first thing he did was this : He read 
 the message aloud to those within listening distance. This is always done with 
 big news, so that every one may be alert and ready. 
 
 Then he went back to his desk and picked up his telephone. He said to 
 the man at the switchboard : " Mayor Gaynor has been shot. I want you 
 to pay particular attention to the editorial telephones ; watch mine especially. 
 Don't let any inquiries about the Mayor come up here at all. Keep them 
 in the business office." 
 
 GETTING REPORTERS OUT OF BED 
 
 Then to the several office boys " within call " he said as he took out of a 
 pigeon hole a printed list of the staff with their printed telephone numbers : 
 
 " Get me Smith, Jones and Robinson " (reporters). 
 
 While awaiting these three numbers to respond, the city editor had a second 
 dispatch from the news association. 
 
 It read : '' The Mayor was taken to St. Mary's Hospital, Hoboken." 
 
 " Mr. Smith is on the wire," replied one office boy. 
 
 '' Smith," said the city editor, tersely, " Mayor Gaynor was shot fifteen 
 minutes ago while on the deck of the Kaiser ll'ilJielni der Grosse at Hoboken. 
 Get right over there quick." 
 
 Smith evidently has asked no questions, for the receiver is hung up. There 
 are no instructions ; Smith knows that he is to get there quickly and gather 
 what he may. 
 
 '* Mr. Jones is on this ware," says another boy. 
 
 To Jones the same terse message is given. Jones may be in his pajamas, 
 his telephone being at his bedside, but he is alive to the situation. 
 
 '' Mr. Robinson is on this wire," cries a third boy at another telephone. 
 
 Remarkable as it may seem, at an hour like this morning newspaper men 
 are more apt to be found in one place than possibly at any other hour of the day. 
 
 So far three men are on the way to the scene, Smith, Jones and Robinson. 
 Meanwhile the city editor's phone has not been used. That time will come later. 
 
 THE SECOND BULLETIN 
 
 Another flash is hastily delivered. It reads : 
 
 "The man who shot the Mayor has been arrested. His name is James J. 
 Gallagher. He lives at No. 440 Third avenue." 
 
 The office boys hover near. They have initiative. 
 
 " Get me quick, Johnson, Roberts and King," says the city editor. 
 
96 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 The boys each have a printed list now. Each one goes to a telephone, for 
 there may be a dozen instruments in the big city room alone. 
 
 Perhaps Johnson is heard from first. 
 
 Says the city editor : 
 
 " Mayor Gaynor was shot this morning while on the deck of the Kaiser 
 Wilhehii der Grosse. The man who shot him is James J. Gallagher — -James J. 
 Gallagher. He lives at No. 440 Third avenue. (tO up there, get everything you 
 can about him. Get a picture. Find out to what political party he belongs, 
 run him down to the ground and phone me later ; I may be able to give you 
 something additional." 
 
 " Mr, Roberts is on this wire," says the boy. 
 
 The city editor walks quickly across the room. He picks up the hand tele- 
 phone and holds it close to him. His tones are low, even. If he is excited it 
 does not betray itself in his voice. Again he tells the story. '' Roberts, Mayor 
 Gaynor was shot this morning and has been taken to St. Mary's Hospital, 
 Hoboken. Get over there quick, see the doctors and let me know early what 
 you get." 
 
 Another bulletin is received which reads : 
 
 " Gallagher was a night watchman in the Dock Department until July i, when 
 he was discharged from the city employ." 
 
 " Mr. King is on this wire," and in reply to the boy, the story of the shooting 
 is again told in a sentence. Adds the city editor : '' Gallagher is to be arraigned 
 in Police Headquarters, Hoboken. Go over there quick." 
 
 NINE MEN AT WORK 
 On the pad in front of the city editor is a memo, which says : 
 Smith, Jones, Robinson : Gaynor shot. 
 Johnson : Local end ; Gallagher. 
 Roberts : St. Mary's Hospital. 
 King: Hoboken Police Headquarters. 
 
 There is a breathing spell for a moment. 
 
 And then another order for three men given to the boys : " Get Jackson, 
 McGuire and Horton." 
 
 '' Mr. Jackson has called you up himself. He is waiting to talk with you on 
 the wire," says one boy, while the others dart off to follow the instructions of 
 their chief ; they are the city editor's staff, too. 
 
 The news is told briefly to Jackson: " Yes, it is true; Gaynor has been 
 shot," reports the city editor. Jackson lives in Brooklyn, not far from the 
 Gaynor home in Eighth avenue : " Go over to the house," says the city editor. 
 " (jaynor was going on his vacation alone. Perhaps Mrs. Gaynor is at home. 
 If she is at St. James, go to Deepwells and see her." 
 
 While the city editor is not familiar with the whereabouts of Mrs. Gaynor, 
 he does know that the Mayor intended to go alone. 
 
THE CITY EDITOR 
 
 97 
 
 " Mr. McGuire is on the telephone," is heard far across the room. Is it an 
 accident that all these men can be got so quickly, or is the city editor familiar 
 with the habits of his men or is it the office boy who knows just where to tele- 
 phone.? McGuire is made acquainted with the shooting. " Find John Purroy 
 Mitchel," are his instructions, " and stick close to him." 
 
 Horton is found. " Go over to City Hall," are his instructions, " and get 
 what there is there. See if Billy Kennel knows the man who did the shoot- 
 ing. He was employed in the Dock Department, but was recently discharged. 
 His name is James J. Gallagher. " 
 
 To the list on the city editor's desk is added these names and data : 
 
 Jackson : Mrs. Gaynor. 
 McGuire : John Mitchel. 
 Horton : City Hall. 
 
 CITY NEWS ASSOCIATION BUSY 
 
 The news from the association is beginning to come in rapidly, the bulletins 
 are longer. 
 
 The city editor looks over the list of men and at the printed list : 
 
 '' Tell Hobart, Reed and Judd to come to the office," he says, briefly. 
 
 The telephone bells now begin to work all over the office. It matters little 
 now, the usual office routine may go on. Already at work are his men, nine 
 of them, say, with three more to come. A dozen picked men are at work. 
 
 He has time to ease up. The afternoon extras are already on the streets, 
 the shrill cry penetrates even to the upper floors of the skyscrapers. Long dis- 
 tance calls break in. It may be an afternoon paper in Philadelphia or Boston 
 or Cleveland. The paper officially does not ask for news, but John Jenkins, of 
 the Boston Enquirer^ wants Jimmy Bush of the New York Transcript. Can 
 Jim Bush give him anything further.'* 
 
 MAPPING THE STORY 
 
 Smith calls up. He tells the city editor what he has learned. " Smith," says 
 the city editor, " I want you to wTite the main story. Write a plain, straight- 
 away story without any frills. Put Jones on interviews with those who saw the 
 shooting and have Robinson write the story of Gallagher on board the ship." 
 The main story is mapped out. 
 
 Johnson calls up on the city editor's wire. He tells what he has learned about 
 Gallagher. " I understand," says the city editor, looking at bulletins before him, 
 " that Gallagher has been a chronic kicker and a prolific letter writer. Go down 
 to the Department of Docks, the Civil Service Commission, the City Hall and 
 get copies of all the correspondence," 
 
 Roberts at St. Mary's follows after Johnson : " Gaynor is not so badly hurt as 
 at first thought," he says. " The doctors are not probing for the bullet, however. 
 The Mayor is resting quietly. " 
 
98 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 In the meantime King, at Police Headquarters, has not been heard from. 
 The photographers are coming in v/ith their pictures. Standing alongside of 
 Gallagher as he is arraigned is King. That tells its own story. 
 
 In the meantime a tipster has brought in, an interesting piece of news. Gal- 
 lagher has retained a lawyer. The information is put in an envelope marked 
 " King." 
 
 In the meantime the last three of the city editor's dozen men arrive. They 
 are Hobart, Reed and Judd. Hobart is the political man. "Go out and get me 
 a story," says the city editor, ''as to what the charter says in case of the death 
 of the Mayor and the manner in which his successor shall be chosen." 
 
 " Reed," says the city editor, curtly, " get all the stuff out of ' the morgue ' 
 (the place where newspaper clippings are filed away in special envelopes 
 or indexed cards which show where articles may be found in the bound 
 files), and write an obituary of Gaynor dealing particularly with his first six 
 months as Mayor and his home life." 
 
 A TELEPHONE TIP 
 
 The telephone bell is ringing. The city editor says '' Hello ! " in a voice that 
 never hesitates. " This is Mr. Rockhill, one of your readers. I know this man 
 Gallagher. Seventeen years ago he worked under me," says the man at the 
 other end of the wire. " He did many strange, uncanny things while he was 
 here." 
 
 " Will you give the story to one of my men if I send up? " interrupts the 
 city editor. 
 
 The city editor jots down the name and address. " Judd," he says, " this 
 man," handing him the memorandum, "knows Gallagher. Go up and see 
 what he has." 
 
 Jackson telephones; says that Mrs. Gaynor has heard the news and is on 
 her way to his bedside. " She is on her way in a machine from St. James." 
 
 " Follow her," says the city editor, and hangs up the receiver. 
 
 McGuire has found Mitchel in Hoboken, he telephones. 
 
 "Get a line on him. He has opposed Gaynor on some things and been 
 with him on others. Find out about this and tell about Mitchel's hatred of 
 Tammany." 
 
 And so it goes. 
 
 The schedule of events now looks like this : 
 
 Smith : Main story of the Gaynor shooting. 
 
 Jones : Interviews on board the Kaisei' Wilhelm dcr Grosse. 
 
 Robinson : Gallagher on board the Kaise?' Wilhelm ihr Grosse. 
 
 Johnson : Gallagher the man and his correspondence. 
 
 Roberts: (iaynor at St. Mary's Hospital. 
 
 King : The arraignment of Gallagher and his plans. 
 
 Jackson: Mrs. (jaynor and family. 
 
THE CITY EDITOR 
 
 99 
 
 McGuire : John Purroy Mitchel, the Acting Mayor ; his opposition to 
 Tammany. 
 
 Horton : City Hall — telegrams and cables. 
 Hobart: What the- charter says, with interviews. 
 Reed : Obituary of Ciaynor. 
 Judd : The strange, uncanny things Gallagher did. 
 
 Now comes the routine news of the day, for the world has not stopped, 
 merely halted. Later there will come the licking of the story into shape. But 
 that is for the copy desk to do. That is not for the city editor. He directs 
 what to do when a Gaynor is shot. 
 
 Another highly important function of the city editor is the 
 developing and building up of sources of news. It is a matter of 
 Keeping tab rnystery to those unacquainted with newspaper work to 
 on news f^-j^^ ]^Q^^ ygj-y rapidly an item of news, or at least the 
 hint of it, will find its way to the paper. No paper employs as 
 many reporters as it can use — and certainly none covers every 
 possible source of news. This information, then, comes in through 
 innumerable voluntary sources. And it is in creating and main- 
 taining these avenues of information, which in the vernacular are 
 termed '' pipe lines," that the city editor most splendidly serves 
 his paper. In a lesser degree each reporter is a valuable ally and 
 aids in this work. 
 
 The details of this system are delicate and slight, of a subtle and 
 psychological nature, but are nevertheless real and sure. The city 
 editor will establish cordial relations with all the ambulance men 
 and hospital men, because accidents of a nature known only to two 
 or three often can be learned only through such sources. He will 
 cultivate the acquaintance of doctors and lawyers, of preachers and 
 teachers. Any one of these may have a news item, but at such 
 rare intervals that no regular system of calling upon him is feasible 
 or desirable. The list has numerous extensions — labor unions, 
 lodges, boards of control, church societies, philanthropic institu- 
 tions, even tramps, may have a tip that leads to a big stor^'. 
 
 To accomplish this requires infinite patience. No matter how 
 busy, the city editor must always give a pleasant greeting. If the 
 interruption be ever so great an intrusion, he will not let the visitor 
 see his annoyance or feel personal embarrassment. No matter how 
 foolish the question he is called to the telephone to answer, he will, 
 
lOO ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 if wise, reply in such a way as to encourage the same person to 
 call again. Thus he lays the foundation of an extended acquaint- 
 ance. Again, the position of city editor makes possible a great 
 variety of small favors, and these, if they are properly distributed, 
 place the recipient under obligations that return in news many 
 times the cost and effort expended. 
 
 This very fact, of course, brings with it a train of responsibili- 
 ties. The city editor is constantly beset by persons who wish 
 something kept out of the paper that ought to go in or something 
 put in that ought to be left out. In proportion as he is able to send 
 each person away kindly disposed is he building up his paper and 
 adding to his usefulness. Courtesy, dispatch, consideration, and 
 accuracy nowhere have greater value than at the city editor's desk. 
 
 The spider web of news sources here indicated is not, of course, 
 the main foundation upon which the city editor builds his struc- 
 ture. The city editor is responsible for the news of the city. If 
 his paper does not get it, he must answer to his superiors, just as 
 the reporter must answer to him. For his main line of defense he 
 relies upon what are usually called routes, or beats, and upon the 
 assignment book. 
 
 The route, or beat, is some definite point or series of points, daily 
 producing so much news that the paper is warranted in having 
 Routes and ^ "^^^^ " make his rounds " regularly. They vary in 
 assignments number and in character with the community. To this 
 class, however, belong the courthouse, the police station, the state- 
 house, if it is a state capital ; the city hall or other municipal 
 headquarters, federal buildings, if the city contains them ; head- 
 quarters of the city school system, the hotels, wharves, if the city 
 has a water front ; the chamber of commerce or board of trade, 
 and others. In cities of 100,000 or over in population one man's 
 time is usually completely occupied at police headquarters, another's 
 at the courthouse, and a third's at the city hall. These men are often 
 called department men and perform the same service day after day. 
 They reach the office but seldom, and being trained men for the 
 most part, work with little direction from the city editor. The other 
 places are grouped together, from two to a dozen, according to 
 their importance and distance apart, and a reporter is assigned to 
 
UHIV. Of 
 
 THE CITY EDITOR VAI^IFO'.I'PI 
 
 cover them regularly. Some papers pay marked attention to one 
 kind of news and others to a different sort, and the city editor 
 takes all these things into consideration in assigning his men to 
 their routes. 
 
 On many papers it is felt that more news is secured by having 
 the same man call at the same places each day, thus forming 
 friendships as well as informing himself minutely on all that goes 
 on there. Other papers insist that a good reporter should know a 
 news item whenever and wherever he sees it, that he should be 
 fairly familiar with everything going on in the city and be able to 
 fit in wherever required. This is a question each city editor must 
 answer according to his own judgment and his experience in get- 
 ting results. For the most part the practice favors the former of 
 the two methods. 
 
 The other infallible reliance of the city editor is his assign- 
 ment book. This, at the beginning of the year, is nothing but 
 a blank book. At the end it is full of names, phrases, and dates. 
 Whenever any event is announced for the future, the careful city 
 editor immediately notes it in his book for the day scheduled. This 
 list includes conventions, public gatherings, meetings of societies, 
 prominent social events, picnics, lawsuits, hearings before com- 
 missions, demonstrations, carnivals, lectures, arrival of prominent 
 people, and all the many other things which the public cares to 
 know about and for which preparation facilitates the work. 
 
 As an example : a society announces that it has invited a man 
 of national reputation to address its annual meeting. On the 
 assignment book the date of the annual meeting is entered, 
 together with the name of the speaker and the names of the 
 members of the committee in charge or such other persons as 
 will have intimate knowledge of the affair from time to time. 
 Undoubtedly reception and entertainment committees will be named 
 later, the hall may be specially decorated, notable guests may be 
 invited. Each of these constitutes a news item and must be secured 
 as soon as possible. Several weeks in advance the city editor will 
 write to the speaker for his photograph, and on the day of arrival 
 he will have a reporter to meet him at the train, or, if the man be 
 one of exceptional fame, he may even send a man to a point 50 or 
 
102 ^:3SENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 lOO miles away to catch the train that is bringing in the distin- 
 guished guest. By such means the reporter can have an interview 
 ready for type when the notable arrives. Often a valuable " scoop," 
 or " beat," can be effected in this manner. 
 
 From his assignment book and through suggestive clippings 
 from contemporaries the city editor daily makes out the assign- 
 ments for his reporters. Most dailies have one or more reporters 
 known as general assignment men. They are supposed to have had 
 general training and experience, to know the city, and to be able 
 to work without detailed instruction. To such men fall the assign- 
 ments that do not come under the province of any route, as well 
 as the unexpected happenings — accidents, big fires, and sensations 
 of any sort. If, for instance, some story of unusual magnitude 
 develops at the courthouse, city hall, police court, or other regular 
 beat, then the regular man either is relieved to give all his time to 
 the special story, or looks after only the routine, and another man 
 ,is assigned to the special story. Local conditions and immediate 
 considerations will govern in such cases. 
 
 Not a little of the city editor's time may be consumed in looking 
 
 over newspapers both local and foreign, not so much for news as 
 
 for ideas. This is what is called " making news." For 
 
 Making news f 
 
 instance, he will learn from a paper published in a city 
 no larger than his own, and but a few hundred miles away, that 
 the place is very much excited about a horse show. His own city 
 has never held a horse show. This gives him the idea, and the 
 rest is mere elaboration of detail. 
 
 He has his men hunt up the various owners of fine horses. He 
 sees if he cannot get some of them to express a desire for a horse 
 show, a willingness to exhibit or to offer a prize. Another reporter 
 will see society people, horse organizations, and the chamber of 
 commerce to ascertain whether some of them, or several of them 
 together, will not undertake the management of a horse show. 
 The city editor wires to the other city for an account of the 
 means by which the event was made a success. He has a photog- 
 rapher take pictures of fine horses owned in the city. In nine 
 cases out of ten he has done all that is needed in that he has 
 suggested the idea to the proper people, and they do the rest. 
 
THE CITY EDITOR 103 
 
 Such an undertaking once started makes a lot of news as it pro- 
 gresses and is of value in that respect, as well as indicating enter- 
 prise on the part of the newspaper. Philanthropic movements of 
 all sorts have been started in this manner, public questions agitated, 
 reforms brought about, and innumerable activities set in motion by 
 the alertness and acumen of the city editor. 
 
 The city editor personally, or through assistants, handles all the 
 copy covering local events. From the business department or from 
 Reading the the managing editor he learns each day the number of 
 " copy" columns available for local matter. This varies from day 
 to day. From his assignment book and a survey of the field he 
 knows how much news there will be, and governs his space and 
 the handling of stories accordingly. He determines the approxi- 
 mate length of each story. That which on one day may be worth 
 600 words, on the next, because of space conditions, is worth 
 only 400 ; and matter that on a dull day might be used gladly, on 
 a crowded day will be thrown away altogether. Again, any unex- 
 pected event of magnitude, such as an accident, fire, murder, or 
 riot, may change conditions in a minute, and the city editor must 
 reshape his course. It is both difficult and expensive to change 
 the dimensions of a paper once they have been decided upon, 
 and only under extreme provocation is this done. The size of the 
 paper in number of pages is usually determined each day by a con- 
 ference between the managing editor and the business manager, 
 when the one knows how much news and the other how much 
 advertising is in sight. 
 
 City editors who do not have assistants usually write all heads 
 for local copy. They also correct and edit copy as it passes through 
 their hands. Some offices have a system whereby all the heads, 
 both local and telegraph, are written by one desk man, but this 
 arrangement is unusual. In such cases the editors correct the copy 
 and reduce it to the desired proportions before passing it on to be 
 headed. Head writing is a peculiar art. Some men possess a native 
 facility in the use of the English language and an unerring, intuitive 
 grasp of the main feature of each news story. These are the distin- 
 guishing characteristics of the competent headliner. The technical 
 discussion of head writing and make-up is considered elsewhere. 
 
I04 
 
 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Other duties 
 
 If a newspaper is of sufficient size to demand one or more 
 assistants to the city editor, then the latter gives most of his 
 attention to overlooking his staff, to planning for fresh 
 material, and to seeing that all necessary sources of 
 news are covered. The assistants read the copy, correct it as 
 to names, demand verification of facts when points in the written 
 matter seem at variance either with accounts published previously 
 or with known conditions, and reduce items that may be longer 
 
 Pen and Brush Reporters 
 
 Courtesy New York Herald 
 
 The use of photography and the printed sketch, illustrating events of public interest, is 
 
 steadily growing in importance. A keen sense of news values is necessary to newspaper 
 
 artists, as well as a quick appreciation of the dramatic 
 
 than desired. Where the staff is large it will often happen that 
 two or more reporters will chance upon the same item of news, 
 and this duplication must not appear in print. 
 
 The city editor has in his charge the matter of illustrating the 
 local news. He usually has at his disposal the services of one or 
 more photographers, as well as of an office artist, who makes original 
 drawings of such subjects as cannot be photographed and provides 
 significant or decorative details for use in connection with photo- 
 graphs. Sometimes the cartoonist is placed at the city editor's 
 service, and pictures, droll or seriously pertinent, are drawn of any 
 event attracting more than ordinary attention. 
 
THE CITY EDITOR 105 
 
 A subtle sense of all that concerns the public guides the city 
 editor. His work gives him little opportunity to mingle with the 
 outside world, yet his entire success depends upon knowing the 
 things that interest the public and reaching out into the future, 
 gauging as accurately as he may the things that are going to 
 interest it. The fact that the newspaper man works half of his 
 time in the future and the rest of his time on the outer line of the 
 present gives his occupation the abiding fascination it possesses. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 OTHER DESK POSITIONS 
 
 Ignoring any academic definition of the words "editor" and 
 " reporter," all practical newspapers recognize as reporters those 
 whose written matter is referred to a second person for corrective 
 judgment and revision, and as editors those whose writings go 
 directly from their desks to the composing room. With the 
 possible exception of the managing editor, who has a general 
 oversight of all departments, the work of the editor of each 
 department is without supervision. In actual practice gradations 
 are hard to mark. A reporter may frequently be permitted to edit 
 his own copy, and the editor, so called, will frequently refer his 
 writings to another for revision. 
 
 Newspapers recognize as desk positions those of the supervising 
 editors who are called upon to sit in judgment on the work of their 
 fellows. Such posts of authority vary with the newspaper, and are 
 dependent upon its size, its wealth, and the community it serves. 
 
 Duties that on one newspaper are combined in a single position, 
 on another may be delegated to two, three, or four different persons. 
 The organization of most staffs is based primarily on the idea of 
 using the time of the individual to the best advantage. To accom- 
 plish this, various combinations are made, as the talent of the man 
 or the tasks to be performed may suggest. 
 
 No rnatter how he is disguised, either by title or by duty per- 
 formed, every newspaper has a managing editor, its chief executive 
 The man- officer. He is the court of last resort except in such in- 
 aging editor stances as affect the material welfare of the newspaper, 
 when the proprietor, if he does not himself fill the position of man- 
 aging editor, will have the deciding voice. He does little writing or 
 editing, but his duties are nevertheless varied and exacting. He 
 must unite business sagacity with initiative and be constantly alert 
 to new ideas and more efficient methods. 
 
 1 06 
 
OTHER DESK POSITIONS 
 
 107 
 
 To the managing editor come for settlement all differences 
 between any subordinate departments. The final voice as to what 
 goes in the paper rests with him. He also decides on heavy 
 expenditures for news. What constitutes a "big expenditure" is 
 within the province of the proprietor or the business manager 
 to decide. Some editors may spend large sums without special 
 authority. Others are strictly limited to definite amounts not to be 
 exceeded without instruction. On most newspapers the managing 
 editor decides when news or " feature " services are to be con- 
 tracted for, directs when and how questions of policy are to be 
 carried out, exercises a general supervision over every department, 
 guards against libel, sees that the total expenses of the editorial 
 department do not pass beyond a certain permitted figure, and in 
 a general way is the responsible head of the entire newspaper, 
 excepting only the business department. The city editor and all 
 other heads of departments report to the managing editor for 
 counsel and direction. It does not mean that the latter exercises 
 as close a scrutiny over their work as the city editor does over the 
 work of the reporter. These department heads usually have been 
 selected by the managing editor himself and have been chosen 
 because they enjoy his confidence. Except where a man of means 
 buys a newspaper from some ulterior motive and retains personal 
 direction, no inexperienced newspaper man ever becomes a manag- 
 ing editor, and long before the reporter may hope to have an 
 opportunity of exercising the functions of that coveted office he 
 will be more conversant with them through observation and experi- 
 ence than any book can make him. 
 
 Most of the duties falling to the telegraph editor are considered 
 in the chapter " Head Writing and Make-up." The telegraph 
 The tele- editor handles all the telegraph copy. This, strangely 
 graph editor enough, includes a great deal of matter that is sent in 
 by mail. Most papers subscribe for certain telegraph service, as the 
 Associated Press, which has agents and representatives in every sec- 
 tion of the globe and sends nightly to all the larger offices from 30 
 to 40 columns of matter. Other telegraph services are the Hearst, 
 the Laffan, the United Press, all with ramifications covering the 
 world and all as actively competitive as the newspapers they serve. 
 
loS 
 
 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Since the average daily prints only about 20 columns of tele- 
 graph matter, the first problem of the telegraph editor is one of 
 selection. He must decide whether a flood in China or a political 
 uprising in England will be of the greater interest to his readers. 
 He must also decide which articles to print in detail and which to 
 condense into a paragraph. He mus.t determine which to accord 
 large, prominent heads and which to tuck away under a single 
 line of machine "caps." Each item should grip some reader. 
 
 Getting News by Wire 
 
 Courtesy New York Herald 
 
 A big newspaper ofifice is like the human brain, with nerves reaching to every part of the 
 world. These telegraph lines are essentially the same as those in any commercial office 
 
 Most of the copy that comes by wire is well written, but errors 
 in transcription are common, so that all copy must be carefully 
 scanned. In the larger offices considerable matter may come by 
 cable. This arrives in skeleton form and has to be filled out. Many 
 of the New York papers have editors who do nothing but handle 
 cable copy often building long stories from meager details. 
 
 In addition to this regular telegraph service every paper uses 
 more or less of what is called special service. This is matter which 
 
OTHER DESK POSITIONS 109 
 
 only a single paper will want. The telegraph news services, men- 
 tioned above, confine themselves to matters of general interest. 
 Suppose some local man who is a given paper's candidate for an 
 elective office delivers an address in a city 100 miles away. While 
 this home paper will have a representative in that city send an 
 account of the event, other papers, not interested in this man's 
 candidacy, might not care anything about his speech. 
 
 Another example which has gained national prominence is the 
 effort of a Chicago newspaper to collect statistics of the damage 
 done in celebrating Fourth of July by fireworks. This paper 
 regularly forwards to each of its thousands of correspondents 
 throughout the United States explicit directions as to what hour 
 each day for three days he shall send this information. By mid- 
 night of July 4 the Chicago organ has in its office an account of 
 every death by premature explosion or similar accident in the entire 
 United States on that day. This single item of news involves an 
 expense of thousands and thousands of dollars and is possible only 
 to a paper with large resources. 
 
 On many newspapers the telegraph editor is also the make-up 
 man. On other papers the managing editor makes up. Where he 
 does not have to make up, the telegraph editor merely gives to the 
 man who does a list of the more important articles in type and 
 suggests which are of greatest interest. 
 
 To handle 30 columns of copy in a day or a night is in itself a 
 prodigious task, and where any other duties are required, it is cus- 
 state editor, tomary for the telegraph editor to have an assistant, 
 or assistant ^j^^ -^ ^^^^^ called the state editor. State editors are 
 
 telegraph 
 
 editor necessary on certain papers because of the geograph- 
 
 ical location of the city and because of the nature of the population 
 of the city served. State editors get this title because they handle 
 the copy sent in by a great corps of correspondents throughout the 
 state. This is always an important matter in cities located in 
 the center of a state, particularly in the capital of the state. State 
 capitals have an unusual proportion of their citizenship drawn 
 from the state at large, and always the urbanite has a clinging 
 fondness for the happenings of his earlier home. There is no 
 satisfactory way for a newspaper to secure this information except 
 
no ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 by making arrangements witli some one, usually a person connected 
 with the county weekly, to furnish the real news from each locality. 
 
 Where the newspaper is located in the center of the state and 
 has reasonably good railroad facilities, much of this matter may 
 be sent b\- mail, and, what is of even greater importance, the city 
 daily can be printed and be on sale in these contributing commu- 
 nities within twelve hours after the news has been sent out. This 
 mutual convenience arising from rapid service aids in building up 
 the circulation of the city daily in the small towns and villages 
 which cannot support a local daily, and is a second justification of 
 the state service and the state editor. 
 
 As more or less of such news is written by amateurs, it must be 
 carefully edited. The state editor also must keep a space book, 
 wherein is recorded the exact amount of matter used from the bulk 
 sent by each correspondent. Papers pay only for what they use, 
 not for what they receive. 
 
 The state editor receives a wide diversity of queries. These 
 are telegraphic requests for instructions on certain stories. The 
 man at Xville wdll wire : '' Two killed in runaway. How much ? " 
 The answer will request anywhere from 50 to 500 words, according 
 to what the state editor may think the accident is worth as news. 
 The clever correspondent will include in his query the fact that 
 the people either are or are not prominent, which will make a differ- 
 ence in the amount the state editor orders. If it is early in the day 
 or the evening he will usually order a short story ; later, if the news 
 feature turns out to be important he will order a longer account. 
 With the ever-increasing facility of long-distance telephoning, quer- 
 ies are often made in this manner, and when it is close to press 
 time stories are dictated over the telephone, even though the scene 
 be hundreds of miles away. The state editor is expected to keep 
 the expenses of his department within prescribed limits and must 
 consider the cost of every item of the service under his direction. 
 
 In times of stress the telegraph editor will call on the state editor 
 for assistance. Indeed the state editor's desk is usually the step- 
 ping stone to the telegraph desk, as the latter holds the precedent 
 for the make-up position which, in turn, may lead to the managing 
 editor's chair. There is no recognized order of promotion, however, 
 
OTHER DESK POSITIONS 1 1 1 
 
 that is sufficiently general to be accepted as a rule. In newspaper 
 work, perhaps more rigidly than in any other profession, personal 
 advancement depends upon native ability and special fitness. 
 
 The sporting editor's desk is peculiar. Generically speaking it 
 is related, on the one hand, to the dramatic critic's position and, on 
 The sporting the Other, to that of the telegraph editor. The sporting 
 editor editor must be a specialist and must know all about 
 
 the various sports and athletic events covered by his department. 
 He must also handle a great deal of copy that is sent in either by 
 mail or by wire. He has the prerogative of making certain expend- 
 itures, and in this respect exercises a degree of authoritative control, 
 as do the state and telegraph editors. On large newspapers this 
 department is expanded to include a number of specialists, all work- 
 ing under the direction of the regular sporting editor, who in turn 
 reports to the managing editor. College athletics furnish a fine 
 preliminary equipment for the writer of sporting news. 
 
 Another desk man, recognized on most papers, is the market 
 editor. He, too, works closely with the telegraph editor, since much 
 The market ^f the matter that passes through his hands comes by 
 editor wire. He needs, also, to keep in personal touch with the 
 
 markets of the city. Many of these furnish special tables of prices 
 to the market editor, which he edits and uses as he may see fit. 
 Where, for any reason, the paper does not care to pay special atten- 
 tion to markets, this work is handled either by the telegraph editor 
 or by the state editor. 
 
 Some papers recognize a financial department distinct from the 
 markets. The man in charge usually ranks as an editor and is 
 Financial ^^^ required to submit his copy for revision. In other 
 editor cases it is handled on a reportorial basis and goes 
 
 through the market editor's hands. The financial man keeps in 
 close touch with banks, manufacturers, and large mercantile con- 
 cerns of all sorts. An ability to respect confidence with the 
 utmost care, to keep counsel of his own thoughts at all times, 
 and to inspire confidence in others is a requisite of far greater 
 importance than any command of ornate language. In no depart- 
 ment of newspaper work is an ability to say a thing simply and 
 truthfully of greater importance than in the financial column. 
 
112 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Many newspapers, particularly the larger ones, or those that 
 aim to cover a wide area with a small publication, recognize what 
 are called copy desks. It is frequently the practice to 
 confuse these desks with those of the city editor's as- 
 sistants ; but copy desks, properly so called, exercise none of the 
 executive duties and little of the selective function of a city desk. 
 
 The chief functions of a copy-desk man are to make any story 
 or item that may be submitted conform to dictated requirements 
 in style and length and to correct usage of English. A reporter 
 comes in, says he has a fire story, and asks the city editor how 
 much he wishes to use. The city editor tells him 500 words. 
 Now, when the city editor gets the copy he may find that the 
 reporter has written too much, or that, instead of the 500 words 
 requested, the story itself is worth only 300 words, and he turns 
 the story over to the copy reader to reduce it to the 3 00- word 
 limit desired. 
 
 Often the copy reader writes the heads, particularly the less 
 important ones, and reconstructs the "leads." 
 
 Not infrequently he must completely rewrite stories. If a re- 
 porter has only partly caught the idea of the city editor and if 
 time presses, then the story is turned over to a copy man who 
 knows exactly what the city editor wants told and how he wants 
 it expressed. 
 
 The copy reader at times has not a little editing to do. Suppose 
 a big story, such as a sensational murder, is to be handled. Half 
 a dozen men are working different parts of the city on as many 
 different phases of the situation. Naturally these men will dupli- 
 cate some features of the account, and this duplication the copy 
 reader eliminates, writing in a connecting line or paragraph here 
 and there and blending the work of half a dozen men into a 
 homogeneous whole. 
 
 He must be quick and accurate, infallible on the spelling of 
 names and words, capable of writing clean and incisive English, 
 with a full knowledge of punctuation, capitalization, and all the 
 marks whereby editors and news writers signify precisely what 
 they wish the printer to do with their copy. These marks are 
 illustrated at another place in this book. 
 
OTHER DESK POSITIONS II3 
 
 In some instances the department of social news rises to the 
 dignity of a desk position, the one in charge being given the 
 The society usual editor's discretionary powers. More frequently 
 desk society copy is handled through the city desk or one of 
 
 the assistant desks. Newspapers print society news as they print a 
 great deal of other matter, not because of the intrinsic news value 
 from the editor's point of view, but from the fact that it makes a 
 definite appeal to a certain class which nothing else will satisfy. As 
 a circulation builder, society news in many communities is held to 
 be without a peer. The reason for this is that the newspaper which 
 appeals to the woman is the one that goes to the home, and the 
 one that goes to the home is considered the best advertising 
 medium. It is apparent, therefore, that a direct and mercenary 
 purpose very largely influences newspapers in printing social news. 
 
 For successful work the society reporter needs a retentive 
 memory and a pleasant personality and the ability to say a thing 
 directly and clearly. As in any other reportorial assignment, judg- 
 ment to refrain from effusions of all sorts, with a certain nice 
 discrimination, more frequently given to women than to men, 
 enabling the possessor to recognize, almost intuitively, relative 
 social distinctions and the varied importance of events, are the 
 chief requisites for success in this work. It is obviously of 
 advantage for a society reporter to be on terms of friendship 
 with society women, a thing less easy to do than to decree. 
 
 In this connection it seems advisable to emphasize the indis- 
 putable value of women's service in certain specialized forms of 
 newspaper work, and, at the same time, to recognize equally indis- 
 putable limitations entailed by temperament and sex. It is to be 
 understood that the few noteworthy exceptions to the application 
 of such statements as may seem indiscriminatingly sweeping but 
 prove the general truths. 
 
 Women have developed peculiar fitness for such departmental 
 positions as society reporting, the compilation of news covering 
 organized philanthropies and literary clubs, the reporting of lec- 
 tures and educational assemblies, " feature " writing, — including 
 the '' features " incident to convention and campaign work, — and 
 certain forms of criticism, frequently literary, less often musical, 
 
114 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 seldom dramatic. Speaking broadly, from a successful career in 
 the editorial and the managerial fields of journalism women as 
 a class are debarred by inherent characteristics of mind and of 
 personality rather than by external barriers of conventionality or 
 precedent. 
 
 This candid presentation of time-proved facts should be the 
 source of incentive, not of discouragement, to women desirous of 
 entering the profession. The soil is fallow for women's efficient 
 work in the fields named. That the territory is somewhat circum- 
 scribed but adds distinction to such excellence of service as may 
 be attained. 
 
 Although still recognized by most of the well-equipped dailies 
 of the country, the exchange editor no longer occupies the place 
 of importance that he did twenty-five years ago. This 
 exchange is due to various causes, not the least of which are the 
 ^ ^ °^ increasing facility with which people get about the coun- 
 
 try and the rapidity with which mail and express matter are for- 
 warded. Another influencing element is the lessening note of per- 
 sonality in the journalism of to-day. When Dana and the S?ui 
 were synonymous, when Greeley and the Tribune were one and 
 the same, when Murat Halstead stood for the Commercial Gazette 
 and Henry Watterson for the Cornier Journal, then the columns 
 of these papers were eagerly scanned by readers far and near, and 
 newspapers that were without such dominant personalities on their 
 staff eagerly copied what these intellectual giants wrote. 
 
 Then, too, it was exceptional for a man to read more than his 
 home paper. Now men read all sorts of papers. Then telegraphy 
 was expensive and telephones impracticable. Now wire communi- 
 cation has become cheaper and the newspapers richer, so that cost 
 is not considered at all by some of them when a story is at stake. 
 
 \h)x all that, in some corner of most offices one will find a man, 
 usually one of the older fellows, with a big pile of exchanges before 
 him, going over them one by one and clipping an article, now 
 here, now there, noting on the back of it the name of the paper 
 from which it is taken and the date on which it was printed. It is 
 not work for an amateur. lie must know by training what news- 
 papers throughout the country are worth considering, and what 
 
OTHER DESK POSITIONS II5 
 
 distinguishes this one and what makes notable that one. He must 
 also know .news. He must know what is particularly desired in 
 his own community. 
 
 As an instance, the city in which he is working is wrestling 
 with the problem of reorganizing its sewage system. Wherever 
 in the length and breadth of the land the exchange man finds a 
 city similarly engaged, he will clip the items that deal with it. 
 His city supports a ball team which belongs to one of the leagues ; 
 he will clip comment about that ball team from the papers of other 
 cities in the league. His paper is allied with one of the dominant 
 political parties ; he will clip editorials from the leading allied 
 organs of the country, or from the leaders of the opposition when- 
 ever he thinks they have shown a weakness that his paper can 
 easily expose. 
 
 Nor does his usefulness stop here. There are certain forms of 
 news in which the time element is not paramount. Such, for in- 
 stance, are accounts of peculiar antics of birds or animals, anec- 
 dotes of men prominent in public life, and minor discoveries in art 
 or scientific circles. These he clips and usually supplies with head- 
 ings. They are used for what is called '' time " copy, copy which 
 the printers set when not otherwise busy. This matter is printed 
 usually on the editorial page and is tucked in here and there to aid 
 in make-up. Much of it is used on Sundays and holidays when the 
 size of the paper printed is out of proportion to the actual news 
 that presents itself. The exchange editor also makes clippings for 
 the morgue. 
 
 The " morgue " is a time-honored institution among all news- 
 papers. In the smaller offices it exists chiefly in a rudimentary 
 The form or in name, while with the big dailies it is one of 
 
 "morgue" ^^i^ most highly developed and finely organized of the 
 associated departments of news compilation. There is not wanting 
 a certain grim appropriateness in the name '' morgue," in that, 
 originally having to do with the dead, it resembled, until it became 
 more completely developed as an information bureau, but a dead 
 thing, when compared with other features of newspaper work. 
 
 Historically, the morgue began when newspapers began to illus- 
 trate their stories. Economically it grew into importance when 
 
ii6 
 
 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 what were once matters of hours came to be matters of minutes 
 and finally of seconds. Newspaper illustrations cost money, and so 
 when they were made, they were saved instead of being thrown 
 away. Frequently they were used again and again, and the pic- 
 ture of an individual received final insertion on occasion of his 
 death. Soon it was perceived that if it was handy to have his 
 cut, it was equally convenient to have a bit of biography on hand. 
 
 Stored-Up Information 
 
 Courtesy New York World 
 
 A well-equipped morgue contains information of all sorts, available to the reporters on a 
 moment's notice. It requires constant attention to keep it up to date 
 
 So newspapers began to file away short sketches with the cut of 
 the person. If he died suddenly, the morgue furnished all that was 
 needed in the way of clippings and pictures. 
 
 As the manufacture of cuts became cheaper and the magnitude 
 of the morgue increased, the cuts were often destroyed and the 
 photographs from which they were made were saved. Half a 
 dozen photographs can be handled and managed with less trouble 
 than a single metal cut. In actual practice the newspaper keeps the 
 cuts of prominent men always on hand and pictures of the less 
 
OTHER DESK POSITIONS II7 
 
 prominent ones. The exchange editor was easily metamorphosed 
 into the keeper of the morgue or office hbrary. 
 
 With the growing complexity in the province of this refer- 
 ence '' bureau " the card-index system came to be used, and even 
 cross-indexes are now in vogue. In a minute almost any sort of 
 information about anything desired can be secured. Not alone is 
 there an envelope for every one who has ever been prominent, 
 together with photographs of himself, his family, and his home, 
 but information is also catalogued concerning disasters of all kinds, 
 big conventions, wars, religious gatherings, and the entire range of 
 matter that constitutes news. It is this which enables a newspaper 
 with the first item about a flood, earthquake, fire, or robbery to give 
 immediately a complete and accurate list of all similar catastrophes, 
 together with the exact loss or damage entailed by each. 
 
 The morgue to be a success requires constant attention. It is 
 always growing. The keeper scans the papers of the entire world 
 for features and bits of information to add to it. Books and maga- 
 zines which cannot be conveniently clipped are catalogued so that 
 all manner of information on all sorts of subjects is available at a 
 minute's notice. Complete files of the local papers, with news of 
 importance in each issue indexed, are always available. 
 
 An example of the usefulness of the morgue is cited from an 
 experience of the New York Herald^ which gave a newspaper man 
 fond of sea-faring a commission to cable really important news 
 from whatever point of the globe he might be at the time the event 
 occurred. It chanced that one of his expeditions took him to some 
 of the less frequented islands of the South Seas. While there he 
 lived through an earthquake which killed many people and did a 
 great deal of property damage. There was no cable station on the 
 island, and it was several days before he could reach a port, from 
 which he sent meager words outlining the disaster. By reference 
 to its morgue the Herald was able to print scenes on the island, 
 a map of its location, a description of its climate, products and pop- 
 ulation, and history, coupled with an outline of the disaster. Thus 
 it had at the expense of a fifty-word cablegram an article more 
 than a column in length, of the same practical value as though the 
 whole thing had been sent by cable. 
 
Il8 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Even the expedient of the morgue does not serve for the extreme 
 haste that newspapers require in deahng with the demise of impor- 
 tant personages, and in many offices death notices of such persons 
 are all written out and in many cases even set up and left on the 
 " stone," ready to be clapped into a form and printed at a second's 
 notice. Even where this is not done as a part of a system, it is 
 customary to do it when any great man is ill or at the point of 
 death. 
 
 In extreme cases even this is not rapid enough. When the late 
 pope lay dying, one newspaper in Ohio printed 500 copies every 
 day for a week, with a telegram reading, " Rome — The pope died 
 today." Day after day these papers were printed and as regularly 
 destroyed, until the fatal moment when death actually did super- 
 vene, and while these 500 copies were being sold, thus effecting 
 the coveted " scoop," others were hastily made ready. It is fre- 
 quently the case that in big controversies, such as elections or con- 
 ventions, provisional stories are written, set up and printed, stating 
 that each of the possible contingencies has taken place. All that 
 is then needed is a word of what has actually occurred, and the 
 papers are ready for the world. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 INTERVIEWS 
 
 Nearly all news gathering has more or less work that is essentially 
 interviewing ; indeed, very few items of any importance can be 
 Interviewing secured without asking some one a series of questions, 
 a difficult art ^^iq interview proper, however, is a difficult thing. 
 It is the most subtle and most fascinating of all kinds of news 
 gathering — and the most difficult. It demands skill, tact, intel- 
 ligence, and experience on the part of those who would win suc- 
 cess and recognition. It is one of the few forms of news story for 
 which the profession has retained a special name. 
 
 An interview, in the understanding of a newspaper man, is a 
 personal expression, secured from a man or woman of immediate 
 prominence or established authority, upon a subject in which the 
 public is likely to be interested. Such a definition naturally excludes 
 that form of interview which certain classes of public officials hold 
 with themselves periodically, utterances that are typed off by their 
 own stenographers and sent to the press. Nor is it meant to include 
 that kind of printed statement which follows a prearranged visit of 
 a delegation of newspaper men to the office of a politician, who 
 then proceeds to tell them something he has previously decided to 
 divulge or submits to a fusillade of questions. True, such reports 
 are technically interviews and, as printed in the paper, give no 
 indication of the methods by which they were secured. The real 
 interview, however, is one that matches the skill of the reporter 
 against the adroitness of a man who either has nothing to say or 
 has something to conceal. Such an interview becomes significant 
 because a single newspaper man manages under adverse circum- 
 stances to extract information of great importance from an unwill- 
 ing agent. Thus, when a politician is induced to uncover a policy 
 he means to pursue, or a committeeman comes out in indorsement 
 of a candidate he purposes to support, the news, secured through 
 
 119 
 
120 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 personal conversation is a genuine interview ; so, too, when any one 
 who has been intimately connected with a perplexing mystery can 
 be made to reveal the real motives or to supply the missing links. 
 Sometimes such happenings have taken place years before, but 
 their uncovering makes a good story whenever recorded. 
 
 The first real difficulty in interviewing is in finding the man. 
 The matter is simplified when the reporter discovers the presence 
 Getting an of ^ notable personage from the scanning of a hotel 
 audience register. All that remains is to send up a card and 
 await the granting of an interview ; or, better still, waylay the man 
 in the hotel corridor where matters may be discussed less formally, 
 possibly over a cigar. In case the whereabouts of a distinguished 
 visitor is unknown, either to the city editor or to the reporter, the 
 task becomes more complex. Often a man is expected to arrive 
 some time within the afternoon or evening. The reporter must 
 meet all trains and keep his eyes open. Probably the celebrity has 
 only ten minutes to get a lunch and make railroad connections. 
 Every minute of the time must be improved by the interviewer in 
 skillful questioning while, perhaps, the interviewed sips coffee and 
 devours pie. Here blunt, direct interrogations on vital topics will 
 be found more advantageous than aimless commonplaces. Many 
 of the very best interviews have been secured under such pressure. 
 
 Often a reporter learns that an important personage is in town 
 at about the moment he is ready to leave. All the resources of 
 quick thinking and prompt action are then called into play. One 
 interviewer, so the story goes, ran three blocks to get a word with 
 William Jennings Bryan, only to see the train pulling out of the 
 railroad station when he arrived. Nothing daunted, the reporter 
 sped past the gateman and clambered on the steps of the last coach. 
 He was breathless and speechless. Mr. Bryan was quick to appre- 
 ciate the situation and briefly outlined his opinions on public policies 
 while the reporter gasped and the train gathered speed. With the 
 information secured, the newspaper man dropped from the swiftly 
 moving train into the station yard, returned to the office, and 
 " scooped " the town. 
 
 It occasionally happens that a man must be called out of bed or 
 summoned from a social gathering to meet a reporter. To approach 
 
INTERVIEWS 121 
 
 him under such circumstances requires diplomacy and resourceful- 
 ness. When a reporter can be introduced to his subject by a mutual 
 acquaintance he will usually find that the way has been opened for 
 him. If he can change the situation and become the host himself, 
 the interviewer will generally find himself on superior ground. 
 
 Once the man or woman has been found, the hope of success 
 depends largely upon the personality and intelligence of the inter- 
 simpiifying viewer. Certain demands are placed upon him if he 
 the work would secure the information he seeks. Whatever will 
 conduce to his sense of ease and comfort is a desirable prerequisite 
 for a successful interview. Not infrequently it may be the matter 
 of his own attire. He will not care to present himself at a fashion- 
 able hotel in an outfit soiled by a hard day's wear at the office and 
 go to its most elaborate suite to meet some celebrity of national 
 reputation. The successful interviewer must be a person of more 
 than usual address, with a certain savoir-faire which will put him 
 on a plane of social equality with whomsoever he may meet. He 
 must be courteous, respectful, not disposed to argue or to dispute. 
 Often he must display great deference ; many more times he must 
 lead the way and probe deeply for his information. In a word, the 
 interviewer must be mentally alert, armed with facts and questions, 
 and ready to match his intellect against another. He should remem- 
 ber that the particular thing he is trying to find out may be the 
 very thing his subject wishes to keep secret. 
 
 It is highly desirable that a reporter going to interview any 
 person of authority on his favorite theme should have some gen- 
 eral idea of the history and the work of the man to be ques- 
 tioned, in order that he may put intelligent queries and that he 
 may receive understandingly what is told him without requiring 
 too minute an explanation. A great many people are apt to be 
 annoyed if asked to explain many of the technical terms in which 
 it comes natural for them to couch their ideas. Yet these technical 
 terms are almost wholly unsuited to the printed article, and if the 
 reporter cannot translate them into general English out of his own 
 knowledge, he must get that knowledge from his subject. The 
 wise interviewer will inform himself on the facts woven around the 
 career of the man to be interviewed. This desired information may 
 
122 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 usually be secured by investigation in the city library or by a brief 
 inspection of " Who's Who," a volume that maybe found in every 
 reputable newspaper office. If he has the data of a man's life and 
 a knowledge of his dominant interests well in mind, it will be much 
 easier to start a conversation and to secure from him the informa- 
 tion sought. It frequently happens that fame has already attached 
 certain policies and peculiarities to the name of a celebrity. If such 
 are familiar to the reporter, the task is made less difficult. 
 
 If the reporter bent on an interview knows exactly the thing he 
 W'ants to have said, his campaign is further simplified, even though 
 it may not be made easier. Often, however, he will have to trust 
 to the trend of the conversation to develop some point of leading 
 interest. City editors have an idea that every time a person of 
 national importance comes to town he ought to talk good '' copy," 
 and so the interviewer is often sent on a mission with no other 
 instructions than to " get a story." 
 
 Knowing the thing sought does not, however, always make it 
 easier to get the information. The reporter may frame his ques- 
 tions ever so shrewdly, lead up to them ever so adroitly, and still 
 receive an evasive answer in each case. There is always a certain 
 risk in a point-blank question, answerable by a "yes" or ''no." 
 An audience, gained with difficulty, may thus be suddenly termi- 
 nated. If it is prolonged, the person interviewed may give some 
 expression that will clearly indicate the trend of his thought. 
 Generally speaking, more is learned by inference than by direct 
 statement. 
 
 Interviewing is difficult precisely because of this fact, that most 
 persons worth interviewing have trained minds and are as skillful 
 in evading a point or in framing an equivocal answer as the reporter 
 is in putting his questions. The reporter will find it wise always to 
 pay the strictest attention to anything and everything that is said 
 by his subject and to appear interested. This is invariably not as 
 easy as it might seem ; for while the reporter is listening to an 
 answer which is not what he wants, he must be framing up a 
 question whereby he may lead, not too obviously, to the topic he 
 wishes discussed. It often happens when the reporter has asked a 
 leading question that he receives such an answer as, " The weather 
 
INTERVIEWS I2i» 
 
 promises to be beautiful to-morrow." If he is wise the scribe will 
 take the hint, but need not be discouraged. Allow the person 
 interviewed to take his own course and respect his personality. 
 
 A careful scrutiny of the subject's face is usually helpful, although 
 often it must be covertly made. It enables the reporter to determine 
 whether his vis-a-vis is saying something conned by rote, whether 
 he is talking merely to make talk, or whether he is voicing the 
 inmost convictions of his heart and mind. Look your man straight 
 in the eye, particularly when asking a question. It shows your own 
 earnestness, and often the light that comes or goes in his face is 
 more illuminating than the verbal answer returned. 
 
 Ordinarily the reporter is the guest of his subject, meeting him 
 in his home or in his hotel apartments. By the rites of hospitality, 
 therefore, the newspaper man is constrained to observe the practices 
 of courtesy. Occasionally it happens, however, that only by arousing 
 the ire of his subject is he able to get him outside the shell of 
 conventionality. 
 
 A case in point is concerned with an attempt made to interview 
 Elihu Root, who is considered a stiff proposition from a newspaper 
 standpoint. It has long been the custom of city editors to send 
 reporters out to get the opinions of well-known lawyers after the 
 handing down of an important legal decision. Many of these men 
 habitually talk, many do not. Mr. Root has been numbered among 
 the latter — except on one celebrated occasion, if the story told by 
 a Boston Trans cnpt editor may be accepted as true. 
 
 On that occasion — when some far-reaching decision had come down from 
 the supreme court of the United States — a newspaper man had succeeded in 
 reaching his inner sanctum, or in catching him at his outer door. The reporter 
 asked the usual question, '' Would Mr. Root make some comment as to the 
 effect of the decision ? " 
 
 " Young man," retorted the noted lawyer, '' who is counsel for your news- 
 paper? " The reporter mentioned a well-known firm. 
 
 "Then why don't you go to them for an opinion on that decision.'*" 
 demanded Mr. Root witheringly, 
 
 "Because," snapped back the newspaper man, ''we would have to pay them. 
 What we are looking for now is a little cheap talent," and Mr. Root, probably 
 one of the three or four highest-priced lawyers in the country, was so amused 
 that he straightway gave an interview, which very naturally was the feature of 
 all legal comment made upon the decision in question. 
 
124 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 There are really three kinds of people encountered by the inter- 
 viewer ; name]}', those who refuse to say anything, those who are 
 Methods of willing to talk, and those who are not conscious of having 
 approach ^^y opinions at all. All of these people must be handled 
 in different ways. The reporter must adopt a method born of an 
 intimate knowledge of human nature. In one instance he will be 
 sympathetic and interested, melting the person interviewed into a 
 flow of conversation by a nod of approval or a smile. In another 
 instance he must ask direct questions in an attempt to uncover the 
 information he seeks. In still another emergency he must suggest 
 opinions or gain a man's sanction for a printed statement, when 
 using him as authority. He should always take for granted that 
 the man is going to say something for publication. If the inter- 
 viewer begins with " Now, Mr. Blank, you don't want anything 
 said about this, do you ? '' he meets with immediate defeat. 
 
 Where a prominent person has a hobby, a mission, or a fad, it is 
 usually safe to open a conversation on his favorite topic and from 
 that to work to whatever field is desired. A well-considered inter- 
 view on bugs given by an acknowledged entomologist is more im- 
 portant than that same man's expressed views on the tariff or the 
 social evil. He is an authority on insect life and will probably say 
 something interesting and authoritative, while on other subjects he 
 is apt to be profoundly ignorant and consequently unresponsive. 
 The interviewer should bear constantly in mind that most people 
 are interested more in themselves and in their work than in anything 
 else. A request for the photograph of a society leader with some 
 comment on the artistic qualities of the picture will often warm her 
 into a gracious mood. Almost every person has some spark of 
 vanity that the reporter should look for and utilize, to what degree 
 and in what manner will depend upon his person. Flattery will 
 annoy people of modest demeanor and will be quickly comprehended 
 by the more intelligent. The reporter's method of approach must 
 never be inconsistent with personal dignity and self-respect. In this 
 connection it is interesting to cite an actual experience in which two 
 young women undertook to interview a famous soprano who had 
 come to the city to sing at a concert. The two found the singer 
 at a down-town hotel and were cordially received in her room. 
 
INTERVIEWS 
 
 125 
 
 Neither of the interviewers had a clear idea of what was wanted, so 
 the interview began with the conventional questions of how the 
 
 singer liked C (mentioning the name of the town) and was this 
 
 her first visit to the Middle West ? The singer was gracious but 
 imparted nothing exceptional or significant. A more experienced 
 interviewer — a man — sought the singer some time later and took 
 another method of approach. He began by asking her how she 
 first discovered that she had a voice, who taught her voice culture, 
 where she first appeared in public. By this time the singer was 
 talking freely about herself and her art, and further questions were 
 unnecessary. As a result a very readable interview was secured. 
 
 Another case in point may serve as an example of several of the 
 rules given herewith. Rev. Dr. J. W. Dawson, an eminent English 
 Some cases divine, had been in a city conducting a series of meet- 
 cited ings. These had been reported without developing any- 
 thing out of the ordinar)'. Several interviews had also failed to break 
 the general tone of calm. One evening a reporter joined a few 
 friends who were talking to the Doctor after the meeting, but a 
 mere introduction was all that could be obtained at that moment. 
 Conversation was general and rambling. The reporter took his cue 
 from the fact that the janitor was putting out the lights in the hall 
 and suggested that the party adjourn to a near-by club of which he 
 and one or two others present were members. Dr. Dawson accepted. 
 At the club cigars made several of the party more talkative, but it was 
 impossible to swing the conversation out of a general ecclesiastical 
 tone, which afforded no sort of copy. 
 
 Suddenly another minister asked Dr. Dawson why young men of 
 to-day do not enter the ministry as they did a generation ago. '' Be- 
 cause," came the answer quick as a flash, " it is not a man's work." 
 Here was a divine of international reputation saying to a brother 
 minister that the ministry of to-day is not a man's work. It required 
 only the most ordinar)^ questioning, after such a lead, to get a very 
 readable story. Yet if Dr. Dawson had been asked to characterize 
 the ministry, he would never have made that sweeping, unreserved 
 statement. It was the setting, the society, and the conversation 
 leading up to and away from this one striking statement that made 
 the real interview. 
 
126 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Quite different was the Rev. Dr. Hugh Black, the Scotch Pres- 
 byterian divine and writer, who accommodatingly got out of bed 
 to talk to a reporter and discussed English and American church 
 practices and the trend of the times — yet without saying anything 
 exceptional or making as good copy as his English brother. 
 
 Rev. Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, the international evangelist, is 
 quite a different type of subject. A mere doubt expressed regarding 
 any of his statements was sufficient provocation to induce him to 
 make a brief, brilliant, and powerful defense of his position, which 
 furnished excellent material. It will be understood that in all these 
 cases a pen picture of the man is quite as interesting as what 
 he says. The public has a great curiosity to know what a man 
 whom it has known only on the rostrum, pulpit, or stage may be 
 like in private view. 
 
 Stage celebrities furnish a frequent subject for interview. Seem- 
 ing to shun it, they really invite it, as publicity is as the breath of 
 life to their nostrils. While very easy of access in most cases, such 
 "stars" often furnish poor material, as they have only a few subjects 
 upon which they can, or care, to talk, and all too often they have 
 been furnished with an assortment of ideas by their press repre- 
 sentatives, who not infrequently mail "exclusive stories" to editors 
 and report interviews purporting to come from stars, but which they 
 themselves have written. 
 
 Foreign stars, as Sarah Bernhardt and Tetrazzini, are good for 
 columns of copy, although they seldom say anything worth more 
 than a line or two. Reporters are liable to find such notables as 
 these surrounded by maids, secretaries, managers, and sometimes a 
 husband. All these functionaries esteem it their duty and privilege 
 to voice the sentiments of the madame. She will smile and waft 
 in an occasional "yes" or "no" in English, a gesture in the uni- 
 versal tongue, and possibly an apt phrase or two in her mother 
 tongue. In such cases an exact description, particularly if it is tinc- 
 tured with a sense of humor, constitutes a more readable article 
 than anything else that can be written. 
 
 Some men, when interviewed by reporters with whom they have 
 no personal acquaintance, insist on seeing a copy of what is written 
 before it is printed. The late Sir Henry Irving was one of these. 
 
INTERVIEWS 127 
 
 Bourke Cockran, in a recent interview, exacted this condition, be- 
 cause he wished to make a guarded indorsement of a prominent 
 pohtician, although his visit to the city in question was 
 copy in in connection with a rehgious gathering. He also wished 
 
 advance ^^ characterize the Democratic party in a peculiar man- 
 ner. Not alone each word, but the sequence of words, was impor- 
 tant. The interview was secured by crowding past a long line of 
 admirers and waiting for him in his room, talking to him while 
 he was in his bath and later during the process of dressing for 
 dinner. Such conditions are apt to disturb the thoughts of even 
 those persons who are accustomed to being interviewed. 
 
 The practice of showing copy in advance, however, is but grudg- 
 ingly granted by newspapers, and many refuse it absolutely. A 
 reporter should be very cautious in giving his consent to it. Many 
 a fine story has had all the tingle taken out of it because the man 
 interviewed was given time to think over what he had said in the 
 course of conversation and was therefore peremptory in his com- 
 mand that certain utterances be expunged from the '' copy " when 
 shown him. If the subject is a personage of importance and the 
 interview one of extraordinary moment, then it may be well to 
 waive personal considerations ; but the newspaper's assumption is 
 that its reporters are qualified to report what they hear ; further- 
 more that whatever a man says he ought to be willing to stand by. 
 
 A courtesy which any reporter will do well to grant his subject 
 is to ask him, at the conclusiQn_of_any intervievv^^hejias anything 
 Courtes ^^^^ he^wou ld like _to_bring out or develop. When any 
 
 toward the one has been considerate enough to give of his best 
 interviewed information and thought, it is due him that his ideas 
 be plainly, clearly, and truthfully presented to the readers of the 
 paper. This may often necessitate the reporter's chronicling things 
 which he does not believe and which he may even believe to be 
 false, but he must accord his subject the same freedom of convic- 
 tion which he enjoys himself and not seek to color the utterances 
 of another by any opinions of his own. In interviews on political, 
 religious, and social subjects this phase is apt to present itself. 
 
 The interview is frequently valuable as establishing a consensus 
 of opinion, and by its aid the newspaper often performs valuable 
 
128 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 public service. When any big question agitates the pubHc mind, a 
 few well-directed interviews with leading citizens or acknowledged 
 Interviews authorities will often serve to throw a flood of light upon 
 for consensus .^ troubled subjcct. A reporter who is called upon to 
 gather such interviews will find it well to have a certain set of 
 questions, which he has carefully thought out, designed to cover 
 the field, and then submit exactly the same questions to each per- 
 son interviewed. The data thus gathered have additional value, 
 since they permit of tabulation and classification. 
 
 Men trained in the diplomatic business of nations are the most 
 difficult problems for reporters to solve. They have many ways of 
 Blind avoiding the direct answers that the reporters long to 
 
 interviews ggt. Men of this class, as also lawyers of prominence, 
 will often consent to give important information or opinions if 
 their names are withheld. While the value of any information, 
 and particularly of an interview, is cut in half without its source 
 being made known, still the subject may be of sufficient value to 
 grant this request on the homely theory that half a loaf is better 
 than none. The resourceful writer will find many ways to indicate 
 that what he writes is authoritative, even though he does not 
 use the man's name. Such interviews are often called ''blind" 
 interviews. It is seldom, however, that a formal interview will 
 be granted where the paper is requested to withhold the name 
 of the subject. 
 
 Interviews are often elaborated. This does not mean that any- 
 thing is quoted as being said which was not said, but that condi- 
 tions bearing on what was said are developed and brought 
 much of into the story. A peculiar anecdote is current to account 
 ^^^^^^ for the story very generally printed a few years ago to 
 
 the effect that John D. Rockefeller would give a million dollars 
 for a new stomach. According to this story, which may or may 
 not be true, Mr. Rockefeller and some business associates met 
 one night in the Waldorf-Astoria, and Mr. Rockefeller complained 
 bitterly of stomach trouble, saying that he would give a million 
 dollars if he could get a new stomach. In the group was a former 
 newspaper man, a man who had known Mr. Rockefeller for years. 
 The one-time reporter told this remark to a newspaper friend. 
 
INTERVIEWS 129 
 
 By examining the annals of surgery and finding what was possible 
 and what impossible in the way of relieving stomach trouble, by 
 recounting the various ailments that had afflicted the Oil King, 
 the story was strung out to a considerable extent. It was elabo- 
 rated, illustrated, and syndicated, and printed from Maine to 
 California. Such an article cannot be called an interview, vet it 
 had its foundations in one. 
 
 Newspapers often go to great expense to get an interview — 
 witness the fact that a number of reporters were sent from New 
 York to Africa to greet Colonel Roosevelt when he emerged from 
 his hunting trip. In such instances it was obviously useless to 
 send any one who did not have at least a speaking acquaintance 
 with the ex-president. That the former president did not express 
 himself on the subject that so vitally interested all the American 
 editors was due to his own cleverness. He did, however, manage 
 to convey to the reporters sufficient information to permit them 
 to formulate very accurate forecasts of what he was likely to do. 
 This was made less difficult for them by reason of .their previous 
 acquaintance with the man. 
 
 A retentive memory, a sense for apt phrases, a broad and gen- 
 eral culture, a pleasant and engaging presence, a quick perception 
 of news values in even chance remarks, and an ability 
 
 Require- ' ■' 
 
 ments for to think, Hstcn, and talk almost simultaneously are the 
 in erviewing j^g^^^ggsary attributes of one who is to do interviewing. 
 He must, moreover, be able to sense the fact whether he is being 
 told the truth or a falsehood. People of prominence can seldom 
 afford to deceive when they know that they are being quoted in 
 print, but there are cases where a bit of deceit will serve the pur- 
 pose of the subject better than the truth, particularly if he be some 
 one suspected of wrongdoing. All sorts of persons are subjects 
 for interview and all sorts of information is sought in interviews, 
 so that only the broadest principles can govern. Reporters in inter- 
 views have often received confessions of guilt which were after- 
 wards used with telling effect in courts of law. Such information, 
 naturally, is not given voluntarily, but is brought out by astute 
 questioning, just as a lawyer would do in cross-examination. No 
 field of newspaper work possesses more interest or is more 
 
I 7,0 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 vD 
 
 broadening and educational. The work tests a man at every turn 
 and requires of him that he be all a man. 
 
 In writing the interview it is customary to throw the entire sub- 
 ject into the shape of a discourse, using the exact language as 
 Writing the ^^^ ^s possible, avoiding all repetition and redundancy, 
 interview .y-j^j couching all expressions in good, simple English. 
 Occasionally it makes good reading to reproduce some of the ques- 
 tions by which the reporter developed certain facts. This process, 
 however, is frowned upon by most newspapers. The reporter will 
 also use his own sense of proportion and of sequence, as many 
 times the most important thing in a conversation does not develop 
 until toward the end, and he will naturally place it in his intro- 
 duction, explaining in the body of his narrative how the remark 
 came to be made. Again, speakers will often revert to a certain 
 phase of a subject and elaborate or explain it. Manifestly all these 
 explanations should be kept together — they are modifiers of the 
 central subject. 
 
 While a newspaper does not throw open its columns for an ex- 
 tended descriptive sketch of some notable man, akin to Thackeray's 
 picture of Henry Esmond for instance, still it welcomes swift 
 impressions, humorous sidelights, and quaint touches that reveal 
 the common humanity of the person interviewed. Revelation of 
 character comes through speech and action. 
 
 It is quite as important to pay attention to the incidentals as to 
 the statements made by the subject. If he h^itates or refuses 
 to go into particulars, if he strikes the table in the heat of his 
 conversation or denies a thing flatly in a loud voice, these should be 
 incorporated in the interview together with his oddities of speech 
 and gesture. 
 
 It is very difficult to quote an interview that has in it any degree 
 of permanence. Obviously the event that prompted an expression 
 A model ^^ opinion from any prominent man is of but momen- 
 interview ^yy importance ; when it loses its freshness it becomes 
 only so much driftwood. 
 
 In the following interview the authors have sought to present a 
 specimen which possesses qualities not quite so transitory as the 
 ordinary newspaper story. The interview was secured from George 
 
INTERVIEWS 
 
 131 
 
 Sylvester Viereck, a young New York poet, — once hailed by critics 
 as a second Chatterton, — certainly very unconventional and singu- 
 larly interesting. The reporter's personality does not enter into the 
 story at all. He allows the poet to talk on in a brisk formation of 
 epigrams and opinions. As a matter of fact, many questions were 
 asked to arouse antagonism and to elicit observations, but the 
 methods and queries are omitted in the written report. The most 
 significant statement is placed in the "lead" ; the others trail on 
 behind. Much that was said is not printed because unessential. As 
 nearly as possible the exact phrasing of the conversation is preserved. 
 The concluding paragraphs of the story are reserved for a discus- 
 sion of Mr. Viereck's literary career and for a summary of the facts 
 of his life and a description of his personality. There is no attempt 
 to arrive at any interpretation of his poetry or to analyze his beliefs. 
 The interview is without bias and endeavors to present opinions 
 and comments just as they fell from the lips of the speaker, tak- 
 ing some liberty in the order of arrangement. Should the newspaper 
 care to make comment or engage in controversy over Mr. Viereck's 
 utterances, an opportunity is given in the editorial column. 
 
 '' If I were Shakespeare, I wouldn't sign my name to the sonnets. The 
 individual lines are good — but the sonnets themselves — pooh — ^ ballyrot," 
 remarked George Sylvester Viereck with a quick shrug of his shoulders — 
 Viereck, the German-American weaver of verses, whose sweep of fancy and 
 daringness of conception have prompted critics' pens to niche him among the 
 world's immortals — in an interview yesterday on the occasion of his visit to 
 Columbus to address the German-Americans assembled in convention. 
 
 " Shakespeare isn't my favorite author. Please don't lift your eyebrows. 
 
 I'm not conventional enough to admire everything he does. I confess openly 
 
 that most of my inspiration has come from Heine and Swinburne, but that's 
 
 not saying I haven't welded the hot measure in my own forge with hammer 
 
 ^ blows. Work, that's the other half of the secret of verse worth while. 
 
 " What's the matter with our poetic output? I'll tell you. There's too much 
 sugar-water in it. The poet Longfellow was a good soul but his jingles are 
 measured with a tape line and drenched in the sugar barrel. He had nothing 
 new to say on any great fundamental problem of life. His was an art pre- 
 meditated, lacking the fire of great conception and bold, passionate message. 
 His verses were ready-mades. I admire a poet like Whitman, who sets aside 
 traditional restrictions. I plead for freedom in poetry, not for freedom which 
 destroys form ruthlessly, but which gives a rhythmic individuality to every poem. 
 The great poet is unfettered. 
 
132 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 rOK OREAT AMERICAN TOET 
 
 "He refuses to be confined by fences. In art the end justifies the means. 
 Music and message are the wings that Hft the poem to the skies. Personally 
 I think Poe is the great American poet. Why? Because the garment fitted 
 the thought ; sense and rhyme were twin souls. 
 
 " W^hat men do I most admire? I've three of them. Christ, who represented 
 great ideals, intellectual and moral, and was not afraid to combat convention- 
 ality and tradition ; second, Napoleon, the man of power ; third, Oscar Wilde, 
 who was courageous enough to achieve beauty, because it is beauty — let the 
 subject matter be good or bad. The three plays I admire most are ' Peter 
 Pan,' ' Salome ' and Shaw's ' Cleopatra.' I admire them because they 
 represent great truths artistically presented. 
 
 " Most Americans are prudes. They are afraid to see life stripped of con- 
 ventionalities. Their gods are dressed in tailor-mades and talk expurgated 
 English. They are shocked when they read ' Three Weeks.' They say morals 
 have been outraged, because the author is frank. My objection is not based on 
 the fact that the heroine bites Paul's ear. It's because she splits her infinitives. 
 The book lacks craftsmanship. 
 
 " I am of German heritage and, consequently, if I say anything about the 
 temperance questions, you may say that I am prejudiced in favor of intoxicants. 
 I am not a drinking man. I am not saying that beer may be harmful. What 
 I do object to is the interference with personal liberty in this mad crusade for 
 prohibition. Why not takeaway a man's cigar or his coffee? It is an infringe- 
 ment of personal rights. Temperance means moderation, not prohibition. If 
 Christ came to Columbus today and attended a wedding feast, some of these 
 Prohibitionists would insist that he turn the water into lemonade. 
 
 RESPECTABILITY NOT INTERESTING 
 
 " I wish I could have talked to you about six months ago. Then I was clever, 
 but now Fm just respectable, and respectability is seldom interesting. It was 
 then that my friends were calling me the boy Chatterton and searching their 
 adjective boxes for words to describe my peculiar style of literary output. I am 
 not so remarkable. I voice what I feel and think. My Pegasus is not the con- 
 ventional hobby horse. To me the joy of the senses, the passion of love, the 
 wild glamour of youth and the great soul-stirring emotions of human life in 
 all its perplexides are everything." 
 
 Mr. Viereck's most widely-discussed book is entitled " Nineveh," a collec- 
 tion of verses which has won such warm praise as the following from E. J. 
 Wheeler, Mr. Viereck's associate on '' Current Literature " : 
 
 Some of these verses make one catch the breath with their audacity 
 and unrestraint. But the genius of the writer is never in doubt. There 
 is the sound of rushing torrents rather than of trickling rivulets in these 
 pages, and one hears, with Herod in Wilde's " Salome," the beating of 
 mighty and mysterious pinions in the air. 
 
INTERVIEWS 
 
 ^33 
 
 In this book the poet sees '' even such unpoetic things as skyscrapers, sub- 
 ways and the elevated trains with the painter's eye and imprisons them with 
 the poet's pen." 
 
 One of the most noted of the poems is entitled, ^' The Empire City,"' a 
 vivid characterization of Manhattan. It is as follows: 
 
 ONE OF HIS NOTED POEMS 
 
 Huge steel-rimmed monsters rise into the air, 
 Her Babylonish towers, while on high 
 Like gilt-scaled serpents, glide the swift trains by, 
 Or, underfoot, creep to their secret lair. 
 A thousand lights are jewels in her hair, 
 The sea her girdle, and her crown the sky, 
 Her life-blood throbs, the fevered pulses fly, 
 Immense, defiant, breathless she stands there 
 And ever listens to the ceaseless din, 
 ^Yaiting for him, her lover who shall come. 
 Whose singing lips shall boldly claim their own, 
 And render sonant what in her was dumb : 
 The splendor and the madness and the sin, 
 Her dreams in iron and her thoughts of stone. 
 
 Mr. Viereck has been writing since he was 13 years of age. Coming to 
 America at the age of 1 2, he attended the New York public school and grad- 
 uated in 1906 from the college of the University of New York. In July fol- 
 lowing, he joined the staff of " Current Literature," conducting the dramatic 
 department. He began to write for German newspapers as a boy and has 
 contributed much prose, verse and fiction to the New York Staats Zeitung. 
 He has written plays, a novel which is now being dramatized, many poems of 
 wide selection of theme. Mr. Viereck has now adopted English as his vehicle. 
 Personally he has a charm of manner, a freedom from affectation, a freshness 
 of outlook upon life, at the same time speaking his opinions decisively. He is 
 also modest — and strangest of all says that his poems are making money, 
 and in America, too. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 DRAMATIC CRITICISM AND OTHER CRITICISM 
 
 On the border line between regular reporting and editorial 
 writing is the field of dramatic criticism and its allied branches, 
 Criticism con- iTi'^sical and art criticism and book reviewing. Related 
 trasted with to reporting in that it consists of a proper chronicling 
 repor ing ^^ ^^ event momentarily prominent in the public eye, 
 this department is allied to the editorial in that there is an expres- 
 sion of personal opinion, which, when in print, becomes the avowed 
 opinion of the newspaper publishing it. The matter of personality 
 cannot, indeed should not, altogether be eliminated, and technical 
 criticism may become as pronounced and characteristic as the most 
 individualistic editorial column. 
 
 The field of dramatic criticism is one which, for a variety of 
 reasons that need not here be enumerated, is often opened to the 
 young student entering a newspaper career. Previous training in 
 reporting will be found a valuable equipment, as will also an 
 intimate acquaintance with both classical and contemporaneous 
 drama. The amount of such schooling which the beginner will 
 be expected to possess will vary with the newspaper and the size 
 of the community in which it is situated. In the large centers the 
 editors are intolerant of ignorance or dullness. In the smaller 
 communities more lenient standards will be found to exist. 
 
 Criticism is reporting in the sense that the writer must describe 
 what he sees and what goes on. The work goes farther, however, 
 because it requires, in its better forms, an analysis of that which 
 has appeared before an audience. In a sense, the critic mediates 
 between the performance and his readers in much the same way 
 in which an actor mediates between the author and his audience. 
 In its last analysis criticism becomes self-analysis and is sub- 
 jective rather than objective. The critic must continually ask : 
 Is this the truth.!* Is it good.? Is it right.'* These mental 
 
 134 
 
DRAMATIC CRITICISM AND OTHER CRITICISM 135 
 
 processes become intuitive, but the critic must always know the 
 why of the impression which he takes with him from the theater, 
 for it is incumbent on a professional critic that he should have 
 impressions of some sort concerning everything he views. 
 
 The average member of an audience leaves the theater or 
 concert hall with no other sensation than that he did, or did not, 
 The function ^^j'^Y himself. Such a net result of an evening is not 
 of criticism sufficient for any one aspiring to the critical function. 
 Not only must he feel sure that the production was or w-as not 
 good, but he must have a reason for the faith that is in him. As 
 the critic progresses in his work he will conceive of himself as a 
 sounding board, on which all impressions are made distinct, or as 
 a set of test tubes wherein experiments are to be conducted in 
 the final analysis of the content of any unknown solution. As a 
 rule he will find it safe to accept every production in the spirit in 
 which it is offered. It is in bad taste to treat frivolously an honest 
 effort to play Shakespeare, and it is foolish to treat seriously a 
 musical production which has no purpose but to excite laughter. 
 
 Whereas in reporting, stress is laid on the necessity of securing 
 facts, in criticism the emphasis is upon impressions. Whether or 
 not any performance, musical, dramatic, or otherwise, is good or 
 bad is not a matter of scientific demonstration and can be deter- 
 mined only relatively. Therefore, impressions are of first impor- 
 tance to the young critic. All manifestations of art, of whatever 
 form, are supposed to convey to the beholder some form of emo- 
 tion, and in proportion as the critic appreciates the emotional 
 content of the work before him and translates that feeling to the 
 readers of his paper will he be successful in his work. 
 
 As the child learns blocks before he learns letters, so the 
 beginner in the field of criticism will deal first with the obvious 
 and the concrete. So long, however, as these continue to be the 
 bulk of his mental processes his work will be merely reporting 
 and not criticism. It will not be even good reporting, because it 
 will fail to take into account the reason that impels people to go 
 to the theater or a concert, namely, an excitation of the emotions. 
 
 A critic's ability to judge with accuracy any interpretation must 
 be based largely on knowledge of the thing interpreted, and it is 
 
I -6 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 safe to say that no one man has so universal a knowledge of life 
 as the entire drama of the world reflects. On the other hand, the 
 actor is only a medium through which the author's idea is sup- 
 posed to be portrayed, and this medium may be so faulty that the 
 youngest critic can perceive its lack of truth. 
 
 The critic will stand or fall by the attitude the public takes toward 
 his work. No avenue of newspaper work calls for more distinctive 
 individuality or permits a better display of this invaluable asset. 
 
 The reading public is reasonably constant. It is wise and 
 appreciates sincerity. Sham and pretense have but a fleeting hour 
 and, in the end, are powerless. Therefore, truth, honesty, and 
 candor are the habits of writing which the critic must cultivate. 
 Courage is also necessary. Courage is always admired, but it is 
 undoubtedly true that a writer can more readily acquire a follow- 
 ing by wholesale denunciation than by wholesale praise. Only the 
 truth is safe, and that will often call for all the courage that a 
 young writer possesses. Sometimes he must fly in the face of 
 popular favor or disapproval. 
 
 To the real critic, no other field of newspaper work is half so 
 inviting. He lives in a world of inspiration. He touches elbows 
 with the keen, intelligent men of the day. He thinks about and 
 analyzes all the emotions that animate the soul. Nothing that is 
 human is foreign to him. It is easy to write well because almost 
 every performance is full of suggestions and potent with ideas 
 which kindle the fancy and fire the ambition. • 
 
 The critic must always remember, however, that it is incumbent 
 upon him to write readable matter ; in an effort to be just and 
 competent he must avoid a tendency to prolixity. In a fever of 
 rhetoric he must not soar above the matter he has to handle. In 
 an ambition to do fine writing he should not permit himself to 
 become either ponderous or mystical. 
 
 Viewing a performance the critic must consider, first, the pro- 
 duction as a whole, and second, its effect upon himself and upon 
 others about him. He must not forget that every production is 
 the result of threefold mental activity ; he must judge each of 
 these elements in detail and then come to a conclusion on the 
 total result. Each play embodies the thought and effort of an 
 
DRAMATIC CRITICISM AND OTHER CRITICISM 137 
 
 author, extending over a period of months. Next, it is produced 
 by a manager and represents his thought and study, together with 
 his idea of scenic effects — activities which have taken weeks, if not 
 months, for perfecting in a unified production. Finally, it is being 
 acted by men and women who have spent weeks in the effort to 
 visualize and spiritualize the creations of the author. 
 
 The questions which then present themselves for answer are : 
 Is the theme convincing and original .'' Is the dialogue brisk 
 and realistic .'' Is that character true to life ? Does the author 
 conceive it correctly } If correctly conceived, does the actor por- 
 tray it correctly ? And if correctly conceived and portrayed, as it 
 relates to its fellows, does the action move smoothly ? Are all the 
 details that go to make up stage management properly carried out ? 
 
 Every critic must decide for himself to what extent the ethical 
 and moral content of a production will weigh with him. In making 
 up his judgment, he will remember that art, as such, knows no 
 code of morals, but he will also remember that the average mind 
 is incapable of subtle distinctions and that the theater is a potent 
 power in shaping public opinion — a power that should not be 
 turned to wrong nor to doubtful purposes. 
 
 In the practical writing of dramatic criticism the reporter should 
 take thought of the news values of the various features the play 
 Writing the presents. The star appearing in the performance may 
 criticism |3g Qf ^nore importance than the play. At other times 
 the reverse may be true. The story of the play may be common 
 property and to relate it then becomes an impertinence. Again, it 
 may be more or less of a mystery, and so a sketchy outline is 
 justified. At still other times the reviewer will find that a mis- 
 taken idea has been given in advance, and this must be corrected. 
 Generally speaking, a play can be criticized on the basis afforded 
 by its previous advertisement. If it announces itself as something 
 pretentious, it must be held up to the most severe standards. If it 
 is confessedly but a trifling affair, the reviewer makes himself 
 ridiculous by taking it too seriously. 
 
 Regular rules cannot be given for the putting together of dra- 
 matic reviews, for then they would be all alike and therefore lack- 
 ing in their chief charm, spontaneity and freshness. The subjoined 
 
o 
 
 8 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 critique will be found to contain the essential elements, both of 
 news and criticism, blended in the proportions the writer thought 
 proper. The " who, when, where, and what " demanded of a 
 newspaper report are all to be found, emphasized early in the 
 written account. Then follow the statement of the cast, expo- 
 sition of the play, and analysis of the acting and the ethical 
 problems that seem to be involved. The attitude of the audience 
 is not forgotten. The review occupies a trifle more space than the 
 average paper accords the average production. The excuse in this 
 case was that the play and the star were considered above the 
 ordinary. The rule is that morning newspapers give more attention 
 and space to the theatrical world than do evening papers, for the 
 obvious reason that more noteworthy events take place in the eve- 
 ning and are fresh for the morning paper than fall to the lot of 
 the evening publication. Notable exceptions to this, however, are 
 not hard to find. 
 
 The criticism follows : 
 
 After an absence of almost seven years, Miss Olga Nethersole returned to 
 Columbus yesterday, and last night revealed to an eager and expectant public 
 which filled the Great Southern a deepened and ripened art, which transfused 
 with living light the subtleties of "The Labyrinth," a play done from the 
 French of Paul Hervieu and revealing that leader of the modern French school 
 of dramatic art, at his best. 
 
 From the offensive realism of Zola, and the nasty suggestion of Feuillet, he 
 has turned aside into the straight, but only partially lighted road of the psy- 
 chological problems of life. Reading by the steady glow of the great luminary 
 of the North, he still has not all of Ibsen's sternness, nor yet his incisiveness. 
 Ibsen is mosdy skeleton, he shows the perfectly articulated and accurately mov- 
 ing bones, and does not deign to cover them. Hervieu with Gallic grace gives 
 them a mande, not so much of charity as of human vanity. Not only the big 
 sins, but the litde follies are shown. A ray of real sunshine breaks through, 
 now and again, to flash in holy contrast to the baleful blazes of passion that 
 first smoulder and then blaze to an all consuming mastery, sweeping before them 
 those who yield themselves to its sway, and crying out in the very face of those 
 who have looked for immorality in the play the old, old moral that centuries 
 have verified — " the wages of sin is death." 
 
 The story of " The Labyrinth " has been sketched before this, in this de- 
 partment. It will not profit to repeat it. 
 
 The American public has not yet educated itself to realize that the stage is 
 not covertly preaching. People see a play that does not plainly point a moral 
 
DRAMATIC CRITICISM AND OTHER CRITICISM 139 
 
 and so, not grasping its real meaning, they infer that it is immoral. Hervieu 
 wrote a play, not a sermon. He did not undertake to solve the problem to 
 which he invited attention. What he really did was to point out that a human 
 being, living through a certain series of events which he shows conclusively 
 could easily happen under modern conditions, would experience a wide range 
 of intense emotions and that these emotions are so natural and so real that 
 properly portrayed upon the stage, they would excite general interest and sym- 
 pathy. Now you can either accept his solution of the case for the woman, or 
 make one for yourself. Hervieu does not even claim for himself that the woman, 
 or her solution, is right and proper. The range of emotion is there, as colors 
 upon a palette ; he has sketched the figures upon the canvas, it wants only the 
 touch of a second genius to make them real. 
 
 This is where Miss Nethersole enters the field of action. By that keen intui- 
 tion that all actors have, in proportion as they are great, she realizes the heart 
 and feeling that this woman, this Marianne de Pogis, would undergo. Having 
 realized them, her superb technique, her rich and marvelously modulated voice, 
 reproduces them so vividly that you, the audience, are affected contagiously, so 
 that you weep when she gives up her child, you suffer when you see her go to 
 the forbidden arms, and you feel dull pain when the inexorable law of eternal 
 right removes from her forever, both the man that she did love, and the man 
 that she was in duty bound to love. 
 
 In all of this Miss Nethersole was most satisfying. With her it is a triumph 
 of art, for she is not so beautiful of face and figure as to inspire that ephemeral 
 sympathy which mere physical charm exerts. 
 
 A voice, rich in heart sobs, a pleading tone that tingles on the ear; tremulous 
 and softly caressing at times, it expresses all those various and varying moods 
 which have, since the world began, been the fascination and the mystery of the 
 opposite sex. There is no excess of merely physical action. Her movements are 
 full and free, and of a commanding grace. To those who delight in the artistry 
 and technique of little things well done, nothing could be more satisfying than 
 her exit at the close of the second act, when she suddenly takes her son out of 
 the room, because she cannot explain to him why his father and she, his mother, 
 cannot be friends and may not be under the same roof, or again, in the third act, 
 when wearied by the nerve wracking watch over a sick child, she yields to the 
 almost lecherous importunities of her former husband and submits to the de- 
 lirious pleasure of his caress. She half turns from the audience and covers her 
 face with her arms, not her hands, as though she would conceal from the man, 
 from the world, and from herself her own unwarrantable happiness. 
 
 The support as a whole was good. Mr. Hamilton Revelle played the part of 
 the divorced husband, a character which is committing theft every time it gets 
 any of your sympathy. It is the old, old problem of a woman loving a man who 
 has very few claims to consideration, and who is at heart both unprincipled and 
 weak, Mr. Hubert Carter was the second husband, the truly noble, honorable 
 and sacrificing creature who, with all his nobility of soul, could only arouse the 
 
I40 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 pale flame of friendship within the heart of this woman, where the other had 
 kindled the deep-seated fire of passion. Miss Rosalind Ivan arose to a valued 
 height in the third act, where she had her single opportunity to distinguish 
 herself. 
 
 The play, as a play, is a beautiful piece of workmanship. Nothing is left to 
 chance. Cause precedes effect. The premises for each conclusion are laid with 
 the cunning and craft of the fowler, who spreads his snares for the unwary. 
 It makes no strong demand upon one's credulity. If you feel the absolute 
 necessity of a moral deduction, the only points that can be laid down with an 
 assurance are that a woman, no matter how lonely, should never marry a man 
 for whom she feels only friendship, and that a woman with anything like an 
 ardent dispositon should never, when tired or nervous, trust herself alone in 
 the presence of a man for whom she has once cared. The inexorable action of 
 the law of kind will not be denied. And above all, and beyond all else, this : 
 If for a moment of gratification you overstep the bounds that your self-respect 
 will permit, the penalty is swift and certain. 
 
 Today Miss Nethersole will give two performances of '' Sapho." 
 
 The problems of musical criticism are essentially the same as those 
 pertaining to the drama, with this exception, that the field is much 
 Musical more largely supplied with amateur talent. Musical 
 criticism criticism in the United States as a rule leaves a great 
 deal to be desired. Germany offers the finest type of musical critics, 
 and only those newspapers which have adopted the foreign standard 
 can be safely taken as examples. 
 
 In musical reviewing the mistaken idea obtains that the writer 
 ought to be a performer. An acute ear, a retentive memory, famil- 
 iarity with standard musical compositions, and a knowledge of mu- 
 sical literature are the essentials. Illustrative of this point — to offer 
 intelligent criticism, it may be necessary to know Tschaikowsky's 
 "Overture 1812." But this knowledge is as easily gained by listen- 
 ing to it as by attempting to play it. Then there must be a knowl- 
 edge of what the composer had in his mind and heart when he 
 wrote it. Next must come an acute ear, which will detect if the 
 violins are in tune and horns in pitch, as well as realize that the 
 proper tempo is maintained by the various instruments. 
 
 With this equipment, so far as passing judgment on the rendition 
 is concerned, the writer is as well fortified as though he had studied 
 violin or voice for years. It is undoubtedly true that a proficiency 
 in any branch of music will be of great value to one attempting 
 
DRAMATIC CRITICISM AND OTHER CRITICISM 
 
 141 
 
 critical work on musical matters, but between a knowledge of music 
 and a knowledge of newspaper methods and requirements, there 
 can be no question as to where the choice will lie. 
 
 In musical criticism as in dramatic criticism, the critic's value to 
 himself and to his paper increases rapidly with the lengthening of 
 his service, if only he have a retentive memory. The great master- 
 pieces of music are no more frequently performed than are the 
 classics of the stage. To retain the presentation of a score vividly 
 in mind for a period of five or ten years w^hich may elapse between 
 the two hearings of such a monumental composition as Beethoven's 
 Choral Symphony is a feat that causes many to marvel, yet it is one 
 to which the best critics are equal. The great critic will remem- 
 ber if this director read such a symphony deliberately or tempestu- 
 ously, and whether the other one directed an overture with fire or 
 with composure. 
 
 No camera ever has been invented that would picture and retain 
 impressions. The critic, in W'hichever branch of art he is working, 
 must carry with him constantly vivid impressions of the acknowl- 
 edged authorities in his field — Sembrich's rendition of an aria, 
 De Reszke's singing of a ballad, the Boston Symphony Orchestra's 
 interpretation of a Mendelssohn mass ; Sir Henry Irving as Shylock, 
 Joseph Jefferson as Rip Van Winkle, Richard Mansfield as Beau 
 Brummel. In literature and in the fine arts it is possible to revert 
 to the actual masterpiece for comparison, but in music and the 
 drama these standards must be immortalized in the memory of 
 the critic. 
 
 Literary criticism, if intelligent and authoritative, is the out- 
 growth of an innate appreciation of literar}' values, familiarity with 
 Literary the distinctive types and the history of the different 
 criticism national literatures, knowledge of the current-day writers 
 and their works, fair, yet candidly expressed, opinion, and the 
 ability to use good English. Censure should be unerringly just ; 
 praise discriminatingly encouraging. It is therefore self-evident 
 that literary criticism, properly so called, is not a w-ork for the tyro. 
 There are, however, three forms, distinct in purpose, employed in 
 the book-review department of even daily news sheets : first, the 
 commendatory notice ; second, the review ; and third, the critique. 
 
142 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 The first and simplest form, that known as the commendatory 
 notice, has as its primary office the furthering of book sales through 
 the medium of skillfully worded, laudatory comment — that most 
 artistic and effective kind of mere advertising. 
 
 The second form presents, practically without any original com- 
 ment, the review, that is, the outlined contents of a given volume. 
 The merit of this book review, pure and simple, lies in a reviewer's 
 twofold ability of perception and selection. Does he grasp the pivotal 
 points in the author's work ? Can he present these, once selected, 
 so logically and effectively as to leave in the reader's mind a com- 
 prehensive impression of the entire book, photographic in clear- 
 ness, faultless in accuracy ? If so, then he performs the function 
 of a reviewer. 
 
 In the critique, the third form, are blended the salient features of 
 the review together with analytical discussion of the author's person- 
 ality, literary attainments, motives, and methods. Obviously scholar- 
 ship and ripened judgment are the prerequisites of the critique. 
 
 Least practiced of all competent criticism in this country is that 
 in the fields of painting and sculpture. The comment is frequently 
 Painting and made that America has, as yet, no national art. This 
 sculpture assertion is still so close to the truth that there are no 
 recognized national standards established as the authoritative basis 
 of art criticism. In the matter of personal equipment for this diffi- 
 cult and comparatively infrequent form of newspaper work it is safe 
 to remember the following injunction : The more accurate your 
 knowledge of technique, the greater your familiarity with the dif- 
 ferent schools of painting, the more generous your endowment of 
 art culture through the threefold mediums of reading, of seeing 
 the best in art at home and abroad, and of personal acquaintance 
 with representative artists, correspondingly the more competent 
 will your art criticism become. 
 
 The critic, in whatever branch of newspaper work he may 
 busy himself, will frequently be confronted with the baffling state- 
 independence mcnt, " After all, criticism in print is only the opinion 
 of attitude ^f q^q j^^iU — and he does not know everything." Never 
 forget that the critic has two clearly defined duties, to know and 
 to speak with authority. He must be right, or at least habitually 
 
DRAMATIC CRITICISM AND OTHER CRITICISM 143 
 
 right, or, just as the engineer who cannot keep his train on time, 
 he will be compelled to give way to the rival who earns deserved 
 confidence. He cannot escape being placed in a position of 
 authority. (3f necessity he becomes identified with his work, and 
 to the clientele of the art he treats he more nearly becomes a 
 public character than any other sort of newspaper man. 
 
 No line of newspaper work calls for more varied accomplish- 
 ments, makes more serious and more frequent demands upon the 
 resources of the individual, than the practice of analytical criticism. 
 Successfully accomplished it is, in and of itself, a splendid achieve- 
 ment. Regarded merely as an incident in a professional career, it 
 frequently leads to other fields that present greater opportunities 
 for personal advancement and remuneration. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 EDITORIALS, PARAGRAPHS, AND BUREAUS 
 
 A surprising difference of opinion exists among newspaper men 
 relative to the place of the editorial in the newspaper. At the one 
 The new P^^^ Stands the editor who points back to the palmy days 
 type of of Greeley and Bennett, when the editorial was in the 
 
 zenith of its power ; at the other stands the editor of 
 the new regime who just as stanchly declares that the editorial page 
 no longer wields wide influence and that its usefulness is waning. 
 
 Without arguing the merits of the case, it is patent to any ob- 
 server that the long, erudite editorial of a generation ago is fast 
 disappearing from the columns of most of the American dailies. 
 As a type it was sometimes pompous, usually scholarly and infor- 
 mational, and in the hands of a master often did much to shape 
 policies and opinions. To-day it has lost to an extent these quali- 
 ties and is less dogmatic in temper, shorter, and less weighty in 
 content. 
 
 It may well be asked, What has brought about this change ? 
 One answer is found in the ever-growing importance of the news- 
 paper as a news-collecting agency. One keen observer puts it in 
 this fashion : 
 
 The real power of a newspaper to-day lies in its facilities for disseminating 
 news, for exposing corruption, for turning the light onto dark places, and 
 for preventing wrong-doing by the mere fear of exposure which its existence 
 makes sure. It is the news pages of a paper that men fear today and it is the 
 information contained in those pages that influences the world in basing its 
 opinions and shaping its politics. 
 
 Still another cogent reason for the change may be found in the 
 fact that the newspapers of to-day have emerged into complex 
 commercial enterprises which place great stress upon business 
 success. It is common-sense policy that influential patrons and 
 interests should be pleased, not antagonized ; the counting room 
 
 '44 
 
EDITORIALS, PARAGRAPHS, AND BUREAUS 145 
 
 must pay expenses and circulation must be stimulated by pro- 
 gressive news exploitation. The great editor of the past published 
 his personal convictions and courageously laid on the lash of pop- 
 ular opinion, content with a fair wage for his labors. The present- 
 day editor is prone to ask, Will it pay me financially to take this 
 position or to support this cause .'* 
 
 Then, too, the older type of editorial was written by men who 
 were not so persistently impelled by the mania of haste but gave 
 time to reflection and to careful interpretation of facts, basing their 
 expression of opinion upon mature judgment. Correspondingly, 
 the earlier reading public was more dependent upon the editorial 
 columns for guidance than is the average newspaper reader of to- 
 day, whose first requirement is for the news, not for the interpre- 
 tation of events. He is able to think for himself. Those who are 
 interested in extended editorial comment on current happenings go 
 more frequently to magazines and periodicals where trained spe- 
 cialists in various fields are able to give a more authoritative 
 exposition of important movements than the usual daily space 
 writer should be expected to offer. 
 
 For the purpose of meeting these new conditions every effort 
 has been made to adapt the editorial page to the needs of present- 
 day readers without destroying its power for molding public 
 opinion. To this end exhaustive and lengthy editorial dissertations 
 yield, first, to short, crisp paragraphs that give the editor's com- 
 ment in two hundred words, and second, to a more sane, less 
 didactic, perhaps not less significant, type of editorial. Other 
 features are added — snappy squibs on life and manners, a budget 
 of pleasantries, a bit of verse, short excerpts from other papers, a 
 cartoon that gives the interpretation of the news in a twinkling, 
 a readers' forum, a feature story, all combining to lure the busy 
 reader within the borders of the editorial keep. In this new guise 
 the editorial page has a firm hold upon readers that many of its 
 censors do not stop to estimate. 
 
 Editorials and editorial paragraphs in newspapers of to-day are 
 not exempt from the action of the general laws that govern news. 
 They must be timely. They should be interesting. They ought 
 to be authoritative in basic information and trustworthv in the 
 
146 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 expression of balanced judgment and intelligent opinion. The 
 editorial differs from news in that it usually attempts to draw a 
 The aim of Conclusion from a given set of facts. Usually these 
 the editorial f^Q^^ ^lyg of current importance and recently have been 
 developed in the paper's own news columns. Less frequently a 
 topic of general import, civic, ethical, or literary in character, is dis- 
 cussed. Editorials and editorial paragraphs may be differentiated 
 by standards of length and content. Paragraphs are very short, 
 usually breezy comments upon something momentarily uppermost 
 in the public mind. Two to five lines are sufficient. Humor is 
 often a feature of them. The paragraph may be commendatory or 
 caustic in thought ; it should be clear and pointed, not ponderous, 
 in style. 
 
 The topic of the editorial paragraph is distinctively more local, 
 or else more peculiarly transient, than that of the editorial proper. 
 It contains a single thought, and no more ; as, " The human brain 
 cannot comprehend the idea of eternity, but it can get an inkling 
 of what it means by waiting for the supreme court to decide the 
 important trust cases." 
 
 The editorial, called in England and some parts of the L^nited 
 States " leader," expresses what is understood to be the paper's 
 views on all of the leading subjects that engage the public mind, 
 as politics, religion, war, business, finance, education, philanthropy, 
 or agriculture. A case in point follows : The reporter brings in 
 the news item that the common council has appropriated a sum of 
 money for a certain public work. That is news. The editorial 
 takes the subject at this point and discusses whether the city can 
 afford this outlay, whether the public work is needed or desired, 
 and whether the sum provided is enough or too much. The ex- 
 pression of judgment or opinion is therefore seen to be the final 
 end of the editorial. By that judgment the paper must stand or 
 fall, not alone in the public opinion to which it appeals for 
 indorsement, but in the courts of the land where differences of 
 all sorts are finally adjudicated. 
 
 Often the editorial discusses the moral aspect of an event or utter- 
 ance, in this educational field largely reflecting and, to a certain 
 extent, leading and forming public opinion. 
 
EDITORIALS, PARAGRAPHS, AND BUREAUS 147 
 
 In literary style and form of expression editorials differ according 
 to the purpose to be subserved. A formal news editorial is held to 
 The three- consist of three parts — the statement of truth, its exposi- 
 foid division ^[q^^ ^^^^ ^\^q deduction therefrom. An excellent example 
 of this modern type of editorial, written with brevity, dignity, and a 
 regard for truth, is the following from the Chicago hiter-Ocean : 
 
 COURAGE, COURAGE, AND AGAIN COURAGE 
 
 Governor Hadley of Missouri spoke to the graduates of the University of 
 Indiana on the special duty of educated men to public service. 
 
 He emphasized the need of '' men of courage, of education and of ability to 
 do in practical ways " what is required of the political leader and public official. 
 
 This need was the main theme of his address. His description of the men 
 required to meet it was reiterated, always with the qualities demanded in the 
 same order — always with " courage " put first. 
 
 For this there is a reason. Had Governor Hadley been pressed to a closer 
 analysis, he would doubtless have said that courage is more important in public 
 affairs than any other one quality. 
 
 Dishonesty in public office may be popular. It may have so artfully con- 
 nected itself with the interests and conveniences of such a number of powerful 
 persons in a community that for the immediate accomplishments of practical 
 politics it is actually popular. 
 
 So it is not enough for honest men, in their resentment, to expose it, and 
 expect that to suffice. 
 
 They must go out and fight it, and must often have the courage to face the 
 very people with whom they naturally and habitually associate. 
 
 We have an illustration of this truth in Chicago today. The Busse adminis- 
 tration is thoroughly and consistently dishonest. The Merriam commission has 
 repeatedly exposed its dishonesty. But the Busse administration is still there 
 and unchanged. 
 
 Why? Because Professor Merriam and Mr. Fisher have not found the 
 courage to fight it with the drawn sword of punishment. Both are honest. 
 Both are educated. Both have ability. But they lack the courage. And so 
 their honesty, education and ability are almost as nothing for practical results. 
 
 That is why Governor Hadley put courage first. 
 
 In this example it is easy to follow the method. The editor has 
 selected a theme from his own news columns. He has stated it 
 tersely in the opening paragraphs. Then he has amplified it with 
 a few sharp, convincing arguments, avoiding verbosity and sensa- 
 tional effects, and in his conclusion he has emphasized the main 
 issue. Incidentally — and this was probably the reason for the 
 
1 48 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 editorial — he has scored a telling' point against the city adminis- 
 tration which the paper has been opposing for reasons that seemed 
 to it good and sufficient. 
 
 It will be noticed that in no direct way does the personality of 
 the writer obtrude itself in the written word. That he is a man 
 of intellectual power, of judgment, of experience, and of dis- 
 passionate reasoning ability might be inferred from the subject 
 matter and its treatment. Beyond that, nothing of the individual 
 is apparent. The truth is stated at its value as truth. No attempt 
 is made to give it added weight or importance by saying " the 
 btter-Ocean holds " or any kindred expression. There is no direct 
 effort to array the readers of the paper on the side taken by the 
 editor. The opinion offered is distinctly impersonal, impartial, 
 unprejudiced, and nonproselyting. 
 
 The editorial utterances of Greeley's time, when politicians 
 assailed each other in party organs, forcing home ugly truths with 
 The censo- Cutting epithets, has given way to a more dignified, less 
 rious editorial malevolent type of writing. Narrow partisanship no 
 longer commands its former following. The newspaper, however, 
 continues to condemn or to censure, but avoids making, in the 
 heat of anger or of controversy, charges that cannot be substantiated 
 by cold facts. Instead, it addresses an appeal to honest citizenship, 
 to the sense of justice, or to civic and national pride. The vein of 
 irony and raillery in editorial comment is employed with telling- 
 effect. The following editorial, clipped from the New York Evening 
 Post, a paper which still clings to some of the features of the old, 
 staid journalism, is spirited and convincing in its satirical solemnity. 
 The editorial was written on the occasion of bribery disclosures in 
 the Ohio legislature. 
 
 AN INFAMOUS CONSPIRACY 
 
 The proceedings in Ohio are but the culmination of a series of assaults upon 
 state legislatures which have too long been allowed to run their course without 
 adefjuate protest. The people have grown accustomed to the spectacle of the 
 rights of legislators being trampled on, their immunities ignored, their very 
 existence threatened. These attacks almost invariably assume the specious form 
 of accusations of bribery. It is notorious that these accusations are seldom 
 substantiated to the point of securing actual expulsion of the members accused, or 
 
EDITORIALS, PARAGRAPHS, AND BUREAUS 149 
 
 their conviction in the criminal courts ; and yet the attacks persist, and the mind 
 of the community is so poisoned that in great measure the purpose of the 
 calumnies is subserved. It is seldom that an energetic exposure of bribery in 
 the case of a given legislator fails to place upon him a stigma which retires 
 him to private life, or at least reduces his future legislative opportunities to 
 insignificance. 
 
 That this persistent assault upon the legislatures of the various states of the 
 country is the result of a deliberate conspiracy to destroy their power, and con- 
 sequently their ability to serve the interests of the plain people of this country, 
 has long been suspected, but with the hatching of the vile plot against the 
 Ohio legislature suspicion becomes damning certainty. The employment of 
 the notorious Burns Detective Agency to trap unsuspecting legislators ; the fact 
 that these spies were hired by an association of business men ; the unhesitating 
 assertion by one of the most prominent of the alleged corrupt legislators that 
 he is entirely innocent — all these things point to the same unmistakable con- 
 clusion. Just as the National Erectors' Association availed themselves of the 
 popular prejudice aroused by the fact that some 70 dynamite outrages had been 
 committed in recent years, so the Ohio business association is counting on 
 popular prejudice against legislatures to buttress its pretended case. In neither 
 instance is it necessary to examine the evidence before arriving at the conclusion 
 that the accused men are the victims of a vile conspiracy. It matters not what 
 the Burns detectives may be able to place before the courts ; for, once grant 
 that their business from the start was to manufacture the evidence, and what 
 becomes of any value they may pretend to place upon it? Start with the 
 assumption that the assault upon the McNamaras is simply part of a war of 
 extermination waged by capital against labor unions, or that the trapping of the 
 Ohio legislators is merely the latest manifestation of a nation-wide conspiracy 
 to reduce legislatures to insignificance and ignominy, and all the so-called 
 evidence the detectives may be able to produce becomes worthless. 
 
 That such a conspiracy does exist and has attained formidable power is only 
 too evident. What it has done with the New Jersey legislature we all know. 
 Governor Wilson reduced that body to such subjection that neither the Repub- 
 lican nor the Democratic bosses were able to get it to do anything they wanted. 
 A Democratic senator was chosen, contrary to the clear desires of the man who, 
 according to an almost immemorial tradition, was entitled to tell the legislators 
 whom they should select, and who wished them to choose himself. In the 
 upper branch of the legislature, although the Republicans were in the majority, 
 the Democratic governor's leading measure, hateful to both sets of bosses, was 
 passed by a unanimous vote. Similar goings-on marked the session of the New 
 Hampshire legislature, which, as all lovers of the independence of legislatures 
 are aware, had for several decades been the undisputed property of the Boston 
 and Maine Railroad Company. In New York, we cannot say quite so much, 
 but this is solely because Governor Dix refused to join the conspiracy ; and yet, 
 even without his help, the enemies of legislative independence succeeded in 
 
I50 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 defeating the legislators' natural choice for the senatorship, made for them by 
 Boss Murphy. In short, all along the line, the integrity and independence of 
 our legislatures has been threatened ; and now comes this last outrage and 
 insult, in the shape of a criminal charge against a score or two of the members 
 of the Ohio legislature. 
 
 The friends of free institutions should lose no time in making preparations 
 to resist this last aggression to the uttermost. The grand jury will in all 
 probability find the Burns evidence sufficient to justify indictments ; but it is 
 none too so9n to make it perfectly clear that unlimited money will be at the 
 disposal of the defendants to procure every kind of aid that legal talent and 
 legal machinery can furnish. First and foremost, members of legislatures, the 
 country over, should make common cause in this matter and contribute to 
 the limit of their ability for the defence of their maligned brethren. Almost 
 equally ardent should be the devotion of professional lobbyists, and professional 
 politicians generally, whose work is endangered and whose calling is threatened 
 with odium by the machinations of the conspirators. But sympathy and help 
 should come in generous measure from a much wider field. Every true Ameri- 
 can, every friend of democratic institutions, should repel with indignation the 
 accusation that it is sought to fasten upon the brave Ohioans who, for the pres- 
 ent, must be regarded as the sacred embodiment of those institutions. Let a 
 $1,000,000 defence fund be quickly forthcoming, and let it be demonstrated, 
 once for all, that American legislators are not to be hounded by detectives or 
 entrapped by the devilish recording devices which modern science places at 
 the disposal of conscienceless persecutors. 
 
 Another type of editorial, which has exerted not a Httle influence 
 throughout the country because published in a chain of newspapers 
 , that reaches from New York to the Pacific coast, may 
 
 people's be characterized as the "heart-to-heart" style of editorial 
 "^ ^ utterance. This type takes as its theme some popular 
 
 measure which has the support of the people — pensions for aged 
 teachers, the suppression of the ice trust, summer outings for poor 
 children, decrease in gas rates, and the like. With stinging invective 
 the editorial message flies straight to the mark without mincing 
 words. Not infrequently the result is twofold — the protection of 
 the rights of the people and the booming of the paper's circulation. 
 
 Domestic problems are sometimes treated in the editorial col- 
 umns of the type of newspapers under discussion. Sundry morsels 
 of advice and comments on conduct are emphasized in sharp, pun- 
 gent English, the style of which is designed to attract and to hold 
 attention by its epigrammatic force. Here is a fair sample. 
 
EDITORIALS, PARAGRAPHS, AND BUREAUS 151 
 
 I 
 
 Those Who Laugh 
 at a Drunken Man 
 
 Copyright, 1911, by American, Journal and S. F. 
 and L. A. Examiner. 
 
 How often have you seen a drunken 
 man stagger along the street ! 
 
 His clothes are soiled from falling, 
 his face is bruised, his eyes are dull. 
 Sometimes he curses the boys that 
 tease him. Sometimes he tries to smile, in a drunken effort to placate pitiless, 
 childish cruelty. 
 
 His body, worn out, can stand no more, and he mumbles that he is GOING 
 HOME. 
 
 The children persecute him, throw things at him, laugh at him, running 
 ahead of him. 
 
 GROWN MEN AND WOMEN, TOO, OFTEN LAUGH WITH 
 THE CHILDREN, nudge each other, and actually find humor in the sight 
 of a human being sunk below the lowest animal. 
 
 The sight of a drunken man going home should make every other man and 
 woman sad and sympathetic, and, horrible as the sight is, it should be useful, 
 by inspiring in those who see it a determination to avoid and to help others 
 avoid that man's fate. 
 
 That reeling drunkard is GOING HOME. 
 
 He- is going home to children who are afraid of him, to a wife whose life 
 he has made miserable. 
 
 He is going home, taking with him the worst curse in the world — to suf- 
 fer bitter remorse himself after having inflicted suffering on those whom he 
 should protect. 
 
 AND AS HE GOES HOME, MEN AND WOMEN, KNOWING 
 WHAT THE HOME-COMING MEANS, LAUGH AT HIM AND 
 ENJOY THE SIGHT. 
 
 In the old days in the arena it occasionally happened that brothers were set 
 to fight each other. When 'they refused to fight they were forced to it by 
 red-hot irons applied to their backs. 
 
 We have progressed beyond the moral condition of human beings guilty of 
 such brutality as that. But we cannot call ourselves civilized while our imagi- 
 nations and sympathies are so dull that the reeling drunkard is thought an 
 amusing spectacle. 
 
 To many editorial writers the sentimental aspect of events makes 
 a striking appeal. They revel in moralizing on the passing of the 
 r^^ „^ Rood old days with the train of joyous customs that 
 
 The " human- ^ ■' . 
 
 interest" once brought delight. An incident in the life of a street 
 editorial gamin, an act of kindness on a city boulevard, the mak- 
 ing of a cherry pie, are likely to arouse their fancy and to inspire 
 a graceful, whimsical paragraph or two. This type of editorial may 
 
152 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 easily be marred by too much handling. It must be skillfully done 
 with a light touch. The following is offered as a fair specimen 
 of the '' human-interest " editorial. 
 
 WE OBJECT 
 
 They are talking of doing away with the circus posters. They say the posters 
 are really a needless expense, since newspaper advertising more than fulfills 
 all the needs which the posters were originally intended to meet. They think 
 the day of the lithographed lady going daintily through the hoop and the gen- 
 tleman with carefully-combed hair hanging by his toes from a dizzy trapeze 
 has gone by. They are talking, therefore, of doing away with the circus poster. 
 
 We object. That is, we hope this isn't true. Our position is taken in the 
 interests of juvenility. In that cause we loudly proclaim that the circuses are 
 about to strike at one of the institutions of childhood. Nay, more — they are 
 aiming at one fell blow to rob youth of the chief joy of its existence. 
 
 No more circus posters for boys and girls to marvel at on their way to 
 school ? No more deliciously depicted scenes to cause the childish breath to 
 quite leave the little body, whilst the boy or girl halts mid-street and blissfully 
 forgets school, home, earth, sea and sky in rapt contemplation of the wonders 
 so beautifully bill-boarded? No more wondering and disputing and fighting 
 among youthful supporters of this circus or that as to which has the bigger 
 elephant, the uglier hippopotamus and the most entrancing beauties of the 
 fair sex? 
 
 It cannot be. We realize that the poster is a dead loss financially, that its 
 worth as a publicity-giver is nil, that it can't draw a crowd of half-dollar 
 holders around the ticket wagon for shucks. 
 
 But it can bring more joy in the World of Childhood than any other factor 
 on earth can produce. It makes more tardy marks, it creates a larger number 
 of vacant seats in school, it is responsible for more blissful dreams of future 
 triumphs of childish acrobats in the saw-dust ring than would ever be produced 
 in any or all other ways. 
 
 We are sorry they are talking of doing away with the circus poster. 
 
 The facetious editorial or essay written in seemingly casual 
 manner upon a theme of more or less humorous content is not to 
 The casual ^e Overlooked. It may have little educational value, less 
 essay power to mold public opinion, and no weight to arouse 
 
 inquiry, but it undeniably affords entertainment through its playful 
 mingling of common sense with delicate satire. It has " human- 
 interest " qualities but is not intrinsically pertinent and timely. 
 Often it is nothing more than a medley of ingenuous opinions, 
 half serious, half humorous, proffered in a delightfully frank fashion 
 
EDITORIALS, PARAGRAPHS, AND BUREAUS 153 
 
 with no attempt to reform the world. During the past twenty years 
 the New York Sim has pubhshed many droll bits of satire on a 
 variety of themes, reaching all the way from international affairs 
 and mooted questions in English syntax to the domestication of 
 husbands. The following editorial is taken from an old file of the 
 Sim and may be regarded as fairly typical of this casual form. 
 
 HAIRPINS 
 
 The comprehensive merits of the hairpin are known to all observant men. 
 Its special value in surgery is asserted by a writer in Ajnerican Medicine. It 
 seems that a surgeon can do almost anything with a hairpin. He can wire 
 bones with it. probe and close wounds, pin bandages, compress blood vessels, 
 use it " to remove foreign bodies from any natural passage," and as a curette 
 for scraping away soft material. And no doubt the women doctors can do a 
 great deal more with that most gifted and versatile of human implements. 
 
 Anthropologists have never done justice to the hairpin. It keeps civilization 
 together. In the hands of girls entirely great it is much mightier than the 
 sword or, for that matter, the plow. What is the plow but a development of 
 the forked stick, and what is a forked stick but a modification of the hairpin ? 
 If there was any necessity, a woman could scratch the ground successfully 
 now. In fact there is no work or play in which something may not be 
 accomplished by means of it. 
 
 Dullards will tell you that women aren't so inventive as men, don't take out 
 so many patents. They don't have to. With the hairpin all that is doable can 
 be done. With a hairpin a woman can pick a lock, pull a cork, peel an apple, 
 draw out a nail, beat an egg, see if a joint of meat is done, do up a baby, 
 sharpen a pencil, dig out a sliver, fasten a door, hang up a plate or a picture, 
 open a can, take up a carpet, repair a baby carriage, clean a lamp chimney, 
 put up a curtain, rake a grate fire, cut a pie, make a fork, a fishhook, an awl, 
 a gimlet, or a chisel, a paper-cutter, a clothespin, regulate a range, tinker a 
 sewing-machine, stop a leak in the roof, turn over a flapjack, caulk a hole in 
 a pair of trousers, stir batter, whip cream, reduce the pressure of the gas meter, 
 keep bills and receipts on file, spread butter, cut patterns, tighten windows, 
 clean a watch, untie a knot, varnish floors, do practical plumbing, reduce the 
 asthma of tobacco pipes, pry shirt studs into buttonholes too small for them, 
 fix a horse's harness, restore damaged mechanical toys, wrestle with refractory 
 beer stoppers, improvise suspenders, shovel bonbons, inspect gas burners, saw 
 cake, jab tramps, produce artificial buttons, hooks and eyes, sew, knit, and 
 darn, button gloves and shoes, put up awnings, doctor an automobile. In short, 
 she can do what she wants to ; she needs no other instrument. 
 
 If a woman went into the Robinson Crusoe line she would build a hut 
 and make her a coat of the skin of a goat by means of the hairpin. She will 
 
154 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 revolutionize surgery with it in time. Meanwhile the male chirurgeons are 
 doing the best they can ; but it is not to be believed they have mastered 
 the full mystery of the hairpin. 
 
 It is absurd to infer that such an editorial seeks to instruct a 
 housewife, much less to affect the practice of surgery. It serves to 
 illustrate that a skillful jugglery of words can secure for even a 
 trivial matter prominent notice in valuable space, as is shown by the 
 fact that this editorial was not alone published in the paper with 
 which it was original, but was extensively copied. In the same 
 class is the heavy editorial sometimes seen in small country papers 
 wherein is discussed the internal policy of China, or the mis- 
 doings of a potentate of Europe — fields utterly outside the pale 
 of local influence. Doubtless the intention is to be diverting, or, 
 at the most, instructive. In such cases any opinion that might be 
 expressed, even though accepted as gospel by every reader of the 
 paper, could have not even the remotest effect upon the subject 
 under discussion. It is the practice of many papers printing edito- 
 rials of the type last quoted to sandwich in between such efforts 
 others that advocate some reform or support some important 
 measure. Such editorial opinion is, at times, couched in a most 
 courageous form, sometimes defiant and almost revolutionary. The 
 effect is that of the old-time practice of physicians administering 
 quinine in apple butter. 
 
 Conservative papers preserve the dignity and amplitude of their 
 editorial departments. The tendency of the radical and so-called 
 Papers and yellow journals is to reduce it in size, to lighten it in 
 editors weight, and at times to omit it altogether. 
 
 A few papers of this class, however, go to the other extreme, 
 printing editorials on the first page, or on the last page in display 
 type or colored ink, particularly when advocating some reform 
 for which the paper has been active. Editorial writers of this class, 
 while they may seem erratic, command the highest salary. The 
 present owner of a chain of newspapers in this country pays his 
 chief editorial writer, who contributes to all of the " league " papers 
 and usually has the same editorial in each of them, a salary in ex- 
 cess of ^75,000 a year. So far as known this is the highest com- 
 pensation received by a journalist who is not a newspaper proprietor. 
 
EDITORIALS, PARAGRAPHS, AND BUREAUS 155 
 
 In the field of editorial writing there is still practiced, in the 
 more conservative daily press, a form once more general than now. 
 . This has for its purpose the drawing of some general 
 
 of deeper lesson or deduction from a fact or a series of facts at 
 impor ^j^^ moment prominent in the public eye, and in calling 
 
 attention to which immediate circumstances may afford a reasonable 
 excuse. In a degree this form of editorial is passing to the news 
 magazine. Here the period of issue and the national scope of 
 the audience appealed to make it impossible to touch any subject 
 while it is pulsating with its first heat. 
 
 Such an editorial makes the greatest demands upon the writer. 
 Not alone must he be conversant with the widest range of subjects 
 and be possessed of a catholicity of taste, but he must be capable 
 of drawing clearly and surely the deductions that are logically 
 inevitable, even when he does not make the most obvious con- 
 clusion from his premises. The technique of such writing, which 
 compels a complete statement of conditions as the proper precedent 
 for comment, precludes it being done in the brief compass of space 
 now so generally allotted to an editorial. In writing an editorial 
 on some current phase of news the editor may safely assume that 
 his readers have a general knowledge of the subject. Where he 
 draws conclusions from fields neither obviously related nor pecu- 
 liarly prominent, the assumption of a basis of information on the 
 part of the reader is not justified. 
 
 Conspicuous for adhering to this form of editorial is the New 
 York Post. Its editorial department, which daily comprises from 
 four to five columns of closely printed matter, seldom fails to con- 
 tain at least one editorial of the type mentioned, usually a column in 
 length. " Large and Small Colleges," a homily on the inadequacy of 
 these adjectives to convey in this connection any real meaning, was 
 called forth by two conflicting addresses by college presidents, which 
 might readily escape the average hurried reader of a daily paper. 
 
 LARGE AND SMALL COLLEGES 
 
 Considering the educational situation at the beginning of a new year, the 
 authorities present us with two divergent views. Dr. Draper, the State Com- 
 missioner of Education, is impressed with " the lust for riches and bigness " 
 in the universities, the "consuming American desire to be first in the race." 
 
156 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 To Chancellor Brown of New York University, on the contrary, the great 
 problem is the difficulty of taking care of the immense numbers of those who 
 are seeking higher education. The percentage of our population who go to 
 colleges and universities, he tells us, is greater than that which went to high 
 schools and academies twenty-five years ago ; and this increase is more likely 
 to be accelerated than diminished. Accordingly, in his opinion, colleges and 
 universities " must have larger resources — much larger — than have yet been 
 provided, if they are to come anywhere near keeping up with the growing 
 demands of the time." These demands are for provision not only for a larger 
 body of students, but also of a greater variety of instruction. Every branch 
 of public service and of private enterprise is discovering a need for specially 
 trained men, and they turn to the colleges and universities for the supply. 
 Response means more buildings, more instructors, more matriculants, more 
 everything. Bigness is thus not so much being achieved by educational insti- 
 tutions as thrust upon them. 
 
 Many, however, while feeling compelled to assent to this reasoning, will 
 sigh over the menace it holds for their loved small college, and will wonder 
 whether a multiplication of institutions of moderate size would not in the end be 
 better than the apparently boundless expansion of those already in existence. 
 It is for such doubters that Professor Stevenson has written in the Popular 
 Science Monthly. To him a small college is invested with no more sacredness 
 than is a large university. He does not hesitate to level his criticism at the 
 central point in the small college defences — the supposed greater intimacy . 
 furnishes between professors and students. In the first place, he attacks the 
 implication that a college '' professor" is necessarily a better guide, philosopher, 
 and friend than a university " instructor." Even the revered " professors " of 
 half a century ago were often under thirty, and they were frequently in charge 
 of classes that it would be absurd to call '' small." Professor Stevenson makes 
 short work of the " supposition that in ante-bellum days there was any genuine 
 intimacy between professors and students." The tw^ bodies, he asserts, were 
 in opposing camps, and faculty meetings were devoted largely to discussions 
 of discipline. The university, on its side, *' is not a mass of several thousand 
 students." It is rather a collection of schools, each with its dean, who deals 
 with the students as directly as did the old-time president, while in many insti- 
 tutions there is a system of advisers which places every student in a particular 
 relation to some member of the faculty. 
 
 Whatever the facts may be upon this point, one thing everybody can see 
 for himself, and that is that the term " small college " means a very different 
 kind of institution to-day from the one it suggested a few decades ago. Then 
 Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia were not only in the list of small 
 colleges, but one or two of them were smaller than certain colleges now whose 
 presidents find it profitable to denounce the evils of large universities. Even 
 in the hey-day of the small college, Dartmouth, Williams, and Amherst gradu- 
 ated classes of forty or fifty. It is idle to discuss the question of the size of 
 
EDITORIALS, PARAGRAPHS, AND BUREAUS 157 
 
 colleges without recognizing that the terms ''large" and ''small" are relative. 
 Nor will this recognition clear away the entire difficulty. If an institution with 
 two hundred students is small, and one with two thousand is large, what shall 
 we call one with five hundred? And if the small college has all the virtues, and 
 the large college or university nothing but vices, we are still in the dark regard- 
 ing the condition of an institution that we can call neither large nor small. It 
 looks as if we were thrown back upon some other test than that of size, con- 
 venient as that test is. Perhaps, in educational institutions, as well as in those 
 of other sorts, quantity is a less accurate measure than quality. 
 
 One is confirmed in this hypothesis by some of Professor Stevenson's state- 
 ments concerning small colleges. Persons under the magic of the term will be 
 grieved to hear that smallness does not insure proficiency. They know that 
 two-thirds of the college graduates who have reached the Presidency have come 
 from small institutions, and that a similar ratio holds for less eminent public 
 men. It is true that equally accurate statistics show that, until recently at least, 
 it were wiser not to go to college at all, since the great majority of our promi- 
 nent men have had no degrees, except such as had been conferred upon them 
 in recognition of the success which they had won without them. But the figures 
 are misleading. Most of the Presidents had to go to small colleges or to none 
 at all, since there were no large ones. What the figures really show is that 
 two-thirds of them went to institutions that not only were small, but have 
 remained small, which is a very different matter. The Adamses, for instance, 
 :p credited to a large university, because, forsooth, it is large now ! Such 
 .omparisons are worse than valueless. But Professor Stevenson carries the war 
 nto Africa by drawing a vital distinction between the small colleges of fifty 
 years ago and those of the present. The old curriculum, while narrow, was 
 compulsory. Music, art, pedagogy, and semi-professional courses, all more or 
 less elective, were not open to the undergraduate. As a consequence, it was 
 impossible for 50 per cent, or more of the students to be enrolled as college 
 men while taking non-coF ;giate work. One church has found the situation so 
 serious that it has a board whose work is to raise the standard of its colleges. 
 Yet almost half of them still report less than fifty of their students taking 
 " college courses." The truth is that many a small college has become large 
 because it was good, and there is no reason for supposing that it ceased to be 
 good when it became big. 
 
 The editorial herewith offered as an example, while less general 
 in its application, having been inspired by political activities of the 
 Reaching the moment, shows how current incidents can be made the 
 higher truth subject matter from which to develop a well-known truth 
 in political economy — a truth, however, that is often overlooked, 
 namely, the tendency away from radicalism toward conservatism 
 in the face of either responsibility or great opportunity. It reads : 
 
158 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 PLACATORY RADICALS 
 
 Senator La Follette's speeches in Ohio arc illustrating a tendency often dis- 
 played by radical public men when they seek support for high office. They 
 then minimize their radicalism. Or they will describe it as the only true con- 
 servatism. Sometimes they will represent themselves as possibly a little extreme, 
 but will assert that going as far as they do is the only way to head off Socialism 
 or anarchy. In general, however, they take a deprecating or placatory attitude. 
 This kind of gentle roaring has often been heard from Senator La Follette and 
 his friends in recent weeks. In Ohio he points to the tranquil state of affairs 
 in Wisconsin, with capital secure, railroads contented, banks safe, and the 
 people enjoying prosperity — all as a result of legislation which has been 
 denounced as radical ! 
 
 A somewhat similar tone was adopted by Gov. West of Oregon during his 
 recent tour in the Eastern States. His errand was partly to arouse interest in 
 his own commonwealth, and to attract to it investors, so that it was natural to 
 find him, in his public addresses, using conciliatory language. He did not want 
 Easterners to get the idea that Oregon is loaded down with freak legislation 
 and afflicted with endlessly experimenting radicals. Gov. West admitted that 
 they had in his State made a number of political innovations, but contended 
 that they did not in the least affect public stability or financial soundness. 
 Nowhere was property more secure or a fairer field offered for enterprise. 
 Oregon is growing rapidly, her natural resources are being successfully devel- 
 oped, and there is no reason, her Governor asserted, why an unfounded dread 
 of " the Oregon plan " in the matter of elections and in the use of the initiative 
 and referendum should any longer do harm to the State. 
 
 There is no occasion, in the case of either Wisconsin or Oregon, to dispute 
 the facts as alleged. We think it is generally conceded that the political move- 
 ment which La Follette headed in Wisconsin did a great deal of good, even if 
 it did not wholly and directly bring about all the blessings which are now held 
 up to our admiration. If the whole question were to be debated, we should have 
 to ask whether other and larger causes had not been operative. But our present 
 intention is not so ambitious. We are merely noting a trait in political human 
 nature — the almost invariable disposition of a political radical, when hard put 
 to it for votes or followers, to picture himself as really one of the most steady- 
 going persons alive, and who, if you will only look at him in the true light, will 
 appear to you as a very bulwark of the social order. 
 
 This may seem only amusing, by contrast with the truculent air which the 
 radically-minded statesman assumes on other occasions, but it is in reality a 
 sort of spontaneous tribute to the good sense of the American people. That 
 they are at heart conservative, your radical who is at the same time a skilled 
 politician easily discovers. He may think it wise vehemently to harangue and 
 rouse them at times, but he knows that they do not really favor root-and-branch 
 methods, that they do not long pin their faith to a man who is forever unsettling 
 
EDITORIALS, PARAGRAPHS, AND BUREAUS 159 
 
 things, and hence he now and then adopts the role, as we see Senator La 
 Follette doing, of one who loves to go slow and go safe and is as far as possible 
 from being an incendiary. Even Mr. Bryan has occasionally sung low in this 
 way, though in his campaigns his oratorical impulse always ran away with him 
 in the end, and, no matter how mildly he might begin, he wound up in a 
 fierce vein. 
 
 These diverse and apparently contradictory manifestations of the radical 
 temperament must enter into the final judgment of any man in public life who 
 is thought of as "advanced" or "dangerous." It is a nice question which 
 view of him the people will take. In his placatory and reassuring moods, can 
 he make them forget his firebrand moments ? On the other hand, will those 
 who really desire a constant and driving radicalism in our public life, be led 
 to fear that the man they had for a time tied up to is insincere and cannot be 
 depended upon, because he stops occasionally to agree with the conservatives 
 and to invite their cooperation ? Our recent political history has given us many 
 an example of this two-fold peril for the political radical. He will make a first 
 deep impression which, with a multitude of people, nothing which he may after- 
 wards do or say can remove. One did not need the demonstration in the 
 repeated attempts made by Mr. Bryan to gain the confidence of the country, 
 to be sure that he could not overcome the idea of his character early formed. 
 People were on all sides heard to say : " It's of no use for him to talk. You 
 cannot persuade me that the man is not flighty and would not upset every- 
 thing if he had a chance." This may be unjust, but it shows how difficult 
 it is for a statesman to placate after he has long inflamed and alarmed. 
 And at present, we are bound to add, there seems no likelihood that Senator 
 La Follette will succeed in making the country believe that the garb of a 
 conservative fits him comfortably. No speeches which he can make in Ohio 
 will cause people to forget his speeches in the Senate. His praise of business 
 methods in Wisconsin cannot divert attention from the wild and whirling 
 words he has uttered about the men of his imagination who wickedly bring 
 on needless financial panics. 
 
 Notice here how carefully the editor has avoided any direct com- 
 ment on the merit of the stand taken, either by Mr. La Follette 
 or Mr. Bryan. It is only by inference that one may know his 
 attitude toward these prominent representatives of opposing par- 
 ties. He has taken their public utterances and shown how two men 
 admittedly supporting a certain phase of thought act under the 
 same set of conditions. He has seized upon the fact that one of 
 these men was at the moment making a series of addresses in a 
 neighboring state, and from this set of conditions he develops a 
 general truth. 
 
l6o ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 lulilorials of this type require a peculiarly judicious poise of 
 mind and are, by some, esteemed the highest form of editorial 
 writing. The merit of an editorial, however, may be measured by 
 many differing standards, so that to maintain that one form is 
 better than another is either an arbitrary act or the mere expression 
 of one's opinion. So far as may be the student of journalism 
 should make himself familiar with all forms, should practice his 
 hand in writing each, and should devote himself to that type 
 which he finds the most natural expression of his habit of thought 
 and personal style, or to the type best adapted to the newspaper 
 he is trying to serve. 
 
 Not quite editorial in its nature, and yet differing from purely 
 
 reportorial work, is a field of newspaper endeavor which has a 
 
 considerable following, and which is a worthy and remu- 
 
 Bureaus and 
 
 news asso- nerative line of endeavor. This is the "bureau," or 
 ciations ''news association." They supply news stories, feature 
 
 articles, illustrations, or editorials to papers that want them. 
 
 Situated, usually, at particular news centers, as Washington, New 
 York, Boston, Chicago, and other large cities, the mission of the 
 bureau is to convey a specific line of information to its clients — 
 newspapers throughout the country. The matter supplied by this 
 service is distinct from the general news, which is furnished to 
 newspapers by the telegraph news agencies such as the Associated 
 Press, the United Press, the Hearst service, and others. 
 
 Washington is the seat of a larger number of these bureaus 
 than is found in any other city in the United States, because more 
 news of a special sort originates there than elsewhere. A bureau 
 is practically the same as a special correspondent, giving, however, 
 but a portion of its time to any one paper. Assume, for instance, 
 that some measure of general concern is before Congress. The 
 wire services will give a resume of that work. But in Kansas, in 
 Alabama, or in Maine are newspapers particularly concerned about 
 the position that their own congressman or senator took in regard 
 to this measure. With detailed and specific information the general 
 press wires cannot be burdened. Neither is it probable that papers 
 of this class maintain at Washington a special correspondent to 
 look after matters of sectional interest. 
 
EDITORIALS, PARAGRAPHS, AND BUREAUS i6l 
 
 Therefore the newspaper becomes a patron of some one of these 
 bureaus. To it the paper may turn in any hour of unexpected 
 need for detailed information on news occurrences in Washington. 
 Upon telegraph instruction the bureau, by representative, will 
 interview any special congressman, consult official records to find 
 how men have voted, and furnish by wire or mail as much matter 
 as the paper may direct. 
 
 Then it goes a step further. Having a certain circle of clients, 
 the bureau men watch the events of different communities for 
 anything that may interest the respective newspapers. When news 
 develops they send a brief "query," after this fashion: "Your 
 congressman introduces measure for federal aid in state road 
 building. How much.?" The editor then orders as much of a 
 story as he thinks the situation warrants. In Washington these 
 bureaus find a special field of usefulness in watching the crop 
 bulletins, census reports, department rulings, and similar official 
 proceedings which are too bulky to be carefully digested for the 
 general wire service and often contain items of peculiar interest 
 to some particular section of the country. 
 
 Outside of political centers, bureaus find different avenues of 
 usefulness. It is manifestly impractical for any paper to have special 
 representatives in any but the larger cities. Yet there is always 
 the possibility that a news item of peculiar interest to some news- 
 paper at the other side of the continent may develop in any com- 
 munity. In such event the bureau finds its opportunity. If an 
 unknown man drops dead in Cincinnati, no press wire will bother 
 with the news of it ; but w^hen he is identified as a man of local 
 importance in Denver, the Denver newspapers will want an exten- 
 sive account of the entire event, disposal of the body, cause of 
 death, and additional details. It is customary to pay bureau service 
 at the best space rate of the newspaper receiving it. Under this 
 rule it not infrequently happens that the same story, sold to three 
 or four different papers, will receive three or four different rates 
 of pay. 
 
 Still another line of work in which these news associations 
 are useful is that of supplying the demand, increasing daily, for 
 illustrations. No wire service attempts, directly, to illustrate its 
 
1 62 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 news. Here the assistance of the bureau is invaluable. Assume, 
 for example, that a prominent memorial is to be unveiled, the 
 President of the United States and other dignitaries assisting. 
 The press services will detail the news ; but either by dealing 
 directly with a local photographer, or through some local bureau, 
 the pictures must be secured in advance. Newspaper men recog- 
 nize the fact that the average commercial photographer has but 
 a hazy idea of the requirements of a picture which shall be a fit 
 study for newspaper illustration. 
 
 Allied to this line of work, but also verging upon the field of 
 publicity which is not essentially, but only incidentally, newspaper 
 work, is the form of bureau maintained by political, educational, 
 and philanthropic organizations. The method of work is the 
 same, except that the activities of the bureau attaches are con- 
 fined to the line for which they are engaged and they are paid 
 by the organizations represented, and their service rendered the 
 newspapers is gratis. For this work, however, newspaper experi- 
 ence is absolutely indispensable. 
 
 The political organization furnishes the best example of this 
 special type of bureau. In every state the major political parties 
 and sometimes the minor ones maintain press bureaus. These 
 furnish to all the papers of their political faith, and to many that 
 are independent or distantly friendly, carefully written summaries 
 of the daily or weekly activities of their party leaders, with par- 
 ticular reference to the problem momentarily uppermost in the 
 political mind. There is usually woven skillfully into the summary 
 some reference to the policy and plans of the party maintaining 
 the bureau. 
 
 Newspapers receive this matter, knowing fully where and why 
 it was prepared. They use as much or as little as may seem fit. 
 Often in this manner is secured information otherwise wholly 
 inaccessible. The gathering and preparation of such party and 
 personal data affords a field of endeavor for young newspaper 
 men that many find particularly remunerative. 
 
 The bureaus so far noted have related exclusively to the news 
 field. There are, however, other bureaus which serve newspapers, 
 having as their chief mission the supply of " feature " stories. This 
 
EDITORIALS, PARAGRAPHS, AND BUREAUS i6 
 
 o 
 
 service may take any form, from manuscript copy, with or without 
 photographs, to matrices of the story already in type and illustrated, 
 or plate ready to be slipped in the form. The success of such a 
 bureau usually depends upon the timeliness of the features offered. 
 Anything that is strictly new, bright, and breezy, and entertainingly 
 written stands a fair chance of being accepted by newspapers having 
 large Sunday editions. 
 
 Metropolitan newspapers establish bureaus in large centers and 
 maintain more or less of a staff at these points. Often a bureau, so 
 called, will consist of a single staff man and such special assistance 
 as he may require from time to time. In large news centers news- 
 paper men find it profitable to devote their entire time to the opera- 
 tion of a bureau, serving as wide a field of clients as can be secured. 
 In other cities, less important from a news point of view, many 
 bureaus are operated by men regularly employed by local papers. 
 These give to its promotion such hours as are not demanded 
 by their paper. The philosophy of the whole thing is that the 
 man engaged in local new^spaper work is the one most certain to 
 chance upon news of value to a paper at a distance. In every in- 
 stance such an increased and broadened outlook upon the field of 
 news is valuable experience for the reporter and ultimately fits 
 him for bigger and better things. 
 
PART III. MAKING A NEWSPAPER 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 HEAD WRITING AND MAKE-UP 
 
 The writing of headings for articles that appear in daily news- 
 papers is the genesis of make-up, and make-up is the outward sign 
 Headlines o^ t^e policy of the newspaper. Indeed, the character 
 and policies Qf ^]^q newspaper — conservative, radical, or mildly sensa- 
 tional — may be determined in almost every instance by the typo- 
 graphical display of its news. The force that directs the selection 
 and the writing of the day's happenings is also at work in the 
 presentation of these events on the printed page. 
 / The writing of heads is a modern art that has developed steadily 
 / with the progress of newspapers. Files of papers a hundred years 
 / old or more show but the most meager form of headings, frequently 
 none at all. Such roaring words as FIRE ! ! ! KILLED ! ! ! often 
 appear in black type at the head of a column, but little else ; while 
 important news often finds itself buried under a line of "Local 
 Brevities." With the expansion of the modern newspaper, however, 
 all this has been changed. The work of displaying the news, once 
 intrusted to the telegraph editor, is now turned over to a body of 
 experts whose sole business it is to write the heads in such a way 
 that the reader may get the gist of the day's events by scanning 
 the caption or be tempted to read further through the arousing of 
 ■his curiosity. 
 
 F'or the purpose of practical demonstration there are shown at 
 the end of the book exhibits marked A, B, C, 1), E, F, G, and H, 
 taken from leading newspapers throughout the United States. 
 These specimens have been chosen with the view of giving as 
 many varieties as possible, all of the same date, so that the student 
 
 164 
 
HEAD WRITING AND MAKE-UP 1 65 
 
 may observe how the same subject or story is regarded in different 
 localities, how different minds have seized on interesting phases 
 of the same story, and how local conditions, in a measure, affect 
 the situation. 
 
 The root idea of the head is to attract attention to the subject 
 matter of the storw Its secondar\- purpose, aeeording to a view 
 The mission gaining ever widening acceptance among American 
 of the head newspapers, is to epitomize .the facts, or at least^the 
 most essential features of that story. A former view of headings 
 was" that they should invite the attention of the reader to the story 
 without attempting to outline it. 
 
 The writer of heads is confronted with a physical condition which 
 no other writer anywhere encounters. Just so many letters and 
 spaces will go in a column. He must express what he is trying to 
 say in words of a certain length. In Exhibit H it will be found 
 that there are exactly 1 7 letters and spaces in each one of the three 
 banks that constitute the first section of the big head. Within a 
 very narrow range this will be found true of all the other heads. 
 That it is not absolute and invariable is due to the fact that some 
 letters are wider than others. The letter M is more than twice as 
 wide as the letter I, and in practical head writing the letter M is 
 often counted as two letters and I as only one half. 
 
 It will be seen, then, that a further physical problem, that of 
 proportion, is necessar)\ The section of a head immediately follow- 
 The parts of ^^S the first One is usually denominated a bank. When 
 a head a head has more than one bank these are generally of 
 
 the same length, since by custom they are set in the same style 
 of type. Banks are usually, but not always, separated by what 
 are called catch lines or even double catch lines. 
 
 A knowledge of type is ver\^ valuable to the writer of heads, but 
 it is not indispensable. So-called conservative papers have what 
 are called style heads ; that is, they have only a certain number of 
 permitted forms, designated by letters or numbers, so that the head 
 writer has only to mark the head with the letter or number desired. 
 The compositor will accordingly know in what style of type to set 
 it. Among such papers are the New York S?m (Exhibit E) and 
 the St. Louis Globe-Democrat (Exhibit H). 
 
1 66 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Where a paper has no such rules — and this number is ever 
 increasing — the head writer must designate thus: "Six column 
 streamer, 60 point, DeVinne Italic" (Exhibit D). This will be 
 followed by the first bank, which can be set on the linotype 
 machines and need only be marked " tw^o column machine bank " ; 
 then the catch line, which in this case is double and must be set 
 by hand ; and, finally, the second bank, for which the instructions 
 to the printer are the same as those for the first one. 
 
 Most papers of to-day make all the parts of a head indepen- 
 dent of each other, that is, each complete in itself. If an inverted 
 pyramid is used at the top of the story, that pyramid will state a 
 fact in its entirety and not extend the sentence into a second divi- 
 sion of the head. The catch line will also be complete in itself and 
 not a disjointed part of a phrase or sentence. Probably the most 
 popular style of head is what is known as the break line, one that 
 utilizes plenty of white space on each side of the type. It seldom 
 uses more than four lines, graded across the column. 
 
 The one-word or phrase policy is in vogue on a certain style of 
 newspaper, notably the Cincinnati Enquii'er. Here the head starts 
 with a key word set in black type, such as STOLE or DEATH, 
 and is extended into the other parts of the head until the entire 
 sentence is concluded. The Enquirer has printed some master- 
 pieces replete with a majesty of diction that is most artistic ; but 
 there are few papers that can imitate it successfully. Much skill is 
 demanded to do the one-word head well. The one-line head has 
 always been closely connected with the practices of the New York 
 Sun — is in fact one of its traditions. Many of these captions 
 approach literature, such as " A Little Child in the Dark," '' Tested 
 Beyond Their Strength," "The City That Was," "A Man and 
 a Maid." The other divisions have the same literary tenor. 
 
 The head writer carefully scans the story before him to discover 
 what is its most salient point. Here individual judgment must enter. 
 Emphasizing t>ut the degree to which this judgment may be identical 
 the feature or quite generally held is shown by the close approx- 
 imation to the same idea which the leading head writers of the 
 country seized in handling one of the most important stories in 
 recent years. Every heading reproduced in exhibits A-H, at the 
 
HEAD WRITING AND MAKE-UP 1 67 
 
 end of the book, shows that large and noisy crowds greeted the 
 arrival of Roosevelt. In every case these facts come out in the 
 very first section. In the subsequent sections the head writers 
 emphasize some peculiarity of the greeting, some phrase of the 
 former president or some feature that may have a local connection. 
 
 In newspaper language this story, while of international purport, 
 was local to New York and was therefore handled there in a man- 
 ner different from elsewhere. It will be seen that the New York 
 Herald brings out the fact that the mayor of the city was con- 
 spicuous in the welcoming. In Boston this point has lost a large 
 measure of its significance, and the fact that one of the Massa- 
 chusetts senators w^as prominent is brought forward. In New York 
 a Massachusetts senator w^as of less consequence than the mayor. 
 So, too, in Chicago the fact that many Westerners were present 
 is featured by the head writer. 
 
 Verv little experience in writing heads w^ill convince any intel- 
 ligent newspaper man that there is an undoubted value in short, 
 strong: words. Ans^lo-Saxon is more apt to be in the 
 
 The use of o . . o i 
 
 vigorous heading than in the body of any story. So, too, the 
 words practice of omitting articles and other short words that 
 
 can reasonably be understood from the context has developed. It 
 will be noticed that not a single heading here reproduced begins 
 with the or a. So, too, the practice of writing all heads in the 
 present tense is common. Some newspapers make an exception 
 of headings over deaths. It is considered perfectly proper to write 
 "Senator Jones Dies of Cancer," even though death has inter- 
 vened twenty-four hours before the fact is published. The u ni- 
 versal use of the present tense is justified on two grounds : first, 
 iL.is liiore direct and forceful and, second, all that is printed in a 
 newspaper is supposed to be news. The past tense is essentially 
 the tense of histor\-. Some conservative newspapers insist, how- 
 eveF,'on headlines that are in exact accord with the tense of the 
 verbs in the article. 
 
 The same desire for force leads to the use of verbs and nouns 
 in heads, in preference to adjectives and adverbs. Carried still 
 further, unusual words, which do not find place in the article, often 
 appear in heads. There are more holocausts and cataclysms in 
 
1 68 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 headlines than in the bodies of stories. The wisdom of the use or 
 overuse of such words is to be questioned ; nevertheless the tend- 
 ency exists. At such a time as the San Francisco earthquake or 
 the Collinwood fire or the assassination of a president, scarcely 
 any word in the English language will seem too strong. 
 
 Head writers of advanced views insist that each section of a head 
 should be a constructive sentence ; that is, it should have a subject 
 other ^"d ^ predicate and should tell something. This rule 
 
 requirements applies even to catch lines, which, in single-column 
 heads, often have but sixteen letters and spaces. Often this rule is 
 violated, not, however, in the best head writing. Exhibit C furnishes 
 several fine examples, while the correct and conservative New York 
 Sun offends. Such words as is or a7r must often be taken for 
 granted, but in every case the sense ought to be clear. With recent 
 years the practice of using initials has been tolerated in head- 
 lines. Twenty-five years ago it was not thought of. T. R. is now 
 all that is needed to designate the former president. The length 
 of this name is something of an excuse, if excuse be needed. It 
 will probably be conceded that the appearance is not so good, nor 
 the practice so dignified. In the same manner the use of numerals, 
 formerly tabooed, is coming into more general use. It is a safe rule 
 to employ these expedients only as a matter of last resource. 
 
 Most head writers are forbidden to express opinion or to make 
 their heads editorial in nature. The New York Sim, on the other 
 hand, encourages them to do so. An editorial head is one ex- 
 pressing opinion or making a statement without indicating its 
 source; thus, "Actor Finds An Affinity." This head is libelous 
 under the laws of a majority of the states of the Union, and no 
 head writer could possibly know if it were true. The same thing 
 becomes practically harmless if it reads, "Actor Says He Has 
 Found His Affinitv." 
 
 The beginner in the art of head writing will do well to remember 
 that approximation has no place in his work ; everything must be 
 exact. It is quite as impossible to get an extra letter or space in 
 a column measure as it is to get an extra dime out of a dollar. 
 The failure to fill a line properly leaves too much white space and 
 robs a heading of an appearance of uniformity, or balance. 
 
HEAL) WRITING ANJ) MAKE-UP 1 69 
 
 In a general way the size of a head has some relation to the 
 length of an article. While most of the thought and attention is 
 given to the big heads which will be displayed on the 
 of head first page, quite as much work is involved in the two- 
 
 ° ® °^^ and three-line captions that announce the smaller items 
 scattered throughout the paper. The most radical paper in point 
 of make-up recognizes standard styles of heads for such subjects, 
 but the general rules already stated govern the writing of them. 
 
 Make-up is a combination of the mechanical and the artistic. 
 When headings and articles are in type, the task begins of arrang- 
 _ . ing them properly for the page. This is make-up. This 
 
 tance of falls to the lot of the make-up man, who must combine 
 ma e-up typographical knowledge with a keen sense of news 
 values. The conditions that are laid down are not of his making 
 and cannot be changed. The size of a page is determined-; the 
 number of words that will go in a column and the number of lines 
 to a page cannot be modified. Within these limits, how^ever, the 
 make-up man is free to exercise as much inventive ability as the 
 policy of the paper will permit. 
 
 So far as the make-up man is concerned, a conservative paper 
 is one which has the same general make-up every day, while the 
 sensational paper is one which changes its make-up daily. Of 
 the latter class are Exhibits A, B, and G. The remainder may be 
 considered conservative. 
 
 No copy of a paper produced on such a day as the one under 
 discussion is altogether fair, because under extreme provocation 
 every paper increases or changes the styles of its heads. It is 
 the daily practice, in the absence of any remarkable news, that 
 determines the class and character of the newspaper and governs 
 its make-up. 
 
 Of equal importance with the headings, in the matter of make-up, 
 is that of newspaper art, so called. The style, size, nature, and 
 handling of the illustrations make easy or hard the problem of 
 making up a page. Pictures, like news stories and headings, may 
 be either conservative or radical. Of the conservative sort are the 
 pictures in Exhibits A, D, E, and F. The remainder are more or 
 less radical. The illustrations used by the St. Louis Globe-Democrat 
 
I 70 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 are an example of radical art subordinated by conservative or regular 
 make-up. It is the prerogative of the make-up man to determine 
 upon a " streamer," such as is used in Exhibit B. He also makes use 
 of boxes and tabulated matter. Sometimes a summary of events, 
 set in a different kind of type, as blackface, is used with effect. 
 
 To the make-up man, where direction of department editors is 
 lacking, is usually left the question of deciding what items of the 
 day or night are most important. By common consent these are 
 always crowded on the first page. If he has an eye to balance and 
 chooses two stories of about the same length and importance for 
 first-page use and finds that they have different sorts of headings, 
 he will direct the proper person to rewrite the one head or do that 
 bit of work himself. 
 
 Cartoons are often used on the first page, where the paper em- 
 ploys a cartoonist of recognized ability. These illustrations are few 
 The use of ^^"^ number. A cartoon adapts itself more readily to a reg- 
 iiiustrations ^laj- make-up than to a radical or sensational make-up. 
 Opinions vary concerning the value of illustrations. Some editors 
 hold that one or two pictures, brought out in a large, bold way, 
 are of greater advantage than several pictures held to a smaller 
 space. Some papers, as the St. Louis Globe- Democrat, embellish 
 photographs, while others, as the San Francisco Examiner, em- 
 ploy sketches which effectually picture something that cannot be 
 photographed. The San Francisco editor recognizes that most of 
 his readers have no personal knowledge of New York City, and 
 therefore that the sort of illustration advisable for his use would 
 be needless and useless in New York ; also, since he cannot hope 
 to have pictures of the actual incident of Roosevelt's landing, he 
 must make illustrations that are available as attractive as possible. 
 
 The philosophy of headings is built not upon theories or the out- 
 growth of visionary ideals. The modern headline is the develop- 
 Headings put ^ent of actual experiences, registered in cashbooks 
 to the test ^^^ demonstrated by tangible results. Not all news- 
 papers that are now considered sensational were always so. 
 Conservative journals have not always made money, nor, indeed, 
 have sensational papers. It is reported that in Boston sensational 
 methods applied to a newspaper financially successful resulted in 
 
HEAD WRITING AND MAKE-UP 
 
 171 
 
 a loss of more than $3,000,000 before the tide turned, while the 
 same experiment tried by the same man in San Francisco made 
 a financial success of a previously losing proposition. 
 
 The test has been made, week by week, on the streets of many 
 large cities, and it has been found that large and glaring headlines 
 will sell more newspapers than the smaller and more conventional 
 sort. In a city in Ohio where the experiment was tried alternate 
 weeks it was found that large headlines resulted in an increase of 
 from 500 to 5000 in the street sales alone. This without any 
 regard to the actual importance of the news under such headings. 
 
 The class of persons to whom appeal is made has a great deal to 
 do with determining the style of headings expedient to use. In a 
 general way it may be said that flaming headlines are objectionable 
 to people of culture and refinement. They are regarded as an insult 
 to intelligence. The original object of them was to attract the at- 
 tention of the less cultured and less studious class of readers. In 
 this way hundreds of thousands of Americans have become news- 
 paper readers who, before the time of sensational headlining, read 
 no newspapers at all. In tolerant fairness, serious opprobrium should 
 not attach to a practice which has served to bring the newspaper to 
 the attention of those to whom it was before practically a closed 
 source of intelligence. That there are certain objectionable reflex 
 results is undoubtedly true, but their force is usually exaggerated. 
 
 The great haste that prevails in the large American cities also 
 gives excuse for the flaming headline. Where the custom of the 
 average citizen used to be to buy one paper and to take it home and 
 read it through, now his practice is to buy several, scan them on the 
 car, and throw them away. The big headline enables the discrimi- 
 nating reader to tell at once whether or not he cares to follow the 
 subject by reading the article beneath, and points out to the hurried 
 man exactly where to find that for which he may be searching. 
 
 There is no real danger that the conservative paper will go out 
 of existence, any more than there is reason to suppose that people 
 will cease to reason calmly and to reflect in quiet. The thinking 
 man will always rely upon a conservative paper, in the form and 
 contents of which his own intelligence is respected sufficiently to 
 leave room for personal, selective choice in his reading. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 GETTING THE PAPER PRINTED 
 
 The work of a reporter ceases when he has written his story 
 and given it into the care of the city editor ; but the story itself 
 In the com- has Only reached the first round in the series of steps 
 posing room ^j^^j- ]^Y\ng it before the public. After being inspected 
 and either accepted as submitted or revised, it is sent to the com- 
 posing room, put into type, made ready for the press and printed, 
 in all a very complex process, sometimes but little understood by 
 newspaper men themselves. 
 
 In order to make clear this process of converting a sheet of copy 
 into a column of newspaper type, it seems best to take a typical 
 example. The reporter has just written a "fire" story, handing 
 in the sheets one by one in order to save time. The copy reader 
 looks them over, writes an appropriate head, and summons the copy 
 boy. This office factotum either carries the story to the composing 
 room or places it in a pneumatic elevator which hurries it to the 
 printers. After leaving the city desk the story must undergo the 
 scrutiny of the copy cutter, or copy clipper, a man whose duty it 
 is to divide the story into a number of ''takes," each of which is 
 to be set by a compositor. Let us suppose that the '' fire " story, 
 which is an important one and must go into the first edition, has 
 just reached the cutter. After a swift reading this expert seizes 
 the paste brush and joins all the pages together in one strip. Then 
 with a pair of shears he deftly cuts up the copy, usually in para- 
 graph lengths, but of course the amount of manuscript given to 
 each compositor would depend upon the time available for compo- 
 sition. Obviously there must be some system to avoid confusion. 
 In most newspaper offices the copy cutter has a system of his own 
 to secure the accurate and expeditious assembling of the " takes." 
 In the case of the " fire " story, for instance, the copy cutter would 
 
 172 
 
GETTING THE PAPER PRINTED 
 
 ^IZ 
 
 mark the first section Fire A i-, indicating that this is the first 
 paragraph and that there is more to come. The second division 
 he marks A 2- and continues in this fashion until the story is 
 
 Courtesy Mergenthaler Co. 
 
 From Mind to Metal 
 
 The remarkably ingenious invention by which the written copy of a reporter is transformed 
 
 into a bar of metal is called a linotype machine. From these bars, indirectly in most instances 
 
 and directly in others, the copy is printed 
 
 closed, indicating the conclusion by A 5 #. It is necessary, however, 
 that the copy clipper keep the story in mind to avoid mistakes. 
 Accordingly, he registers the story upon a ruled blank marked by 
 
174 
 
 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 a number of squares. The fire story would be indicated by such 
 a note written by the copy cHpper in one of the squares, thus: 
 Fire A 1-5. Other stories might be marked C, D, E, F, or J^ 1^. 
 The next step consists in bringing together the various "takes" 
 as set by the compositor. This is the task of the bank man, a printer 
 who follows the notations as found. on the sheet made by the copy 
 cutter. The set matter has been placed on a long shelf with no 
 
 attempt at arrangement, the "fire" 
 story among the rest. This story 
 has been marked A and is in five 
 sections. All the bank man has to 
 do is to assemble the A sections and 
 to arrange the "takes" in consecutive 
 numerical order in a long brass recep- 
 tacle, called a galley. The set matter 
 is then locked securely in the galley 
 and taken to the proof press, where 
 print of it is taken on a long strip of 
 paper. This is called the first proof. 
 The next step is proof reading, a 
 task usually given to two men, one a 
 proof reader and the other the copy- 
 holder. The latter reads over the re- 
 porter's copy while his companion 
 keeps his eye on the proof itself, 
 noting on the margin any discrepan- 
 cies or typographical errors. Proofs 
 are also sent to the respective edi- 
 tors upstairs, although these seldom 
 correct many typographical errors. 
 After a revised proof has been taken the supervision of the proof 
 reader ceases, and the story is ready for the next step toward pub- 
 lication. Acting upon instructions from the managing editor as to 
 the arrangement of the stories on the various pages, the make-up 
 men now begin to place the stories in columns separated by brass 
 rules. The arrangement of these is discussed in detail in the 
 chapter on Head Writing and Make-up. Once the columns are filled, 
 
 Courtesy Mergenthaler Co. 
 
 Matrices and Space Bands 
 
 Each touch of a key releases a brass 
 mold of a letter or a thin wedge- 
 shaped band to separate the words. 
 When a line has been thus assembled, 
 it is cast into a slug by an automatic 
 deyice ; hence the name, linotype 
 
GETTING THE PAPER PRINTED 
 
 175 
 
 the make-up man's work is completed, and the printers lock up 
 the form in steel frames, called chases. A form is matter in type, 
 sufficient to make a page of a newspaper, usually seven or eight 
 columns. Matter is said to be 'Mn the form" when it occupies the 
 place it is intended to have in the printed page. Matter in type 
 but not intended for immediate use is described as " standing" or 
 ''on the stone." In older printing offices, large stone tables were 
 used to hold the type after it was set. These are still found in many 
 offices. Care must be taken to have all of the columns of matter 
 in the form of equal length, with the type firmly held in place. 
 A jolt of the elbow or a sudden fall, after the chase is taken from 
 
 Finished Slugs 
 
 Courtesy Mergenthaler Co. 
 
 After the lines have been set on the machine and automatically cast, they drop down into 
 what is called the '' stick." From this they are assembled for the form 
 
 the small iron stands where it has been locked up, may result in 
 a scattering of the type, a '' pied " form, as printers call it. In a 
 modern newspaper office, however, there is little danger of this 
 accident, since the type is set in the form of lead slugs, one line 
 in length, instead of the movable pieces. In the smaller offices an 
 impression is taken directly from the form; but it is evident that 
 a long run of thousands and thousands of papers would result in 
 battering the type and in considerable delay, which to a newspaper 
 means loss of money. In larger offices, therefore, the form must 
 undergo another process before the actual printing begins. 
 
 A damp sheet composed of many layers of tissue paper is placed 
 upon the type and this in turn put under a heavy pressure, which 
 
176 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 drives the face of the type into the soft texture of the papier-mache. 
 The form is then placed under a heavy steam press where, by appH- 
 cation of intense heat, the moisture is dried and the tissue paper 
 made hard and brittle. This sheet, called a paper matrix, is then 
 curved and put into a molding box which receives the molten metal. 
 After a lapse of several minutes to allow the metal to solidify, 
 the circular plate is dipped into a tank of water to cool and then 
 given into the hands of the trimmers, who plane off the rough 
 edges and make it ready for the press cylinders. In recent years 
 the invention of the autoplate has simplified the process and makes 
 it possible to finish the plates at the rate of 4 a minute by the use 
 of an automatic device within the machine. Although the autoplates 
 cost about $25,000, not a few of the large metropolitan papers own 
 them, for the loss of seconds in a modern newspaper establishment 
 means a loss of prestige and, consequently, of dollars. Ordinarily 
 the stereotypers have the first plate ready in 1 5 minutes after a page 
 of type is given into their hands and follow this with duplicates 
 every 15 or 20 seconds. These duplicates are made necessary by 
 the large circulation and by the importance of getting the entire 
 edition into the hands of readers quickly. Modern newspapers, 
 therefore, use many highly complicated printing machines, in reality 
 a number of presses built together. 
 
 These go by different names. An 8-page paper is printed on a 
 quadruple press which carries 32 plates, 4 of each page, while an 
 octuple carries 8 plates of each page, 64 in all, in the printing 
 of the same-sized paper. Other styles are called the double quad- 
 ruples, sextuples, double sextuples, and the like. The papers are 
 printed, folded, cut, and pasted at the rate perhaps of 36,000 
 an hour with one press at work. The output depends upon the 
 style of the press. The starting of a second press doubles the 
 capacity ; the third brings the output up to 108,000 copies an 
 hour. The more complex types of presses will increase the capac- 
 ity by leaps and bounds, that of a double sextuple having an out- 
 jHit of 96,000 twelve-page or 72,000 sixteen-page papers an hour 
 at the maximum. 
 
 The double octuple presses in the press room of the New York 
 JV()7'/r/ \\'\\\ print 16 eight-page papers at one time, cut and folded 
 
GETTING THE PAPER PRINTED 
 
 177 
 
 and ready for the mail and delivery rooms. This is the equivalent 
 of 128 full-sized newspaper pages of 1024 columns. In the press 
 room there are 7 octuple presses equivalent to 56 single presses, 
 I color press equivalent to 6 single presses, i quadruple press 
 equivalent to 4 single presses, 6 sextuple presses equivalent to 36 
 single presses, or a total of 102 presses. To dress these presses 
 takes 42,432 pounds of stereotype metal. The 46 deliveries will 
 
 Battery of Linotype Machixes 
 
 Courtesy New York Herald 
 
 The composing room of every newspaper has its alley of machines, collectively known as a 
 
 battery. A small daily will have one or two. A metropolitan newspaper will have 50 or more. 
 
 The machines have been brought to such a sta^e of perfection that all sizes and kinds of 
 
 type, all widths of composition, and even headlines can be set on them 
 
 deliver 1,000,000 eight-page papers per hour 'from 100 rolls of 
 paper weighing 1 20,000 pounds, or 60 tons. The Sunday World 
 Alagamnc and Comic Weekly are printed on color presses which 
 also print the Sunday World's 16-page color magazine and 4-page 
 color comics complete at one revolution. It takes all the week 
 to print the Sunday edition, the presses usually starting Monday 
 and finishing Saturday evening. All the late-news sections of the 
 Sunday paper are printed Saturday night. 
 
178 
 
 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Most newspaper offices keep some of these big printing machines 
 in reserve in case of accident, although every machine means the 
 expenditure of a good-sized sum, scarcely less than ;!^ 50,000. 
 
 The em])loyment of half-cylinder printing plates and fast presses 
 makes it profitable for metropolitan papers to publish numerous 
 editions at any time during the day when an important news story 
 "breaks loose." While one edition is being printed the original 
 form is being made over by the make-up men, who insert some 
 
 Where Matrices are made 
 
 Courtesy New York Herald 
 
 Under steam pressure and heat the soft paper pulp that has been forced upon the face of 
 the type in the forms becomes so hard that it resists fire and sheds water. It has taken on 
 every indentation of the types, and when a cast is made from it as a mold, every comma, 
 
 period, and dash is reproduced 
 
 fresh feature of the story that has come from the city editor. In 
 the case of emergency, it is customary to make what is known 
 as a "fudge" plate. This is similar to the ordinary kind, but has a 
 space free of reading matter. The plate is kept in reserve while 
 the paper \:, being printed and, in the case of emergency editions, 
 it is quickly clapped upon the press to take the place of the other 
 plate. The late news is set up, and the chase, just large enough 
 to fill the blank space comfortably, is fastened upon the press 
 
GETTING THE PAPER PRINTED 
 
 179 
 
 and the printing done in any color of ink from the type direct. 
 Where the outcome of some announced event, such as a nomina- 
 tion of some distinguished man for the presidency, is in doubt, it 
 
 
 ^•-r-t 
 
 
 ' ♦•~--r- i-'-T- t 
 : r«-r 'r-t » 
 
 I- [:--.".■-.-; 
 
 i }-• 
 
 It -■.■■■■• 
 
 ^M'liiilili-;.';,-; ',,'.; 
 
 --■- rT^- #*<*"'"J*.~ r-^i-^r* 
 
 v:i 
 
 - r r-- T-- r t 
 
 r • - r.-r-- r-.r 
 
 , , , ■ ... ,. 
 
 .r ^'Y--' 
 
 CinoA £porllnf Peer I' Ky fW^jj l^.f f^Tff; 
 
 y .. .- ^ ,,. -- rx:.-:r-ssir. ' R^ Plit. IXillI.. 
 
 
 K ■ 
 
 -—I- ! — Vf'**-' 
 
 ' r,».-- ->-f?" 
 
 
 t— ♦•■r-f-«!--T— •T-'r-?-" r— r-»^^ — r- 
 
 .-■J 
 
 
 .--:t-,-,.;-:. 
 
 
 tr.f- (..ft-'e--- 
 
 {•• V- I-f—l »-. 
 
 , I— r — ■ «• r- 
 t'-r — r-f- 
 
 r— r--'. T— - 
 
 nBTi'^.-mrs'pcrpr 
 
 ^rlf^.fr. ■ 
 
 Ready to receive Metal 
 
 Cuurtesy New "V'urk ll'orld 
 
 The matrix used for casting the plates of a newspaper resembles in appearance the printed 
 page of that paper, with depressions instead of ink to show the type outlines 
 
 is customary to have two or three heads in waiting, each announc- 
 ing a different result. As soon as the news comes the appropriate 
 head is locked into the form with the reading matter and sent to 
 the stereotypers. 
 
l8o ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Most newspaper plants have an engraving department for the 
 
 making of cuts for immediate use in their papers. While much 
 
 of the work of these ensrravers is done under consider- 
 
 The making '^ 
 
 of iiiustra- able prcssurc, the newspaper art has reached a high 
 ^^°°^ degree of artistic excellence in spite of enforced haste. 
 
 Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of pictures used by news- 
 papers : line drawings reproduced from pen-and-ink sketches — 
 cartoons as an example — and half-tones, which are made from pho- 
 tographs. The chalk-plate process, which consists of cutting the 
 lines of a drawing into a chalk coating and using it for a mold, has 
 been abandoned in many offices. In the first process the drawing, 
 which is many times larger than the reproduction, is tacked upon 
 a board and photographed under the glare of an electric arc light. 
 The plate is then taken from the camera and developed. After 
 the film has been hardened by a chemical bath, it is stripped from 
 the glass, reversed, and attached to another piece of glass. The 
 second film is then pressed against the sensitized plate of zinc and 
 exposed for several minutes. The picture is taken from the frame, 
 rolled with ink, and given another chemical bath, which leaves the 
 reproduction of the drawing in blurred lines. After the plate has 
 been thoroughly dried, an application of dragon's blood is given it, 
 forming a covering for the sticky outlines. Immersion of the plate 
 in a nitric-acid bath eats away the zinc from the exposed places. 
 It is then necessary to cut away unexposed sections likely to catch 
 ink from the rollers, using for the purpose burrs which grind away 
 the rough edges and bring the drawing into strong relief. The 
 reproduction is then attached to a block and made type high. 
 The process of making half-tones is much the same, except that a 
 screen is placed before the lens of the camera to give the finished 
 plate a better printing face. This stippled effect in a half-tone 
 may be noticed in any newspaper, where a coarser screen is used 
 than is employed in book half-tones. 
 
 In large newspaper offices very little typesetting is done by means 
 of the old hand method, except in the case of advertisements. The 
 typesetting machine, which does five times as much work as the old- 
 style compositor, is now almost universally adopted. The machines 
 are of three types, all operated by means of keyboards similar to 
 
GETTING THE PAPER PRINTED 
 
 l8l 
 
 those on typewriters. One of these machines sets actual type in a 
 long line which needs to be justified to the proper lengths by the 
 compositor himself. After they are used they are dis- 
 type by tributed automatically by means of various nicks in the 
 machinery ^^^^ ^£ ^^^j^ ^^ ^^^ types, which allows it to drop into 
 
 the proper groove to be used again at the touch of the proper key. 
 The second style of machine utilizes a perforated strip of paper on 
 
 Finishing Touches by Hand 
 
 Courtesy New York Il'or/d 
 
 Although the metal plate used on the presses is mechanically cast from the paper matrix, 
 
 there are always some slight blemishes that must be tooled out by hand. Where many casts 
 
 are made, this work keeps several persons busy 
 
 which the letters are recorded. This perforated strip, like the roll 
 of a pianola, determines the casting of the line. The third and 
 most popular style is called the linotype, a machine invented by 
 Ottmar Mergenthaler and subsequently improved by many modi- 
 fications and additions. This machine composes and casts entire 
 lines of type, justifying the lines automatically. The operative 
 mechanism is based upon a series of matrices — small, thin, brass 
 
1 82 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 plates with letters cut into the edges. These matrices to the num- 
 ber of several hundred are stored in a magazine, which can be 
 quickly removed to give place to another containing matrices of 
 a different face. From this magazine the matrices are delivered 
 and assembled in line as the operator plays on a keyboard. Ex- 
 pansible space bands are mechanically wedged tightly in the line 
 of matrices, thus justifying the line accurately. When all is in 
 readiness, molten metal is forced into the slot of the mold and 
 against the matrices, where it solidifies into a slug which is trimmed 
 type high and ejected into a galley side by side with the linotypes 
 previously cast. After the matrices have cast the slug, they are 
 returned to the magazine automatically, to be used again. These 
 machines will set two faces of type from the same matrix, and 
 many are now used in the setting of heads for newspapers. Their 
 use has largely revolutionized the making of larger and better 
 newspapers. 
 
 Proof reading is a very exacting trade. It demands common 
 sense, a quick eye, a good memory, and a broad education. These 
 The art of elements are necessary if mistakes are to be rectified, 
 proofreading misspelled words caught, and minor errors discovered. 
 Many a newspaper man is saved from careless blunders every day 
 by the exacting scrutiny of the proof reader. 
 
 A proof reader uses in his work a series of marks to indicate 
 needed correction. These have become recognized in almost every 
 office and will prove valuable to any one who has occasion to read 
 printed matter. They refer chiefly to typographical errors. The 
 reader of proof, however, must also keep his mind upon the sense 
 of the story, to ferret out the many words that, while spelled 
 correctly, have no real mission in the sentence. The proof reader 
 will cut out expressions wrongly used and substitute words of the 
 same length, if possible, in order not to necessitate the resetting of 
 several lines of type. 
 
 With the general use of typesetting machines, the work of read- 
 ing proof has been simplified to a certain degree. Some errors are 
 now mechanically impossible. The story given herewith is set by 
 hand composition in order to show the operation of the system and 
 to give examples of as many proof reader's marks as practicable. 
 
GETTING THE PAPER PRINTED 
 
 183 
 
 Marks used by Proof Readers 
 
 LOTTIE 6ILS0N, ONCE A STAR, 
 
 DOING A TURN IN MUSIC HALL. 
 
 KEY 
 
 Little Entertainer, No Longer Young, Has 
 Lost Much of the Charm That Made 
 Broadway Rave. 
 
 /^, C^ W N^^ York, July O^CSpecia^^^Lottie 
 . Gilson, who once made Broadway rave to 
 \^ Cd-Ad^the tune o^he^unshine of Paradise^llej^ 
 yl^^iyf (Xt is doing a turnjmiusic gall at Fort George. 
 ^^ Lottie works sull because she has to. Old^ . 
 
 ^^ time theatfi^oers who recall the inimi^ '"K/ 
 ^ble^little^ntertainer ^will^e (^touched JLa 
 ^ at the irony of their favorites fate. "'' 
 
 She is no longer young y nor has she 
 
 ,/7 
 
 L(^ 
 
 ■J vania girl^ade her debut a quarter of a 
 D century jigo, she was instantly proclaimed 
 ^ a star ; her salary jumped at leaps and / / 
 
 C/ bounds/ After dozens of marriage pro/ ^ / 
 posals she married young J. K. Ernmett; / 
 
 ^''son of theVomedian. Frequent quarrels 
 
 fled to tSeir separation, divorce finally 
 ending their ^jjarriage. y^ /J 
 
 She finolly returned to the Vaudeville 4^ '^' 
 Stage, re'^umed h er ow n name, and again ^ 
 
 leaped inTfTpopular favorT Then nature 
 interrupted and sent her an invalid to 
 Jjot springs. There she met a harpist 
 named Sully Dufree, and agam Lotti^n 
 love. The romance was short and she 
 sc«^ dropped out ^f sight;*^ 
 Occasionally Broadway would hear of | 
 
 A^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 •hr 
 
 
 C^\^ 
 
 Hie former star. One aftemogn she was 
 picked up in a destitute condition and 
 tohaa to a hospital. She recovered, and 
 'through a friend was given a chance to 
 make good in a cheap concert hall. Miss 
 Gilson said tojoay : 
 
 *i.j jiuj through with matrimony. Two 
 is sufficient, and I want to be left alone. 
 I'm here trying out my old work and do- , 
 
 ing well. The people like me and I arn *^ 
 sgrt of happy again. O, if I V?n1yy ^ould" '^' ^^E, 
 get back, but they say charnfj^Qj^ never /i/"*-^ 
 j^ome back.^ yy* 
 
 1 
 
 > 
 
 Change bad letter 
 
 Jj 
 
 Push down space 
 
 D 
 
 Turn over 
 
 :n 
 
 Take out {dele) 
 
 A 
 
 Left out ; insert 
 
 ^ 
 
 Insert space 
 
 V 
 
 Even spacing 
 
 ^^ 
 
 Less space 
 
 ^ 
 
 Close up entirely 
 
 ^, 
 
 Period 
 
 ./ 
 
 Comma 
 
 ^// 
 
 Colon 
 
 ;/ 
 
 Semicolon 
 
 ^J 
 
 Apostrophe 
 
 ^/ 
 
 Quotation 
 
 J 
 
 Hyphen 
 
 Straighten lines 
 
 c: 
 
 Move over 
 
 a 
 
 Em-quad space 
 
 /— ^/ One-em dash 
 
 J-/ 
 
 Two-em dash 
 
 ir 
 
 Paragraph 
 
 Not 
 
 No paragraph 
 
 w.f. 
 
 Wrong font 
 
 
 Let it stand 
 
 stet. 
 
 Let it stand 
 
 tr. 
 
 Transpose 
 
 Caps 
 
 Capital letters 
 
 s.c. 
 
 Small caps. 
 
 I.e. 
 
 Lower case, or 
 
 
 small letters 
 
 Jtal. 
 
 Italics 
 
 Rom. 
 
 Roman 
 
 Note. Proof as it comes from the compositors is apt to be full of errors. 
 These must be detected by the proof reader, who indicates the corrections to 
 be made, using a series of symbols that are mysteries to the uninitiated. 
 
1 84 
 
 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 \\'hilc remarkable progress has been made in the last 20 years 
 in printing machinery, the improvements are scarcely less notable 
 Newspaper ill the designing and making of newspaper type. To 
 type observe the change that has taken place, it is necessary 
 
 only to contrast the typographical dress of the newspaper of a decade 
 ago with the present-day production. The old style of publication 
 abounds in the boldface Gothic type in use for generations, 
 
 Type of Modern Perfecting Press 
 
 N.\- New Yurk Ih-raid 
 
 Only in the largest cities are the monster presses mentioned in the text commercially pos- 
 sible. They are extremely expensive, but necessary where the circulation is very large. The 
 principles of their operation do not differ essentially from the smaller presses found in 
 
 most newspaper plants 
 
 grouped in all sizes and varieties of " freak " faces, designed not so 
 much for serviceability as to mark a departure from the type of 
 other houses. Each foundry issued a family of type faces built 
 upon bodies that adhered to no set measurement, so that the 
 printer with fonts from two or three foundries found difficulty in 
 lining them up. Then, too, the metal used in the manufacture of 
 type differed with various foundries. The abundance of overhanging 
 letters, sometimes fantastically shaded, made it possible for the type 
 
GETTING THE PAPER PRINTED 
 
 185 
 
 to break off by the strain of presswork, or to lose the clear-cut out- 
 line of its face. Probably one of the greatest changes to be observed 
 at the present time is the approach to a greater degree of uni- 
 formity in the sizes of type. While foundries still compete with 
 each other in the designing of new faces, they have reached a com- 
 mon agreement in the standardization of sizes. The old hit-or-miss 
 
 Madp: Ready for Sale 
 
 Courtesy New York Herald 
 
 The destiny of all newspapers is the street or some train that transports them to their proper 
 field. This requires that they be wrapped in bundles, tied, and sorted. This work must 
 be quickly and accurately done. Catching the mails is an essential part of the successful 
 
 operation of any newspaper 
 
 plan has been abandoned, and in its place has come the point sys- 
 tem of measurement, now almost as universally recognized as the 
 metrical system. The standard pica | was divided into 12 equal 
 parts, each given the name of point, and upon this standard of 
 measurement all type is now made, from the old agate (5^ pomt) 
 up to 120 point, at which limit the making of metal letters has 
 become unwieldy. The old names of nonpareil, minion, brevier. 
 
1 86 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 and bourgeois for body type have largely been displaced by their 
 point measurements — 6, 7, 8, and 9 point, respectively. Upon this 
 series whole families of type faces have been built up, much of 
 which may be combined with production of other foundries without 
 marring the evenness of the line. Not only has more uniformity 
 been achieved, but type foundries are making a definite effort to 
 get away from the conventional styles and to adapt the faces 
 to modern-day needs. An attempt has been made to simplify the 
 face by the cutting away of ornament and by the broadening of 
 hair lines. The best styles of the past have been redrawn, each 
 foundry making some slight departure from the old design, yet 
 all striving for adaptability to certain present-day requirements. 
 The Gothics still find a large place in newspaper columns, but 
 the endeavor has been to bring a little variety into the making 
 of the boldface. Fewer block letters of the circus-bill variety are 
 manufactured. Designers now aim to combine blackness of face 
 with an artistic, not quite so rigid, outline. The De Vinne series, 
 in the extended and condensed styles, presents good evidence of 
 this modern tendency. The modernization of old faces may be 
 seen in the adaptation of the Old Style Roman, made originally 
 for the Saturday Evening Post and now designated as Post #1. 
 The following is in 24 point and will be readily recognized as one of 
 the most popular of present-day type displays, although old in origin : 
 
 Worth Waiting 
 
 Another forceful design which combines beauty and strength is to 
 be found in the Cheltenham family, which is adapted to various 
 needs. For advertisements the Cheltenham Bold is extensively 
 used because of its readable and dignified face. The following line 
 is set in 30 point of this series : 
 
 June's Greatest Sale 
 
 The comprehensive range of modern type faces may be illustrated 
 as well by the Cheltenham family as by any other. This type is 
 made in lightface italic, boldface, bold italic, bold condensed, bold 
 
GETTING THE PAPER PRINTED 187 
 
 condensed italic, wide lightface, and bold outline, adhering to the 
 same general letter formation. 
 
 Adaptations of the Old Style Antiques, which occupy a middle 
 ground between the boldface on one side and lightface on the 
 other, are also winning popularity. The following, set in Old Style 
 Antique, 24 point, is adapted to a display line where an extended 
 face is required : 
 
 Mayor Again Appeals 
 
 Another popular style, indicating the departure from the con- 
 ventional Gothic, may be seen in such type as the Meriontype, 
 designed for the Curtis Publishing Company and intended to be 
 interchangeable with the Bulfinch Old Style, as it is known. In- 
 deed, the modern tendency seems to be away from the type of 
 heavy outline in the direction of the medium lightface. Many news- 
 papers have abandoned the boldface types in the writing of heads, 
 substituting in their place the lightface varieties. In the opinion 
 of many newspaper men a more artistic appearance of the printed 
 page has been the result. The following headline, set in 24 point 
 Century Expanded, is used by the Pittsburgh Gazette Times : 
 
 Independence Day 
 
 Still another departure is found in the increasing use of the 
 italic letter, both in boldface and lightface, seen in such papers 
 as the New York He7'ald and Pittsburgh Dispatch, respectively, in 
 combination with a bank or inverted pyramid set in some other 
 series. 
 
 The development of the art of head writing, with its exacting 
 requirements of telling the gist of the story in the caption, has 
 brought about the designing of many condensed faces, some new, 
 some adapted from old-style types. Any newspaper of metropol- 
 itan cast will disclose abundant examples of this condensed series. 
 In former years these heads were set by hand, but now great vari- 
 eties of the condensed faces in a diversity of sizes are available 
 on the linotype. 
 
1 88 p:ssp:ntials in journalism 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, that type foundries are seeking to adapt 
 type faces to the needs of the newspaper, both in the setting of 
 advertisements and in the writing of headlines. Formerly the 
 designing of new faces meant considerable expense, in that the 
 letters must first be drawn, rigidly criticized, and then cut by hand 
 into a steel block for casting. The process of cutting was laborious 
 and exacting. The invention of the electrotyping device and the- 
 labor-saving type-designing machine, which cuts the type automati- 
 cally after the fashion of a pantograph, has made it possible for 
 foundries to offer almost endless varieties of type faces, and at the 
 same time to achieve a greater degree of accuracy, durability, and 
 artistic outline. To-day the niceties of make-up depend upon the 
 skill of the printer in blending type of various sizes and styles. 
 The faddish designs, together with old-fashioned faces that have 
 outlived their usefulness, are being displaced by bright, clear-cut, 
 modernized letters of good wearing quality. 
 
 The type for the body of the newspaper has not undergone 
 radical changes. The 8 point Roman is still the standard, although 
 large newspapers, because compelled to economize space, make use 
 of 6 point for less important stories. Where display is required in 
 the body of a story, blackface letters are available, usually set in i o 
 point. This body type is now set in most large offices by linotypes. 
 The measurement for composition remains the same, as determined 
 by the width of the small letter '' m " in any series. The typical 
 newspaper column, for instance, is i^^ ems wide. A column for 
 a paper like the New York World or Herald will contain approxi- 
 mately 3800 ems, solid measure, considered a good hour's work 
 by a linotype operator. 
 
 It is important that the newspaper man make a study of type 
 faces and their adaptability to different kinds of advertisements 
 and stories. The tone of such typographical display is set by the 
 combination of type faces. This is the business of the editor, the 
 compositor merely following his instructions. 
 
PART IV. THE AMERICAN PRESS: 
 ITS HISTORY AND PROBLEMS 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 
 I. The Colonial Period 
 
 On April 24, 1704, in the little back room of a New England 
 
 book shop the first real newspaper on American soil had its birth. 
 
 It was in the form of a half sheet of pot paper, printed 
 
 Slow growth r u i-i. 1 ^ 
 
 of colonial on a rude wooden press from a font ot battered type, 
 newspapers £j^biazoned over its short columns were the words The 
 Boston Neivs-Letter. The printer was Bartholomew Green and 
 the editor John Campbell, postmaster of Boston. A survey of the 
 contents brings to light four marine brevities from New York, 
 Philadelphia, and New London, a few belated paragraphs under 
 a Boston caption, a clipping from the London Flying-Post, and an 
 advertisement of Mr. Campbell's bookstore. The paper appeared 
 weekly until the outbreak of the Revolution and remained the sole 
 representative of American journalism among the colonies for 
 15 years. In 17 19 and the year following, competitors appeared 
 in Philadelphia and New York. Twenty years later the number of 
 American newspapers had increased to 11 — one in Virginia, one 
 in New York, one in South Carolina, three in Pennsylvania, and 
 five in Boston. In 1776 there were 37 newspapers in America, 
 one of them a semiweekly. 
 
 The slow development of the newspaper among the colonies, as 
 indicated above, may be traced to various causes. Not only was 
 printing machinery expensive but its operation required something 
 of technical skill. Few printers possessed the initiative to attempt 
 such an untried experiment as a newspaper ; moreover, the printing 
 
 l8q 
 
I90 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 of even a small sheet meant toilsome hours. The only press at 
 command was of the flat-bottom variety, operated by a lever. This 
 necessitated the inking of the type by hand, the laying on of a 
 dampened sheet of paper, and the application of muscle to make 
 the impression. A circulation of 500 copies was considered a large 
 issue. Further limitations were due to the wide isolation of rural 
 communities, to miry roadways, and to inefficient post service, 
 conditions that narrowed the province of the newspaper chiefly to 
 
 The Bofton News-Letter. 
 
 ^ublitljeD bp Tlntf^oiitv- 
 
 From lai^OnDa^ April 17. to fl^OltUat April 24. 1704. 
 
 LoTiM flpng.?oJl from Dtcemb. 3J. to 4*^. 170;. . From all this he infers, That they have hopes of 
 
 AiTiftancc from Fmnce, other wife they would rever 
 
 LEners from Scotland bring us the Copy of ! be fo impudent , and he gives Reafons for ins Ap- 
 
 aSheer lately Printed there, Intituled, vl I prehcnfions that the Frtnch King may fend Troops 
 
 fenfo^Me Alarm for Scoilxn^. In n Letttr thither this Winter, i . Becaufe the Cw^Z-yib 6c DurcA 
 
 , frmi xCentleman in the City, to his Friend in- will not then be at Sea to oppofe theiO. 2. He can 
 
 the Country, concerning the pfefent Danger then bcft fpare them, the Seafon of AtStion beyond 
 
 ej .,'.f Kingdom ani'of ilie Protejhnt Heligion. Sea bemg over. :}. The Expcdation given him of a 
 
 This Letter takes Notice, That Papifts fwarm in confiderable number to joy n them, may inrourage: 
 
 that I^ation, that they traffiek more avowedly than him to the undertaking with fewer Men, if he can 
 
 formerly, and that oflate many Scores of Priefts & but fend over a fufticient number of Officers with 
 
 Jefuires arc come thither from France, and gone to Arms and Ammunition. 
 
 the North, to the Highlands & other places of the He endeavours in the reft of his Letters to an* 
 
 Country. That the Minifters of the Highlands and fwer the foolifli Pretences of the Preten'der s being 
 
 North gave in lar,;e Lifts of them to the Cjommit- a Protelbnt and that he will govern Us according 
 
 tee of the General Affembly, to be laid before the to Law. He fays, that being bred up in the Rcli- 
 
 PrivyCouncil. gion and Politicks of fr/incf, he is by Education a 
 
 Earliest Successful Newspaper in America 
 
 Showing simplicity of design and treatment, lack of headlines, and colorless information 
 copied from English papers. Note announcement of government control 
 
 the town in which it was printed. Still another force to be reckoned 
 with is found in the tardy interest among the colonists themselves. 
 Some did not feel the need of a newspaper, others were too poor 
 to buy one, not a few lacked the ability to read. One old rascal, 
 so the story goes, strolled into a tavern one day to look at the latest 
 Neivs-Letter, the only copy received in town. Grasping the well- 
 worn sheets, he exclaimed : " Bad news ! bad news ! terrible gales, 
 terrible gales, ships all bottom sides up!" — and so they were, 
 according to his way of holding the paper. This tavern newspaper 
 furnished other uses, too, if one may judge from the following sign 
 hung in a taproom : " Gentlemen learning to spell are requested 
 to use last week's news-letter." 
 
THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 191 
 
 The unstable conditions of the times and the half-hesitant air 
 of apology, typical of experimental days, are also reflected in the 
 The content Subject matter of these early newspapers. Local news 
 °* *^® is for the most part reduced to the movements of sailing 
 
 newspaper vcsscls and the comings and goings of stagecoaches. 
 Little attempt was made to substantiate rumors or to arrive at 
 any definite information. Such a task was well-nigh impossible 
 in remote districts reached only by stagecoach or postboy. Conse- 
 quently the infrequent news paragraphs are notable for their inac- 
 curacy of statement and tardiness of publication. Many of these 
 brevities might easily be expanded into column stories by mod- 
 ern methods, which is, perhaps, sufficient proof of the colonial 
 newspaper's neglect of live news values. The following items, con- 
 cerned with bears and their ravages, will be found self-explanatory. 
 The paragraphs are published under date of September 17, 1759. 
 
 We hear from Brentwood, in New Hampshire Government, as two Chil- 
 dren were gathering Beans in a Field, a large Bear came upon them and kill'd 
 them both ; — The Bear was pursued, but could not be found. 
 
 Also from Chester, in the same Government, that a few Days after the 
 above, another Bear came behind a Woman as she was walking along, not far 
 from her House, and tore off the Hind Part of her Gown, which he carried off 
 in his Mouth ; — but the Woman happily made her Escape from him. 
 
 And from Kingston, in the county of Worcester, we hear that on Tuesday 
 last as Mr. Stephen Clark of that Town was otit Hunting after Bears, his Next 
 Door Neighbor went out into his Cornfield just at Evening, and seeing some- 
 thing move which he thought was one of those Animals, shott at it, and upon 
 his coming to the place, found it to be Mr. Clark as above mention'd, shot thro' 
 his Head, to his great surprize. 
 
 We hear from Kittery, that in about 1 3 Days Past, seven large Bears have 
 been kill'd within a Mile of the Rev. Mr. Roger's Meeting House. It is said 
 some of these voracious Animals have ventured down even to some of the Sea- 
 port Towns at the Eastward. — Two of them were seen at Medford last Week ; 
 and one of them has been lately kill'd within two Miles of this Metropolis. 
 Some have weighed above 300 lb Wt. 
 
 The compilers of colonial newspapers considered local hap- 
 penings of secondary importance, probably on the ground that 
 the people of the neighborhood had already heard the news and 
 that it was therefore unnecessar)- to present additional facts or 
 to search for new details. Indeed, the events of the day did not 
 
192 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 furnish the material for the colonial newspaper. Its model was 
 the English journal. Foreign happenings, often months old, and 
 sundry essays on moral and intellectual themes — the Spectator 
 papers, for example — were clipped from journals brought by boat 
 and reprinted for the edification of the master of the manor. The 
 average man of the masses was not considered at all. In the early 
 days there was little printed disputation or political argument. Edi- 
 tors, for the most part, were subservient to the colonial authorities. 
 Occasionally such a courageous printer as James Franklin spoke 
 his opinions boldly, only to suffer a jail sentence and the suspen- 
 sion of his paper. The Neiv Eftgland Cojirant, at the hands of 
 the Assembly. The majority of the printers, however, were guarded 
 in their utterances. 
 
 Colonial newspapers were not graced by the services of such 
 august personages as the editors of a later day. In their stead 
 Colonial postmasters collected gossip and rumor brought to them 
 
 editors ^X mail time by countrymen and townsfolk and scanned 
 
 the latest English journals for profitable reading matter. The 
 mechanical business of the newspaper was in the hands of the 
 printer, who had to be deft enough to set type and sufficiently 
 muscular to twist a lever. That the position of editor was far from 
 one of affluence may be noticed by an examination of some of the 
 papers of the day. The advertisements, in particular, are inter- 
 esting. The following notices, disclosing some of the property 
 interests of the dignitary, appeared in the columns of The Boston 
 Evening Gazette in 1741 : 
 
 To be sold by the Printer of this Paper, the very best negro woman in this 
 town, who has had the small pox and the measles ; is as hearty as a horse, as 
 brisk as a bird and will work like a beaver. 
 
 To be sold by the Printer of this Paper, a negro man about thirty years old, 
 who can do both town and country business very well, but will suit the country 
 best, where they have not so many dram-shops as we have in Boston. He has 
 worked at the printing business fifteen or sixteen years ; can handle axe, saw, 
 spade, hoe or other instrument of husbandry, as well as most men, and values 
 himself, and is valued by others, for his skill in cookery. 
 
THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 1 93 
 
 II. The Revolutionary Press 
 
 Dating from the year 1745 and extending to the borders of the 
 Revolution, a new note begins to sound in American journalism, 
 echoing a growing political discontent on the part of the 
 note in colonists. It is a tone of self-reliance, of independence, 
 
 journalism Opinions were boldly expressed in inflammatory lan- 
 guage, and the feelings of the people were stirred by appeals to 
 patriotism and sectional pride. Of this type of defiant, revolutionary 
 newspapers The Nezv HampsJiire Gaf:;ette is probably as typical as 
 any in its espousal of the colonists' cause. The times were turbulent, 
 full of excesses and overzealous controversy. Benjamin P^ranklin, 
 writing in his Autobiography of these rebellious days, remarks : 
 
 In the conduct of my newspaper \^The Peii7isyh>ania Gazette\ I carefully 
 excluded all libelling and personal abuse, which is of late years become so 
 disgraceful to our countr}^ Whenever I was solicited to insert anything of 
 that kind, and the writers pleaded, as they generally did, the liberty of the 
 press, and that the newspaper was like a stage-coach, in which any one who 
 would pay had a right to a place, my answer was, that I would print the piece 
 separately if desired, and the author might have as many copies as he pleased 
 to distribute himself, but that I would not take upon me to spread his detrac- 
 tion ; and that, having contracted with my subscribers to furnish them with 
 what might be either useful or entertaining, I could not fill their papers with 
 private altercation, in which they had no concern, without doing them manifest 
 injustice. Now, many of our printers make no scruple of gratifying the malice 
 of individuals by false accusations of the fairest characters among themselves, 
 augmenting animosity even to the producing of duels ; and are, moreover, so 
 indiscreet as to print scurrilous reflections on the government of neighboring 
 states, and even on the conduct of our best national allies, which may be 
 attended with the most pernicious consequences. These things I mention 
 as a caution to young printers, and that they may be encouraged not to pol- 
 lute their presses and disgrace their profession by such infamous practices, but 
 refuse steadily, as they may see by my example, that such a course of conduct 
 will not, on the whole, be injurious to their interests. 
 
 While great men assailed each other with personal vituperation 
 and while political parties and hostile factions quarreled, the real 
 The neglect ^cws of the day was practically forgotten. The Decla- 
 of news ration of Independence, certainly an item of news of 
 
 immense importance to every colonist, did not find itself recorded 
 in a PWladelphia newspaper until ten days after its adoption by 
 
194 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Congress in that same city, July 4, 1776. A Boston newspaper 
 waited until the twenty-second to print the announcement. It is sig- 
 nificant to note that during the struggle for independence there was 
 not a single daily newspaper on the American continent to record 
 the birth of a nation. Men were too busy on the battlefield to think 
 much of newspapers or of the things they contained. It was only 
 after the war was over and the freedom of the press assured that 
 the newspaper began to thrive in all the confederated states. 
 
 III. The Party Organ in Journalism 
 
 Newspapers in the early years of the nineteenth century, while 
 showing remarkable development in point of numbers, still main- 
 tained many characteristics of their predecessors. Pon- 
 cast of derous political editorials and sedate essays, many of 
 
 newspapers ^Yiem controversial in character, found prominent place 
 in the journals of the day. Not a few of these leading articles 
 came from the hand and brain of such distinguished men as 
 Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Politicians, postmasters, 
 and lawyers — men with ambitions to satisfy — acted as the edi- 
 tors. Journalism had become a path to political preferment ; the 
 newspaper itself was little more than a political organ. For the 
 most part the men at the head of journalistic enterprises had some 
 other means of livelihood, the rest eked out a precarious living 
 in a not yet remunerative profession. If it had not been for delin- 
 quent tax sales and party support many a paper would have found 
 itself in bankruptcy. Indeed, the dependence on a political party 
 is everywhere manifest in these early papers. Whatever news was 
 published at all was given a political bent dependent upon the 
 conviction and personality of the editor or dictated by the faction 
 he served. Some of the worst characteristics of a vulgar, vitupera- 
 tive, plum-greedy age are mirrored in the newspapers of the day 
 and are caught in certain chapters of " Martin Chuzzlewit," where 
 Dickens scornfully portrays journalistic methods and the men 
 behind them. 
 
 The newspaper of that day was scarcely considered a necessity. 
 Advertisements were grudgingly given by merchants because of 
 friendship for the editor, and subscriptions were placed in the 
 
THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 1 95 
 
 same category with free-will offerings, probably because the donors 
 thought the newspaper a kind of charitable institution deserving 
 support. This old idea of tolerance, by the way, still ob- 
 siedding for tains in many rural communities. Moreover, it should 
 journalism |_^^ remembered that the newspaper in the first quarter of 
 the nineteenth century was still surrounded by innumerable handi- 
 caps. The flat-bottom press continued in use, a fact that made a 
 large circulation impossible ; the price of rag paper often made it 
 necessary to charge patrons as high as six cents for a single copy ; 
 agencies for the collecting of news remained primitive. 
 
 Another significant fact should be recorded, however, to account 
 for the slow development of the newspaper as a mirror of contem- 
 poraneous life. This is none other than the absence of 
 
 Dearth of ^ 
 
 news-gather- the press reporter, the ' ' wandering scribe with the wan- 
 ing agencies (^gj-jj^g eyes," to whose enterprise modern journalism 
 and the public owe so much. 
 
 Let us review some half -forgotten data. At the meeting of the 
 constitutional convention in 1787, no one kept an official record 
 of the proceedings, and had it not been for James Madison, who 
 faithfully transcribed the important debates, the inner history of 
 the Constitution might still be unknown. Almost 40 years later 
 Daniel Webster delivered an address at the laying of the corner- 
 stone of the Bunker Hill Monument in the presence of General 
 Lafayette and a vast throng of people from every state in the 
 Union, and yet not a single reporter was present to record the 
 proceedings. Mr. Webster himself rewrote the speech and put it 
 into the hands of the Bunker Hill Monument Association. Webs- 
 ter's Reply to Hayne might also have been lost to the world had 
 it not been for the forethought of Mrs. Gales, wife of the editor of 
 the National Intclligencei', who wrote out the stenographic notes 
 taken by her husband. In his notable speech with Calhoun on 
 September 28, 1837, Mr. Webster was doomed to a similar disap- 
 pointment. Not a single newspaper man was present to hear him. 
 He reproduced the speech afterward from his own notes and from 
 personal recollections and the letters of his friends. 
 
 True, there were some attempts in the early days to gather news, 
 but these were sporadic. Editors sat in their easy-chairs or went 
 
196 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 about their everyday duties, eontent to ehronicle events that came 
 to them ah'eady written from the hand of interested subscribers. 
 Chppings from other newspapers, anonymous contributions from 
 Vox PopuU and Pro Bono PubHco and other worthies, and long- 
 winded pohtical discussions furnished the bulk of reading matter. 
 Some of the more progressive metropolitan newspapers sent out 
 news schooners to meet incoming boats carrying mail. The record 
 of happenings at Washington was conveyed to New York and 
 Boston by pony express. There was no organization of skilled 
 observers, however, systematically to collect and to write the hap- 
 penings of the day. It w^as the resultant inadequacy of this unsys- 
 tematized news service that hastened the evolution of a distinctively 
 national institution — the modern American newspaper, for the 
 most part honest, fair, and unselfish ; devoted to the enlightenment 
 and uplifting of humanity ; led by high ideals ; characterized by 
 progressive methods. It is interesting to trace this transition of 
 the press from an unorganized agency in the first quarter of the 
 nineteenth century to its present development of magnificent system 
 and recognized power. Its history is the record of America. 
 
 In no field of human endeavor have there been more marked 
 changes in the past half century than in that of newspaper 
 The transi- production. During the formation period of American 
 tion period newspaper life a group of vigorous thinkers and brilliant 
 writers were the exponents of personal journalism in its proper sense. 
 
 Journalism did not mean then precisely what newspaper work 
 or newspaper writing means now, and personal journalism as here 
 used has a signification wholly different from that implied by attacks 
 on reputation or conduct. In its earlier and better meaning it con- 
 veyed th^ thought that some one great personality dominated a 
 newspaper, making it, in fact, an expression of himself — an indi- 
 vidual force to amuse, instruct, tear the mask from sham, and hold 
 right doing up to public honor. 
 
 In that group were Charles A. Dana, who made the New York 
 Sun read as if all the departments were written by one superbly 
 brilliant pen ; Jacob Medill, who raised the great Chicago Trilmnc 
 to wealth and power ; Horace Greeley, whose New York Trilmnc 
 was the high priest and the prophet of the Republican party ; 
 
THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 1 97 
 
 Joseph B. MacCuUough, who, save perhaps for George D. Prentice, 
 was the pioneer newspaper paragrapher, and who made the St. Louis 
 Globe- Democrat the greatest special telegraph paper in this country ; 
 Edwin Cowles, under whose management the Cleveland Leader 
 was a really great and profitable newspaper ; George W. Childs, 
 who founded the Philadelphia Public Ledger ; Henry W. Grady, 
 who made the Atlanta Constitution famous ; Marse Henry Wat- 
 terson, whose scintillating editorials still are the bright particular 
 illumination of the Louisville Conrier-Jonrnal ; and Pleld Marshal 
 Halstead, who brought the Cincinnati Commercial, and later the 
 Commercial Gazette, into fame. 
 
 Things were different then. Each of these men personally made 
 the newspaper with which his name was identified — not that he 
 wrote all of the matter, but in the sense that his personality per- 
 vaded each department. The newspaper of to-day is a highly or- 
 ganized mechanism for collecting news and commenting upon it. 
 Telegraph and cable lines and an army of special correspondents 
 keep each office in touch with all the world. Editorial platitudes 
 yield to reality. Just here are revealed, in sharp contrast, the dis- 
 tinguishing characteristics of the varying national types of the press. 
 
 A keen observer and student of the wide domain of comparative 
 journalism thus focalizes his conclusions : 
 
 America has newspapers and newspaper men. England and the Continent 
 boast of journals and journalists. It is a distinction with a difference. It is a 
 Comparative ^^^'^ assertion, often made, that the American newspaper utilizes 
 national to the fullest extent every resource supplied by science for the 
 
 types quick transmission of intelligence. The European newspaper, 
 
 speaking broadly, does not. Judged, then, by its own first standard of profes- 
 sional duty, the American newspaper as a news medium is a centu.y in advance 
 of the European and all other rivals. 
 
 The French journalist aims in the main to electrify and to entertain his 
 readers, the English journalist seeks almost solely to instruct, the American 
 newspaper man aspires to do both. The volatile French press is often frivolous, 
 the heavy English press often stupid, the typical American sometimes both — 
 more frequently neither. To the Anglo-maniac criticism that the English press 
 is puri-exemplified and that the press of America is low, vulgar and corrupt, 
 Richard Watson Gilder makes conclusive reply : " The Americans are the 
 decentest people on the face of the earth." The representative press of such 
 a people cannot be corrupt. 
 
198 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 A more critical analysis of this evolution of the modern type 
 of American newspaper, outlined in the foregoing excerpt, is 
 presented in the following discussion of technical, progressive 
 methods. 
 
 IV. The Beginning of the Modern Newspaper 
 
 The new regime was not far distant. James Gordon Bennett 
 was the first to upset the old traditions and to establish the revolu- 
 james Gor- tionary principle that what the people wanted was news, 
 ^^d fxf ^°^^^ not views, unwarped in its telling either by politics or edi- 
 Herald torial intrusion. Accordingly, on May 6, 1835, Bennett 
 
 as editor, reporter, and proprietor, issued his challenge to the world 
 in the columns of the New York Herald. These are his words : 
 
 We openly disdain all steel traps, all principle, as it is called — all party, all 
 politics. . . . We shall support no party — be the organ of no faction or co- 
 terie. ... If the Herald wants the mere expansion which so many journals 
 possess, we shall try to make it up in industry, good taste, brevity, variety, 
 point, piquancy and cheapness. 
 
 With the energy of a whole army of reporters Bennett set to 
 work. The Hc7'ald, from the beginning, endeavored to please the 
 majority of the people. It was the first paper to print financial 
 happenings and stock quotations in Wall Street. The theaters and 
 the plays produced found themselves matters of news. Clubs, 
 social organizations, the talk of the street, all met recognition at 
 the hands of Bennett, whose industry was indefatigable. Eight 
 months after the establishment of the Herald a great fire swept 
 Wall Street. Bennett did not rely upon gossip or report of spectators, 
 but spent half a day among the ruins, gathering facts which he 
 detailed in picturesque style, supplemented with a picture of the 
 burning Exchange. The Herald report was eagerly read, while 
 the other papers found themselves " scooped." 
 
 This genius of going after news and getting it while it was news 
 is but typical of other methods employed by Bennett. An organized 
 correspondence bureau that garnered the news of the leading cities 
 in Europe was made a prominent feature of the Herald^ beginning 
 in 1838 and preparing the way for the cosmopolitan scope of the 
 modern newspaper. News summaries of important events took 
 
THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 1 99 
 
 their place in the Herald columns. This adventurous, thoroughly 
 alert newspaper was the first to announce the significance of the 
 discovery of gold in California, the first to carry news of the Mexican 
 War by overland express from New Orleans, and the first, curiously 
 enough, to print reports of religious anniversaries and of sermons 
 delivered in metropolitan churches Sunday by Sunday. 
 
 Every agency for the swift gathering of news was employed by 
 Bennett — ship-news bureaus, pilot boats, pony expresses, and last 
 of all the magnetic telegraph, then but recently invented. The 
 utilization of the wire was greeted with delight as a medium of a 
 more efficient news service. Concerning it Bennett wrote : " No 
 better bond of union for a great confederacy of states could have 
 been devised. The whole nation is impressed with the same idea 
 at the same moment. One feeling and one impulse are thus 
 created and maintained from the center of the land to the utter- 
 most extremities." As evidence that Bennett did make notable 
 use of the dot and dash in these early days, it is only necessary to 
 point to the great achievement that brought Henry Clay's speech 
 at Lexington, Kentucky, ticking into the office of the Herald 
 from Cincinnati, and to record the wire reports of epoch-making 
 orations delivered in the halls of Congress. 
 
 Bennett, with aggressive plans and sensational results, shocked 
 the '' staid propriety of his times," but the people liked his paper, 
 other great ^^*^ ^^e Herald circulation soon outdistanced all others, 
 editors His methods and personality speedily drew the ire of 
 
 rival editors, for Bennett was no longer the one commanding 
 figure in New York journalism. The first penny paper, The Daily 
 Suit, established by Benjamin Franklin Day in 1833, had reached 
 a place of influence under the direction of the elder Beach. The 
 New York Tribune had been established in 1841 by Horace 
 Greeley, that vigorous political propagandist imbued with moral 
 earnestness in the cause of the people and endowed with a quick 
 perception of the significance of events — a man who soon won 
 many adherents. In 185 1 came the New York Times, under the 
 direction of Henry J. Raymond, ''an admirable reporter, a dis- 
 cerning critic, a skillful selecter and compiler of news, as well as 
 an able and ready writer." 
 
200 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 With such dynamic personahties in the arena, conflict was inevi- 
 table. Stinging epithets were bandied back and forth. Jealous of 
 
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 Courtesy of Collier's U'ieklv 
 
 Pioneer Penny Press 
 
 The New York Sun was the first paper in the United States to adopt the price of one cent 
 per copy, which it maintained up to the time of the Civil War 
 
 his power and urged into action by the keen barb of his sarcasm, 
 rival editors heaped savage invective upon the head of Bennett. 
 These attacks he returned in heaped-up measure. In place of long 
 
I 
 
 THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 20I 
 
 political editorials, bantering paragraphs crowded with wit appeared 
 in the Herald. Nor was the news forgotten. Every attempt on 
 the part of the antagonistic " allies " to curb Bennett's power stung 
 him into new activity. His resourcefulness knew no bounds. He 
 spent money lavishly, caring little for expense. " Dom it, man, 
 print it and make a fuss about it," was his motto boldly expressed 
 in broad Scotch, a sentiment paraphrased years later by a Chicago 
 journalist into " Raise hell and sell newspapers." Bennett was 
 doubtless guilty of sensationalism, but many of his methods are 
 to be commended. Under his leadership the newspapers of the 
 time became powerful vehicles for the dissemination of news. 
 
 The decade preceding the Civil War was a period marked by 
 great journalistic enterprises headed by these giants of the press. 
 Personal ^^ was a time when personal journalism was in its full 
 journalism power, when such men as Bennett and Greeley and 
 Raymond and Prentice put the stamp of their unabated genius 
 upon news column and editorial paragraph. Their papers made and 
 unmade politicians, gave impetus to every worthy movement, and 
 registered the opinion of thousands of American citizens. Greeley 
 thundered against slaver)' with the same zeal that advocated deep 
 plowing and combatted the drink evil. It was the golden age of jour- 
 nalism in America — a time when the allegiance of news gatherers 
 never wavered, and w^hen the editor had a personal interest in every 
 member of his staff. In speaking of the journalism of the fifties 
 and sixties, when individualism heeded not the jingle of dollars as 
 incentive, E. L. Godkin, for many years editor of the New York 
 Evening Post, said : 
 
 It encouraged truthfulness, the reproduction of facts uncolored by the 
 necessities of a "cause" or by the editor's personal feelings — among reporters ; 
 it carried decency, temperance and moderation into discussions, and banished 
 personality from it ; and thus not only supplied the only means by which 
 rational beings can get at the truth, but helped to abate the greatest nuisance 
 of the age, the coarseness, violence, calumny, which does so much to drive 
 sensible and high-minded and competent men out of public life or keep them 
 from entering it. Moreover, it rendered journalism and the community the 
 essential service of abstaining from the puffery of worthless people, which does 
 so much for the corruption of our politics. 
 
202 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 V. The Newspaper and the Civil War 
 
 The breaking out of the Civil War hastened the development of 
 the newspaper as a vehicle of information. Armies were on the 
 Getting march, battles were being fought, men met death by the 
 
 the news thousands. In such a contingency Bennett again proved 
 his sagacity as a collector of news. Alert to the significance of the 
 situation, he dispatched reporters and artists to the front, that they 
 might give an accurate picture of every movement in the conflict. 
 Herald wagons and Herald tents were to be found in every army 
 corps. War correspondents and interviewers were stationed at stra- 
 tegic points to watch developments. It should be noted in passing 
 that Bennett was really the father of interviewing. At the time 
 of the John Brown raid at Harpers Ferry a reporter was sent 
 to Peterboro to talk with Gerrit Smith, implicated in the affair. 
 The talk, published in full in the Herald, was the introduction of 
 this pleasing innovation. 
 
 Bennett took advantage of every medium to get the news. Tele- 
 graph wires were utilized, and when these were cut by the enemy, 
 soldiers brought the message, often rolled tightly inside a coat 
 button to elude watchful eyes. Private letters were rifled. From 
 eagerly scanned Southern newspapers were compiled lists of the 
 military forces of the Confederacy. The laying bare of these rebel 
 war secrets caused consternation in the South and brought the 
 suspicion of undue intimacy in the North. It is estimated that 
 during the war Bennett spent $500,000 — not such an appalling 
 sum in these days — in securing the first report of the important 
 events in the campaign. 
 
 With this news enterprise came unprecedented increase of sub- 
 scriptions and insistent demands for advertising space. " America 
 Spread of had become a nation of newspaper readers. Spirited 
 newspapers rivalry sprang up everywhere, especially among the most 
 energetic of metropolitan papers. Following in their track news- 
 papers were established all over the country, each supreme in its 
 own sphere. P2very town of 10,000 or more had its own journal, 
 compiled for the most part from clippings from the Herald, 
 Tribune, and Sidi. The political tenor of these newspapers was 
 
THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 20^1 
 
 still present and the personal editorial influence still obtained ; but 
 it is also to be noted that the preeminent importance of local news 
 was beginning, even at so early a period, to win wider recognition. 
 
 VI. The Modern Newspaper 
 
 Mighty as have been the personalities of the past in revolution- 
 izing newspaper methods and materials, the new era in journalism 
 could not have been possible without the agency of 
 elements in mechanical invention. Up to the year 1832 newspapers 
 Its evo u ion ^^.gj-^ pointed on hand presses much as country journals 
 in remote districts are printed to-day. When in later years steam 
 power was applied to the press, circulation grew by leaps and bounds. 
 There were still innumerable handicaps, however, many of which 
 were overcome when Richard M. Hoe showed how type could be 
 placed on a revolving cylinder and paper fed into a press running 
 with lightning speed. Again the circulation multiplied by thou- 
 sands, but even this improved form of press could not satisfy the 
 demands made by anxious readers in the troublous times of the 
 Civil War. The expense of railroads and growth of cities increased 
 the calls upon the newspapers and opened fresh territory for their 
 exploitation. Under pressure of these new conditions mechanical 
 experts developed the stereotyping process, by which pages of type 
 may be duplicated in curved metal plates. By attaching these to 
 a battery of fast presses the circulation of a half million, even a 
 million copies was made possible. To-day newspapers are printed 
 on presses marvelously transformed from the style developed 20 
 years ago. In the new multiple machinery six or eight presses are 
 combined into one great machine that prints, folds, cuts, pastes, and 
 counts newspapers, often at the astounding rate of 96,000 copies 
 an hour — literally miles and miles of wood pulp fed from revolving 
 spools into the maw of a monster. 
 
 As explained in detail elsewhere, the evolution in printing 
 machinery is no less marked in the composing room. While 
 formerly type must be set by hand by tedious process, late in the 
 century the linotype, invented to compete with type case and hand 
 compositor, reveals one machine doing the work of five men. To- 
 day every large newspaper office owns a battery of these marvelous 
 
204 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 machines. The revolution that has taken place in news gathering 
 is scarcely less noteworthy, the coming of the telegraph and the 
 extension of railroads driving out the slow stagecoach and pony 
 express and making the prompt recording of news possible. With 
 the invention of the Atlantic cable every spot in Europe was made 
 a news center. Modern journalism turns a telescopic eye upon every 
 hamlet, village, town, and city in America and on foreign countries ; 
 it snatches the frantic sparks of the wireless telegraph, flashing out 
 the doom of a sinking Titan of the sea ; it is ready to spare no ex- 
 pense to dispatch special trains and ships and to marshal armies of 
 trained specialists for the purpose of collecting news and recording 
 every significant event in the world's progress. The newspaper has 
 become an institution that daily brings together happenings from 
 the four quarters of the earth, molding opinion, conveying infor- 
 mation, entertaining and educating the masses of the people. In 
 the United States to-day there are approximately 25,000 news- 
 papers, of which 2300 are published daily. One day's output is 
 sufficient to supply a copy to every five inhabitants. Modern jour- 
 nalism has taken the place of the " oldest inhabitant," the lyceum 
 lecturer, and pulpit orator as the most vital force in the making 
 of public opinion in America. 
 
 In this revolution the newspaper, however, has changed from 
 
 an organ of editorial personality to a great business enterprise, 
 
 robbed of much of its old-time visror. The commercial 
 
 Present-day ^ ..... 
 
 newspaper ideal is, too generally speaking, the guiding principle of 
 po icies ^-^^ ^^^^ ^^1^^ ^.^^ present-day newspapers. Dividends 
 
 often mark their goal. Both news and policy are made to cater to 
 moneyed interests willing to give financial support. Instead of the 
 dominating individuality of the regime of other-day intellectual 
 giants, the modern newspaper substitutes business organization 
 and an impersonal attitude shorn of responsibility. On the one 
 hand, appeal is made to the public patronage ; on the other, to the 
 money market. 
 
 The sensational newspaper, as an exponent of this commercial- 
 ism, is successful because it appeals to the baser passions, to morbid 
 curiosity, and to an insatiable zest for fresh excitement. Stories, 
 not mere facts, arc wanted. Newspaper editors at the head of such 
 
THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 
 
 205 
 
 enterprises may trumpet loudly of their service to society in the dis- 
 closure of crime, in the reform of abuses in high places, and in the 
 The"yei- championship of the downtrodden poor. Such results 
 low" press have, now and then, followed in the wake of sensational 
 publicity, but the motive of the "yellow journal" has not proved 
 itself beneficent. The feeding of the bread line in the Bowery 
 makes good newspaper copy and advertises the newspaper quite as 
 much as it helps the poor. Back of the mask blink the greedy eyes 
 of the money-maker. Such a man as Arthur Brisbane, the moving 
 force of the Hearst chain of newspapers, frankly declares that these 
 newspapers are built solidly on human nature and depend upon 
 the love of the sensational, the salacious, and the picturesque as the 
 source of their revenue. '' If the man does n't like the face he sees 
 in the mirror," says Mr. Brisbane, " let him change his face, not 
 smash the mirror." In the search for this meretricious kind of 
 material the "yellow " newspaper has not hesitated to wrench the 
 facts out of their true setting and to color the news by the addition 
 of fictitious ingredients. 
 
 The popularity of the sensational press, it should be noted, seems 
 to be on the wane. However large its temporary following, it is 
 no longer the predominant type of newspaper. Henry Watterson 
 thinks it transitory, and asserts that the public has grown tired of 
 press trickery. " Sausages and dog-meat," he remarks epigram- 
 matically, "though ever so highly seasoned, will, after a while, 
 sicken all but the coarsest of stomachs — particularly when the 
 sausages are known to be made of dog-meat." 
 
 Closely allied to the "yellow journal," though not so blatantly 
 sensational, is the " human-interest " organ, which makes abundant 
 „, ,,, use of incidents that reveal human nature under some 
 
 The "human- 
 interest" Stress of emotion or in the grip of some extraordinary 
 newspaper ^^^ perhaps picturesque situation. The best example 
 of this kind of newspaper is the New York Sim, the Bible among 
 newspaper men, which still carries out the traditions established by 
 Charles A. Dana, in its artistic presentation of the little tragedies 
 and comedies of the street and town. These, when honestly done 
 and freed from strained sentimental effect, add much to the worth 
 of the newspaper. The danger has been in the commercializing of 
 
2o6 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 sentiment and in the neglect of the significant for the trivial. As a 
 money-maker, "tear dope," as it is called, has proved its efficiency. 
 
 The conservative journal is satisfied when it presents the facts 
 in a straightforward, unbiased fashion, without an attempt "to catch 
 subscribers or to flatter the whims of readers." Henry J. 
 conservative Raymond has done more than any other man to de- 
 newspaper YgiQp ^i^js ^ypg of newspaper. Taking as his model the 
 London limes, Raymond made his newspaper more than a political 
 organ, more than a piece of putty to be shaped by the fingers of 
 the public. It was his ambition to publish a journal that would 
 record various shades of opinion and both sides of a question, fairly, 
 temperately, and simply. He believed in the mission of the press 
 as a tremendous factor in the molding of public sentiment. Many 
 of his beliefs are embodied in the Times of to-day. 
 
 Conservative journalism is perhaps not as typical of American 
 life as of English, but it has a real place in almost every large 
 city ; and its following, while not to be compared with the " sensa- 
 tional" clientele in point of numbers, is made up of stable, sensible, 
 thoughtful people. 
 
 Newspapers reflect the people. An ideal newspaper is possible 
 only with an ideal society. As it is to-day, every man may find the 
 newspaper that represents the things he most admires, 
 and the Each type embodies well-defined policies in the selection 
 
 newspaper ^^^ treatment of news. Whatever the type of newspaper, 
 one fact stands out prominently, and that is a more zealous endeavor 
 to provide reading matter for a wide range of subscribers. In former 
 times the newspaper was written for the grown man, now it is writ- 
 ten for the entire family. There are " stories " and special articles 
 designed to interest the women of the household ; the Sunday sup- 
 plement is made for the amusement of the children ; the profes- 
 sional man is considered as carefully as is the man of the masses. 
 
 Nevertheless, whatever the style of newspaper considered, one 
 truth emerges boldly, and that is the danger encountered when the 
 controlling interest of a corporation is behind the paper. In too 
 many instances corporate control makes the recording of real 
 news difficult, if not impossible, because of the restraint placed 
 upon editorial writer, city editor, and reporter. It often happens 
 
THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 207 
 
 that political news is colored by the prejudice of the owners of 
 
 the paper. Newspaper proprietors at times combine to help one 
 
 another in the support or condemnation of policies 
 
 The man '^ ^ 
 
 behind the and men. One man may so dictate the policies of 
 ^^^^^ a dozen newspapers in various parts of the country 
 
 as to achieve purely personal ends, irrespective of public good. 
 Norman Hapgood, editor of Collier s Weekly, remarks : 
 
 A newspaper in the long run can be no better, no braver, no more disinter- 
 ested than its owner. If it remains a good newspaper, the owner is an essentially 
 good man. If the owner lacks courage or public spirit or freedom from pull, the 
 newspaper, whether flagrantly or slyly, must inevitably cease to serve the truth. 
 
 Still another force must be reckoned in the discussion of the 
 
 commercial aspect of the American newspaper — its advertising. 
 
 Writing in a recent number of the Atlantic MontJily, a 
 
 Advert is in 2" 
 
 New York editor makes a claim that there is no such 
 thing as a free and independent press in America. 
 
 A newspaper is a business enterprise [he declares]. In view of the cost of 
 paper and size of each issue, tending to grow larger, every copy is printed at 
 a loss. A one cent newspaper costs six mills for paper alone. In other words, 
 the newspaper cannot live without its advertisers. It would be unfair to say 
 that there are no independent journals in the United States ; there are many ; 
 but it must always be remembered that the advertisers exercise an enormous 
 power which only the very strongest can refuse to recognize. If a newspaper 
 has such a circulation that complete, unprejudiced publicity can be secured only 
 by advertising in its columns, whatever its editorial policy may be, the riddle 
 is solved. Within recent years the department stores have combined to modify 
 the policy of at least three New York daily newspapers. One of the extreme 
 and professedly independent of these newspapers, always seeking the most 
 popular line, with utmost expressed deference to labor unions, withdrew its 
 attack upon the traction companies during the time of the subway strike, on 
 the threatened loss of its department store advertising. It has never dared to 
 criticize such a store for dismissing employees who attempted to form a union. 
 In other words, this paper is not independent and in the last analysis is governed 
 by its advertisers. 
 
 •It would be comparatively easy to show how advertisers and 
 corporate interests are shaping newspaper literature. Large cor- 
 porations maintain bureaus and trained writers to do their bidding-. 
 This avenue of influence is especially effective in country news- 
 papers, many of w^hich publish Washington " Specials " under the 
 
2o8 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 impression that some benevolent reporter at the national capitol 
 is furnishing them with reliable reports free of charge. Later they 
 discover the supporting interest to be subserved and learn their 
 mistake. Many large newspapers continue to lend their aid to the 
 deception of the public by printing the fictions of theatrical press 
 agents and the prepared book reviews sent out by publishing houses 
 — all under guise of legitimate information. It must be confessed 
 that, in the making of the modern newspaper, too often trivialities 
 crowd out real news, while a canard is often long in dying. 
 
 VII. The Newspaper of the Future 
 
 Slow as is the growth of public sentiment, the trend of the times 
 is unmistakably toward better things. There is no longer appalling 
 danger from the yellow peril of sensational journalism. The menace 
 of the evil is proving its own surest remedy. The newspaper is 
 beginning to respond to the demand of enlightened readers who 
 have learned the habit of weighing evidence. If this same intelli- 
 gent public expresses a continued and growing disapproval of stories 
 concerned with murders, prize fights, and underworld episodes, thrust 
 upon its attention in exaggerated headlines, gaudy pictures, and 
 made-to-order details, the newspaper will reflect a corresponding 
 attitude. If the cultivated man or woman would insist as much on 
 accuracy and respectability in general news as the baseball fan and 
 the political campaigner insist upon the correct recording of their 
 interests, many abuses would disappear. No paper can thrive in 
 the face of continued disapproval on the part of its readers. 
 
 There is undeniably a hopeful note in the changing attitude of 
 newspapers toward political parties. Time was when the Republican 
 paper that admitted a Democratic victory before the returns were 
 all in was a traitor. The same held true of a paper that supported 
 a man or policy advocated by the opposing party. This narrow 
 partisanship is disappearing, just as it is waning among the ranks 
 of the voters themselves. A more independent attitude on all 
 matters of public interest has come to stay. The newspaper is 
 becoming more fearless, more candid, more secure in its citadel. 
 Perhaps this same independent spirit will in time enter all the 
 
THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 
 
 209 
 
 countingrooms and reflect itself in the relations of publisher and 
 advertiser. That there are many abuses which need correcting 
 goes without saying. 
 
 The new journalism will enlist the services of the highest type 
 of editor and reporter. They must be men stanch in the convic- 
 tion of their responsibility to the best interests of the community 
 and imbued with the idea to see deeply and to write accurately. 
 They must see to it that '' no one's character shall be assailed, no 
 institution's standing be discredited, no vested right be jeopardized, 
 and no man's or woman's motives impugned." The call is loud 
 for men of conscience, heart, and brain. The American newspaper 
 needs new blood to meet the exactions of a progressive civilization. 
 This is the power that steadily levies on the community for recruits 
 to man its guns, to stoke its furnaces, to act as its pickets and 
 outposts. The future is big with opportunity. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 COUNTRY JOURNALISM 
 
 Many people who prophesy the approaching doom of the country 
 press do not clearly recognize the necessary niche the so-called 
 Its province provincial newspaper occupies in American life, nor do 
 and power |-}^gy appreciate its influence in the community nor its 
 ability to fill the needs of changed conditions. 
 
 Of the 25,000 newspapers in the United States not more than 
 one tenth are to be found in the larger cities. The rest are country 
 papers, many of them small and crude and poorly printed ; but 
 week by week these organs reach districts where city journals make 
 little inroad, bringing the news and comment of most vital interest 
 to the localities they serve. No paper among them is so insignificant 
 as not to have some share in the general uplift of the community, 
 a thing which cannot always be said of the metropolitan newspaper. 
 Crimes and scandals are glossed over or subordinated, and sensa- 
 tional stories that reflect upon private life and public honesty rarely 
 find a conspicuous place in the columns of the country press. These 
 papers may be narrow in their range and circumscribed in their 
 appeal, but their power is potent and their province secure. 
 
 The sphere of the country paper is entirely different from that 
 of the city journal. It is the church of every hamlet and village, 
 representing the intimate house-to-house life of the township or 
 county. It deals with events and happenings the city paper neg- 
 lects or scoffs at. It is in no sense a competitor of the urban 
 press and cannot be driven from its field by big one-cent dailies 
 or by the inroads of rural free delivery. 
 
 The country newspaper offers opportunities which cannot be had 
 in the large city, is the opinion of one of San Francisco's best- 
 known publishers. Hie " editor and publisher," as the line runs 
 above the editorial page of a country paper, is a man of affairs in 
 his community. With his own hand perhaps he writes the notice of 
 
 210 
 
COUNTRY JOURNALISM 211 
 
 the birth of a child, and when she grows older the account of her 
 marriage, of the birth of her children, and when, perhaps, a little 
 one is laid away, of its death. As years go by there is 
 tiero'^en'to not a house in the community that has not filed away 
 the editor somewhere — between the leaves of the Bible, maybe — 
 a clipping that the country editor has written, which may cause dim 
 eyes every time it is uncovered, but which brings the country edi- 
 tor into the life of the household as nothing else can. Such things 
 are not of the large city ; even though it were possible for the peo- 
 ple to know the man behind the metropolitan paper, there is no 
 time in cities for these tender associations and memories which are 
 possible only in the rural districts, but which, after all, are the best 
 of life. When information — political, commercial, industrial, social 
 
 of a community is wanted, the editor of the local paper is turned 
 
 to for it. His name is known — known in connection with his 
 paper and his work. When strangers visit the community the coun- 
 try editor is one of the few whom they have it down to meet. At 
 political conventions, both state and local, he is consulted and has 
 greater weight individually than even the millionaire proprietor of 
 a metropolitan journal. 
 
 The country editor must be a man of many parts, of strong 
 common sense, of business acumen, and of agreeable personality 
 if he is to make his paper successful. Not only must he feel the 
 needs of his community and have a live interest in the world about 
 him, but he must also consider the bread-and-butter proposition 
 of collecting subscriptions, paying his printers' bills, and cutting 
 expenses to the lowest notch. He needs to have both a broad edu- 
 cation and a practical commercial sense ; he must be able to write 
 an editorial with one hand and to "stick " type with the other when 
 occasion demands. The country newspaper has no room for the 
 loafer. It demands energy and grit and resourcefulness. Much 
 depends upon the man behind the paper. Personality counts 
 tremendously. 
 
 While the success of the country paper depends largely upon the 
 thrift and the personality of the editor, it should not be forgotten 
 that other factors enter into the proposition. It is undoubtedly true 
 that localities differ in their support of newspapers. One welcomes 
 
212 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 and gives support ; another is indifferent and offers diminishing 
 returns. Merchants in one town beUeve in advertising in the 
 Finding a newspaper and in paying a good rate ; merchants in 
 fi®^^ another community are content to run their business 
 
 without pubhcity. Can any suggestions be offered that, will guide 
 the prospective country editor in the selection of a locality in which 
 to begin his newspaper career ? The experience of country pub- 
 lishers is the only sure test. They have discovered that, as a gen- 
 eral rule, a good farming community, not too close to a large city, 
 will be found preferable to a manufacturing community where trade 
 is apt to fluctuate. This does not necessarily mean that a rural 
 community has always the advantage; but experience has shown 
 that an agricultural district made up for the most part of native 
 stock noted for its intelligence and thrift is a better field than a 
 foreign population engaged in the mill or factory and caring little 
 for the interests of the locality in which it lives. 
 
 Not only must the prospective country publisher look over his 
 field carefully, but he must estimate the force of competition. Is 
 the locality overstocked with papers ? Is the town large enough to 
 pay dividends ? As a general rule, experience has shown it the 
 wiser plan for the aspiring young editor to buy a run-down paper 
 of some standing and with an established hold on the community 
 and to build it up instead of attempting the rather hazardous ex- 
 periment of starting a new paper with a meager subscription list 
 and the expense of new equipment. 
 
 Every newspaper man must meet the problem of equipment in 
 his own way. If he has money and is willing to equip his office 
 The equip- SO as to bring him a larger share of profit in the long 
 ment j-u^^ he should discard his old Washington hand press 
 
 and his worn-out type and install a cylinder press and labor-saving 
 machinery. Many editors think they cannot afford to give up the 
 setting-by-hand method of getting their paper in type ; that they 
 cannot afford to buy new faces of type in some popular series. 
 That is for circumstances to determine. Let it be suggested, how- 
 ever, that dozens of hard-headed newspaper men have found the 
 installation of a linotype a great saving, especially if the editor is 
 publishing :i small daily. Linotype slugs give a fresh face every 
 
: COUNTRY JOURNALISM 213 
 
 day ; they are made quickly and do away with the vexatious labor 
 of distributing the type after the forms come from the press. The 
 abandonment of the dust-covered bold-faced Gothic that long has 
 been cluttering the cases will be found a good policy. The en- 
 terprising country editor should get rid of the old-fashioned type; 
 get some readable faces in exchange for the old metal at the type 
 foundry — and get plenty of it, preferably different sizes in the 
 same series. Advertising will not suffer, and job printing, upon 
 which the country editor must depend for a large part of his reve- 
 nue, will speak for itself because of its up-to-dateness and agree- 
 able appearance. These things count. It is poor economy to keep 
 antiquated equipment ; poor economy to waste time finding mislaid 
 letters in a depleted font of type or in trying to make a bent piece 
 of brass rule do service in an " ad." It is a loss of time and good 
 money in the long run, and the paper suffers financially. 
 
 The country newspaper man should remember that he has a 
 commodity to sell. If he is successful he has learned, as does the 
 
 wise grocer, to make his goods attractive to the buyer, 
 the paper Utilizing battered type of all sizes and styles, with no 
 
 attempt to suit these heads to the story in hand or to 
 arrange them in any sort of systematic balance, results in an un- 
 attractive first page. Let it here be emphatically stated that the 
 editor who spends a little time in making his first page attractive by 
 the use of clean, clear type and who refuses to prostitute it by the 
 insertion of advertisements is making a strong bid for popularity. 
 How can this attractiveness be secured ? First, it can be secured 
 by the selection of a good, readable series of type to be used as 
 head letter for the various stories. This is a subject that few coun- 
 try editors study, yet it is one of much importance. Each item that 
 goes into the paper, be it trivial or important, should carry a head 
 to direct the reader. For the more important stories a 24-point 
 condensed letter set in two lines, with liberal white space at each 
 end, followed by a three- or four-line inverted pyramid in lower 
 case, appeals to many head writers (see examples in Appendix.) 
 For the less important write-ups a one-line head, followed by a 
 three-line one in some smaller type, will be found serviceable, as 
 will also a break line in some good pica. In most offices the editor 
 
2 14 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 has a style card which displays all the heads employed, each des- 
 ignated by a number, so that it takes little time to select the head 
 and to write the caption with the required number of letters and 
 words. There are few editors now who believe that the first page 
 should proclaim a sensation in circus type sprawled all over the 
 page. A little variety in the way of a two-column head for an un- 
 usually important story or other change warranted by the subject 
 in hand is very well, especially as a means of good balance in 
 make-up, but adherence to one or two styles of type and a few 
 styles of headings will be found, in the main, more satisfactory. 
 
 Once the stories are headed, what arrangement shall be adopted 
 for the columns .? Shall articles be jumbled together with no attempt 
 at some set plan, or shall the editor place the most important story 
 of the day in the first column to set the tone for the rest of the 
 page .'' Most editors will agree that the latter is the better way. 
 Then fill in the stories according to their news value, setting one 
 against the other until the eye approves. The result will not be 
 hodgepodge. Its orderliness will invite the eye and enchain interest. 
 An illustration or two will also assist in giving distinction to the 
 first page. No country editor should neglect to print a few half- 
 tones from week to week. The cost is nominal ; the expenditure 
 shows large returns. 
 
 News is, of course, the big thing in a country field, but in its 
 gathering hundreds of country newspaper men show their lack of 
 The writing training. When they do get a good story it is apt to 
 of news \yQ spoiled in the making through inability to bring out 
 
 the essential feature in the " lead " and to give the entire episode 
 readableness. If a young country editor has had training in the 
 exacting discipline of the city newspaper, he will find this experi- 
 ence of material benefit. What is needed on most country papers 
 is a keener sense of news values and an ability to unearth stories 
 which thrive at the office doors. Not only must the editor tap all 
 these sources himself, through constant association with men and 
 women, but he should spur on his correspondents all over the 
 territory covered by his paper, urging them to send in all unusual 
 happenings. Training is essential, of course ; but it is surprising 
 what can be accomplished when these rural news gatherers add 
 
COUNTRY JOURNALISM 215 
 
 interest to experience. A subscription to the paper and stamped 
 envelopes for their letters will repay them for their efforts. A good 
 plan to show appreciation of the good work of these volunteer news 
 gatherers is to send them a year's subscription to some magazine 
 as a gift, or to invite them to a correspondents' picnic in the sum- 
 mer. Once these letters are arranged under a suitable department 
 head, attractively led by the important stor}' of the week, the news- 
 paper has done much to interest its rural subscribers, upon which 
 it must depend for the bulk of its subscriptions. This holds true 
 of the small daily also. In all of this work the importance of 
 promptness of service should be emphasized. 
 
 If the editor's eyes are open, humorous events will thrust them- 
 selves upon his attention daily. The incident of a fat man running 
 The value after a pig and his misadventures in trying to capture 
 of features [^^ jf related in a racy fashion, will cause a ripple of 
 merriment all over town. Popularity for a newspaper very often 
 comes by way of the funny bone. The country publisher should 
 get as much vim and pleasantry into the paper as he can, for it 
 is the man with the smile who wins. The day of the grouch is 
 past. In a well-known Ohio paper the editors have been running 
 a column of humorous comment, interlarded with more weighty 
 matters, bearing upon town worthies and their opinions and adven- 
 tures. Many patrons look for it the first thing. It has been an 
 exceedingly popular feature. Yes, print facts, but also print squibs 
 about people — bright, snappy paragraphs that interest, amuse, 
 and inform. 
 
 Another important factor in the making of a successful coun- 
 try weekly is the use of good feature matter from week to week. 
 How often do country editors say: " Nothing doing this week. 
 No news to print." Now, if there is not anything doing, the 
 subscribers should never suspect it. Never admit that the week 
 is dull. There are hidden sources of news in every community 
 waiting the investigation of some enterprising news gatherer. 
 One countr)' paper started an inquiry to find out the oldest house 
 in the county. There were several claimants, and subscribers were 
 eager to give information. Old pioneers have interesting reminis- 
 cences ; farmers glory in bumper crops and sleek cattle ; an old 
 
2i6 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 soldier has vivid recollections of the battle of Gettysburg ; a 
 business man has just returned from a Western trip and is full 
 of experiences. Salt these things down. Then, some day when 
 news is scarce, draw on the barrel. Serial stories can also be 
 secured in plate, together with interesting miscellany, which will 
 be found popular. " Patent insides " are not to be recommended, 
 but judicious use of plate in filling up short columns will be found 
 a good thing. 
 
 It should be the ambition of the newspaper man to please all 
 classes of readers. If he has a large rural constituency, he should 
 run a farmer's column, a household miscellany for the women, a 
 poem or two, a half column of jokes, another of bright stories 
 clipped from exchanges, a musical selection in plate, a column of 
 school happenings, a reader's letter box, a neighborhood budget 
 of happenings gathered by the rambler in his trips through the 
 county, and as many write-ups of people and events as can be 
 secured. This is not to the exclusion of local news, a field in 
 which the country weekly is supreme. The employing of good 
 "feature" stories bearing directly on the life of the community 
 will add patrons to the subscription list while the other fellow is 
 scratching names from his book. 
 
 The reason so many country merchants do not advertise is that 
 they do not feel the need of it. The real service of the newspaper 
 .^ _. . as a maker of trade has never been pointed out to them. 
 
 Advertising ^ 
 
 and sub- Jones, because he does not receive returns from a card 
 scrip ions bearing the information that " John Jones has the best 
 stock of groceries in the town," declares that advertising does not 
 pay. It should be the business of the editor to show him that it 
 does pay and to keep in the paper his good-sized "ad" every 
 week. To this end he should write the "ads" himself if neces- 
 sary, quoting prices and inviting inspection. Illustrations and 
 artistic typographical display — not intricate rule work set off by 
 poster type — will serve to awaken interest in some specific thing 
 that can be secured at a certain time at a great bargain. If the 
 editor cannot arouse interest on the part of the sleepy local mer- 
 chant, he should not scruple to take advertising from large city 
 firms. Many editors combat this view on the ground that it is a 
 
COUNTRY JOURNALISM 217 
 
 blow to home trade. Individual cases may differ, but it should be 
 remembered that the newspaper is not a charitable institution per- 
 mitted to live by the grace of the local advertiser. Its purpose is to 
 secure business, and it is justified in taking foreign advertisements 
 when local merchants are not responsive. As an entering wedge 
 outside advertising will work wonders in opening the eyes of the 
 men who see city competitors making bids for their own trade. 
 An editor with moral backbone will show his individuality and 
 accept " ads," not because he wishes to combat his own town, but 
 because he is at the head of a business enterprise that depends 
 upon its advertising to keep a balance on the right side of the 
 ledger. In the same connection the editor should make an earnest 
 effort to form friendly relations with the county officials who have 
 legal advertising in their hands. This form of advertising pays 
 probably the biggest returns, usually one dollar per square as fixed 
 by law. Notices of horse sales and the like should also be solicited, 
 and special sales should be encouraged. As a rule, there is little 
 trouble during the midwinter holidays, while most papers lose 
 money in the summer. The old conception that anything should 
 be taken for advertising, regardless of its nature, is already in its 
 death throes. Most editors have the good sense now to refuse 
 questionable propositions. If an ''ad" is worth anything at all, 
 it should be printed according to cash rates and at the regular 
 price. The acceptance of quack-medicine advertising at four or 
 five cents an inch per insertion not only lowers the good name 
 of the paper but utilizes space that might be occupied by more 
 profitable stuff. 
 
 Some of these considerations may also be applied to subscrip- 
 tions. It takes tireless energy to keep a subscription list intact or 
 to increase it. Subscriptions do not just grow. The editor should 
 see to it that a solicitor is on the road at least once a week, stopping 
 at all the farmhouses, and even in the hamlets and villages, in the 
 effort to secure subscriptions. It will pay — as hundreds of suc- 
 cessful publishers will attest. Unpaid subscriptions should not be 
 carried indefinitely. Luckily the action of the post-office depart- 
 ment has reduced by a considerable number these unprofitable 
 subscribers, and every self-respecting editor should see to it that 
 
2l8 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 only good names get on his books or upon his card index. If the 
 paper is worth anything at all, it is worth paying for at a respect- 
 able price. Few up-to-date editors believe in 6o-cent or even dol- 
 lar weeklies. Why should not the publisher meet the demands of 
 the times and give his paper only for a reasonable cash subscrip- 
 tion, stopping it promptly on the expiration of the subscription .? 
 It is shortsighted policy to cheapen a paper by offering premiums, 
 such as maps and crockery, or to put it on the bargain counter 
 in combination with other papers. 
 
 Careless business methods should not be formed by the young 
 man just beginning his newspaper career. In the management 
 of a small town new^spaper, since the income from the respective 
 departments of circulation, advertising, and job printing is limited, 
 the most systematic and careful attention to businesslike methods 
 is imperative. Every publisher should know at all times his paper's 
 exact financial condition and should employ up-to-date business 
 methods — the cost system, for example, whereby the cost of every 
 job of printing that leaves the press may be accurately determined 
 by means of an estimating blank which includes in its inventory of 
 costs all operating expenses, all paper, ink, composition, labor, and 
 other items involved, at the same time including depreciation of 
 machiner)', office rent, insurance, bad bills, and increases in cost of 
 production. A fair profit for the owner of the shop is also pro- 
 vided by the blank. The system likewise records the presence of 
 leaks made by dissipation of energy, waste of time, careless figur- 
 ing, or poor equipment, and gives opportunity to stop them before 
 the business suffers large financial loss. In a vital way the cost 
 system strikes home to the country editor, who has not taken the 
 time or the pains to learn his own business thoroughly. It tells 
 him whether he is getting a good return for his investment, whether 
 he is making money or pouring it into a dry well. He may be 
 astonished to find that he is not receiving as much for his adver- 
 tising as it costs him to set it in type, or that waste paper and 
 spoiled sheets are adding many dollars to his expense account, or 
 that his office machinery is poorly arranged and some of his work- 
 men inefficient, perhaps unnecessary. The cost system will inform 
 him of these things, and countless others as well. 
 
COUNTRY JOURNALISM 219 
 
 The editorial page in the country weekly is important. Some 
 editors fail to realize this fact. It is here that the editor has the 
 The editorial hncst opportunity to make himself felt as a potent in- 
 P^g^ fluence in the promotion of good citizenship, just as 
 
 it is the duty of the newspaper to stand squarely on moral questions 
 and to battle for the best interests of its supporting community. 
 The people as a whole sustain a fearless newspaper man of 
 courageous convictions and unimpeachable integrity. 
 
 It is wise policy for the rural newspaper man to get into politics ; 
 but he should never be enslaved by the machine. He should learn 
 to indorse men, not worn-out platforms. He should take a real 
 share in the work of upbuilding his community. An editor is 
 untrammeled. People will believe him if he is sincere. He should 
 not fail to make the best of his opportunities. 
 
 Social affairs should find expression in the editorial page of the 
 country press. People are not so much interested in King Alfonso 
 or nihilism in Russia as in the likelihood of the county commis- 
 sioners' repairing near-by bridges. Does the railway station need 
 beautifying ? Let the editor say so. Does a town need a hospital ? 
 Agitate it. Is the city hall tumbling into decay .'' Build one on 
 paper. Does the village need arc lights for the park ? Go after 
 them. Boom something. Keep yourself before the people as an 
 editor with convictions and with courage enough to express them. 
 You will make enemies. Gamblers, arrested and exposed, will 
 threaten dire destruction ; the " wets " will throw mud at you in 
 a temperance campaign ; disgruntled politicians will snarl at you ; 
 but the good citizens will rally to your support a thousandfold. 
 This is not a theory. It has been tried by many country publishers. 
 This, then, is the business of the rural editor, to print an attractive 
 paper filled with everything that will interest a large family in 
 his home community, ever with mind alert and heart enlisted in 
 the cause of the best citizenship. Then, and only then, will his 
 paper be wanted. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
JOURNALISTIC STYLE 
 
 EXERCISE I 
 
 The following paragraphs, clipped from various papers, are faulty fop^ 
 various reasons. Cut out the personal pronouns, the expressions of 
 opinion, the verbal bouquets, and rewrite the facts in bold, concrete 
 language, allowing them to carry their own interpretation : 
 
 1. A couple of drunken men were at the C. N. depot Monday noon, wait- 
 ing to go south. It would seem that the sight of these two men in their 
 i.iaudlin condition would preach a good temperance sermon to anyone of heart 
 and sense who was compelled to see thei^. Their semi-idiotic smiles and 
 gestures ; their beery mouths and bleary eyes, maudlin talk, their stumbling 
 weak-kneed walk all spoke eloquently against the sale of intoxicants^ and it 
 would not require much imagination to see, some unhappy wife, Tffother or 
 sister awaiting them at home, to see some little boy or girl run to kiss those 
 beer perfumed lips, li made us glad anew tp know that they had spent their 
 hard earned wages either outside our county^^gi" ^Ise in opposition to the law. 
 of our country. They were foreigners and fJ^^ibly knew no better, but surely^ 
 no true-blue American can choose to go their way. 
 
 2. Miss Nellie Snider, of Lena, 111., who has spent her life among the 
 Mormons and the Roman Catholics in the west as a missionary, and is now 
 traveling, will speak both morning and evening, November 20, at the Metho- 
 dist church. Miss Snider is a speaker of extraordinary power and it will not 
 
 jonly interest but benefit you to hear her. 
 
 3. The courts of this great and glorious nation are indeed looking for the 
 welfare of the people. Their latest act has been to grant an injunction to the 
 Zanesville Gas and Coke Company against Socialist Health Commissioner 
 Duncan, preventing him declaring the plant a public nuisance and detrimental 
 to the public health. 
 
 Dr. Duncan is also prevented from enforcing the law against the company 
 or attempting to make them keep a sanitary and clean plant in any way. 
 
 4. The above picture, taken in the streets of Lawrence, Mass., at the time 
 of the demonstration of the striking mill workers, shows to what lengths 
 the authorities will go in importing militia to overawe workingmen who are 
 on strike. 
 
 The people of Lawrence endeavored to persuade strike breakers, who were 
 riding on the cars, not to go to the mills. There was a demonstration and 
 
224 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 some rocks were thrown, which puncuircd the windows of the street car, as 
 shown in one of the pictures, l^ut the picture shows the absence of anything 
 Hke the reign of terror whii !i Governor Foss of Massachusetts pretends to 
 beheve exists in the city and upon w^hich pretense he sent thousands of state 
 mihtia to keep the strikers from approaching or talking to those who try to 
 take their places. The situation shown in the above picture is one which 
 could be handled by any ordinary police force and only the exaggerated desire 
 of a Democratic politician to serve the capitalists of his state is responsible 
 for the presence of the militia. 
 
 it was in the midst of such scenes as the above that a soldier ran his 
 bayonet into the back of an unoffending boy, causing his death. 
 
 r, Some time Sunday afternoon, the residence of Wm. Smeltzer, who Hves 
 just east of Flagdale, caught fire and burned to the ground, together with all 
 the contents. How the fire originated is not yet known. We did not learn if 
 it was insured or not. Mr. Smeltzer is one of our best citizens and farmers, 
 and the blow is a heavy one and his loss considerable. He will immediately 
 take steps to rebuild. 
 
 6. Dr. K. A. Bosworth has reported to the News that he has been advised 
 that it is currently stated that he is soon to leave this village for other fields 
 of labor. In his behalf we desire to say that Dr. Bosworth will continue 
 the practice of dentistry in LaRue, having located here for the purpose of 
 making this village his permanent abode, stories to the contrary notwithstand- 
 ing. Our readers should not be misled by false reports about our citizenship. 
 Dr. Bosworth is " here to stay," as he has expressed it to us, 
 
 7. Henry Futter, an aged veteran of Archbold, living alone in a miserly 
 way, drawing a good pension yet spending as little as possible, was robbed 
 about election day of all he had saved up, between $6,000 and $7,000. He 
 had no faith in banks and chose to run the risk of fire and robbery and even 
 murder. Banks are not always safe, but are safer than some other things. 
 
 8. A good sized crowd assembled at Overlander's Opera house Monday 
 evening to hear the address of John Slay ton, recent candidate for governor 
 on the SociaUst ticket in Pennsylvania, and who polled over 100,000 votes in . 
 the election. 
 
 He was introduced to the local audience, in fitting phrase, by Edwin Firth, 
 who is president of the local Socialist organization. 
 
 Mr. Slayton has a pungent and illuminating style of discourse and held 
 closely the attention of his hearers throughout the evening. Instead of cover-^ 
 ing too widely the whole gamut of Socialistic dogma, he confined himself very 
 largely to the better plan of pounding home the main idea of the movement — 
 That private ownership outside of a limited circle of personal effects should 
 be abolished and that every social or public necessity should be socially owned. 
 His outspoken sympathy for the liquor traffic was his most unfortunate utter- 
 ance and such statements are not calculated to unify the movement either here 
 or elsewhere. It is recognized bv too many .Socialists that the liquor traffic 
 
JOURNALISTIC STYLE 225 
 
 more than any other force is at the bottom responsible for the disparity of 
 present conditions and any one who is really sincere in his desire to improve 
 the condition of the impoverished is not going to deride the efforts of those 
 who have sought to eliminate this traffic. 
 
 EXERCISE II 
 
 The following is an account of the Johnson-Jeffries prize fight as 
 written by Rex Beach, the novelist. It abounds in graphic description. 
 Point out the words that give vividness and force to the narrative ; 
 analyze the types of sentence structure and comment upon the style. 
 How does this account differ from a news report ? 
 
 Reno, Nevada, July 4. — Today we saw a tragedy. A tremendous, 
 
 crushing anti-climax had happened and we are dazed. Some 1 5,000 of us went 
 
 out an^ broiled ourselves in the sun to see a great prize fight, and while it was 
 
 r ^eat from the standpoint of a spectacle and from the courage displayed, it 
 
 ^.was in reality n o fight at al l. 
 
 It was a pitiful, pitif ul trag g.dy. Time had outwitted the keenest of us, and 
 instead of the Jeffries we had known and had come to think was still among 
 us, we saw but the shell of a man, fair to the eye and awe-inspiring in his 
 shape, to be sure, but empty of youth's vigor. The spark had died. The 
 years had done their work. No fierceness of will, no gallant determination 
 could fan it to a flame again. And so hejiigt. 
 
 Time had cunningly hidden her \vorIc, and no man was gifted with the sight 
 to see the cold ashes that lay where once a flame had flickered. It was a cruel 
 lesson, marking as it did the inevitable march of years and age and the waste 
 of a God-like heritage. While in actual point of days there was little differ- 
 ence in the two, the negro had maintained his youth through a life of exercise 
 and physical care, while the white man had grown heavy in idleness. 
 
 African is a Marvel 
 
 It is doubtful if even in his best days Jeffries could have won, for the 
 African through all the combat showed a marvelous speed and aggressiveness 
 that only occasional moments in his previous fight had hinted at. He demon- 
 strated further that his race has acquired full stature as men ; whether they 
 . will ever breed brains to match his muscles is yet to be proven. But his yellow 
 streak, of which so much had been said, it was not there. He fought care- 
 fully, fearlessly, intelligendy. He outpointed, outfought, he outclassed his 
 opponent. There remains no living man to dispute his title as the world's 
 champion, and there seems litde likelihood that it will ever be taken from 
 him. If such a thing should come to pass it will be because time has robbed 
 him of that fierce and blazing energy that lurks deep in his being, as Jeff was 
 robbed in the night. 
 
226 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 The Hour had come 
 
 The hour had struck. We were waiting at the ringside. The long days of 
 preparation had crawled past and we men who had been chosen as the eyes 
 through which the world was to see this spectacle had grouped ourselves 
 about a wooden platform while behind us stretched a sea of naked seats. We 
 were there, each in his own feeble way to record a fragmentary impression of 
 that swiftly moving stereopticon in order that the whole thing might form a 
 composite picture. We had come early, for the prologue was about to be 
 spoken, and we (^id not wish to miss a line. To us who had been for days in 
 Reno's maelstrom it seemed that all the world must have gathered, while 
 from the sky above the sun was glaring down in fierce inquisitiveness as if 
 the heavens themselves had centered their gaze upon the scene. The multi- 
 tude came close upon our heels, pouring in through the four tunnel-like 
 entrances to the huge eight-sided arena, until the hollow floors began to 
 thunder, a few at first, then more and more until it reminded one of a pent 
 up mountain stream emptying itself into a pool, there to boil and eddy and 
 surge about until it finally settled. 
 
 Tumult Unceasing 
 
 But the tumult was unceasing. A great clamor filled the air. Men shouted 
 greetings ; bets were offered and taken ; the rumbling murmur of voices grew 
 into a tremendous stirring monotone ; my ears were drummed upon by the 
 clamor ; I became impressed with the miracle of the human voice, one pair of 
 vocal chords when governed by a master mind to excite an army. Ten 
 thousand voices raised in chorus will send human wit skittering, will warp the 
 coldest judgment and cause the heart to go fluttering madly. 
 
 It was so here. From our joint at the inverted apex of the fast-filling 
 funnels of human forms we became conscious that this was a fitting place in 
 which to hold the greatest of gladiatorial contests, for the arena itself occupied 
 the center of a circular valley ringed about by mountains which looked down 
 into the high-tiered slopes of a Gargantuan amphitheater ten thousand times 
 greater than the Roman coliseum. It was as if nature had shaped the spot 
 for the Olympic games of a race of demi-gods. Our little pile of boards and 
 timber was but a frail and pigmy thing in comparison, but upon it the eyes 
 of the world were centered this fateful afternoon. 
 
 When the stubborn Stoessel stalked the ramparts of Port Arthur, locked 
 into his fortress by a solid ring of steel, the gaze of all humanity was fixed 
 upon him. Two world powers, white and yellow, had met and were locked in 
 a struggle for supremacy. 
 
 Again a Struggle of Races 
 
 Today behind the pine walls of that roofless structure, guarded by desert 
 hills, another great play was about to begin. Out from the jungle shadows of 
 Ethiopia had stalked an African giant to measure his strength against the 
 
JOURNALISTIC STYLE 227 
 
 white man's champion. It was again a battle of the races. As if to lend the 
 scene color there were many women present dressed in the purple and gold 
 of Roman splendor. The matted banks of humanity were shot through with 
 specks of color where they sat. To the west high above the outmost periphery 
 of the crowd, stretched a row of boxes in which were perhaps a hundred with 
 plumes gaily nodding and fans waving while a handful of stock guards pro- 
 tected them from possible annoyance. Across the ring we were faced by the 
 muzzles of a masked battery of moving picture cameras, piled one above the 
 other, while behind each an operator stood with his head muffled in black 
 like a hangman's cap. Behind and underneath the stands upon which they 
 stood were seats that had sold from $10 to $50 each, and the occupants of 
 which were either crouched beneath the floors or raising indignant protest 
 from the region whence they could not see the ring. For a time it looked like 
 trouble, but eventually one section of the affair was ripped down and scat- 
 tered and the clamor ceased. 
 
 Heat was Intense 
 
 The heat was intense and but faintly tempered by a breeze from the southern 
 hills, so the crowd stripped off its coats and donned wide-brimmed straw bonnets 
 and green reading shades to balk the sun's torrid rays. A brass band climbed 
 into the ring and it was rumored that with true western delicacy of feeling, it 
 was about to play " All Coons Look Alike to Me,'' but racial feeling was too 
 high perhaps and they favored us with a selection of national airs, at which the 
 multitude rose and cheered. Hats waved, flags fluttered, feeling ran high and 
 patriotism was riot. An hour and a half later these chastened men and women 
 filed out in a funeral gloom. It may be a fitting place here to mention that 
 through all the excitement of this afternoon nowhere in the crowd was there 
 the least disturbance. Unruly spirits were there to be sure, but an undertone 
 of fairness and good fellowship ran through it all. There was little bad lan- 
 guage, no disputes, and lemonade was the only beverage. Back of Mike Murphy, 
 the veteran University of Pennsylvania trainer, was a boy. He had brought 
 his thirteen year old son to the fight for, as he said, he wished him to see 
 the men, real men, and there learn early the rules of sports. Followed the 
 usual hoarse-voiced introduction and a hippodrome of champions, near-cham- 
 pions and near-to-be champions, John L. Sullivan, huge of girth and green of 
 memory ; Fitzsimmons, with the hat of Alpine yodeler ; Tom Sharkey, short, 
 burly and thick neck as a walrus, all of them fighters, promoters, arid then the 
 endless efforts of the photographers. 
 
 Gladiators appear 
 
 Suddenly there burst forth a wild acclaim back of us, and down the aisle 
 from the east came one of the central figures in the real drama. It was Johnson, 
 as we could see from his round shaven head, and then following swiftly, arose 
 a five-fold greater roar as from the opposite quarter came Jeffries. The first 
 
2 28 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 blood cry of the thousands echoed as the men climbed into the ring. It was 
 the race-note sounding and I watched the black champion for a sign when the 
 volume of those voices dinned upon his ear. But he grinned and clapped his 
 hands like a boy. Jeffries' entrance savored of an emperor's coming and the 
 likeness was heightened by the presence at his heels of a fan-bearer, who held 
 aloft a great circular five-foot paper shade. Or was it a crown ? 1 could not tell. 
 
 Black Man was Perfect 
 
 The black man was the first to strip and when he stepped forth for the lenses 
 to register his image he was a thing of surpassing beauty from the anatomist's 
 point of view. He had none of that giant play of brawn and muscle that Jeffries 
 displayed a moment later, but instead a rounded symmetrical symmetry more 
 in line with the ideals of the ancient Greek artists. His head, though slightly 
 larger than an ostrich egg, was of the same shape and shaved to an equal 
 smoothness. From crown to sole he was a living life-size bronze, chiseled by 
 the cunning hand of a master. He sat where I could have touched him with 
 my hand and through it all I watched him carefully, hoping that by some 
 power of divination denied to my fellows I might read a hint as to the one great 
 question we had asked of him. But he showed no sign. His assurance was 
 rock-bound as before. His smile as cheerful and confident as when first I saw 
 him toying with his trainers. There was no waste of courtesy. The gong 
 sounded, seconds, handlers and rubbers flung themselves from their corners and 
 the gladiators stepped toward each other across an empty ring and through 
 an empty silence. 
 
 At last we saw them face to face and the contrast was amazing. For three 
 minutes they watched each other warily, feeling each other's muscles, testing 
 each other's mettle, and the gong sent them to their seats again with no dam- 
 age done. Sixty seconds and they were up again, still moving as if the fate of 
 a nation hung upon their faintest error. 
 
 For the first three rounds the spectacle was repeated and then we awoke 
 gradually to the realization that the march of time cannot be disputed. With 
 some men he locks arms and trips swiftly down the path, with others he idles 
 by the wayside like some love-shy maiden, but his feet are never turned in the 
 same direction. His progress may be slow, but it is sure. There is little more 
 to tell. It made us sad to see a man cheated. 
 
 Jeff's Youth had slipped away 
 
 Pockets have been picked in Reno, little fortunes lost upon the tables in her 
 gilded palaces that front the railroad tracks, but of all the thousands who have 
 awakened to a sudden loss no awakening could have been like that of Jeffries, 
 when he called upon his youth and found it had slipped away. It lasted fifteen 
 rounds, and then we trudged home through the dust. But it was sport and the 
 best man won. As to the brutality of the scene, I saw none of it. Of blood there 
 was less than a teacup full spent. Just now an automobile paused below my 
 
JOURNALISTIC STYLE 229 
 
 window and Jack Johnson, heavyweight champion of the world, was in it. 
 He had no mark upon his person as he bowed his thanks to the bellowed 
 greeting the street offered him. The last picture I have is of a giant black 
 man shaking the hand of a newsboy as he runs beside the champion's motor 
 car with a surging mass of humanity behind. To cheer Jim Jeffries in his hour 
 of bitterness there is a sweet-faced, gracious woman, who waited with clenched 
 hands and cheeks whitened by a growing fear as the metal wires brought the 
 tidings of her husband's defeat. To her victory could mean but little. To him 
 a wife's sympathy will be a sweet balm. To every full-blooded man, I believe, 
 he sounded a note of gameness that is a fitting epitaph even for blasted hopes 
 as great as his when he was helped to his corner : '' I couldn't come back, boys. 
 I couldn't come back. Ask Johnson to give me his gloves." 
 
 EXERCISE III 
 
 Recast the following bit of autobiographical writing from De Qui^i' c^y's 
 " Opium-Eater," in accordance with new^spaper usages. Keep out the 
 personal pronoun and digressions and reduce it about one half. Shorten 
 some of the sentences. Avoid unfamiliar words. 
 
 It is so long since I first took opium, that if it had been a trifling incident 
 in my life, I might have forgotten its date : but cardinal events are not to be 
 forgotten ; and from circumstances connected with it, I remember that it must 
 be preferred to the autumn of 1804. During that season I was in London, 
 having come thither for the first time since my entrance at college. And my 
 introduction to opium arose in the following way : From an early age I had been 
 accustomed to wash my head in cold water at least once a day ; being suddenly 
 seized with toothache, I attributed it to some relaxation caused by an accidental 
 intermission of that practice ; jumped out of bed, plunged my head into a basin 
 of cold water, and with head thus wetted, went to sleep. The next morning as 
 I need hardly say, I awoke with excruciating rheumatic pains of the head 
 and face, from which I had hardly any respite for about twenty days. On the 
 twenty-first day I think it was, and on a Sunday, that I went out into the street ; 
 rather to run away, if possible, from my torments, than any distinct purpose. 
 By accident I met a college acquaintance, who recommended opium ! dread 
 agent of unimaginable pleasure and pain ! I had heard of it as I had heard of 
 manna or of ambrosia, but no further ; how unmeaning a sound was it at that 
 time ! what solemn chords does it strike upon my heart ! what heart-quaking 
 vibrations of sad and happy remembrances ! Reverting for a moment to these, 
 I feel a mystic importance attached to the minutest circumstances connected 
 with the place, and the time and the man (if man he was), that first laid open 
 to me the paradise of opium-eaters. It was a Sunday afternoon, wet and cheer- 
 less ; and a duller spectacle this earth of ours has not to show than a rainy Sun- 
 day in London. My road homeward lay through Oxford street ; and near '' the 
 
2-0 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 stately Pantheon," as Mr. Wordsworth has obligingly called it, I saw a drug- 
 gist's shop. The druggist (unconscious minister of celestial pleasures !), as if 
 in sympathy with the rainy Sunday, looked dull and stupid, just as any mortal 
 druggist might be expected to look on a Sunday ; and when I asked for the 
 tincture of opium, he gave it to me as any other man might do ! and further- 
 more, out of my shilling returned to me what seemed to be a real copper half- 
 penny, taken out of a real wooden drawer. Nevertheless, in spite of such 
 indications of humanity, he has ever since existed in my mind as a beatific 
 immortal sent down to earth on a special mission to myself. And it confirms 
 me in this way of considering him, that when I next came up to London, I 
 sought him near the stately Pantheon, and found him not ; and thus to me, 
 who knew not his name (if indeed he had one,) he seemed rather to have van- 
 ished from Oxford street than to have removed to any bodily fashion. The 
 reader may choose to think of him as, possibly, no more than a sublunary drug- 
 gist : it may be so, but my faith is better ; I believe him to have evanesced, 
 or evaporated. So unwillingly would I connect my mortal remembrances with 
 that hour, and place, and creature, that first brought me acquainted with the 
 celestial drug. 
 
 EXERCISE IV 
 
 Examine a city paper closely and report upon the style. Can you find 
 any words that seem to you editorial in tone ? Are there any personal 
 pronouns ? Is there variety in sentence length ? What type of sentence 
 seems to predominate ? 
 
 EXERCISE V 
 
 Detail one of your own experiences or one of your friend's from an 
 impersonal standpoint, keeping out expressions that reveal the opinion 
 or interest of the writer. 
 
 EXERCISE VI 
 
 The following paragraphs are long and unwieldy. Attempt to make 
 them more compact and direct in structure. Omit details that seem to 
 you unessential and crowd as much vigor as you can into the smallest 
 space. When you come to the poetry endeavor to keep the same dom- 
 inant tone of the verse as you transpose it into prose. 
 
 I . Rev. Warrener was badly beaten up last night while on his way home 
 but was not robbed. 
 
 Mr. Warrener, in the early part of the evening had been to the lecture in 
 the First Methodist church. From there after lunching at the Star Restaurant, 
 he spent about two hours in his office at the Tribune writing up news articles 
 for his paper. It was near midnight when the Reverend ventured to his home 
 on Morris Avenue little fearing any harm would befall him. 
 
I 
 
 JOURNALISTIC STYLE 231 
 
 As Warrener passed the brick plant on State street he noticed two suspicious 
 characters steal from obscure hiding and move slowly, sneakingly on his trail. 
 It was then the thought of fear flashed over him. He felt that he was their 
 intended victim. All kinds of queries began to flutter through his aged mind : 
 What have I done ? What can they want with me ? They know I carry no 
 valuables. They certainly wouldn't attack a defenseless old man. What do 
 they mean.^ The Reverend stopped here, hesitated a moment, then saying 
 to himself : '' I'll see," he turned about and walked directly by the two villains, 
 pretending to be returning to his office. On passing the men, however, he did 
 not fail to take a good line-up of their general looks and appearances. The 
 men showed no signs of assault when he passed them, so on proceeding a few 
 paces beyond, he decided to reverse his course and go home. On turning the 
 men had disappeared and he saw no more of them until he came to the resi- 
 dence of Chas. Harris, city editor of the Daily Messenger^ which is located 
 on State street a few doors west of Morris avenue. 
 
 At this point one of the men sprang from a small alley, while the second 
 sprang from behind a tree. Both of the cowards attacked Warrener, who was 
 harmless and helpless, and rained blows upon his head and face, crushing him 
 to the mud. A cry for help probably forced the villains to retreat before they 
 had completed their purpose. It seems that their object w^as robbery, while 
 some hold the opinion that the trouble was the result of a personal grudge. 
 The men may have been two tramps or thugs, as they came from the direction 
 of the brick plant, which during the winter time is a resort for bums and vag- 
 abonds. Yet some think the men were local characters. No money was taken, 
 just a notebook w^as all discovered to be missing, 
 
 Chas. Harris and Mr. Fulton heard the cries for help and quickly hastened 
 to the rescue. W'hen they reached the wounded man he lay unconscious, face 
 downward, with his face partly buried in the mud. He was picked up and taken 
 to the home of Mr. Harris and given medical attention. 
 
 The police were notified, but no clue of any worth has yet been discovered. 
 The local police force and Sheriff Mulligan are working on the case. 
 
 The attack was one of the most cowardly ones ever pulled off in the history 
 •f Athens, as Mr. Warrener is an old man and perfectly harmless. 
 
 2. Again the city has been flooded with boxes alleged to belong to the 
 Salvation Army, but as there is no Salvation Army in this city, and yet plenty 
 of work that could be accomplished if a post were located here, the plan of 
 making collections and taking every penny outside of the city has not met with 
 favor, and is being condemned by many of the citizens who absolutely refuse 
 to place money in the boxes when they have no knowledge of where it is going, 
 or whether it will be used by the Salvation Army at all. A notice pasted on 
 the bottom of each box makes the business man in w^hose place of business 
 the box is placed, responsible for the box, and this has caused some dissatis- 
 faction. Believing that charity should begin at home, the citizens of W^ashing- 
 ton will give no large amount to something they are not sure of, or for outside 
 
2 32 ESSENTIALS IN JOIIRNALISM 
 
 purposes. Giving to the Salvation Army is a commendable act, but giving to 
 an institution which will apply at least a portion of the collections to the needy 
 in the district from which it is collected, is also a commendable thing, and the 
 Kitchen Garden Society, or other societies working among the poor in this 
 city are the ones who are entitled to the privilege of placing mite boxes where 
 they will do the most good. 
 
 3. The Newspaper 
 
 Turn to the press — its teeming sheets survey, 
 
 Big with the w' onders of each passing day ; 
 
 Births, deaths, and weddings, forgeries, fires and wrecks. 
 
 Harangues and hailstones, brawls and broken necks. . . . 
 
 Trade hardly deems the busy day begun, 
 
 Till his keen eye along the sheet has run ; 
 
 The blooming daughter throws her needle by, 
 
 And reads her schoolmate's marriage with a sigh ; 
 
 While the grave mother puts her glasses on. 
 
 And gives a tear to some old crony gone. 
 
 The preacher, too, his Sunday theme lays down. 
 
 To know what last new folly fills the town ; 
 
 Lively or sad, life's meanest, mightiest things. 
 
 The fate of fighting cocks, or fighting kings. — Sprague 
 
 4. One of the most pitiful scenes that falls to the lot of man was enacted 
 today at the home of Mrs. Jennie Wolf, who resides in two rooms of Aunt 
 Mary Demsey's home on John street. 
 
 Owing to destitute circumstances, Mrs. Wolf has for some time been receiv- 
 ing assistance from the Kitchen Garden Association and the township trustees. 
 Finally these organizations concluded that they had done all they could, and 
 arrangements w^ere set on foot to invoke the aid of the County Infirmary 
 directors, which was done this morning. 
 
 Shortly before noon the trustees, J. E. Smith, S. H. Carr and Jerome Taylor, 
 accompanied by Infirmary Directors R. J. Andrews and L. P. Saxton, visited 
 the W^olf home and finally decided upon removing Mrs. Wolf and her young 
 daughter to the county infirmary. At this juncture the w^oman's two grown 
 sons appeared and objected to the removal, promising to go to work and earn 
 money to provide for their mother and sister. After considerable parley the 
 officials concluded to allow a trial of one week, at the expiration of w^hich time 
 the order to remove the mother and daughter to the infirmary will be enforced 
 in the event the sons fail to provide as promised. 
 
 Mrs. Wolf is a sufferer from rheumatism, and w-as gotten out of bed and 
 propped up in a chair in anticipation of the visit from the authorities. Some 
 time ago while working at the Mobley home she was injured, incapacitating 
 
JOURNALISTIC STYLE 233 
 
 herself for work. She was then stricken with rheumatism and rendered help- 
 less. Destitution and poverty followed, which has been partially relieved as 
 above stated. The Kitchen Garden and trustees finally became dissatisfied with 
 the apparent helplessness of the woman's sons, Ralph and Al, and concluded 
 to take the steps above mentioned. The hard-working, but now stricken mother, 
 pleads to be left in her own home. 
 
 Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister 
 
 G-r-r — there go, my heart's abhorrence ! 
 
 Water your damned flower-pots, do ! 
 If hate killed men. Brother Laurence, 
 
 God's blood, would not mine kill you ! 
 What ? Your myrtle-bush wants trimming ? 
 
 Oh, that rose has prior claims — 
 Needs its leaden vase filled brimming? 
 
 Hell dry you up with its flames ! 
 
 At the meal we sit together : 
 
 Salve tibi ! I must hear 
 Wise talk of the kind of weather, 
 
 Sort of season, time of year : 
 A'ot a plenteous cork crop : scarcely 
 
 Dare we hope oak-galls^ I doubt : 
 What's the Latin name for ^'parsley " ? 
 
 What 's the Greek name for Swine's Snout } 
 
 Whew ! We "11 have our platter burnished, 
 
 Laid with care on our own shelf ! 
 With a fire-new spoon we 're furnished, 
 
 And a goblet for ourself. 
 Rinsed like something sacrificial 
 
 Ere 't is fit to touch our chaps — 
 Marked with L for our initial ! 
 
 (He-he ! There his lily snaps !) 
 
 Saint, forsooth ! While brown Dolores 
 
 Squats outside the Convent bank 
 With Sanchicha, telling stories, 
 
 Steeping tresses in the tank. 
 Blue-black, lustrous, thick like horsehairs, 
 
 — Can't I see his dead eye glow. 
 Bright as 't were a Barbary corsair's ? 
 
 (That is, if he 'd let it show !) 
 
234 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 When he finishes refection, 
 
 Knife and fork he never lays 
 Cross-wise, to my recollection, 
 
 As do I, in Jesu's praise. 
 I the Trinity illustrate, 
 
 Drinking watered orange-pulp — 
 In three sips the Arian frustrate : 
 
 While he drains his at one gulp. 
 
 Uh, those melons ! If he 's able 
 
 We 're to have a feast ! so nice ! 
 One goes to the Abbot's table, 
 .. All of us get each a slice. 
 How go on your flowers? None double, 
 
 Not one fruit-sort can you spy ? 
 Strange ! — And I, too, at such trouble. 
 
 Kept them close-nipped on the sly ! 
 
 There 's a great text in Galatians, 
 
 Once you trip on it, entails 
 Twenty-nine distinct damnations, 
 
 One sure, if another fails : 
 If I trip him just a-dying. 
 
 Sure of heaven as sure can be, 
 Spin him round and send him flying 
 
 Off to hell, a Manichee? 
 
 Or, my scrofulous French novel 
 
 On grey paper with blunt type ! 
 Simply glance at it, you grovel 
 
 Hand and foot in BeUal's gripe : 
 If I double down its pages 
 
 At the woeful sixteenth print. 
 When he gathers his greengages, 
 
 Ope a sieve and slip it in 't. 
 
 Or, there 's Satan ! — one might venture 
 
 Pledge one's soul to him, yet leave 
 Such a flaw in the indenture 
 
 As he 'd miss till, past retrieve, 
 Blasted lay that rose-acacia 
 
 We 're so proud of ! //y, Zy^ Hine . . . 
 'St, there 's Vespers ! Plena gratia 
 
 Ave^ Virgo / G-r-r — you swine ! 
 
 Robert Bkuwning 
 
JOURNALISTIC STYLE 235 
 
 The Subway 
 
 Tired clerks, pale girls, street-cleaners, business men, 
 
 Boys, priests and harlots, drunkards, students, thieves. 
 
 Each one the pleasant outer darkness leaves ; 
 They mingle in this stifling, loud-wheeled pen, 
 The gates clang to — we stir — we sway — and then 
 
 We thunder thru the dark. The long train weaves 
 
 Its gloomy way. At last, above the eaves. 
 We see awhile God's day. Then, night again. 
 
 A glance of daylight at Manhattan street. 
 
 The rest all gloom. That is our life, it seems. 
 Thru sunless ways go our reluctant feet, 
 
 The glory comes in transitory gleams. 
 And yet the darkness makes the light more sweet, 
 
 The perfect light about us in our dreams. 
 
 Joyce Kilmp:r in The Independent 
 
 The Bull Fight 
 
 The lists are ope'd, the spacious area clear'd. 
 
 Thousands on thousands piled are seated round; 
 
 Long ere the first loud trumpet's note is heard, 
 
 No vacant space for lated wight is found : 
 
 Here dons, grandees, but chiefly dames abound, 
 
 Skill'd in the ogle of a roguish eye, 
 
 Yet ever well inclined to heal the wound ; 
 
 None through their cold disdain are doomed to die, 
 
 As moon-struck bards complain, by Love's sad archery. 
 
 Hush'd is the din of tongues — on gallant steeds. 
 
 With milk-white crest, gold spur, and light-poised lance. 
 
 Four cavaliers prepare for venturous deeds. 
 
 And lowly bending to the lists advance ; 
 
 Rich are their scarfs, their chargers featly prance : 
 
 If in the dangerous game they shine to-day, 
 
 The crowd's loud shout, and ladies' lovely glance. 
 
 Best prize of better acts, they bear away, 
 
 And all that kings or chiefs e'er gain their toils repay. 
 
 In costly sheen and gaudy cloak array 'd, 
 But all afoot, the light-limb'd Matadore 
 Stands in the centre, eager to invade 
 The lord of lowing herds ; but not before 
 
236 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 The ground, with cautious tread, is traversed o'er, 
 Lest aught unseen should lurk to thwart his speed ; 
 His arms a dart, he fights aloof, nor more 
 Can man achieve without the friendly steed — 
 Alas ! too oft condemned for him to bear and bleed. 
 
 Thrice sounds the clarion : lo ! the signal falls, 
 
 The den expands, and Expectation mute 
 
 Gapes round the silent circle's peopled walls. 
 
 Bounds with one lashing spring the mighty brute, 
 
 And wildly staring, spurns, with sounding foot, 
 
 The sand, nor blindly rushes on his foe : 
 
 Here, there, he points his threatening front, to suit 
 
 His first attack, wide waving to and fro 
 
 His angry tail ; red rolls his eye's dilated glow. 
 
 Sudden he stops ; his eye is fix'd : away, 
 
 Away, thou heedless boy ! prepare the spear ; 
 
 Now is thy time to perish, or display 
 
 The skill that yet may check his mad career. 
 
 With well-timed croupe the nimble coursers veer ; 
 
 On foams the bull, but not unscathed he goes ; 
 
 Streams from his flank the crimson torrent clear : 
 
 He flies, he wheels, distracted with his throes : 
 
 Dart follows dart ; lance, lance ; loud bellowings speak his woes. 
 
 Again he comes ; nor dart nor lance prevail, 
 
 Nor the wild plunging of the tortured horse ; 
 
 Though man and man's avenging arms assail. 
 
 Vain are his weapons, vainer is his force. 
 
 One gallant steed is stretch'd a mangled corse ; 
 
 Another, hideous sight ! unseam'd appears. 
 
 His gory chest unveils life's panting source ; 
 
 Though death-struck, still his feeble frame he rears ; 
 
 Staggering, but stemming all, his lord unharm'd he bears. 
 
 Foii'd, bleeding, breathless, furious to the last, 
 
 Full in the centre stands the bull at bay. 
 
 Mid wounds, and clinging darts, and lances brast, 
 
 And foes disabled in the brutal fray : 
 
 And now the Matadores around him play, 
 
 Shake the red cloak, and poise the ready brand : 
 
 Once more through all he bursts his thundering way — 
 
 Vain rage ! the mantle quits the conynge hand, 
 
 Wraps his fierce eye — 't is past — he sinks upon the sand ! 
 
JOURNALISTIC STYLE 237 
 
 Where his vast neck just mingles with the spine, 
 
 Sheathed in his form the deadly weapon lies. 
 
 He stops — he starts — disdaining to decline : 
 
 Slowly he falls, amidst triumphant cries, 
 
 Without a groan, without a struggle dies. 
 
 The decorated car appears : on high 
 
 The corse is piled — sweet sight for vulgar eyes ; 
 
 Four steeds that spurn the rein, as swift as shy. 
 
 Hurl the dark bull along, scarce seen in dashing by. — IIyron 
 
 Unsatisfied 
 
 An old farmhouse, with meadows wide. 
 And sweet with clover on either side ; 
 A bright-eyed boy, who looks from out 
 The door, with woodbine wreathed about, 
 And wishes this one thought all the day : 
 " Oh, if I could but fly away 
 From this dull spot, the world to see, 
 How happy, O how happy, 
 How happy I would be." 
 
 Amid the city's constant din 
 
 A man who 'round the world has been ; 
 
 Who, 'mid the tumult and the throng. 
 
 Is thinking, thinking all day long : 
 
 '' Oh, could I only tread once more 
 
 The field path to the farmhouse door. 
 
 The old green meadows could I see. 
 
 How happy, O how happy. 
 
 How happy I would be." — Anonymous 
 
WORDS AND PHRASES 
 
 EXERCISE VII 
 
 1. Rewrite the following, cutting out extravagant phrases and cum- 
 bersome sentences. Insert concrete details. 
 
 The home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles C. Morris, of Atlanta, near Clarksburg, 
 this county, has been recently made very desolate, and the sad occurrence has 
 called for much sympathy from a wide circle of friends and acquaintances in 
 their immediate neighborhood. Their three young daughters were prostrated 
 a few weeks ago with typhoid fever, and all that could be done for them was 
 carried out, but God, who does things for the best, decreed otherwise and the 
 eldest succumbed. To take her remains from the apartment where she died, 
 it was necessary to pass through the room of the other sick girls or take them 
 through the window. This last way was resorted to. It was a most crush- 
 ing blow to the fond parents, but Providence last week again invaded their 
 cosy home and took from them their youngest, leaving them with only one 
 daughter, who is also prostrated. At present her condition seems to yield to 
 treatment. 
 
 Mr. Morris for some years conducted a grocery store in Clarksburg and is 
 now managing one of Mr. Grant Campbell's farms at Atlanta. He is well re- 
 membered by many in the county and some residents in this city. He has 
 certainly tasted the bitter cup of sadness. 
 
 2. This specimen goes into unnecessary detail and is apt to shock 
 sensitive natures, especially children. Restate it in language not quite 
 so sanguinary. 
 
 The sad affair took place in the sitting room of the home, while Mr. 
 
 and Mrs. were in the kitchen. Harold, his brother, Edwin, and a neigh- 
 bor boy, Samuel , were in the sitting room and Edwin was handling a 
 
 Stevens 22-caliber 9-inch barrel pistol, not knowing it was loaded. The weapon 
 was discharged and the ball penetrated Harold's breast just to the right of the 
 sternum, passing through the cartilage of the third rib, where it joined the 
 sternum, and is thought to have severed the ascending aorta and lodged in 
 the spinal column. 
 
 Simultaneously with the sharp report of the pistol the little fellow uttered 
 a low cry, blood gushed from his lips in a great stream, he staggered forward 
 a step or two and fell to the floor, expiring within a few moments. When the 
 
 23S 
 
WORDS AND PHRASES 
 
 239 
 
 horrified parents rushed from the kitchen he was breathing his last, while his 
 
 brother was too shocked to fully realize what had happened. Mrs. fainted 
 
 and was revived with difficulty. 
 
 3. Rewrite the following sentences, using simple words and a com- 
 pact style : 
 
 {a) The villain will be apprehended, as he has but an inconsiderable advan- 
 tage over the officer who happens to be in pursuit. 
 
 [b) So much ostentation is not becoming to the sanctuary. 
 
 [c) Before he retired he proceeded to the culinary department to give orders 
 for the morning banquet. 
 
 [d) The wealth of this man in his rich accumulations has hidden and ob- 
 scured the unscrupulous means by which it was acquired. 
 
 EXERCISE VIII 
 
 1 . Point out the exact meaning of each word in the following group : 
 
 Criticism^ bla)iie, censure ; fear, alarjn. frigJit^ terror; hospital, dispeii- 
 sary, sanitariimi ; fa)nous, prominent, eniinent, distinguished, notorious. 
 
 2. Write four synonyms for the words in italic in the following sen- 
 tences : 
 
 {a) His behavior drew the severe censure of all h\s/rie?ids. 
 
 (b) The belligeroit attitude of the ruffiaji frightened dW the populace. 
 
 (c) The big anima/ fell on the child with a roar of fury. 
 
 (d) The blooinitig flowers cast a fragrance over the entire yf^Z/r/. 
 
 3. The following story violates good taste. Rewrite it in such a way 
 as to remove the flippancy of style and inaccuracy of statement. 
 
 The rude dispelling of love's young dream led to the suicide yesterday of 
 Mildred Dunahue, a school girl of 15, whose home was at 87 Hamlet street. 
 She used the acid route. When found by her mother the girl was unconscious. 
 She was rushed to the Protestant hospital where she died soon afterward. 
 Mrs. Dunahue said her daughter had been grieving for some time over an un- 
 requited love affair with Roy Dunlap, a lad of 15, who attends Medary Ave. 
 school. She had threatened to take carbolic before. 
 
 4. This story is too devoid of interest, too dead. Give it more humor ; 
 but keep the essential facts as they are. It may require recasting to bring 
 out the picturesque feature. 
 
 One of the most interesting and amusing games of baseball that have been 
 played in this vicinity in many moons was that pulled off yesterday evening 
 between the married and single men of the Grove. The score finally ended 
 
240 
 
 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 18 to 5, as the married men, owing to much practice, proved faster runners 
 than their opponents. They were also more expert with their clubs and in 
 throwing the ball, also due to long practice. The advantages that the married 
 men held over their opponents proved too much in the long run, although the 
 singles did hold the married fellows whitewashed up to the fourth inning. A. 
 L. Moore, the Rcxall druggist, did the hurdling for the married men and he 
 proved his worth, while George McCausland did the backstopping just as if it 
 was a daily pastime with him. His skill in dodging also proved its worth, as 
 he got away from a number of nasty fouls that a single man would have been 
 sure to go down for the count under. P^or the batchies, Dr. Gieseler was on 
 the firing line, but he weakened toward the end, after having his opponents 
 at his mercy, and let the married men clout the ball all over the lot. The con- 
 test was witnessed by a large crowd, and all went away saying that the experi- 
 ence of the married men was too much for the single fellows. 
 
 5. Set down in your notebook all the things you have seen during 
 the day with some brief description of them. Make the description as 
 vivid and accurate as you can. 
 
 EXERCISE IX 
 
 1. Write sentences that bring in the details of sound, sight, motion, 
 and action found in the following episodes, using concrete nouns and 
 picture-making verbs : 
 
 (/;) The balloon disappeared from sight. 
 
 i^b) The salesgirls ran to the fire escape. 
 
 (c) The train slowed down and stopped. 
 
 {d) The apple woman sat under the awning. 
 
 (e) The audience rose to its feet. 
 
 {/) The ambulance came down the street. 
 
 (g) The left fielder missed the ball. 
 
 (//) The two engines met. 
 
 (/j The policeman clung to the bridle. 
 
 (J) The chairman rapped for order. 
 
 2. The following news item is so clogged with court terminology as 
 to be almost unintelligible to the general public. Simplify it if you can 
 and rewrite. 
 
 The state of Ohio, ex. rel. James H. Alexander vs. L, K. Kober, as mayor 
 of the village of Mt. Sterling. 
 
 January 22. 191 2, the relator, James H. Alexander, was tried before the 
 defendant and found guilty of permitting a minor under the age of 18 years 
 to play the game of pool on relator's pool table. The petition avers that the 
 
WORDS AND PHRASES 
 
 241 
 
 I 
 
 defendant omitted and refused to enter upon his docket an entry defining any 
 time within which relator should present his bill of exceptions, etc., etc., and 
 asked that a writ of mandamus be issued to compel the defendant to sign the 
 bill of exceptions and to complete his docket entries. On January 27 Judge 
 Frank G. Carpenter allowed an alternative writ of mandamus, returnable on 
 Monday, January 29, and ordered the defendant to immediately enter upon 
 his docket, as mayor, an entry showing his disposition of the motion for a new 
 trial, etc. At the hearing of the case, January 29, a peremptory writ of man- 
 damus was awarded to compel the performance of the things asked for in the 
 petition. The defendant excepted to the findings, orders and judgment, and 
 filed his written notice of his intention to appeal to the circuit court. 
 
 3. In the fallowing substitute specific terms ior general and make any 
 other necessary corrections : 
 
 Mr. Jones, who so recently suffered calumny, passed away this morning 
 from a contagious disease. He will be put into a hermetically sealed casket 
 and laid away at once. 
 
 A youth of about eight years of age in dirty clothing loitered about the 
 booth, hoping to receive some fruit. 
 
 4. Reduce the following to simpler language : 
 
 The flowers were of a dark hue and had a pleasant odor. 
 Large strings of speckled beauties have lately gladdened the hearts of our 
 local Izaak Waltons. 
 
 Young business men of medium circumstances now occupy palatial apart- 
 ments in a handsome stone edifice and satisfy the craving of the inner man 
 at a club. 
 
 5. What mannerisms do you notice in certain of your college professors 
 and classmates .^ Briefly characterize them. 
 
 EXERCISE X 
 
 1. Think up compact comparisons or analogies that will bring out 
 interesting sidelights on the following people and things : Napoleon ; 
 Theodore Roosevelt ; a spectacular fire ; a blizzard ; the high price of 
 eggs ; a cj'xing baby ; a man in a 7-ain storfn ; a mob hanging a mur- 
 derer ; an eagle in mid-air; Lincoln; a dog fight ; bathers i?i the surf; 
 Horace Greeley. 
 
 2. Distinguish between the following synonyms : religious^ pious ; 
 devotional^ holy ; plain^ clear, obvious, evident, manifest, apparent. 
 
242 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 3. How would you differentiate between the gait of a child, a man, 
 and a woman and between their methods of speech and their facial 
 expressions ? 
 
 4. How do various people read newspapers ? What part of a paper 
 do they turn to first ? Make observations before answering. 
 
 5 . The following description of the illuminations that featured the coro- 
 nation ceremonies in London is somewhat stiff and pedantic. Simplify 
 it in sentence structure and substitute words of more general appeal. 
 
 If an aeronaut, braving the pains and penalties threatened by Parliament, 
 had hovered over London last night, he would have received the impression 
 that through it there ran a river of living fire. It was a river which, cascading 
 over the noble frontages of Hyde Park Corner, rippled, an amber rill, along 
 Piccadilly ; danced, touched with a ruddy glow, through St. James's-street and 
 Pall-mall ; broadened into an opalescent pool where Trafalgar-square reflected 
 Electra's luminous torches; flooded the Strand with shimmering waves; foamed 
 down Fleet-street ; and, finally, after surging against the giant cliffs of the Bank 
 and Mansion House, divided into countless smaller streams which gradually 
 became absorbed into the desert of the East. And throughout its devious 
 length this mighty flood was fed by innumerable tributaries. From north, 
 south, east, and west there flowed rivers and rivulets, brooks and brooklets, 
 of fire, some of them running heedlessly across borough boundaries, others 
 meandering unchecked over the bridges of the Thames. 
 
 No such bird's-eye view being obtainable, except an imaginary one, how is 
 it possible to give an idea of the illuminations with which the centre of the 
 Empire expressed its rejoicings at the crowning of the Empire's King.-^ Pic- 
 ture the most gorgeous effect of lighting that Drury Lane ever produced, and 
 imagine it magnified ten thousand-fold by an artist of genius, with all London 
 for his stage, and the skies for his background. Even the mental vision thus 
 conjured up would give only a meagre idea of the wondrous spectacle with 
 which millions of eyes were feasted from dusk to midnight. As the shades of 
 evening deepened, so London began to transform itself into a city of fairy 
 palaces full of myriad-hued splendours. It was, to change the metaphor, a 
 symphony of living colour. But what a symphony ! To interpret it in music 
 might only be attempted — and the achievement would even then be impos- 
 sible — by a collaborated effort of, say, all the most modern of grand opera 
 " modernists," and an embellishment of the score by all the composers of 
 musical comedy jingles available. But the magnificent clashings and conflicts 
 that occurred in the dazzling riot of London illuminated had no critic among 
 the vast crowds that thronged the miles of glittering streets. 
 
WORDS AND PHRASES 243 
 
 EXERCISE XI 
 
 1. Using the following "want-ad" as a basis, write a story on the 
 affection of a child for a pet dog. 
 
 LOST — White fox terrier, spotted on the neck, with brown muzzle. Goes 
 by the name of '* Nix." Very fond of children. Reward. 1 1 7 Denmead Avenue. 
 
 2. Make a list of unfamiliar words encountered in reading an essay 
 by Thomas Carlyle. Give exact meaning. 
 
 3. Compile a list of verbs which may be applied to a horse race; a 
 political convention ; a robber}^ ; a train wreck. 
 
 4. Differentiate between wa?'m, hot, ardent^ fery^ glowing^ enthusiastic^ 
 and zealous. 
 
 5. The following story lacks specific details. Put more facts in it and 
 give it a breezy swing by the addition of a little humor. Make your 
 sentences short and use words with color. 
 
 From one extreme to the other — ^and this time it was rain, rain, in large 
 bucketfuls — the Sabbath dawned bright and clear and bid fair to be a balmy 
 day, but early in the afternoon a little drizzle developed into a rain that made 
 staid old Main street look like a thoroughfare in Venice. One old lady was 
 caught and took off her new shoes and walked home with them in one hand. 
 In the north and east sections of the city, Goose Creek willingly wended its 
 way into people's cellars and even went so far as to rob some of the chicken 
 coops of their youngest feathered inhabitants. The storm sewers on South 
 Market Street were found inadequate to carry the surging torrents of water 
 off fast enough and several lawns were considerably soiled. 
 
 6. Make this bit of literary finer\^ more specific, cutting out extravagant 
 description. Insert names, cause, and property loss. 
 
 Suddenly on the still night air the shrill cry of fire, and simultaneously the 
 devouring tongue of flame whose light played along the roof's edge, had caught 
 the eagle eye of the midnight watcher, leaped forth, no longer playful, but fierce 
 and angry in its consuming greed. Like glowing, snaky demons the lurid links 
 entwined the building ; in venomous hisses and spurts the flames shot into 
 the overhanging darkness, while from every window and door poured forth a 
 dense sulphurous vapor, the deadly suffocating breath of an imprisoned fiend. 
 
 EXERCISE XII 
 
 I . Attempt to define in a single phrase or sentence the following : a 
 wha7'f ; sleuth; sea??istress ; audience; trite; tramp; lady; effete; criticism; 
 councilmaii ; 7'eporter; cello; rear-eiid collision ; Dutch lunch; coi'poration ; 
 clever; caucus; ^'^ story"; sergeant: exhibition ; symphony; collation. 
 
244 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 2. Point out the use of concrete words and specific terminology in a 
 story bv Bret Harte, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Stephen Oane, 
 or Richard Harding Davis. Bring the story to class. 
 
 3. What is the distinguishing characteristic of the walnut tree, the elm, 
 the maple, the birch, the sycamore ? Apply the same question to flowers. 
 
 4. The following story does n't tell what happened. Give it more life 
 and color by addition of specific details. 
 
 T-here was quite a large congregation at Wilson Chapel church last Sunday 
 evening. This was called children's day. Rev. H. J. Duckworth is the pastor 
 in charge of this congregation and is very popular and successful in his clerical 
 labors. 
 
 5. Rewrite the following lengthy story in half the space, injecting 
 action and dialogue. Make your words vivid and your sentences short. 
 
 By the light of the silvery moon and while the occupants of the W. R, Crayton 
 home at 1 20 West Sixth stVeet were sitting around a comfortable fireplace 
 Saturday night, dreaming of a fine chicken spread on Sunday and almost tast- 
 ing the juicy meat of the bird, a negro slipped in the back way with the shadows 
 and seizing said chicken, tucked it under his arm, as he had been accustomed 
 to do watermelons in the good old summer time, and started out by the way 
 he entered, himself having mental visions of a savory Sabbath day spread at 
 the expense of somebody else. 
 
 One thing he forgot and that was that the chicken had lungs, at least more 
 lusty ones than any watermelon hoped to have. Assaulted in the midst of its 
 slumbers and dreams of the happy picking grounds (chickens' conception of 
 the hereafter), said bird objecting strenuously, not only physically with all its 
 meager might, but vocally to being thus interrupted in its sleep and kidnaped 
 to be the guest of a silent feast, commenced a squawk which not only aroused 
 all of the neighbors but disturbed its forefathers in their everlasting sleep. 
 
 The riot alarm from the hennery aroused the occupants of the house. The 
 sight of one of the occupants of the house peeved and agitated the chicken 
 thief. Out the alley he dashed with the chicken under his arm, squawking the 
 distress whistle. Seeing that the chicken would betray him were he to get 
 onto a street the negro dropped the chicken in the alley and continued his 
 flight. Into the darkness he flung himself and escaped. The Craytons recap- 
 tured the chicken and with many fondling caresses, chucked it into the hen-j 
 coop, secured a burglar alarm, a lock and key, an iron bolt and locked it up 
 for the night. 
 
 EXERCISE XIII 
 
 I. Can you tell the kind and name of an automobile by hearing the 
 machine approach down the road ? What is the difference in the noises 
 made by auto horns ? Write phrases illustrating your answer. 
 
WORDS AND PHRASES 
 
 245 
 
 2. What distinguishing traits do you see in people at a concert, in a 
 streetcar, or in the classroom ? Attempt to arrive at their character, 
 temperament, and habits by your examination. 
 
 3. Criticize and rewrite the following excerpts made from a story 
 of a wedding. Define your own ideas as to the use of adjectives and 
 qualifying phrases. 
 
 First in the pretty procession came the ushers, walking up the left aisle, in 
 pairs — Messrs. Bratton and Daniels, preceding Messrs. Wilhelm and Eisman. 
 They were followed by the four bridesmaids — Miss Eleanor Adams, and Miss 
 Ruth Bingham, of Cincinnati, two tall and graceful blondes, lifelong friends 
 of the bride, and Miss Lucia Verner of Pittsburg, the bride's favorite cousin, 
 with Miss Ella Williamson, the groom's sister, two comely young girls of the 
 brunette type of beauty. These maidens four preceded the maid of honor, a 
 sister of the bride. Miss Martha Drouilliard, a petite and attractive brunette. 
 The bridesmaids were exquisitely attired in white French batiste, with demi- 
 train, high French corsage, and elbow sleeves modishly finished with Valen- 
 ciennes lace. Their arm bouquets of fluffy white chrysanthemums and ferns, 
 were tied with large bows of wide white ribbon. The maid was similarly gowned, 
 and carried an immense arm bouquet of pink chrysanthemums, tied with white 
 ribbons. Next to this galaxy of lovely femininity, came the flower girl, little 
 Miss Nell Turley, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Leslie C. Turley, a fairy-like 
 vision in white French batiste over pink silk. Her flowers, pink roses, were 
 secured with delicate pink ribbons. Last in this march of gallant men and fair 
 women came the bride, leaning on the arm of her uncle, Mr. George D. Scudder, 
 who gracefully gave her to the groom, awaiting her at the altar, in company 
 with his best man, Mr. Frank Moulton, one of this city's rising young lawyers. 
 Universally conceded to be one of this city's most beautiful and amiable young 
 women, the bride was certainly radiantly lovely in her resplendent wedding 
 gown of white chiffon cloth over white Messaline — made Princess and trimmed 
 on the long train and high French corsage and elbow sleeves with Princess 
 lace. The long wedding veil of tulle was staid in place with flowers from the 
 bridal bouquet, a shower of bride roses and Lilies of the Valley. Softly the 
 organist played airs de amour, while the bridal party stood in a broken semi- 
 circle intently listening, with the vast audience, to the impressive ring cere- 
 mony, with which the officiating minister, Rev. Frank S. Arnold, D.D., joined 
 in the Holy bonds of wedlock the happy bride and groom. 
 
 From various relatives and friends came beautiful pieces of furniture, pic- 
 tures, china, cut glass, table linen, bric-a-brac, etc., which will find welcome 
 place in the home recently purchased by the groom, and located at No. 118 
 East Fourth. There the happy bride and groom will go to housekeeping, im- 
 mediately upon returning from their wedding trip to Toledo, Cleveland, and 
 Detroit, Mich. The bride's going-away gown was an invisible check, a novelty 
 
246 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 in green and brown, with hat and gloves en-suite. As the young couple de- 
 parted for the train, they were showered -with rice, old shoes, and best wishes 
 by the wedding guests, and annoyingly belled by the small boys of the neigh- 
 borhood. At the request of the bride, the maid of honor carried her bouquet 
 of pink roses and smilax to the grave of their late and much lamented mother, 
 whose absence greatly alloyed the happiness of the bride and the other members 
 of the family. 
 
 4. Enter a strange room, stay there two minutes, and then describe 
 minutely w^hat you have seen. Apply the same test to a restaurant, 
 a shoe shop, or an unfamiliar part of town. 
 
 EXERCISE XIV 
 
 1. Make a hst of phrases and verbs that show vigorous ACTION and 
 of those that show INACTIVITY ; as (action) drisk (7s a bee ; (inaction) 
 sloiv as a snail. Aim to make your own comparisons original. 
 
 2. Use four synonyms in place of the words in italic in the following 
 sentences : 
 
 His JiardiJiood overcame all difficulties and he soon commanded the appro- 
 bation of the people. 
 
 The decision of the court \N\W.free several hundred prisoners who were tried 
 for the same crime. 
 
 3. Can you tell the size and kind of fish by the way it takes a hook ? 
 How do fish differ in habitat and appearance ? Describe one minutely. 
 
 4. Make a list of nouns, verbs, and phrases that suggest lueaifh, happi- 
 ness, and tiunidt. 
 
 5. Reduce the following to a 100-word rewrite (no more), including 
 all es<:ential facts within the first paragraph : 
 
 The strange freaks of a madman caused some trouble near Worthington 
 last night. A man stood in the middle of the tracks among the scrub-oaks and 
 waved the well-known stop-signal as an express train from the city approached. 
 The engineer stopped the train and the train crew, all of whom expected to be 
 informed that a wreck had been averted, ran forward to meet the stranger, who 
 walked with dignity toward the coaches. ''What's the matter.?" asked the 
 first trainman, breathlessly, as he neared the stranger. No reply was vouch- 
 safed. Nor would the man open his mouth until he met the conductor at the 
 steps of the forward coach. The conductor asked the same question. " I wanted 
 the train to stop, as I wanted to get on," said the man. " There's no station 
 here among the scrub-oaks," said the conductor, who hadn't time to get angry. 
 ''True," replied the stranger, "but there should be one. I am J. P. Morgan 
 and when I want a train to stop it's got to stop, see.? " He climbed aboard 
 
WORDS AND PHRASES 
 
 247 
 
 unchecked by the trainman, who began to see the drift of affairs. " My pass," 
 said the new passenger, tendering an oak-leaf. The conductor inspected it and 
 punched it gravely. When the train reached Columbus the man was turned 
 over to the police. 
 
 6. Reduce this pompous specimen to simpler language, substituting 
 short words for long and specific terms for general ones. Make the story 
 as vigorous as you can and put the most striking thing in the opening 
 paragraph. Quote directly. 
 
 A lady member of the university faculty, who has been making statistical 
 observations with a view to contributing to the study of the trend of the new 
 womanhood, has made the interesting discovery that the prevailing ambition 
 among school girls of today is to demonstrate their possession of that physical 
 courage which has hitherto been considered a purely masculine prerogative. 
 The bright woman who announces this discovery, founded by the way upon 
 answers to a series of letters of inquiry addressed to young lady students 
 throughout the country, is disposed to regard this extraordinary development 
 as deplorable, pointing to a coarsening of feminine nature and the eventful loss 
 of those more delicate womanly qualities which have won the chivalry of all 
 members of the male sex for so many generations. 
 
 EXERCISE XV 
 
 1. Re-word this sentence in as many different ways as you can, with- 
 out destroying the sense: 
 
 The negro, now thoroughly angry by the taunts of the crowd, jumped to 
 his feet and attacked his enemy with a pickax. 
 
 2. Look up the history of the following words : ammonia^ auctioneer^ 
 biscuit^ blackguard^ boycott^ capricious, 
 
 3. Rewrite the following in more compact style : 
 
 Pale as death the woman staggered to her feet, and a moment later her spirit 
 quitted its earthly habitation. 
 
 4. Write a vigorous paragraph (50 words), using the materials found 
 in the following clipping. Insert concrete details and don't forget names. 
 
 The neighborhood is terrorized by the report that there is a hyena loose in 
 the hills. As Elmer App was returning from taking his aunt to her home this 
 awful beast, with eyes like headlights on a locomotive, confronted them. The 
 horse squealed and turned and Elmer started a revival song, causing the monster 
 to hike to the bushes. Elmer hung on to the horse until he got back to town 
 and don't seem in much of a hurry to visit his aunt. Comrade Anderson says 
 the animal is a Whangdoodle, and that he had killed many an one in his 
 younger days. 
 
248 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 5. With the following detached phrases make complete sentences that 
 tell the story in direct terminolog)\ Aim at variety in sentence structure. 
 
 (a) Cow on track. Engineer tried to stop, after blowing whistle. Engine 
 struck animal. Threw it into the air. Killed instantly. Passengers frightened. 
 Train did not stop. 
 
 (d) A dark night. Negro approaches a watermelon patch. Climbs over the 
 fence. Stoops to get a melon. A flash and report of a gun. Negro lets out a 
 cry and makes for the fence. Climbs over and runs rapidly away. Yells lustily. 
 
 (c) Convention called to order by chairman. Third reading of antivivisection 
 bill. Vigorous speech by N. M. Guggins for the bill. Prolonged cheers. Re- 
 tort by F. G. Willis, of Guernsey county. When vote was taken only four votes 
 registered against it. Passed with clapping of hands and stamping of feet. 
 
 6. Take a stroll in the country and outline some of the unfamiliar 
 things you see and explain them, even if you are compelled to ask ques- 
 tions. Don't be afraid to be frank in your ignorance. Get the facts. 
 
 EXERCISE XVI 
 
 1 . Would you use He had his arm cut off in a story ? How would 
 you distinguish between a majority and a plurality .? 
 
 2. Do you indorse the use of ivell knoivn business men and prominent 
 lawyers ?■ 
 
 3. Is the verb clai?n in good use in the following sentence : "' He 
 claimed he had been insulted." 
 
 4. Why do you prefer begi?i to co7nmence 1 Give reasons. 
 
 5. Look up the derivation and original meaning of demagogue^ gera- 
 nium^ i?ifant^ ink, loafer, meander. 
 
 6. Distinguish between c?'ime, vice, and sin. 
 
 7. Is the word deceased in good use in the sentence: '' Before his 
 death the deceased took a short ride in his automobile." 
 
 8. Is the expression the marriage ivas consummated recognized in 
 reputable newspapers ? Look up consuftwiate. 
 
 9. Make a list of trite and hackneyed expressions which you think 
 should be placed under the ban in reputable newspapers ; such as, frofn 
 mor7i till dewy eve ; applauded him to the echo. 
 
 10. Correct the following sentences: 
 
 (c?) The fellow bought his pants at a gents' furnishing store. 
 
 {b) Mrs. Jennie Byrne was given a dinner during the past week and was 
 the recipient of many presents. 
 
 {c) The man suicided by whipping out his revolver and blowing out his 
 brains, dying instantly. 
 
WORDS AND PHRASES 
 
 249 
 
 (d) The funeral of the late John Schwartz, the well-known undertaker, will 
 occur Tuesday p.m., conducted by Rev. Duncan. 
 
 (e) The canine pursued the animal down the spacious thoroughfare and 
 finally dispatched it before an audience of several hundred folks. 
 
 (/) Yesterday our friend, " Bill " Hawkins, led the blushing bride to the 
 hymeneal altar. 
 
 [g) The initial number of the program was rendered with great precision. 
 Mr. James Simpson assumed the role of the rollicking grenadier and sang 
 with gusto. 
 
 y 
 
 ^EXERCISE XVH 
 
 1. Can a blow be administered ? Distinguish between amateur and 
 novice. Illustrate the correct usage of appear and see/n. 
 
 2. How would you improve this sentence : " A large attendance was 
 present and each lap of the race was wildly cheered by the audience." 
 
 3. Would you use authoress or artiste in a story ? Do the police bag 
 criminals ? 
 
 4. In a story of a funeral would you use coffin^ corpse^ officiating 
 clergyman, frotn the late ?'eside?ice, leaves a widow, casket, funeral couch, 
 cortege, undertaker, deceased, single man 1 How about y7<'-';?7/ offerings and 
 sorrowing ?'elatives 1 
 
 5. Distinguish between abate, subside, and diminish, illustrating in 
 sentences. 
 
 6. What is an abattoir 1 How use the word .'' 
 
 7. In what connection should the word ablution be used instead of 
 wash 1 Make clear in sentences. 
 
 8. What is the proper word to use in speaking of the complete re- 
 moval or nullification of : slavery ; a legislative act ; a cont?'act ; an obliga- 
 tion ; a bond ; a treaty ; an indictment ? 
 
 9. What is the difference between abridgment, abstract, digest, and 
 su??imary ? Illustrate in sentences. 
 
 10. What kind of a fight is called an affray ; an altercation 1 
 
 1 1 . Attempt to answer the following terms without consulting a 
 dictionary : the lily of a co??ipass, a railroad frog, schooner, Portland vase, 
 ragamuffin, Shakers, halcyon days, deadlock, Pecksniff, helve, jingo, friar, 
 Tertium Quid, cherchez la femme, cuneiform, si fie die. 
 
 12. Using the following as a basis, write a 150-word story of a blind 
 man playing an organ, bringing out the human interest : 
 
 A blind man with a small organ appeared on the street Monday and played 
 and sang several songs that were inspiring and cheering. 
 
250 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 EXERCISE XVIII 
 
 1. Write a series of phrases that convey the same meanings as the 
 nouns escape, fear, and murder. 
 
 2. Illustrate the correct use of healthy and healthful ; hiujiid and hot 
 in sentences. 
 
 3. This story says nothing. Put in some facts and make it more 
 direct. Embody the pith and point in the opening sentence. 
 
 There was a meeting of the Civic league at the Y. M. C. A. Monday even- 
 ing, this being the final meeting for the season. Dr. Pounds, of the city board 
 of health, was present and answered many questions pertaining to the city water 
 supply, which was the topic of the evening. 
 
 4. Contrast traveler with tourist; trivial with trifling, annmon, paltry. 
 Does a traveler stop at a hotel .'' 
 
 5. This story is just a catalogue of names. Make it more interesting 
 by the use of more specific details, quoting a striking passage from the 
 debate as an opening sentence. 
 
 The Nundahwa Grange held a very interesting meeting last Saturday even- 
 ing. It was '' Flora's Night," and much credit is due Mrs. Byron Keyes in her 
 able manner of conducting the literary program. The instrumental duet by 
 Mrs. Mattie Herrick and Miss Knibloe, and the solo by Mrs. Frances Ramsay, 
 were pleasant features of the evening's entertainment. 
 
 The debate on '' Failure of Farming Is More Often Due to Shiftlessness 
 Than Any Other Cause," created considerable amusement and the decision was 
 rendered in favor of the affirmative. 
 
 With the fine luncheon of strawberries and cake, the meeting was pronounced 
 a decided success, although many of the important officers were unable to be 
 present. 
 
 6. Is it proper to use the word sustain in stories of injuries ? Would 
 you insert details of a removal to the hospital or mention the name of 
 the ambulance ? 
 
 7 . Show how^ modifying words may show the approval or disapproval 
 of the reporter. 
 
 8. Distinguish between prohibitioti and te?uperanee ; license and per- 
 sonal liberty. 
 
 EXERCISE XIX 
 
 1. Is e77ibrace synonymous with contain or comprise! 
 
 2 . Look up the meaning of sardonic, parasite, pastor, tribulation. 
 
 3. Newspaper headline : '' She Suspicioned Him of Murder." Is the 
 usage recognized ? Is the sentence '' I suspect his sanity " correct ? 
 
WORDS AND PHRASES 25 1 
 
 4. Do you believe in giving free advertising notices to physicians, 
 lawyers, ministers, and professional men ? Apply the same query to 
 advertisers. 
 
 5. Would you admit the following expressions into your newspaper 
 stories : in this city ; broke her leg ; the present month ; a reliable source ; 
 reverts back; on the tapis ; Ex-Mayor Badger ; Thos. Jones and ivife; 
 old liwman ; leaves a tvidoiv ; the twenty-fifth of Nove?nber; about jooo 
 people present ; a lady a?td gentleman ; $10 worth of goods ; stabbed in the 
 fracas ; fell with a dull thud ; insane hospital ; dropped dead ; babel 
 
 6. Rewrite the following, bringing out the essential interest through 
 direct quotations : 
 
 Judge Burnham, of Kansas City, says that in the future, as long as the 
 summer lasts, he will sentence all vagrants to the Kansas cornfields to harvest 
 the bumper crops. 
 
 J. M. Holland returned home from a fishing trip Monday and is now telling 
 how he caught a large cat-fish with a piece of red flannel. Mr. Holland says 
 fish jump into the boat in the evening when a light is burning in the bow. 
 
 7 . The following paragraph contains a good opportunity for a detailed 
 story of vacation experiences. Rewrite it, bringing out the interesting 
 features by direct quotation. 
 
 The lecture " Ten Days in an Indian Canoe," delivered in the New Water- 
 ford M. E. church last Friday evening by Rev. Charles L. Smith, D.D., pastor 
 of the First M. E. church. Canton, was well attended and highly appreciated. 
 The lecture was unique and very interesting. Dr. Smith having spent many 
 summer vacations in the north land, was able to speak from actual experience, 
 and his easy graceful style made the lecture especially enjoyable. 
 
 EXERCISE XX 
 
 1 . Would you use the following expressions in a story of a wedding : 
 contracting pafiies ; Rev. Buckland ; one of our citizens ; conventional 
 black : groom : beautiful and blushing bride; fohn Jones weds Eliza E. 
 Smith; the uuirriage 7vas consummated ; led to the hymeneal altar ; nee I 
 
 What would you put in the first paragraph ? 
 
 2. Make a list of expressions to be used in a story of a fire with many 
 spectacular features, including sensational escapes. Avoid the hackneyed 
 and the florid. 
 
 3. Distinguish between avocation., vocation ; profession and occupation. 
 
252 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 4. Contrast accident with disaster, calamity, casualty, misadventure^ 
 mishap, and illustrate. 
 
 5. Is abetter synonymous with acamiplice'i Illustrate in sentences. 
 
 6. Distinguish carefully between accusation, charge, indictment^ impu- 
 tation, i7npeachment, arraignmefit. 
 
 7. Distinguish between umpire, referee, arbiter, and aj'bitrator. 
 
 8. Give synonyms for veracious and use correctly in sentences. 
 
 g. Contrast scoundrel with villain, vagabond, knave, swindler, mis- 
 creant, reprobate. 
 
 10. Distinguish between marital and matrimonial ; alibi and alias. 
 
 1 1 . Make a list of expressions applicable to a wing of a party that 
 has turned insurgent. 
 
 12. Make a list of synonyms for thief which may be used in a 
 newspaper. 
 
 EXERCISE XXI 
 
 1. Using the same facts as here outlined, develop the following items 
 by means of conversation, combined with action, keeping the news intact : 
 
 Joseph Murphy was arrested on a charge of intoxication in Gary, Ind., 
 yesterday and fined $5 and costs by Judge Mayo in the city court. Murphy 
 had a wooden leg and unscrewed the leg to offer it to the court in payment of 
 his fine, saying that it was all he had. He then knelt before the court and 
 pleaded for mercy. 
 
 The judge told him to screw on his leg and gave him money to get out 
 of town. 
 
 2. In the following story of a suicide, test the diction of the words in 
 italics and if you think them inappropriate for a newspaper indicate the 
 change in your revision. Rewrite, suppressing redundancies and attempts 
 at " fine writing." Put the freshest and most important feature in the 
 first paragraph. 
 
 A man by the name of^^He.r'" Higgins, aged twenty-five years, suicided 
 Thursday afternoon at a hotel in our town after he had cojiposed a note to a 
 friend in which he intimated that he had found that there was little use in 
 carrying on this earthly existence apart from the sweetheart he loved to dis- 
 traction. The remai)is were viewed by the coroner and then removed to the 
 funeral establishment of Wells & Burns. // is nonored that they will be 
 claimed by so?T07vij/g members of his family. Mr. Higgins shook offtJie mortal 
 coil by means of a revolver which he planted on his forehead. The corpse of 
 the man was discovered next morning. The deceased told the clerk that he 
 wanted to be called at se^'en in the morning. " Hex " was an iron molder by 
 occMpatio?i. He leaves a widow to mourn his loss. Also two small children. 
 
WORDS AND PHRASES 253 
 
 3. Make a list of everyday idioms you would admit into a newspaper. 
 
 4. Complete a list of troublesome prepositional constructions, giving 
 the correct use. 
 
 5 . Would you admit slang into your newspaper stories, especially when 
 these have a bearing on institutions and people ? What would you say 
 of technical and trade expressions ? 
 
 6. Write a 100-word story of a runaway in which a woman receives a 
 broken collar bone, using verbs that reveal action and words that paint a 
 clear picture. Avoid participial constructions and be specific and definite. 
 Watch introductory paragraph. 
 
 7. After you have read the following prose poem write a brief editorial 
 on '^ The Newspaper," including wh^t you have already learned. Com- 
 ment on what you think are the signs of the times in journalistic methods 
 and materials. 
 
 I AM THE PrINTING-PrESS 
 
 I am the printing-press, born of the mother earth. My heart is of steel, my 
 limbs are of iron, and my fingers are of brass. 
 
 I sing the songs of the world, the oratorios of history, the symphonies of 
 all time. 
 
 1 am the voice of to-day, the herald of to-morrow. I weave into the warp 
 of the past the woof of the future. I tell the stories of peace and war alike. 
 
 I make the human heart beat with passion or tenderness. I stir the pulse 
 of nations, and make brave men do brave deeds, and soldiers die. 
 
 I inspire the midnight toiler, weary at his loom, to lift his head again and 
 gaze, with fearlessness, into the vast beyond, seeking the consolation of a 
 hope eternal. 
 
 When I speak a myriad of people listen to my voice. The Anglo-Saxon, 
 the Celt, the Hun, the Slav, the Hindu, all comprehend me. 
 
 I am the tireless clarion of the news. I cry your joys and sorrows every 
 hour. I fill the dullard's mind with thoughts uplifting. I am light, knowledge 
 and power. I epitomize the conquests of mind over matter, 
 
 I am the record of all things mankind has achieved. My offspring comes 
 to you in the candle's glow, amid the dim lights of poverty, the splendor of 
 riches ; at sunrise, at high noon, and in the waning evening. 
 
 I am the laughter and tears of the world, and I shall never die until all 
 things return to the immutable dust. 
 
 I am the printing-press. — Robert H. Davis. 
 
THE STRUCTURE OE A NEWS STORY 
 
 EXERCISE XXII 
 
 A newspaper story does not proceed in orderly sequence like a novel, 
 but reverses the time sequence and puts the big thing first. The in- 
 troductory paragraph should summarize the entire story ; the sentences 
 following give the details. In the accompanying specimens the reader does 
 not know what happened until the last paragraph is reached. Reverse 
 the order, condense, and make more interesting. 
 
 I. A very strange robbery occurred at Murray City on the evening of 
 October eighteenth. Mrs. Frank Snyder went down to the Murray City bank 
 between six and seven o'clock p.m. to deposit some money therein. She had 
 a brown hand-satchel which she claimed contained #1,379. Mrs. Snyder went 
 down Main street to the bank and there turned into the dark gangway be- 
 tween the Odd Fellows' hall and Seigfelds, where the mysterious robbery took 
 place. Mrs. Snyder had reached the far end of the gangway, but retraced her 
 steps homeward. All this occurred within fifteen minutes. No noise was 
 ever heard ; no one knew anything had happened, until Mrs. Snyder had 
 returned home and apprised her husband. 
 
 On Thursday some parties from Lancaster appeared on the scene with two 
 sleuth hounds and went to the place in which the hand-satchel was found, 
 and let the hounds scent the satchel, and then they struck the trail and fol- 
 lowed it directly to the Snyder home and there they refused to search any 
 further. At one o'clock p.m. the bloodhounds were again taken to the place 
 at which the robbery had happened and let smell the hand-satchel, and then 
 they struck the trail and followed it directly to the Snyder home. The gate 
 was closed, but the dogs refused to go by and jumped the fence into the yard 
 and went directly to the screen door and began to scratch for entrance. When 
 let into the house they went right to Mrs. Snyder and stayed there. After the 
 excitement was all over and the dogs were taken home, it was rumored that Mrs. 
 Snyder discovered that she was mistaken about losing the money. That while 
 making search she found the money between the sheet and blanket of one of 
 her beds. A young man named Hammond was suspected of the theft and was 
 locked up over night in the calaboose. He was exonerated from the charge 
 and liberated the following morning. " Mistakes are not 'hay-stacks, but if 
 they were we would have more fat cattle." We are glad that Mrs. Snyder's 
 
 -54 
 
THE STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY 255 
 
 mistake in having the money in the hand-satchel turned out to be the fortune 
 of having it between a sheet and blanket on a bed. It was a lucky find and 
 will make Mrs. Snyder's bed seem more downy. 
 
 2. About midnight Sunday, the planing mill of Finley, Adams & Co., 
 located south of the C. A. & C. depot, was discovered to be on fire. The 
 alarm was at once sent in and the firemen responded prompdy. Owing to the 
 high wind and the dryness of the material inside the main building, in a very 
 brief period the fire had assumed such proportions that it looked for a time 
 as though the entire south part of town was in danger. The firemen soon 
 had plenty of water playing on the flames, which were kept confined to the 
 main building and office. The large building just across the alley from the 
 planing mill, which contained thousands of feet of dry lumber, was on fire 
 several times, but the firemen kept a stream of w^ater playing on it all the 
 time and the building and contents were saved, as was the big dry-kiln and 
 practically all of the lumber south of the planing mill. It is not known how the 
 fire originated, but presumably from a spark from a passing engine, as south- 
 bound train No. 506 passed this point at a few minutes before 1 2 o'clock. The 
 loss in buildings, machinery and lumber is estimated to be in the neighbor- 
 hood of $8,000 with insurance of $2,500. The firm has not yet determined 
 what they will do, but the probabilities are that a new and modern mill will 
 be constructed on the site of the old one. 
 
 At this point we want to commend Fire Chief Lew Christopher and his 
 bunch of young fire fighters who did such excellent work and they are entitled 
 to every encouragement at the hands of the general public. With our excel- 
 lent water system and the husky lot of young fellows who handle the fire 
 hose, our people can feel pretty safe against fire. Stick by the firemen and 
 encourage and help them all you can. 
 
 3. Last Thursday afternoon at the early business hour a strip of ceiling 
 about ten feet wide and twenty feet long dropped on the show cases and dis- 
 play goods in the Thurness-Wright Co.'s room. The plastering was about an 
 inch thick and it is conceded fell from its own weight, which was sufficient to 
 crush and splinter two glass counters, 3x12 feet, on the display cases, ruining 
 the cases and injuring a vast amount of merchandise. 
 
 The crash was something terrific, paralyzing every one in the store. Harry 
 Smith, who was working in the cellar underneath, came rushing out of the 
 cellar, hair standing straight up and just as cool as a cucumber, of course. 
 The fall of the plaster bursted boards underneath the floor, causing the 
 splinters to rain down on his head and shoulders, the incentive to his sudden 
 and startling appearance. 
 
 Fortunately no one was injured and with the exception of nervous agitadon, 
 nobody was the worse off^. 
 
 The management immediately closed the business room and put all hands to 
 work cleaning up. They were engaged in this work undl a late hour Thursday 
 night and all day Friday. While the clerks were engaged in straightening up 
 
256 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 the management got busy. They arranged the stock and prices, had bills 
 struck and the first thing Saturday morning distributed them. Their loss was 
 somebody's gain, and at the earliest business hour the store was crowded with 
 customers, anxious to take advantage of the miraculous bargains. The room 
 was crowded throughout the day and until the latest closing hour. Monday it 
 was the same thing, the ladies crowding, crushing and grabbing for the bar- 
 gains in sight. It was "Wait on me first. I want these two shirt waists. I want 
 this, I want that," etc. It was a perfect whirlpool of excitement. 
 
 Never in the business history of the town has there been such sales, such 
 bargains, such excitement. Why, it's the talk of the town. Every customer 
 got a bargain, everyone satisfied but the clerks, who are most tired to death. 
 Why, they couldn't even get to their homes for their meals, had to take short 
 lunches at restaurants. It was a very unlucky accident for the Thurness- 
 W^right Co., an ill wind that blowed hundreds good. 
 
 We have been unable to get the exact amount of damage sustained, but it 
 is considerable, and in all probability will not be known for weeks. 
 
 It is understood that Mr. Rempel will put in a steel ceiling just as soon as 
 arrangements can be made. 
 
 4. A very strange accident took place at the corner of Broad and High 
 Monday night. A woman stepped down from the curb to the street and her 
 foot slipped and she fell, striking her head on the paving, and was rendered 
 unconscious. A number of men sprang to her and lifted her and could think 
 of no place to carry her. Someone suggested the cigar store and she was car- 
 ried in there, and there being no place to lay her she was carried into a saloon 
 through a connecting door and laid on a couch. On regaining consciousness, 
 she was given some stimulant and then becoming aware of the situation she 
 was greatly shocked, but when the situation was explained to her she thanke*' 
 the men for their service and departed, her identity being unknown. 
 
 5. Just previous to Christmas, two men appeared in Warren, and visiter :i 
 number of merchants, professional men and manufacturers, asking aid for one 
 Cieorge Tompkins, of Chestnut street, whom they represented as having met 
 with an accident by falling off the new bank building at Youngstown, which 
 necessitated the amputation of both legs. The men had a petition, Avritten in 
 a rather illiterate way, asking that donations be made that the men with the 
 paper might get him a set of artificial legs. 
 
 The scheme was well timed, it worked well, and the men got over $200 
 out of Warren people on their plea. It now develops that the scheme was a 
 fake pure and simple. There is no George Tompkins residing in Warren, no 
 one ever was hurt in that way at the new bank building, and the signature at 
 the bottom of the petition is a forgery. Say, were you one of the victims ? 
 
 The men evidently took turns in working the game, one talking at one 
 place and the other at another place. While here the men gave their names 
 as Jones and Johnson. One of the men worked the K. of P. membership 
 trick to the limit. 
 
THE STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY 257 
 
 The same men are now under arrest at Conneaut, on a charge of petit 
 larceny, and when searched by the police the papers signed by Warren people 
 to the Tompkins fund were found. This aroused the suspicion of the chief 
 there, who called up Chief Flowers to make inquiry about the matter. 
 
 Chief Flowers had warrants made out in Justice C. C. Bubb's court against 
 the two men, charging them with forgery and getting property under false 
 pretense, and will bring them here for a hearing on Friday. The Conneaut 
 officers are willing to surrender the men to the local officers. There are quite 
 a number of local people who will be willing to appear against the men when 
 they arrive here. 
 
 6. Often things are not what they seem, and persons dying supposedly 
 without means are found to have left money which turned up after their 
 death, and thereby hangs a tale. 
 
 A week ago Thursday, Mrs. Mary Schooley, who lived in two rooms 
 belonging to Mrs. Margaret Keaton, on North Hickory street, took ill sud- 
 denly and Mrs. Keaton and a few neighbors went to her assistance, and did 
 all they could for the patient, but to no avail. Dr. Welch was called and gave 
 medical attention and pronounced the illness neuralgia of the heart. 
 
 A close friend of Mrs. Schooley's, Miss Lizzie Campbell, was notified and 
 came to take care of her, and on Saturday Mrs. Schooley got up but was very 
 weak. She asked for her medicine and Miss Campbell complied with her 
 wishes, and Mrs. Schooley then opened a conversation, saying : 
 
 " Lizzie, we have known each other for many years. You just seem to 
 me as my best friend, and I want to — " But her sentence was not finished. 
 She gave a moan and fell to the floor. Miss Campbell called for help and 
 the physician was summoned, but she never regained consciousness and died 
 soon after. 
 
 Mrs. Schooley, for some time, has been very reticent and did not care to 
 communicate even with her relatives, but at her death, Mr. Will Richardson, 
 her brother, the well-known photographer, was called for and made arrange- 
 ments for the funeral. Her only child, Mrs. E. R. Dickson, and husband, 
 of Seymour, Ind., were wired of her death, and they came for the funeral, 
 which was held Monday of last week at the home of Mr. Richardson, on 
 Plum street. 
 
 On a few occasions Mrs. Schooley was left small amounts of money, and 
 it was not known at the time of her death where it was or what she had done 
 with it, but the day after the funeral Mrs. Keaton and a few other neighbors 
 went into her room to clean it up, and found in a corner of the room some 
 old papers and rubbish, and as they were putting it into a bucket, found an 
 old stocking sewed up. They opened it and found four $100 bills. This 
 news soon spread, and many neighbors wanted to help clean up. 
 
 Mrs. Keaton notified Mr. and Mrs. Dickson of the find, and turned 
 the money over to them. They left Saturday evening for their home at 
 Seymour, Indiana. 
 
258 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Whether Mrs. Schooley has any other money hidden away in this manner, 
 time alone will tell, but it is doubtful. It seems rather queer that in this 
 enlightened age that people will ignore the banks and put money away in 
 this manner and even deprive themselves of the comforts of a home, but 
 once in a while we find some such peculiar people. 
 
 7. St. Mary's Home is very fortunate in its friends, which yesterday's 
 doll show proved to be not only numerous, but resourceful and energetic, 
 and when the accounts are all made up it will be shown that the worthy 
 institution on whose behalf they have put forth such earnest efforts with 
 so much success is much the richer for their endeavors. 
 
 There was a large gathering of ladies and gentlemen, and children as 
 well, at the opening of the show by Lady Evelyn Young, in the afternoon, 
 and gay throngs of young people filled the spacious auditorium of the Vic- 
 toria Memorial Hall at night, and thronged into the wax works show, the 
 cafe chantant and the shooting gallery, keeping the attendants at these 
 centres of amusement more than busy. The merry-go-round for the chil- 
 dren was well patronized also, especially in the afternoon, but the centre 
 of attraction was, of course, the dolls, which were arranged on fourteen 
 stalls in charge of more than as many ladies. It is safe to say that no 
 such an aggregation of handsome costumes was ever assembled in Singa-. 
 pore before, as was exhibited by these ladies yesterday. The patriotic 
 element was strong, and High-Landers as well as maidens, Irish lasses, and 
 male and female representatives of all the British colonies were prominent, 
 while a superb collection of very richly dressed dolls in costumes of western 
 Asia attracted wide attention. The handsome baby doll in long satin dress, 
 exhibited by Mrs. Stevens, proved the most popular, however, securing the 
 suffrage of the greatest number of voters. 
 
 One of the best conceptions of the show was a doll dressed to repre- 
 sent a suffragette, which was awarded one of the prizes. The Cross Street 
 School teachers, who gave an interesting entertainment at their last annual 
 prize giving illustrative of Brittania at home in her various colonies, repro- 
 duced the costumes then shown, in miniature, and also secured one of the 
 prizes. Another group idea was the production in costume, with appropri- 
 ate surroundings, of some of the more popular nursery tales, the ladies 
 preparing them being Mrs. Coghlan, Mrs. Edwards and Mrs. Saunders. 
 The best group, however, was undoubtedly that of Mrs. A. W. Bean, which 
 represented a Malay family of the better class. Neither care nor expense 
 had been spared in the arrangement of this group, which had a setting 
 of a Malay home with dwelling, coconut tree, etc., arranged with great 
 fidelity to actual life. The dressing of the dolls was done by the children of 
 Dato Mentri. This group was entitled Our Neighbours, and was awarded 
 the first prize in A Class. 
 
 An unfortunate contretemps bade fair to spoil the enjoyment of the 
 throngs which gathered about the shooting gallery, for the lights proved 
 
 1 
 
THE STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY 259 
 
 altogether too high up and too dim, and seemed to grow dimmer as the 
 evening progressed. Mr. Maudon came very thoughtfully and very gener- 
 ously to the rescue, however, with a huge pair of lamps from his motor car, 
 and with one of those turned on each of the targets ample illumination was 
 afforded. As the evening drew to a close, the prizes were distributed and 
 a few of the better dolls which had not been sold were raffled off. The 
 greater portion of the dolls had already been disposed of, very generous 
 prices being paid, as a whole. 
 
 EXERCISE XXIII 
 
 Here is a story of an automobile accident which, to say the least, 
 makes dull reading. \\'rite a more attractive " lead," bringing out the 
 essential facts ; cut out general terms and supply specific ones and give 
 it more swing. The facts are hopelessly muddled. 
 
 It was a warm sunshiny afternoon when Jake Bethards and his wife 
 ensconced themselves in their automobile last week to take a long expedition 
 into the neighboring country. Little did they think that before the shadows 
 of evening fell that the death angel would hover over them and the whole 
 community be saddened by the message of their demise. Even in life we are 
 in death. Their machine had just passed Springer's dam when a smalL bo y , 
 said to be one of the Higgins children, ran out into the road in pursuit of a 
 pup7 and in a ttempting to get out of the way of the unfortunate child. 
 Mn Bethards, who was an inexperienced chauffeur, colli ded his to uring-car 
 •Vnth a large iree a l LiltJ ^Id^ Of the piK e./ iJoth ol the occupants were thrown 
 out with terrihc torce. iVfien neighbors rusned to the scene it was discovered 
 that Mrs. Bethards was quite dead, with a shattered skull ; while the husband 
 was unconscious and bleeding profusely. He was taken home in a wagon and 
 it is said that there is no hope for his recovery, although he has a strong 
 physique. The whole countryside is on the tip-toe of anxiety, as both are 
 respected people of this ridge and vicinity. This lamented accident should be 
 a warning to all those who have not enough sense to keep off the road when 
 they see an automobile approaching. 
 
 EXERCISE XXIV 
 
 Here is a story which has many possibilities for picturesque effect. 
 Use color, but do not forget names and particulars and specific instances. 
 Adhere to the divisions already outlined. Add any facts which seem to 
 you essential. 
 
 Without warning thermometer went down twenty degrees in five hours. A 
 blizzard descended upon the city. Snow piled high everywhere. Streets were 
 blockaded and car service abandoned until snow-plow could be brought into 
 use. Men cleaned the pavements with snow-shovels. 
 
26o ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Telephone wires sagged with snow ; in some cases communication with 
 outside world entirely cut off. News sent by wireless. Business at a standstill, 
 with heavy loss to merchants. 
 
 Catde frozen in the fields outside the town. In one instance a farmer was 
 lost in the blizzard and was found frozen to death. Oldest inhabitants say it 
 was the worst storm in two decades. Official records of weather bureau. 
 
 p:xercise XXV ~-^ 
 
 f Htere are the disconnected facts of some short stories, no one of which 
 should exceed 125 words. Pick out the unusual or interesting feature for 
 your " lead " and develop in an orderly way. In some cases it may be 
 necessary to embellish your story. This is permissible if it does not go 
 too far astray from the facts. The fifth specimen should be treated in 
 a humorous vein. 
 r^ ^ - 
 
 \ I. Two men, Steve Bridges and Alex Locke, brothers-in-law, well-known 
 farmers living near Bucyrus, got into a fight yesterday and Locke was chopped 
 in the back of the neck by Bridges. An ax was used. Locke is in a hospital 
 and it is feared his spinal cord has been seriously injured. Bridges telephoned 
 that he will give himself up. The men had two dogs noted for their pedigree. 
 The animals got into a mix-up. The owners tried to part them. Angry words 
 arose and a bloody fight ensued as the result. 
 
 2. J. S. McCullough, a wealthy broker of Chicago, was relieved of valuables, 
 silver plate, etc., one afternoon recently by two robbers who entered the house in 
 broad daylight. Mr. McCullough was sick in bed. One robber extended his 
 sympathy, gave the broker medicine and brought him a glass of water, while 
 the other looted the house. Both wished him a speedy recovery on departure. 
 
 3. Mrs. Dora Gieteman, living in her apartment in a Delancy street house, 
 woke up last night to find a man in her room. She beat him with a cuspidor 
 until he backed against an open window with a low sill. She then smashed 
 him across the face with a rolling pin when he toppled to instant death on the 
 concrete pavement, 50 feet below. His name was Louis Gratch, aged 25, a 
 painter by day and a burglar after dark. 
 
 4. Typhoid fever has broken out in the M insane asylum. Twenty 
 
 patients are seriously sick. Physicians are at a loss to account for the cause 
 of the disease. Yesterday an employee looked into the water tank at the top 
 of the building and found in it a score of dead blackbirds. The lid had been 
 left off. One patient, John Simpson, aged 34, of Loudonville, died from the 
 fever in the afternoon. 
 
 5. Mayor I. T. Shank of Indianapolis says the people who attend the 
 moving-picture shows must cut out " spooning." The mayor has searched the 
 statute books, but has found no law bearing on that subject. He has sug- 
 gested to the theater managers that they turn on the lights suddenly during 
 

 THE STRUCTURE OE A NEWS STORY 26 1 
 
 the performance. One councilman has introduced an ordinance to that effect. 
 The mayor says that young' people only go to the nickelodeon to " spark " 
 when the lights are turned low. 
 
 6. The School Library has been housed in a building reared in 1830. It 
 was formerly used as a church and was remodeled to suit the needs of the 
 Library. For some months the walls have been unstable. During a severe 
 thunderstorm Monday night the roof gave w^ay and filled the stacks and wait- 
 ing rooms with debris. The loss is heavy. The building cannot be repaired, 
 and other quarters must be secured before the opening of school next week. 
 
 EXERCISE XXVI 
 
 Write a 100-word story on the weather, bringing in the temperature 
 and the prospect for a change. This kind of a story is difficult to write. 
 See what you can do in making a dull subject interesting and snappy 
 reading. Appeal to the sensations. 
 
 EXERCISE XXVII 
 
 The following '' leads '' clipped from various papers are all faulty for 
 various reasons. In many instances the real news has been buried in the 
 middle of the paragraph. Some of the sentences are too long. Several 
 make no attempt to interest the reader at the outset or to sharpen his 
 appetite for what is to follow. Rewrite these specimens and endeavor to 
 bring out the interesting feature first. Don't overdo the long running 
 sentence with its participial beginning. 
 
 1 . A horrible tragedy took place in Clark county a few miles north of South 
 Charleston Thursday morning about nine o'clock, in which several former 
 residents of this county played a prominent part, when a free-for-all fight 
 between William Dillard. his three sons, Ralph, Clifford, and Thomas, and 
 Henry Dillon and his son. Homer, occurred. As a result of the deadly combat 
 Homer Dillon was shot and instantly killed ; Henry Dillon was seriously 
 wounded and may die ; William Dillard was shot and may recover, and Ralph 
 Dillard received a bad wound on the head where he was struck with a club. 
 The other two boys escaped uninjured. 
 
 2. The annual election of officers of Champaign Lodge No. 525 F. and 
 A. M. for the coming year was held in the Masonic Temple on South Main 
 street Friday evening. 
 
 A large number of the members were present and the following officers were 
 elected for the year 191 1: Harry C. Duncan was re-elected Worshipful 
 Master; Dr. Nelson Rhodes, Sr. Warden; Walter Arrowsmith, Jr. Warden; 
 J. G. Wallace, Sr. Deacon; Will Hyatt, Jr. Deacon; L. T. Marman was re- 
 elected Secretary for the twenty-sixth time; H. S. Morgan, Treasurer; John 
 Seibert, Tyler ; and Dr. Pearce, voting trustee. 
 
262 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 3. This morning, soon after he had made the statement that he was going 
 to run away from home, the 1 1 -year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. (George Smith of 
 S7 Fort street disappeared. 
 
 Two hours later the police station was called by phone and the assistance of 
 the officers was solicited. The last seen of the boy was when he was taking 
 an easterly course on Spring street. 
 
 4. '' Jack " Hill attempted suicide at Urbana by drinking acid. The chances 
 are that he would have never lived but a few hours had it not been for the fact 
 that a physician was immediately called and worked over an hour in an effort 
 to overcome the effects of the deadly fluid. 
 
 He is a young colored man who is employed as a porter at a hotel. His act 
 was due to his wife's leaving him. 
 
 5. The Mission band of the Lutheran Church met Friday afternoon, after 
 school hours, at the Lutheran church. There were forty-two children present, 
 and the meeting was in charge of Mrs. W. C. Laughbaum. Steps were taken 
 to perfect the organization. It was decided that the members of the board 
 should begin to keep scrapbooks, collecting articles and data of interest in 
 connection with the work of the band. The topic for the next meeting was 
 given. " What Our Mothers Have Told Us." 
 
 6. Santa Claus was a bit ahead of schedule time when he invaded the 
 general offices of the Seaboard Air Line Railway in this city yesterday, but 
 nevertheless his premature visitation was welcomed. 
 
 Orders came to the heads of all departments which brought joy to the 
 hearts of those who are directly affected by the promulgation which stipulated 
 that all the clerks drawing salaries of less than $100 per month will, from 
 December i , receive a five per cent increase. 
 
 It means that a large majority of the clerical attaches of the road in this 
 city will realize more for their services on the first pay day of the new year. 
 
 7. Last Tuesday evening George Benadum, on West Second street, set a new 
 rat trap, baited with an ear of corn. Wednesday morning he found the trap 
 jammed full. There were 22 rats in the trap, released one at a time and " Topsy," 
 a thoroughbred English ratter, succeeded in killing 20 out of the 22. "Topsy" 
 is certainly the Queen Ratter of the Hocking Valley. Bring on your rat stories. 
 
 8. On Thursday evening, January 26th, 1911, Mrs. M. H. Cherrington 
 gave a Miscellaneous Shower for Miss Alma Elizabeth Hall, who was married 
 to Prof. C. V. Kitner of Hortsville, at high noon, February ist, 191 1. 
 
 The Cherrington home looked beautiful, the reception hall was in red with 
 red heart decoration. An open parasol was suspended from the ceiling in the 
 reception hall and under which a red receiving receptacle hung in which each 
 guest upon entering deposited her present. The dining room was decorated 
 in pink and white, the center piece being a large doll, dressed to represent the 
 bride, and was surrounded by two train bearers and eight bridesmaids, and 
 here is where the bride-to-be becomingly attired in blue silk, opened her 
 presents, all of which were very costly and elaborate. 
 
THE STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY 263 
 
 9. The wreck to train 234 on the Straitsville branch on Thursday evening 
 of last week was the worst in the history of the branch. Engineer Ambrose 
 Wade, of Nelsonville, was injured^o badly that he succumbed to his injuries 
 on Friday afternoon at four o'clock. 
 
 EXERCISE XXVIII 
 
 In the following exercises you are asked to write newspaper '' leads," 
 — not to write the entire story, — summarizing the essential facts in 
 compact style in one paragraph. Make these as brief as possible, but 
 avoid being baldly commonplace. 
 
 1. Barber commits suicide by hanging himself in a barn in the rear of his 
 home, 9873 Dover Street. His wife had left a note saying she had eloped with 
 another man. He was 45 years old and had two children. Before his suicide 
 he went to the barber shop, had his hair cut and was shaved. He told C. W. 
 Eliot, who shaved him. that he '' wanted to look well when dead." His name 
 was John W. Bendure and he came here from Germany ten years ago. 
 
 2. Large refrigerator in the plant of Armour & Co., packers, has an auto- 
 matic catch which locks the door as soon as it closes. Two men, Tom Simpson 
 and George Shellenback, carried in some meat late one afternoon and the ice- 
 box closed upon them. Nobody heard their cries for help. When they were 
 almost frozen and suffocated an employee happened to return, heard them and 
 rescued the two men. 
 
 3. Fred Smith, a young colored man, got into a fight with an Italian, Pietro 
 Nazimpi, who was employed as a molder in a foundry, and as a result the Italian 
 killed him with a stiletto. Bystanders say the two began arguing on the relative 
 merits of their races. Nazimpi knocked down a policeman who tried to arrest 
 him and ran down an alley. He has not been found. Smith lived at 897 
 Hawthorne Avenue. He had a wife. Nazimpi lives in the house next door. 
 
 4. A tight-rope walker of 1 5 years' experience failed to walk the rope 
 between the stores of B. N. Higgins and G. H. Brown in Lincoln Avenue last 
 night as scheduled. He was indisposed. A great crowd had gathered, but was 
 disappointed. His name is Signor Deletto Zabriski and he is of royal blood. As 
 he was getting out of bed in the morning he fell and sprained his right ankle. 
 
 5. Andrew Welsh, i i years old, climbed a pole yesterday in boyish fun, 
 and soon after reaching the top, put his hand on a live wire. His cries of pain 
 at once attracted a large crowd who stood watching him as he was slowly being 
 roasted to death. At this juncture Patrick Brislin, who lives close to the boy's 
 home in Greenleaf Street, climbed up the pole, pulled the boy from the wire 
 and bore him, burning and moaning to the ground. The boy cried " For God's 
 sake, put me out, kill me," as he was being carried to the ground. He is badly 
 burned, but Dr. J. A. Boyd of Wabash Avenue, who attended him^ says there 
 are good chances for his recovery. 
 
264 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 EXERCISE XXIX 
 
 In newspaper parlance stories that are rewritten from other papers 
 are called '' rewrites," If there is nothing new to be added to them, they 
 should be reduced in order to bring out the gist of the story, remembering 
 always to put the freshest feature first. While these stories have already 
 been printed, it is a poor newspaper man who cannot discover some new 
 or neglected feature that can be played up as a '' lead." Reduce and 
 reconstruct the following : 
 
 1. F. O. Carmack fell down a flight of stairs at Third and Long streets early 
 yesterday morning and sustained a fracture of the skull from which he died this 
 afternoon at two o'clock. He died in the Hospital for the Unfortunate where 
 he had been rushed by the police patrol. The first report which came to the 
 police was that Carmack had been thrown down stairs by his wife ; but later 
 it was learned that he had fallen down while drunk. His funeral will be held 
 Wednesday, conducted by the Modern Woodmen of the World. 
 
 2. Early this morning, Mr. and Mrs. G. L. Baumgartner of 201 Eighteenth 
 Street, were injured in a most peculiar manner when the folding bed in which 
 they were sleeping, closed upon them. Mr. Baumgartner was hurt severely, sus- 
 taining a badly injured spinal column and other bruises, while his wife may be 
 injured internally. It is not known how the accident occurred but many believe 
 that the weights which held the bed down became loosened. Dr. George Gwinn 
 was called and after making an examination ordered the removal of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Baumgartner to the City Hospital, Mrs, Baumgartner left the hospital 
 just two weeks ago where she was confined for six weeks with a broken thigh. 
 
 3. Hearing the screams of her children, Mrs. Max Wolke, 3245 East 
 Seventeenth street, rushed into the kitchen yesterday just in time to save them 
 from fire which threatened her home. Mrs. Wolke was in the rear yard and 
 had left her children, Edward, aged five, and Anna, aged three, on the kitchen 
 floor. The children found a box of matches and played with them. Their 
 clothes caught fire and the flames spread to the carpet. The room was filled 
 with smoke. When Mrs. Wolke arrived the children were gasping for breath. 
 She threw water on them and put out the blaze. Mr, Wolke is a dry-goods 
 merchant and keeps stock at his home and the damage on this will reach $500. 
 
 4. Whether Emma Devill, 17, and Arthur Jordan, 24, met with foul play 
 or eloped is the problem the local police were called upon to solve today. The 
 young woman's mother reported that the couple disappeared November 14 on 
 the eve of their wedding. The marriage license had been procured and the 
 guests waited long for the arrival of the bride and groom. Mrs. Devill believes 
 her daughter has either been slain or kidnaped. 
 
 5. The body of an unknown man was found in the underbrush near the 
 factory of the Monarch Paste Company in South Franklin street early this 
 afternoon. R. P. Franks, 118 West 78th street, made the discovery. 
 
THE STRUCTURE OF A NEWS STORY 265 
 
 EXERCISE XXX 
 
 The following stories have been published in an evening paper and 
 are stale. Rewrite them for a morning paper. Freshen up the '' lead " 
 and put the dead details toward the last. Add any new developments 
 which you think probable — and make them lively. Don't wrench the 
 facts as stated. 
 
 1 . Robert F. Harkins, aged 45, an attorney with offices over 89 Third street, 
 died yesterday morning in a hospital at Nashville. Mr. Harkins went to 
 Nashville Wednesday to visit friends. The following day he was stricken with 
 pneumonia and continued to grow worse until the end came yesterday. His 
 wife has left the city to attend the funeral to be held Friday. Mr. Harkins 
 came to Grove City ten years ago and entered the offices of Milbourne & Jacobs, 
 where he remained five years, then taking an office of his own. He was a 
 32nd degree Mason. 
 
 2. While working on the roof of the plant of the National Carbon Company 
 at the North End this morning, George Williams slipped and fell to the ground. 
 The city ambulance took him to Mercy hospital, where it was found that he 
 was suffering from internal injuries. Grave fears are entertained for his re- 
 covery. Williams is married and lives at 348 Mellins Terrace. He suffered a 
 similar accident eight months ago. Yesterday was Friday the 1 3th. 
 
 EXERCISE XXXI 
 
 Here are three "want-ads" clipped from a paper. With elaboration 
 they will make good short stories. Insert names and necessary particu- 
 lars C' human-interest" possibilities here) : 
 
 WANTED — Live dogs and cats : 50 cents a head will be paid. \'eterina- 
 rian department, Ohio wState University. 
 
 WANTED — Unbroken and bad horses, mules, and steers to ride at Wild 
 West show, Olentangy Park; $100.00 given if we fail to ride them without 
 saddle or bridle. We will also break any horse free of charge. Hill & Flaur- 
 noy, Olentangy Park. 
 
 WANTED — Chorus girls that sing and dance. Good appearance. Com 
 pany rehearsing at Buckeye Lake. Address J. William Everett, 430 Savings 
 and Trust Bl'dg. 
 
 EXERCISE XXXII 
 
 You are asked to write a brief weather story for a Christmas morning 
 issue. At the time of writing, snow is frying and the thermometer fall- 
 ing. Belated shoppers on the street. Get some Christmas spirit into the 
 narrative, but present the facts first. 
 
266 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 EXERCISE XXXIII 
 
 The following group of facts is crowded with suggestion and can be 
 worked up with good effect. Appeal to mother love in the '' lead " ; make 
 your description colorful and inject action. Emphasize all the " human- 
 interest " features. This story requires names and particulars and definite 
 information. Avoid pleasant generalities and don't forget you are writing 
 for a newspaper, not a magazine. Some conversation would help. 
 
 A boy and a girl — brother and sister — who belong to a country household, 
 start off late one afternoon to get a bag of meal at the crossroads grocery four 
 miles away. They are mounted on an old horse, rawboned and slow. They 
 get the meal and start back home, despite the warning of the grocer that it is 
 going to snow. 
 
 Soon the flakes begin to fall ; then the blizzard breaks in fury. The children 
 bow their heads to the storm and urge on the horse. Almost frozen to death 
 they finally manage to reach a barn by the roadside, but the horse is left 
 outside. The children pull hay over them to keep warm. 
 
 Consternation at their home. Mother wrings her hands. In fit of despera- 
 tion, in spite of the fierce storm, the father and a hired man make off in a sleigh 
 to the rescue. They find the horse frozen to death. They cry aloud for the 
 children, but no response. When the barn is searched the two children are 
 found fast asleep. They are bundled up and taken home, where there is great 
 rejoicing. 
 
SKELETONS OF NEWS STORIES 
 
 The material from which these stories are to be built has been pur- 
 posely huddled together in the following paragraphs. Some details you 
 will suppress altogether as unessential or as mere hearsay ; others you 
 will elaborate, as you see fit. In almost every specimen there is oppor- 
 tunity for lively, picturesque writing and a place for an individual treat- 
 ment of the facts. The first paragraph should summarize the entire story, 
 bringing out the important feature, in many cases the most exciting part 
 of the recital. The rest of the story should give concrete details in support 
 of the general statement at the beginning. Human nature is so consti- 
 tuted that it likes a fight whether it is a verbal encounter or a physical 
 conflict. This is what is called, in newspaper parlance, " good stuff," and 
 is at a premium in newspaper offices. The reporter should make the 
 attempt, therefore, to "' play up " that part of the story which is crowded 
 with excitement or with '' human interest." In this regard public curi- 
 osity in the story is naturally accentuated by interviews with leading 
 citizens, just as in private life ordinary men and women like to hear 
 what their acquaintances think or say. In newspaper reports, therefore, 
 use the exact language of the man interviewed ; the more ridiculous, 
 quaint, novel, or original the language, the better. 
 
 The instructor has attempted to compile as many different types of news- 
 paper stories as seem best adapted to classroom work. Each will require 
 somewhat different treatment. In many instances the facts have not been 
 changed, but have been set down just as they have been printed in large 
 city dailies. In some cases, however, it has been thought advisable to 
 substitute fictitious names and places and to take some liberty with details. 
 
 1. William Allen, a seventeen-year-old boy, is known as one of the worst 
 boys the New York Police have to deal with. He was born with the faculty 
 of '' sensing " safe combinations. He spent his loot for cream puffs and pies. 
 He was sentenced to the penitentiary. Full set of burglar tools found in his 
 pocket. He confessed to robbing 13 safes. " I have the feel " is the way he 
 excused himself. He took the sentence coolly, 
 
 2. The bill of fare for a Thanksgiving dinner caused an argument in a 
 New York family, in which plates were passed through the air. Jacob Fisher, 
 the husband, wanted turkey, while the wife wanted goose. Wordy battle 
 
 267 
 
268 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 followed. Mrs. Fisher was thrown down, and her husband sat on her. In the 
 afternoon she swore out a warrant for his arrest. Fisher was arrested by an 
 officer after a struggle. Fined $25 and costs. 
 
 3. Joseph Walker, a farmer, has just built a new home near Rosedale and is 
 anxious to find some woman to fill it. The wife must know housekeeping and 
 should have some financial means. She need not be good-looking. '' I have never 
 been married," said Mr. Walker. '' My wife will have to put up with my pecul- 
 iarities. She need not milk the cows, nor churn the butter. This is no get-rich- 
 quick proposition. She must be domestic, not a society butterfly." Mr. Walker 
 is 4 1 years of age, six feet in height, weighs 1 60 pounds, is of slender stature 
 and has sandy hair and mustache. He has been a farmer since boyhood. 
 
 4. A high wind was blowing in the heart of Philadelphia's business district, 
 A huge sign was blown from its fastenings. Two men and one girl were struck 
 by the falling sign and almost instantly killed. They did not reach the hospital 
 alive, although the ambulance made a hurry run. 
 
 The sign was about 20 feet wide and 10 feet high and stood on the roof of 
 a four-story building in the retail shopping district. The street was crowded, 
 it being the noon hour. The greater portion of the heavy sign landed in the 
 middle of the street. Those caught under the metal wreckage were near the 
 curb. A panic ensued, and some one turned in an alarm of fire which brought 
 out the firemen, thus adding to the excitement. 
 
 5. Fred Blass, a farmer, was on his way home from the city. In some 
 manner he failed to note the approach of an interurban car from the east and 
 drove on the track just as the car dashed up to the crossing. The crew, evi- 
 dently thinking that he would wait until the car had passed, did not come to 
 a stop. Just as Blass had driven the horses clear of the track the collision 
 came. Both animals were freed from the rig, and the wagon was whirled partly 
 around and badly splintered and Blass thrown out. 
 
 He was taken to his home. It is reported that his injuries are not serious. 
 No report of the accident has as yet been received at the local offices of the 
 company. The car was manned by a Sharon crew. The car, it is said, was 
 approaching on a long stretch of straight track at the time the smash-up occurred. 
 
 6. Mr. and Mrs. John B. Elving, together with their six children, the eldest 
 of whom is i 5 years, had made their home in the heart of the forest 30 miles 
 between (irand Marais, Michigan, and Upper Brule Lake. Their home was 
 a little cabin made of logs. Not long ago, a fire broke out in the woods and 
 soon began to hem them in. Finally, with a small stock of provisions, they 
 beat a hasty retreat. Elving cut limbs from trees on the bank of the Brule 
 River and stationed himself and family neck deep in the water, underneath a 
 screen of underbrush, saturated with water. They stayed there an entire day, 
 until the fire burned out. The entire family then walked through the forest 
 to (irand Marais. It took them five days to cover the distance. Two of the 
 smaller children were saved from drowning in the swift current of the Brule 
 River by the family's Newfoundland dog. 
 
SKELETONS OF NEWS STORIES 269 
 
 ( 7. Italian laborers were at work at the gravel bank of the Peterson & Wright 
 Company at Old Forge, near the railroad junction, shoveling the gravel through 
 a sieve and into freight cars, preparatory to being shipped away. Shortly after 
 the men had started to work Wednesday morning, a huge bank of gravel and 
 rocks above them gave way and descended on them. All the men managed to 
 escape with the exception of John Nomeisuer, aged 30. who was buried under 
 the avalanche. Before his friends could help him, he had suffocated. Coroner 
 Davidson found a wallet containing $236, his entire earnings, wrapped about 
 the man's leg. It is reported that Jie left a widow and one child in Italy. 
 
 8 J Miss Georgiana Robinson, a Chicago school teacher, went to Atlantic City 
 recently to attend an educational meeting. While there she went in bathing 
 and was carried out beyond her depth. Her cries for help brought to her rescue 
 George Fiegembaum, a young traveling man of Kalamazoo, Michigan. He 
 was a strong swimmer and soon brought her to the beach, where restoratives 
 were applied by anxious friends. A warm friendship sprang up between the 
 rescuer and the rescued. Their marriage is announced for next Tuesday in 
 the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 9. John W. Simpson, teller in the Madison Avenue National Bank, went 
 to a small hotel in Bay View last Thursday night and gave orders to the clerk 
 that he was not to be called until very late the next morning. At noon he had 
 not put in an appearance and did not respond to repeated knocking at his door. 
 Finally the door was broken open and the lifeless body of Mr. Simpson found 
 upon the bed. He had killed himself with a revolver which was still clenched 
 in his right hand. It is said that Mr. Simpson was short in his accounts at 
 the bank and that he had been playing the races. He was married and had 
 one child. 
 
 ID. Owl car No. 256 on the Belt Line was approaching Linwood Avenue 
 last night at midnight. Three passengers were on the car, which was in charge 
 of S. B. Lindenberg and John H. Parker, motorman and conductor respectively. 
 Suddenly two men in masks jumped on the car. With a flourish of a pistol 
 one of the men ordered the motorman and conductor to run for their lives. 
 The other then proceeded to collect the valuables and spare change from the 
 passengers. He got in all about $157. Street-car officials are making an inves- 
 tigation. The robbers are thought to be youths imitating dime-novel heroes. 
 
 1 1, Mr. and Mrs. Matthews Staff, a newly wedded couple of Helena, Mon- 
 tana, and Mr. and Mrs. M. S. Evers, of Hammond, Indiana, went out in a 
 gasoline launch on Lake Michigan yesterday. A severe squall arose and the 
 launch was disabled. Death was imminent when the women bethought them- 
 selves of a plan of rescue. They removed their skirts, tore them into ribbons, 
 and set fire to them in the hope of attracting attention. The flames were seen 
 by surfmen at the South Chicago life-saving station. All four were rescued 
 in the nick of time. 
 
 12, Policeman Edward Schnitzler of the Brooklyn Squad goes by the name 
 of *' Hard-Luck Schnitzler " by his comrades because of the misfortunes he has 
 
270 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 had. His first wife and three children were lost in the General Slocum dis- 
 aster. Yesterday he was almost killed by a trolley car while on duty. He had 
 stepped out of the way of one car and walked directly in front of another. 
 He was struck by the wheels and crushed against a supporting pillar. The 
 motorman, Michael Allen, applied the brake as hard as he could, stopping the 
 car when Schnitzler's body was within five inches of the wheels. He was 
 removed to the Hudson Street hospital where it was said that his condition 
 was serkjus. 
 
 *" 1 5 I ire broke out in the factory of the Monarch Celluloid Collar Company, 
 1^'ourth and Hanover streets. Ciirls crowded together on the top story of this 
 structure. No fire escape. Four got panic-stricken and jumped to their death, 
 despite the warnings of the firemen who were putting up ladders. Seven were 
 injured by glass and falling debris. Some jumped into the life-saving nets ; 
 others were brought down by the firemen. At the time of the explosion of 
 celluloid, fifty people were working in the factory. The floors were piled with 
 collars being boxed for the market. Suddenly a shaft of light leaped up, ignited 
 the pile and communicated to the floor above. Wild panic : girls fainted ; 
 flames roared up the elevator shafts. Stairways blazed. One exciting feature 
 of the fire was the appearance of Hazel Jordan at an open window. Across 
 the narrow court was a jewelry shop, with a window open in the third story. 
 The girl jumped into the window. The crowd below was stupefied, then cheered. 
 Loss on the factory will reach $85,000, partly insured. Structure condemned 
 by building inspectors for not having fire escapes. Suits for damages contem- 
 plated. Ambulances took the girls to morgue, after bodies were recovered from 
 the ruins. Sorrowing relatives gathered around the ruins seeking their friends. 
 Company will rebuild in the spring. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hitchcock, who lived in a flat on East 158th 
 Street, were addicted to the use of opiates. One morning the husband went out 
 to buy more drugs and returned carrying a bag of red apples. He told his wife 
 to get ready for a long journey which they would go together — to death. 
 First they read a chapter of the Bible. Then Hitchcock had her write a note : 
 " I did this — the blame is mine," and sign it. Then he aimed the pistol and 
 fired. She awoke from her stupor and ran screaming from the room. Her 
 husband followed, shooting her again and again. She fell with four terrible 
 wounds. The madman set the curtain ablaze, reloaded his gun, climbed upon 
 the bed, shut his eyes and sent two bullets into his heart. The police found 
 the woman soon afterward in an unconscious condition. Ten days later she 
 opened her eyes in a hospital. When questioned she gave disjointed answers 
 confessing to the crime. The woman was tried and sent to Matteawan as an 
 insane murderess. Her friends believed in her innocence and em.ployed Dr. Ira 
 Van Gieson, an eminent alienist. In a hypnotic state she told a clear story of 
 the events of the shooting. Later, she was shown a bag of red apples and 
 suddenly her memory came back and she described every detail of the suicide. 
 She will probably be discharged. 
 
SKELETONS OF NEWS STORIES 27 1 
 
 15. The Island Queen was a boat plying between New York and Coney 
 Island, and was used during the summer season to carry passengers from the 
 city to the island. It was about 230 feet long and had three decks. The cap- 
 tain was Robert H. Davidson and the owners Coney Island Transportation 
 Company. The capacity of the boat was 2000. It was built in 1882 and had 
 never been repaired since. Its engines had rusted boilers. On the afternoon 
 of July 20th, the boat was loaded with 3000 people, overtaxing its capacity 
 and in violation of navigation laws. It was crossing the ocean when the boiler 
 blew up, killing three men in the engine room. Large hole rammed in side of 
 the boat. Fire added terror to the scene. Mad scramble for life preservers. 
 There were only a few, and these were useless and rotten. Only two boats 
 were available, and these were soon sunk by the people who swarmed into 
 them. Explosion had killed some of the passengers on the bow and injured 
 others. Boat rapidly sinking. Great confusion. Many jumped into the water 
 At last a tugboat came to the rescue ; also another passenger boat. Passen- 
 gers rescued with difficulty. Twenty-four people were missing. Ten bodies 
 were recovered. Investigations are under way to fix the blame for the disaster. 
 Negligence charged. Bodies of the dead were brought home on a tugboat. 
 Great grief awaited them on the docks surrounding the fateful scene. Island 
 Queen too badly wrecked to be repaired. Will be sold for junk. 
 
 16. A well-dressed man entered the cigar store of Charles Ross, 192 North 
 State Street, Chicago, and asked for a cigar. He threw down what appeared 
 to be a silver half dollar on the rubber mat on the show case. Ross was for- 
 merly a secret-service detective and detected the coin as counterfeit. He said : 
 '' That is bad money and you know it." He picked up the coin and broke it 
 into three pieces. The stranger expressed surprise and said he had no more 
 change with him, but would step out and get some from a friend. Ross tele- 
 phoned the Chicago Avenue Police Station. He then stepped to the door and 
 watched the man, who was shortlv joined by a companion. Two detectives. 
 Captain Swift and Sergeant Stone, responded. They shadowed the two men 
 and finally arrested them on Chicago Avenue. They made a complete confes- 
 sion and said they would find the counterfeits at No. 84 Cass Street. The detec- 
 tives entered a room in the attic of the four-story building at that number, 
 just as the counterfeiter was pouring molten lead into dies ; near by was a box 
 filled with spurious 25- and 50-cent coins. The man was startled by their 
 entrance. As he was very quiet the officers began searching the room, paying 
 little attention to him. While they were overhauling the contents of a bureau 
 drawer, the prisoner made a dash for the door and escaped. He was closely 
 followed but disappeared around a corner. They searched the neighborhood 
 until dark but could not find him. Everything in the room was confiscated, in- 
 cluding dies and counterfeiting outfit, with several boxes of 25- and 50-cent 
 coins, almost perfect imitations of real coins. 
 
 17. Many bills, including teachers' salaries and repairs, were allowed at 
 the meeting of the city school board last night. The president, B. H. Fox, 
 
2 72 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 was in the chair. II. I). Salvage offered an amendment to the building plans, 
 suggesting fire escapes on two buildings. Spirited debate followed between 
 various members of the board. President was compelled to rap for order 
 several times. Scathing remarks of a personal nature exchanged. Three new 
 teachers were elected. Plans were made for the installation of manual train- 
 ing and domestic science in one of the schools. Another bitter argument 
 between the conservatives and the progressives followed. One member left 
 the room in a rage. At the conclusion of the meeting Member Peter Wycoff 
 and Harold Duncan met in the corridors and started another discussion 
 which ended in blows, 'i'hey were parted by their friends. Small likelihood 
 of fire escapes being erected. Interviews. 
 
 18. Mr. and Mrs. John H. Norris with four children live at Grayson Ridge, 
 ci small country hamlet ten miles from Homewood. The hired man, James 
 Watkins, had gathered what he supposed to be mushrooms one afternoon. 
 The fungus was washed, sorted, and stewed by Mrs. Norris. All the members 
 of the family ate liberal portions, remarking on the peculiar flavor. Soon 
 afterward all were seized with convulsions, with the exception of Watkins, who 
 had eaten very little. Thomas Norris, aged 13, was not so violently sick and 
 managed to jump on a horse and ride to Homewood. After he had gasped 
 out his story to Dr. (ieorge Small he fell on the floor of the doctor's office, 
 dying soon afterward. Dr. Small telephoned for nurses and an ambulance 
 from St. Luke's hospital, then drove to the Norris home. He found Mrs. 
 Norris on the floor, with face distorted. By her side lay her husband, also in 
 great suffering. Two little girls clung to each other, while another was already 
 dead. By heroic work the life of one daughter, Madge, aged 15, was saved. 
 The others died before they could be taken to the hospital, although the 
 stomach pump was used. Great sorrow enshrouds Grayson Ridge, where the 
 family was prominent in church and social life. Watkins has disappeared. 
 
 19. Eleanor Gertrude Brown, blind, an orphan and poor, is attending 
 
 University that she may get a degree. She takes a slate to. class and 
 
 takes notes by means of the dot system. She reads the books at the blind in- 
 stitution, where she obtains them in raised letters. For some of her studies 
 she employs a reader. She writes her themes and examinations on a type- 
 writer. Miss Brown is very cheerful. She shows unusual ability. She has a 
 keen mind. She is now 21 and has been blind since babyhood. 
 
 ^-'. Three convicts escaped from Sing Sing. Following a rehearsal of 
 :ae prison orchestra, Ralph Taylor, Charles McCiinn, and William Rush stole 
 into the courtyard, instruments in hand. They beat down two guards with a 
 cornet and two flutes and slipped through an open space in the iron palings. 
 They crossed the river on ice. Alarm soon given, but fugitives lost in the fog. 
 Rush was the life-term prisoner, having been sentenced in 1902 for murder 
 in New York City. Ralph Taylor, known as the " silk-hat burglar," was serv- 
 ing a 2 1 -year term for burglary in Westchester county, and McCiinn was 
 serving a 5-year burglary term. Later — All three were captured in a haymow 
 
SKELETONS OF NEWS STORIES 273 
 
 ten miles distant by a posse of penitentiary guards. Gave battle, but were 
 handicapped by lack of weapons. All three returned to the prison. F. H. Green, 
 a farmer, who gave the information, received a reward of $150. 
 
 21. Shoe dealers of Harrisburg have organized an association to bring 
 about good fellowship and to promote the shoe business. They will rent club 
 rooms and install billiard tables and reading facilities. It is also planned to 
 advertise systematically in the newspapers and to announce sales in shoes 
 from time to time. At the meeting last night the advertising of large city con- 
 cerns was condemned. The dealers declared that shoddy goods were being 
 palmed off on customers who left Harrisburg to do their shopping. The follow- 
 ing officers were elected : Isidore S. Well, of the Well & Arnold Company, 
 president; Bert Smith, of the J. W. Smith Sons' Company, vice president ; 
 George Cornell, manager of the A. E. Harvey company, secretary ; and 
 Vincent Raub, of V. Raub & Son, treasurer. 
 
 22. A daring train robbery occurred on the Southern Pacific. The Over- 
 land Limited was held up by two masked bandits at a little station nine miles 
 west of Ogden, Utah. The robbery was planned and executed with a cool 
 daring. Two porters who refused to obey orders were shot down by the bandits. 
 Pullman passengers were relieved of all their valuables. Robbers then made 
 their escape on horseback. I'osse in pursuit, but have no clew. Logs had 
 been piled on the track and the train signaled to stop by means of a red 
 bandanna handkerchief waved by one of the robbers. 
 
 23. When the Pennsylvania t-xpicss pulled into O one night, Charles 
 
 Lane, the express messenger, was found dead in his car, with eight bullet 
 holes in his body. A revolver was discovered at his side, but not a car- 
 tridge had been discharged. There was blood everywhere. The door of the 
 strong box had been blown open and robbed of $45,000 and other valu- 
 ables. Lane was last seen alive at Milford Center, where he talked with the 
 
 train crew. There are no stops between Milford and C . When the train 
 
 arrived at repeated knocking failed to bring response from the express 
 
 messenger. The door was then blown open and the discovery made. Later in 
 the evening the police arrested William F. D. Ferrell, known to have been a 
 friend of Lane's and a frequent visitor to the express car. He was counting 
 the money when arrested. He confessed, giving as his reason that he was hard 
 pushed for money to cover the expenses of his approaching marriage. Let 
 Ferrell tell the story to the reporter in his cell at the prison. 
 
 24. The inventor of the hoop skirt and the" first sewing machine died at his 
 home in Hoboken, N. J., aged 83. His name was Joseph Thomas and he was 
 widely known as an inventor. He made millions of dollars by patents on self- 
 lighting lamps, a sulphur-match machine, and a braiding device, although his 
 fame will rest on his invention of the sewing machine. A pathetic feature of 
 Thomas's death was the fact that his wife died unknown to him ten days ago. 
 In his last hours he called to her again and again. The Thomases were 
 known in Hoboken as the ideal couple. Mr. Thomas often said it was his 
 
2 74 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 wife's suggestion that led him to make hoop skirts. He began disposing of 
 them at $300 a dozen, but the demand was so great that he sold the rights to 
 a large Philadelphia firm for #50,000. The sewing-machine rights also made 
 him a considerable fortune. He had no greed for money and died in only 
 comfortable circumstances. 
 
 25. Katie, for forty years a seller of red-cheeked apples near the green 
 graves of old St. Paul's, on the Vesey Street corner of Broadway, gave a fare- 
 well polish to her last apple yesterday afternoon. Her passing is like the pass- 
 ing of an old landmark. Few knew her as Katie Coghlan ; but not a business 
 man in the hum of Broadway failed to stop at her stand. She is a round little 
 body with jet black hair and the eyes of a girl. She knows all about the old 
 New York. She is on familiar terms with all the beggars and street gamins. 
 She began selling apples when eight years of age. She leaves her stand at the 
 apple booth because she is going to get married. His name nobody knows. 
 
 26. Normal City, Ind., has a one-man church. It is called the United 
 Brethren church and it was constructed by Rev. J. Walter Gibson, a young 
 minister who proved himself to be a jack of all trades as well as a preacher. 
 He drove the nails, laid the bricks, built the foundation, did the plastering, and 
 painted the church inside and out. He worked six days a week in overalls 
 and preached Sunday. The church will seat 900 people and is valued at 
 $10,000. The congregation is poor. The young minister gives his wife much 
 of the praise. " My wife helped a lot," he said, " so did the rest of the women. 
 They all wanted the church and didn't have the money, so I promised to 
 build them one." 
 
 27. The business section of Granville, Washington county, was swept by 
 fire, which started in a Hebrew clothing store in Main Street. The reservoir 
 which supplies the town with water was practically empty, so the firemen, who 
 responded promptly, were unable to cope with the flames. A high wind fanned 
 the fire into a fury, driving back the spectators for 200 feet. Two men and 
 one child, living in a near-by house are known to have been burned alive. 
 Fire apparatus was brought from surrounding towns, but little could be done 
 when it arrived. Miss Bessie Beck, night operator at the telephone exchange, 
 stuck to her post and sent calls for help, while the flames roared 200 feet away, 
 Loss will reach $250,000. 
 
 28. The Girard Council met Thursday evening to transact business. The 
 members were asked to grant rights to the proposed Youngstown and North- 
 ern railroad to cross Liberty Street and the Marshall road. They were favor- 
 able to the plan, but insist that plans be devised for the elimination of 
 dangerous grade crossings, A conference with the attorneys for the pro- 
 posed new road, Hine, Manchester & Kennedy, will likely be arranged soon 
 to ascertain what plans can be worked out in this regard, and also to glean 
 further information in regard to the proposed line. Any plan adopted will at 
 the same time tend for the elimination of the extremely dangerous B. & O. 
 grade crossings on the West Side, and at the proper time this company will 
 
SKELETONS OF NEWS STORIES 275 
 
 be invited to participate in the negotiations looking toward that end. Bids for 
 sewers in Districts Nos. i and 2 were carefully reviewed by the councilmen. 
 
 29. Ethel Barrymore recently acted Bertha in '' Bertha, the Sewing Machine 
 Girl," the Theodore Kramer melodrama, at a benefit performance for Marcus 
 Mayer, at the New York theater in New York. John Drew and Tyrone Power 
 supported her. Mr. Kramer himself staged the play. Mr. Kramer is reported 
 to be delighted at the prospect of having his play performed by gifted and 
 expert actors, for it is his belief that his plays, if competently acted, would 
 rank with those of Sardou. 
 
 30. '' Bought and Paid For," a new American play by George Broadhurst, 
 has had its first production with Henry E. Dixey as the star. The story told 
 is of a get-rich-quick man, in his 40's, who falls in love with a hotel telephone 
 girl, whom he marries. He is an excessive drinker at times, and his weakness 
 brings about conditions which his wife refuses to tolerate, and she leaves him. 
 How he loses her and wins her back forms the background of the play. Ida 
 Conquest played the wife and shared honors with the star. 
 
 3 1 . A man under the influence of liquor was found by two policemen at 
 2 o'clock in the morning, asleep on a park bench, minus his trousers. On be- 
 ing taken to the police station he begged for leniency. " Now, Jedge, let me 
 explain," he said, " you ain't got no call to lock me up. I know I took off my 
 pants. I admit it, but, Jedge, would n't you have did the same if seventeen 
 baby alligators had started to climb up your legs?" The judge ordered him to 
 the strong ward. 
 
 32. Large convention hall crowded Tuesday night with Sons of St. Patrick 
 from several states to celebrate the 25 th anniversary of the organization 
 of the society in county. 
 
 Decorations were elaborate. Great streamers of green stretched above. 
 Tables decorated with shamrock brought from the old country for the occasion. 
 Menu made up of national dishes of Ireland. Orchestra discoursed Irish airs 
 from the balcony. 
 
 Eight hundred sat down to the banquet. Edward B. Cathcart was the toast- 
 master. The speaker of the evening was Patrick Dale O'Connor, a distinguished 
 Hibernian of Chicago. Mr. O'Connor told some good Irish jokes that brought 
 peals of laughter. He spoke of the Irish as substantial citizens who had done 
 much to bring industry to America. He touched upon Irish statesmen and 
 soldiers and made an eloquent plea for a more just recognition of the services 
 of his countrymen. Addresses were also made by two local Hibernians. 
 
 33. Julius F. Stoneburner was a wealthy stove manufacturer of New York. 
 One afternoon he had his chauffeur, Peter Bernhardt, drive him from his 
 country home to the city. There he attended to some business and made a 
 visit to the Lotus club. Late in the afternoon he started home in his automobile. 
 At ten o'clock that night he had not arrived and his wife and daughter became 
 alarmed. They notified the police. The next morning the automobile was dis- 
 covered drawn up by the side of a country lane. The body of Mr. Stoneburner 
 
276 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 was found, cut in many places with a knife. He had been murdered early in 
 the evening, the police think. Bernhardt's cap was found close to the machine. 
 A reward has been offered for his arrest. He made threats on the merchant's 
 life in the hearing of employees. Mr. Stoneburner's wallet, containing 5600 in 
 bills, was missing. Later, Bernhardt was apprehended as he was stepping 
 aboard a liner to go to the old country, Germany, to join his sweetheart. 
 He confessed. 
 
 34. It was a dark, foggy night when the Nickel Plate Limited pulled out 
 
 from the station at S . The rails were made slippery by ice and sleet. 
 
 The engineer was trying to make up time, when of a sudden a yellow light 
 flashed ahead. It was the headlight of another locomotive. Brakes were applied, 
 but too late. The two trains came together. Fireman Henry Bohl and Engineer 
 John Burgess, of the Limited, jumped in time to save their lives. Thirteen 
 passengers on the passenger train were instantly killed, 23 injured. The freight 
 train was just pulling into the siding when the collision occurred. Orders did 
 not take into consideration the delay caused by the icy tracks. Investigations 
 under way. Wild scenes of disorder mingled with the screams of the injured 
 and dying. 
 
 35. Two young people, Otto Moore, aged 34, and Ruth Kindall, aged 24, 
 were out canoeing one afternoon near the mill race. The girl was very much 
 fascinated by a field of water lilies and, in spite of warnings on the part of her 
 companion, leaned over the side of the canoe, according to a story told by an 
 eyewitness. The craft tipped and threw them into the water. Both got into 
 the current of the stream and were swept over the dam. Both were drowned 
 before rescue could come. They were engaged to be married in a week. Miss 
 Kindall was buried in her bridal gown. 
 
 36. Billy Sunday addressed crowds of enthusiastic men in Memorial Hall 
 on the subject, " Booze." Over 9000 clamored on the outside of the hall to 
 gain an entrance. Kept back by the police. It was on the occasion of the 
 meeting of the Ohio County Option and Law Enforcement Convention and 
 on the eve of the vote on the Dean bill in the senate, nullifying the county 
 local-option law, giving the cities a right to vote separately on liquor issues. 
 Sunday, with red-hot enthusiasm, assailed the foes of temperance in language 
 that cut to the bone. He flung off his coat and preached in his shirt sleeves. 
 He stood on a chair and kept up a running fire of invective that raised the 
 crowd to a high pitch of excitement. All of his remarks were accompanied by 
 gestures that reminded one of the baseball field where he once played. These 
 are some of his remarks on temperance : 
 
 '' There is just one prime reason why the saloon has not been knocked into 
 hell, and that is the false statement that it is needed to help lighten taxes." 
 
 "To license such an incarnate fiend as the saloon is the dirtiest, most 
 damnable business on top of the old earth." 
 
 " The American home is the dearest heritage of the people, and the saloon 
 is the deadliest foe of the home." 
 
SKELETONS OF NEWS STORIES 
 
 277 
 
 " The saloon is the anarchist of the world, and its dirty red flag is dyed with 
 the blood of women and children." 
 
 "The curse of God is on the saloon. It is going down grade and is headed 
 straight for the infernal regions." 
 
 " I would not give one boy for all the dollars you get from the hell-soaked 
 saloon business." 
 
 37. Dr. J. W. White, superintendent of the Milwaukee hospital for the 
 insane at Wauwatosa, declares music is one of the best mediums he knows for 
 the cure of the insane. Experiments have been made with certain musical 
 selections, such as "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton," "Dixie," and "The Last 
 Rose of Summer " when patients were violent, with the result that they were 
 soon quieted. Those crazy on religious subjects grew more obsessed when 
 devotional melodies were played. It was also discovered that certain other 
 melodies were depressing in their effects upon patients. In many instances 
 music helped to distract the minds of patients from themselves and their mental 
 troubles. Nurses bear testimony to the soundness of the theory. 
 
 38. A flood warning has been issued by the weather department as a result 
 of a downpour of rain that is swelling all the rivers in the Allegheny and 
 Monongahela valleys. Henry W. Pennywitt, in charge of the bureau, has 
 issued the following statement: " I will not attempt to make a definite fore- 
 cast of the height of the crest of the flood at this time owing to lack of infor- 
 mation as to rises in the rivers and because the rainfall is not over, but we 
 will have 25 feet or more by Monday afternoon, and all interests affected by 
 25 feet of water should remove their goods to places of safety." Two inches 
 of rain on the watershed of the Monongahela, and an inch of rain or more on 
 the watersheds of the Youghiogheny and Kiskiminetas rivers, make the situa- 
 tion dangerous. It is certain that the rivers will pass the flood stage of 24 feet, 
 and this may possibly be exceeded by a few feet. (Add later developments.) 
 
 39. The scene of the wedding is the Washburn homestead at Tuxedo Park, 
 Longview. The bride is Miss Marcella Washburn, leader of the younger set 
 of society folk, a graduate of Smith College in the class of 1908. She is an 
 accomplished musician and had several pictures in the exhibition of water-color 
 paintings at the Philadelphia exhibition. She was awarded a silver cup at a 
 recent tennis tournament. The bridegroom is Robert B. Gary, a young busi- 
 ness man of Muncie, Indiana. He is a graduate of Wabash College, class of 
 1907. Member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. While in college was noted 
 as an athlete. Met Miss Washburn in a tennis tournament for amateur cham- 
 pionship honors and played doubles with her as partner, defeating all comers. 
 
 Elaborate preparations for the wedding. Huge bell of white flowers ; masses 
 of roses banked the room. Episcopal service used. Rev. Dudley H. Frisbie, 
 
 rector of , pronounced the ceremony. Many attendants. Bride's gown 
 
 of unusual beauty. Elaborate wedding supper followed the ceremony, which 
 
 took place at six o'clock. The bride's father, , gave her #10,000 as a 
 
 wedding gift. Will take a European tour as a honeymoon. 
 
278 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 40. Man wearing the cap of a gas inspector and carrying a lighted lantern 
 entered the home of Mrs. Rudolph Sprague in East Douglas Avenue at four 
 o'clock Tuesday afternoon. He told the servant at the door he had come to 
 see the gas meter. Rapidly ascending the stairs, the ruffian made his way to 
 the room of Mrs. Sprague, who is the wife of the president of the Merchants' 
 National Bank, and held her up at the muzzle of a revolver. 
 
 Mrs. Sprague, terror stricken, yielded to him $45,000 in jewelry, including 
 a magnificent diamond brooch given her by Mr. Sprague as a wedding present. 
 The man swore at her and beat a retreat. Mrs. Sprague fainted. 
 
 When she was revived she told her story, and the police were notified. A 
 description of the thief was given them. Late at night he was captured as he 
 was boarding a coal train. The diamonds were found in his coat pocket. 
 
 Mrs. Sprague had a similar experience while attending a theater a year ago. 
 She wore the diamonds, and as she was getting into her carriage at the end of 
 the performance a man pushed forward and clutched the gems. Bystanders 
 wrestled with him, but he fled up the alley without the diamonds. He is said 
 to be the same man who planned the robbery of Tuesday. 
 
 At the police station the man gave his name as Richard Robinson, a stone 
 mason. He declared he had admired the diamonds for a long time. He wanted 
 money to cover his wedding expenses. 
 
SUGGESTIONS FOR FEATURE AND 
 NEWS STORIES 
 
 1 . Visit a college bookstore and discover what kinds of books college 
 students are reading aside from their school texts. This may be applied 
 to a dormitory. What percentage of secondhand books is disposed of 
 at the end of the year .'' 
 
 2. Make a distinction between the old and new type of college pro- 
 fessor, drawing a picture of each and making local application. An 
 interview with an '' old grad " should prove interesting in this connection. 
 
 3. Visit a candy store and ask to be shown how confections are 
 manufactured. Go into the kitchen, if you can, and there watch the 
 " chocolate dippers " and the girls who put the coloring on the candy 
 sticks. A vivid picture of the various processes will make good reading. 
 
 4. Examine the new designs in picture post cards in some shop. 
 Where are post cards manufactured ? Do they follow any certain style 
 from year to year .'' Is their popularity increasing ? Quote the opinion 
 of some of the dealers. 
 
 5. Visit the police court in your town and investigate the awarding of 
 justice. Attend a session of court and describe the prisoner at the bar, tell- 
 ing his story if it proves interesting. A pen picture should be available. 
 
 6. How do college students make money? What are some of the 
 occupations they pursue to work their way through college ? Enumerate 
 some of the things they do. Be particular about names. 
 
 7. What are some of the hobbies of the professors? Seek out your 
 instructors and engage them in conversation on their pastimes and 
 recreations. Let them tell the story in their own words. 
 
 8. What books have been written by some of your college professors ? 
 Are there any novels or books of poetry numbered among their publica- 
 tions ? How many of your instructors are listed in " Who 's Who " ? 
 
 9. Interview the telephone girls at the Exchange regarding their work 
 and tribulations. What are the requirements for a good operator ? What 
 treatment do they receive from patrons ? Stories of the '' hello " girl. 
 
 10. What the college barber says as he shaves you. Have safety 
 razors hurt the business ? Troubles of the profession. Reminiscences 
 of the old days when your father was in school. 
 
 279 
 
28o ESSENTIALS IN JOI'RNALISM 
 
 11. Is the high cost of living reflected in the life of the college student ? 
 Have board bills increased ? Is more money spent on luxuries than in 
 years past ? Have standards of living been raised ? 
 
 12. Interesting things in the museums. Eind where some of the most 
 noteworthy exhibits have come from. What is the smallest exhibit ? the 
 largest .'* the most valuable ? the most extraordinary ? 
 
 13. Who is the favorite actress among college students.'' the favorite 
 actor ? Why ? Apply the same questions to authors and musicians. 
 
 ] 4. What do a college girl's clothes cost her as compared with a 
 college man's.-* Have the expenses for wardrobe increased arbitrarily? 
 
 15. Talk with the janitors and caretakers around the university cam- 
 pus and in the halls. What stories do they tell of the old days ? What 
 are their troubles and tribulations ? Recite the pranks of students who 
 are now famous men. 
 
 16. Visit the railroad station and paint a picture of some of the inter- 
 esting people you see in the waiting rooms or taking trains. Describe 
 the scene as the train is announced. Do you see any little comedies 
 and tragedies in the making ? 
 
 17. Walk rapidly past a shop window and describe accurately what 
 you have seen. 
 
 18. Describe a football practice for a newspaper. Give the names 
 of some of the players and detail some of the plays. Keep your eye on 
 the coach and report all that you see. 
 
 19. Attend a meeting of the Salvation Army and describe the kind of 
 people you encounter and the effect of exhortation upon them. Give 
 a description of the men and women dressed in Army garb who are 
 giving testimony. 
 
 20. Attend a Sunday service and write a description of what the 
 preacher is like without mentioning the church or the name of the 
 minister. Watch for the fundamental image or impression. 
 
 21. Describe the training table at which the college athletes eat their 
 meals. What kind of food is served .'* What are some of the exactions 
 placed upon the players by the trainers .'* 
 
 22. Consult well-known business men on how they earned their first 
 nickels. Tell the story in their exact words. 
 
 23. What is the oldest house in town ? Describe it and tell something 
 of its history and occupants. 
 
 24. Visit a bakery and give an accurate description of what you have 
 seen. Bear in mind that your description must have an appeal to the 
 general public. 
 
FEATURE AND NEWS STORIES 28 1 
 
 25. Attend a session of the juvenile court and contrast its procedure 
 with that of a police court or a court of appeal. Paint the picture of 
 some of the boys you see before the judge. 
 
 26. Engage the Chinese laundryman in conversation and find out what 
 you can about his life and occupation. What does he think of America ? 
 
 27. What kind of work is being done by the boys and girls in manual- 
 training schools .'' Visit one of these schools and describe what you have 
 seen. 
 
 28. Who is the champion fisherman in your town ? Who holds the 
 championship for checkers ? Describe these men and if possible detail 
 one or two of their most exciting games. 
 
 29. Engage some old soldier in conversation on the battles he has 
 seen. Get him to describe the fiercest conflict he know^s. If he has been 
 a prisoner of war, secure a picture of life behind the walls. 
 
 30. Drop into a moving-picture show during the week. Watch the 
 audience, then question the manager about the kind of films that are 
 popular and the average attendance at the exhibitions. Quote directly, 
 and don't be afraid to give a picture of the setting. 
 
 31. Write a 200-word story on market day in a big city. Saturday 
 morning and night are the best times to observe at the various markets. 
 Pick out two or three important things, not forgetting to work in pictur- 
 esque detail. A picture or two of some of the venders, how they talk, 
 and what they sell, will make good copy. 
 
 32. The city editor has been instructed to secure a descriptive story 
 urging the installation of sanitary drinking fountains on the streets 
 
 of . You are sent to make observations and to picture the evils of the 
 
 cup-to-mouth system now in vogue. Present the facts; don't editorialize. 
 
 33. Make a visit to a five-and-ten-cent store — preferably on Saturday 
 — in quest of materials for a 200-word description. Watch the crowds 
 and talk to some of the clerks about their work. 
 
 34. Find a chair in a lobby of one of the down-town hotels. Observe 
 the crowds that come in. Write a 200-word description of the interesting 
 things you see. You may get a good story from a traveling man. Try 
 your conversational gifts on one. 
 
 35. Write a 150-word story of the de'but of Miss Clarabelle Clemmons 
 as a professional singer. Miss Clemmons was educated in the Boston 
 Conservatory of Music, and this is her first appearance since her gradua- 
 tion. She is the daughter of Judge and Mrs. Benjamin N. Clemmons. 
 Opera house crowded with old friends. Miss Clemmons made a brief 
 speech following an enthusiastic welcome home. 
 
282 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 36. Write a descriptive story of a St. Valentine celebration given by the 
 
 young ladies of the university for the men students. The place is 
 
 Hall, decorations are red hearts, refreshments ice cream molded in 
 heart shape. The man who made the best proposal received a prize. 
 Insert fictitious names and specific facts and give it the semblance of 
 a real event. 
 
 37. Write a description of a historic building about to be torn down, 
 with some account of its associations in the past. 
 
 38. Interview the cemetery custodian and get from him facts bearing 
 on noted burials that have taken place during the years he has been sex- 
 ton. Give a brief description of some of the best known monuments. 
 
 39. Detail plans to beautify the city in which you live. What street 
 improvements do you notice ? What new buildings } What landscape 
 gardening ? What park extension ? 
 
 40. Foreign holidays celebrated in the city. Interview Italians, Chi- 
 nese, or any other race and learn of their folk customs and their days 
 of celebration. If possible attend one of these ceremonies. 
 

 GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS TO REPORTERS 
 AND COPY READERS 
 
 PUNCTUATION 
 
 1. Sentences are preferred to a too liberal use of the semicolon or 
 colon. Avoid complex constructions. 
 
 2. Use commas and semicolons in baseball records; as, Columbus, 
 7 ; Kansas City, 3. 
 
 3. In lists of names and addresses use this style: George Smith of 
 Lancaster. Among those present were : John W. Short, Logan ; Philip 
 F. Jones, Pittsburgh. 
 
 4. In summarizing athletic events follow this style : Relay — Graham, 
 first; Jenkins, second; Higgin, third. Time — 9: 10 1-3. 
 
 5. Omit comma before and in such constructions as John, Howard 
 and William. ^ 
 
 6. Run list of officers thus : President, George W. Smart ; vice presi- 
 dent, William R. Hearst ; secretary, Charles R. Mayers. 
 
 7. Use commas sparingly. 
 
 8. Use comma or exclamation point after oh^ but not after O (O Lord). 
 
 QUOTATION MARKS 
 
 I . " LTse the ordinary double marks to inclose the alternating speeches 
 in a dialogue ; also all utterances repeated in the exact language of the 
 original speaker. Where a quotation occurs within a quotation, use the 
 ' single ' marks to designate it. If you should have still a third quotation 
 'inside of these "single" marks,' use double ones again. Where the 
 same speaker continues through more than one paragraph, omit the 
 quotation marks at the end of all paragraphs except the last, but repeat 
 them at the beginning of every paragraph. Be sure not to forget to 
 mark the close of the quotation," says E. L. Shuman. 
 
 2. Do not quote names of newspapers, magazines, animals, cars, steam- 
 ships and the like. 
 
 3. Quote titles of books, plays, toasts, songs, lectures and the like ; as, 
 " The Unpardonable Sin." Include the as a part of the quotation. 
 
 283 
 
284 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 4. Omit quotations and periods in nicknames ; as, Dan^ Bill wJ'idi, Joe. 
 t^. Quote name of play or book, but not name of character. 
 6. Extracts and poetical quotations set in smaller type than the body 
 of the article are not to be quoted. 
 
 ABBREVIATIONS 
 
 1. Abbreviate the names of the months (except March, April, May, 
 June, July) when followed by the date, as Nov. 16, but spell out when 
 followed by the year. 
 
 2. Abbreviate names of states or territories when preceded by name 
 of town or county ; as, Augusta, Me. 
 
 3. When used before the full name abbreviate -Prof., Dr., Rev.; as, 
 Prof. J. V. Detiney, Dr. J. P\ Jones, Rev. Washington Gladden. Spell out 
 when used before the surname only, except in the case of a clergyman. 
 Say Rev. Mr. Jones. 
 
 4. Abbreviate .5'/'. and/r., following names. 
 
 5. Do not use etc. in stories. Use &c. only in referring to business firms. 
 
 6. Spell out avenue, street, railroad, brothers, Republican, De?nocratic, 
 governor, president, superinte7ide?it. 
 
 7. Do not abbreviate proper names ; as, Chas., Jno., Jos. 
 
 8. Do not use an abbreviation that can be misunderstood ; as, Co., 
 which may stand for Co?npany or County. 
 
 TITLES 
 
 1. Do not use Mr. when initials or baptismal name are given. The 
 second time the man is mentioned in your story ordinarily use Mr. 
 unless he has a professional title. 
 
 2. Do not use Master in referring to a boy. 
 
 3. When a person has more than one title use the highest rank ; as, 
 Dr. Ja?nes Smith, rather than Prof. James Smith. If he has rightfully 
 two titles, as Judge and Colonel, use the one last acquired or the one 
 more commonly used by his friends. 
 
 4. Write James Smith and Mrs. Smith or Mr. and Mrs. James Smith, 
 not James S??iith and 7vife. 
 
 5. Do not write the Rev. James Smith, D.D. or Dr. Ja?nes Smith, M.D. 
 
 6. Use Mrs. before the name of a married woman ; Miss before the 
 name of an unmarried woman. In giving a list of married women it is 
 permissible to precede it with Mesdames ; Misses before list of unmarried 
 women, always using Christian names or initials. 
 
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS 285 
 
 FIGURES 
 
 1. Figures are used only where the word by is between numerals', 
 as 15 by 20 feet, but in isolated cases figures are spelled when not so 
 connected if expressed in numerals less than 100 ; as, '' sixteen feet wide, 
 twenty-five feet long, and twelve feet high."' 
 
 2. In horse-racing matter a colon is used in expressing minutes and 
 seconds ; as, " Time, i : 53)^ ." In other records, w^here colon is not used, 
 the words minntes and seconds are spelled. Events expressed in minutes 
 and seconds are written with figures ; as, '' The ship crossed in 5 days, 
 6 hours and 17 minutes." But when only one term is given it is spelled ; 
 as, ''The run was made in the record time of five days." Football 
 score, ''17 to 12." Shooting score, "12 birds killed out of 15." 
 
 3. Ciphers are not used in run-in matter where only dollars are given; 
 as, $2, $2.50 and $3. 
 
 4. Use figures in giving result of ballots; as, '' 28 for, 30 against."' 
 
 5. Use figures in giving ages. 
 
 6. Use figures for street numbers and time of day. 
 
 7. In all other news matter spell out definite numbers up to 10; 
 beyond that use figures. Exception : when a number of two figures 
 occurs in proximity to one of three or more, both should be put in 
 figures ; as, 60 zuo?fie?i and ^41 men. 
 
 8. Spell out all approximate numbers ; as, nearly a thousand, a dozen, 
 three or four hundred, half a million. 
 
 9. In brief, use figures for dimensions, votes, dates, calibers, per cents, 
 degrees of temperature, betting odds, and bond terms. 
 
 CAPITALIZATION 
 
 1. W'hen the words railivay, railroad, eompajiy, society, association, 
 union, club, bank, theater, acade?ny, school, depot, church, or hotel follow 
 the name, do not capitalize them, except when the word is a part of a 
 title ; as, Hoffman House. 
 
 2. Do not capitalize the name of any board or department, whether 
 of an ordinary club or of a national or state institution. For example, 
 board of directors, board of trade, board of police commissiono's, department 
 of state, department of treasuiy, etc. 
 
 3. Do not capitalize names of governments, legislative bodies, etc., 
 whether used in connection with the name or alone. For example, the 
 Brazilian gover?wient, the United States senate, the house of lords, the 
 assembly, board of aldermen, city council, etc. 
 
286 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 4. Where /^^7/, mountain^ valley, istJwius, island, peninsula, ocean, sea, 
 sound, l>av, gulf, strait, channel, lake, or ?-iver follows the name, do not 
 capitalize them. For example, the Grampian hills, the JVhite mountains, 
 the Shenandoah valley, the Arctic ocean, the Jura sound. 
 
 5. Names of political parties are to be capitalized. For example, 
 Republican, Democratic, Socialist, Prohibition, Liberals, Conservatives, 
 Nationalists. 
 
 6. Capitalize all names and pronouns referring to the Deity or to 
 the Bible. 
 
 7. Capitalize all notable events, such as the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, the War of 18 12, the Civil War. Likewise, capitalize names of 
 holidays. 
 
 8. Capitalize names of religious denominations, titles of nobility, 
 distinctive names of localities, nicknames of baseball teams. 
 
 9. Do not capitalize names of seasons. 
 
 10. Do not capitalize names of schools or divisions in other univer- 
 sities or colleges ; as, department of che?nist?y. 
 
 11. Do not capitalize sejiior, junior, sophoniore, f-eshman. 
 
 12. Do not capitalize college degrees when they are spelled out. 
 
 13. When in doubt as to use of capitals, avoid them. 
 
 COMPOUNDS 
 
 1 . Generally speaking, when used in regular grammatical construction, 
 all words should be written separately ; but when two words are united 
 to express a distinctly new meaning, they should be either one word or 
 connected by the hyphen, and whether or not the hyphen be used in the 
 combination, the result is a compound word, with a signification wholly 
 different from that which the same words convey when written separately. 
 For example, blackbird as one word refers to a particular species of 
 bird, while black bird means any bird that is black ; a sa7nple-card is 
 plainly a card to which are attached samples, as buttons or the like, 
 while a sa??iple card is itself a sample. It remains, then, a question as 
 to what compound words should take the hyphen, and which ones should 
 be written as one word. 
 
 2. 'J'wo words, the last of which is a noun, though in their usual con- 
 struction separate, are hyphened when put before a noun which they 
 qualify ; as, high-water mai'k, binfs-eye vieiv, civil-sennce rifles, up-hill 
 business, eight-hour law, disoi'derly-house keeper, high-school scholars. 
 
 '' The high school opens for the fall term next Monday." But, '' The 
 high-school building is being renovated." 
 
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS 287 
 
 3. When each of the words of which a compound is formed retains its 
 original accent, the parts are united by the hyphen ; but when the com- 
 pound word has only one accent, its parts should be joined without the 
 hyphen. To this rule, however, there are some exceptions ; as, 
 
 a. There are a few compound words in which the primitives re- 
 tain their original accent which are written as one word ; as, ever- 
 Iasti?ig, notwithstaiidifig^ and almost all those beginning with ovei'-, 
 unde?'- ; as, overbearing^ overbalance^ overdrawn^ underlying^ understand^ 
 understrapper. 
 
 b. Nouns formed of a verb and an adverb or preposition, as a break- 
 down, a lock-out, a start-up, take the hyphen. 
 
 c. Adjectives which are formed in a great variety of ways, as heaii- 
 broken, two-leaved, ill-bred, above-mentiojied, good-looki?ig, hard-working, 
 grown-up, unlooked-for, unheard-of, should be joined by the hyphen. 
 
 4. Use the hyphen in words in which two vowels occur together ; as, 
 co-operation, re-elect. 
 
 5. Omit the hyphen in today and tomorrow. 
 
 6. In case of doubt on the compounding or division of words consult 
 a standard dictionary. 
 
 HEADINGS 
 
 1. In the writing of the head, utilize features that are emphasized in 
 the opening paragraphs of the story. Avoid beginning with A or The. 
 
 2. Abbreviate as little as possible. 
 
 3. Never make a damaging assertion in the head which is not borne 
 out by the rest of the story. 
 
 4. Avoid negative statements. Strive for action. 
 
 5. To prevent monotony, avoid beginning the decks with the same 
 words or the same general cast of sentence structure. 
 
 6. Space the words to prevent the necessity of breaking them into 
 syllables at the end of the line. This refers especially to the display lines. 
 
 7. The verb in a line or division usually should be in the present 
 tense, but whatever tense is used, it should be preserved throughout. 
 
 8. Do not repeat a principal word in any of the divisions of a heading. 
 
 9. P^ach bank of the heading should be complete in itself, expressing 
 a distinct thought. 
 
 10. Avoid the use of the auxiliary verb be. Its use tends to weaken 
 the line. '' Columbus burns " is stronger than " Columbus is burned." 
 
 r I . Count spaces as well as letters. Each letter counts one unit, 
 except I, which is one half, and M and W, which are two each. 
 
288 
 
 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Specimens of Heads from the Stylesheet used by the 
 Western Newspaper Union, Chicago 
 
 1 6 units — full 
 
 I o- 1 2 words 
 
 24 units 
 20 words 
 
 16 units — full 
 
 <S words 
 
 1 4- 1 8 words 
 
 21-22 units 
 
 7-8 words 
 
 (Heading No. I.) 
 
 Me IIF IS 
 BROUGHI 10 GIIIEF 
 
 POLICE FINALLY DISCOVER NE- 
 FARIOUS USE CRIMINAL HAD 
 MADE OF WALKING STICK. 
 
 4 c 
 
 2 c 
 
 HAD LONG BEEN A MYSTERY 3 c 
 
 After the Arrest of William Golswey, 
 in the Act of Making Away With a q •• 
 Large Bundle of Bank Notes, Paris- 
 ian Authorities Rest Easier. 
 
 (Heading No. 3.) 
 
 EKDS AN OLD lOWN 
 
 4 c 
 
 "Athens of Missouri" Disincor- 3 j^ 
 porated by Court Order. 
 
 2 Ic 
 
 Edinburg Dies a Natural Death When 
 Railroads Pass It By — Was Noted 
 for Its Beauty and an Ex- 
 cellent College. 
 
 'Heading No. 13.' 
 
 LLOYD KEEPS HIS OFFICE 8 c 
 
 Missourian Re-elected Head of Con- 
 gressional Campaign. 
 
 2 Ic 
 
1 6 units 
 
 TO words 
 
 24 units 
 1 2 words 
 
 GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS 
 
 (Heading No. lOJ 
 
 289 
 
 GHOST WAS THERE ^ ^ 
 IN FIGHTING FORM 
 
 THROWS HOT COALS, CANDLES 
 AND STONES AT AN INVESTI- 2 C 
 
 GATING CONSTABLE. 
 
 (Heading No. 12.) 
 
 NSIST ON THEIR DEMANDS 3 c 
 
 Anthracite Miners, in Session to Con- 
 
 sider New Arrangement, Predict 2 IC 
 
 Strike Will Be Called. 
 
 24-26 units 
 8-10 words 
 
 22 units 
 
 25-28 units 
 
 24 units 
 18-25 units 
 
 (Heading No. 14.) 
 MINERS IN CONVENTION. 
 
 2 c 
 
 Question of Anthracite Workers Strike n i^ 
 to Be Settled. 
 
 (Heading No. 15.) 
 
 BOWMAN'S TALES DIFFER 3 c 
 
 (Heading No. 16.) 
 
 Missouri Woman Found Father. 3 Ic 
 
 (Heading No. 17.) 
 ASK COURT TO CHANGE NAME. 2 C 
 
 (Heading No. 18.) 
 Hurt in Wabash Wreck. 
 
 2 Ic 
 
 I Note. To indicate the style of heading wanted, use the number shown 
 
 * over each sample. The figures and letters shown at the end of the lines indi- 
 cate the number by which that particular type is known in the office and com- 
 posing room. C means caps ; Ic, lower case. The figures at the left indicate 
 _ the number of letters and spaces in each division. 
 
290 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 PREPARATION OF COPY 
 
 Suggestions that may be of service to the beginner who is unacquainted 
 with newspaper practices in the preparation of copy are here stated briefly : 
 
 1. Use a typewriter whenever possible. Use double or triple space. 
 Write on one side of the paper only. Indent for a paragraph half the 
 width of the page. 
 
 2. Leave a wide margin at the top of the first page for the writing of 
 the head. Be sure to write your name at the top of the sheet. Do not 
 forget to number the pages. In some offices the figure i written after 
 the reporter's name indicates that the story is new, while the figure 2 
 signifies the story has been rewritten from another paper. These marks 
 are important. When you have an exclusive story, mark it '' exclusive." 
 
 3. Never begin a paragraph at the bottom of the page. It necessitates 
 the rewriting of a part of the paragraph by a copy reader. Never divide 
 a word on the last line of a page, especially names. Many offices insist 
 that every paragraph be marked, either by the appropriate printer's sign or 
 by a right angle drawn to inclose the first word or letter of the paragraph. 
 
 4. When you are writing dialect or unfamiliar expressions write " fol- 
 low copy," that the matter may be set just as you write it ; otherwise it 
 may be changed by the copy man or proof reader. This is especially true 
 when you have occasion to quote bad English. If you have indicated an 
 alteration in your copy that you find later to be unnecessary, you may 
 restore the original construction by the word stet^ meaning "let it remain." 
 
 5. When time presses, circles may be drawn around abbreviations 
 indicating that such words are to be spelled out by the compositor. It 
 is best to ring all periods or to write x to stand for them. 
 
 6. When you wish to elide a letter draw an oblique line through it 
 from right to left. An oblique line from left to right makes it a small 
 letter. Three lines drawn under a letter or a word show that capital 
 letters are wanted. Two lines mean small caps ; one line, italics. 
 
 7. Read over everything you write before handing it in. Notice what 
 changes have been made in your story when printed and change your style 
 accordingly. Watch the typographical style of your own paper constantly. 
 If you must use clippings, paste them on your copy ; don't pin them. 
 
 8. Do not write two stories on the same sheet, unless very closely con- 
 nected under the same head. The copy reader is often annoyed by a long 
 string of paragraphs that must be sorted out for various parts of the paper. 
 
 9. Use an '' end mark " to indicate your story is completed. A cross 
 made of parallel lines (#) or the figures 30 in a circle may be used. 
 
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS 29 1 
 
 SUGGESTIONS ON NEWS GATHERING 
 
 1 . Always get names in full, and be sure of the correct spelling. 
 
 2. Avoid " it is rumored," " it is said." State your authority. 
 
 3. Always get street addresses and be sure that they are complete 
 and correct. The person who is incidental at the outset may become a 
 primary actor a few hours later. 
 
 4. Get all the facts you can. It is easier to throw away what is not 
 needed than it is to find your subject a second time. 
 
 5. Cultivate your friends. A chance hint may put you on track of a 
 fine story. 
 
 6. If you have to take some one's word for a thing, be sure to state 
 that fact in what you write. Always place the responsibility where it 
 belongs. 
 
 7. Never forget that while working on some simple stor}^ you may 
 uncover a big one. While you keep your senses concentrated on the 
 subject in hand, be alert to all others. 
 
 8. The biggest stories do not come from the biggest people. The 
 dismissed butler or the dissatisfied policeman may give you information 
 that the head of the house or the chief of police thinks he can hide 
 from you. 
 
 9. Be ver)^ careful about tides to which any one may have a right; 
 also about the relation any one person in your story may bear to some 
 one else. 
 
 I o. Never assume any portion of your story is true until you are sure. 
 Get both sides. If you have to interview a man accused of crime, treat 
 him as though he were the victim and tell him you want his side of the 
 story. If it does n't harmonize with the other man's, that is n't your fault. 
 
 11. Be sure of your facts and don't accept gossip, especially about 
 women. 
 
 12. Be frank in your ignorance. If you are gathering facts concerned 
 with an event or subject of which you have little real knowledge, seek the 
 cooperation of people who do know. They will usually be glad to 
 explain matters. 
 
 13. It frequently happens that a good story may be secured when the" 
 man who recites it does not know you are a reporter. In this event it is 
 best not to ask too many questions. Be a good listener. A sympathetic 
 attitude will warm many a man into fluent speech. 
 
 14. Depend largely upon your memory. Almost every man grows 
 awkward and cautious once a reporter's notebook is pulled on him and 
 
292 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 he is made to realize he is being quoted word for word. Important 
 facts may be jotted down after you leave the man who has given the 
 information. 
 
 15. Get the story you are sent for — and a couple more. 
 
 16. When you can see a man face to face don't use the telephone. 
 It causes misunderstanding and inaccuracy, due to poor articulation 
 and a desire to hide the truth. It often happens that a man " hangs up " 
 a receiver in a reporter's ear when he does not desire to answer a 
 question. Much can be interpreted by the expression of the face and 
 by characteristic gestures. 
 
 17. Be cautious of the man who has an ax to grind or who may have 
 a grudge against a certain person or institution. Countless libel suits 
 have resulted because of too implicit trust in men who want to get even 
 through the paper. 
 
 18. When the principals of a story are too excited to talk, question 
 the children of the household — especially in case of a sudden accident. 
 They are more likely to tell a straight story and to be less unstrung 
 by circumstances. 
 
 19. Ask direct questions when a man tells you "there is no news." 
 Many people do not know news when they see it ; in other cases forget 
 when not prodded into recollection. 
 
 20. A neat business card often serves as an entering wedge. 
 
 21. Don't give all your information to other newspaper men or dis- 
 close the source of your information. An '' exclusive " story is better 
 than a '' rewrite." 
 
 22. When a man who has information is busy, don't begin with tedi- 
 ous cross-questioning. Come to the point immediately and give the 
 impression that you are busy, too. He may answer your questions to 
 get rid of you. 
 
 23. Don't be discourteous to your informant. Keep your temper even 
 when people slam the door in your face. Above all don't let your dis- 
 gruntled feelings creep into your story. 
 
 24. Most papers want as many pictures as they can get. When you 
 are on the lookout for news, keep your eye on pictorial possibilities. 
 
 25. Cultivate rapidity in the gathering and writing of news. 
 
 26. Don't be particular about your meals when you are on the scent 
 of a story that may get away from you. 
 
 27. Build up your sources of news. 
 
 28. A reputation for ACCURACY is worth dollars and cents. 
 
GLOSSARY OF NEWSPAPER TERMS 
 
 A. P. Abbreviation for Associated Press. 
 
 Add. An addition of later information made to a story already written or 
 in type. Usually tacked on at the end of the story, sometimes taking a heading 
 of its own. 
 
 Bank. One of the divisions of a heading. Sometimes called a deck. 
 
 Bastard Type. Type with a face larger or smaller than its regular body, 
 as an 8-point face on a lo-point body. 
 
 Beat. See Rim. 
 
 Break Line. The last line of a paragraph when it contains white space. 
 In head writing the term signifies a display line of type which contains white 
 space on either side. Thus : 
 
 BARONESS OE WIEYER 
 
 KIEETS HER MATCH 
 
 Catch Line. A phrase or sentence set in capitals and inserted between 
 the divisions of a heading. Generally set the full width of the column. 
 
 Copy. A word applied to all manuscript in a newspaper office. Copy is 
 prepared for publication by copy )'eaders. Clean copy requires little editing, 
 but is printed as written. TitJie copy is clipped matter kept in type for use in 
 emergencies or for early or special editions. 
 
 Cross-eyed Interview. A printed expression of opinion without citing the 
 name of the person interviewed. Sometimes called a blind interview. 
 
 Cub. An untrained reporter who is learning how to collect and write news. 
 
 Dead. A term applied to composed type once used in the newspaper and 
 not to be used again. 
 
 Dope. Slang for material or a collection of facts to be used in a story. 
 Also used extensively in sporting stories to forecast results of athletic bouts, 
 races, games, and the like. 
 
 Extended Type. A fatter letter than the standard for any given size of 
 type, in contradistinction to condensed. Thus : 
 
 EXTENDED 
 
 CONDENSED 
 
 Extra. An edition of the paper, other than regular editions, published in 
 the event of important news developments. 
 
 293 
 
294 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Fake. An untruthful or imaginative story disguised as real news. 
 
 Fall Down. Slang for the reporter's failure to get the facts of the story 
 assigned him, or for which he is held responsible. ♦ ■, 
 
 Feature. To feature or play up a story is to give some element of it 
 unusual prominence, because of its freshness, setting, or breadth of appeal. 
 The featui'e of a story is its most interesting detail as introduced into the 
 first paragraph. A feature story is one in which the news element is made 
 subordinate. 
 
 Flimsy. Thin tissue paper used in typing telegraph stories as they come 
 off the wire. 
 
 Galley. A long, shallow copper tray in which printers place the string of 
 composed type. When filled, a galley proof is taken from the type for 
 corrections. 
 
 Gothic. Heavy black-faced type, in contradistinction to light faced. 
 
 Guide Line. A key word written on a story by a copy reader as a guide to 
 the foreman in assembling the parts. Thus the sections of a suicide story 
 might be designated Suicide /, ^, j. 
 
 Hanging Indention. The setting in of a line or body of type at the left of 
 the column. The longer the line the greater the width of the indention. 
 Paragraphs are indented the space of an em ; namely, the square of the body 
 of any size of type. A hanging indention has the first line full, or fiush^ the 
 succeeding lines set in. Thus : 
 
 Denver Magistrate Says That 
 the Best and the Worst Men 
 Are Those Who Have Re- 
 ceived College Training 
 
 Head. A short cut for headlines, used in displaying stories typographically. 
 A sub-head is a line of display type used in breaking up the various paragraph 
 divisions of a story, A top-head is one placed at the top of the column. A box- 
 Jiead is one inclosed by brass rules or a border. 
 
 Insert. A paragraph or series of paragraphs written subsequent to main 
 story to dovetail into the main body of the story, supplying more complete 
 or more accurate information. 
 
 Jump. When a story is continued from one page to another the line of 
 division is called the Jump. When a story is ju)npcd high the division is 
 made within the first two or three paragraphs. 
 
 Kill. To strike out type or eliminate copy. 
 
 Lead (pronounced leed). The opening paragraph or introduction of a story. 
 Should be distinguished from lead (pronounced led), a thin piece of metal 
 inserted between lines of type to give a more open appearance. 
 
 Lower Case. When type is set by hand the compositor works from a stand 
 that supports two slanting trays, one called the upper case (containing the 
 
NEWSPAPER TERMS 
 
 295 
 
 capital letters), the other the hnuer case (containing the small letters). The 
 term /. c. signifies that small letters are desired. 
 
 Machines. Linotypes or other typesetting devices. Machine matter is the 
 general term for such composition. 
 
 Make-up. The process of arranging composed matter into columns and 
 pages. Usually done by the make-up nuDi, who also makes over for suc- 
 ceeding editions of the paper. 
 
 Pi Line. A freak line cast by a linotype. When the operator misspells or 
 misreads a word he strikes the keyboard at random until the measure is com- 
 pleted and cast. Such lines should be eliminated, but occasionally get into 
 print through carelessness. In hand composition pi means an upsetting or 
 disarranging of type, necessitating a sorting out and reassembling. 
 
 Pyramid Head. Generally a heading of three lines, the first of which is 
 full, the second indented equally at both ends, the third set in the center. A 
 pyramid, however, may be built of four, five, and six lines. Thus : 
 
 Milady Has a Wide Variety of 
 
 Hues from Which She May 
 
 Select Her Apparel. 
 
 Release. Advance copy of stories is often sent to editors with instructions 
 as to time of publication. Such matter is 7-eleased on or after the date set, 
 but not before. 
 
 Rewrite. A story rewritten from another paper. 
 
 Run. The territory for which a reporter is made responsible in covering 
 the news. 
 
 Run-in. The omitting of paragraph divisions and dotted lines in order to 
 give a more solid appearance to the story. 
 
 Scoop. A story secured and printed exclusively in one paper. 
 
 Slug. A solid line of machine-set type. Also refers to a compositor's 
 number as inserted over the matter he has set. In the composing-room slug 
 refers to a thick lead cast to the thickness of nonpareil (6 points) or to pica 
 ( I 2 points). 
 
 Solid. Matter set without the use of leads between the lines. 
 
 Special. A story written by a special correspondent and sent by mail 
 or wire. 
 
 Stick. About 20 lines of type, approximating 150 words. The term is 
 derived from the number of lines a composing stick will hold. 
 
 Story. General name for all newspaper articles written by a reporter. 
 
 String. Clippings pasted together in a continuous ribbon to indicate the 
 number of columns written by the correspondent or reporter during a certain 
 time. Such writers are paid space rates ; namely, a certain rate per column. 
 
 Stuff. General name for all reading matter in a newspaper. 
 
 Take. The portion of copy given to a compositor to be set. 
 
296 
 
 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Thirty. A telegrapher's term meaning '' the end.*' Sometimes added at 
 the conclusion of the story to indicate to the foreman that the parts of the 
 story are ready for assembling. 
 
 Turn Rule. An editor's instructions to the foreman to turn the black face of 
 the rule, thus indicating that the story is incomplete and that more is to follow. 
 
 W. F. Letters of one character or series mixed with another ; as, wowan ; 
 here the /// is in a wrong font. 
 
 MARKS USED IN CORRECTING "COPY" 
 
 The following interpretative marks, written by instructors in the margin 
 of students' "copy," will be found useful in making needed corrections 
 and suggestions : 
 
 ac Dull reading. Inject more action and life. 
 
 brom Stereotyped expression. Use simpler, fresher word. 
 
 d Diction faulty. See dictionary. 
 
 det Clogged with unnecessary details. Simplify. 
 
 inac Inaccurate. 
 
 Id Poor lead. Revamp opening paragraph. 
 
 pers Too much personal opinion. 
 
 qt Make this direct quotation. 
 
 rep Repetition. Revise or omit. 
 
 rew Rewrite portion marked. 
 
 sp Spelling faulty. 
 
 str Structure involved. Use shorter sentences or condense. 
 
 ver Verbose. 
 
 wd Wrong use of word. 
 
 ? Who is authority? Is name correct.'' Verify. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbreviations in headwriting, i6S 
 
 Accident, reporting an, 68 
 
 Accuracy, in observation, 4, 13 ; in 
 
 choice of words, 16; importance of, 
 
 49, 63; critic's sense of, 135; public 
 
 should demand, 208 
 Ade, George, 92 
 Advance copy, held for release, 48 ; in 
 
 interviewing, 127 
 Advertising, contrasted with news, 42 ; 
 
 in colonial newspapers, 192; increases 
 
 in, 202 ; as a newspaper force, 207- 
 
 208 ; in country newspapers, 212, 216 
 Advice to reporters, 16 
 American journalism, beginnings of, 
 
 189; evolution of, 196 
 Anglo-Saxon, words preferred, 24, 35; 
 
 in head writing, 167 
 Artists, newspaper, work of, 104, 170 
 Assignment book, how kept, 101-102 
 Assignments given to reporters, 100 
 Associated press, telegraph service of, 
 
 107 
 Atlantic Monthly, quotation from, 207 
 Autoplates, 176 
 
 Bank man, duties of, 174 
 
 Bennett, James Gordon, as reporter, 76 ; 
 
 newspaper methods of, 198-201 ; as 
 
 news gatherer in Civil War, 202 ; 
 
 father of interviewing, 202 
 Bernhardt, Sarah, interview with, 126 
 Bible, model for news writing, 2, 13 
 Biography, kept on hand, 116 
 Black, Dr. Hugh, interview with, 126 
 Bohemian setting of reporter, 75 
 Book reviewing, 141-142 
 Boston Xeii^s- Letter, first American 
 
 newspaper, 189 
 Boston Transcript, interview from, 123 
 Brevity, 2 
 Brisbane, Arthur, newspaper policy of, 
 
 205 
 Bromides, 15 
 Bryan, William Jennings, interview 
 
 with, 120 
 Bryant, William Cullen, advice of, to 
 
 young editor, 14'; " Index Expurgato- 
 
 rius " of, 17 
 
 Bunker Hill address, 195 
 Bureaus, work of, 160-163 
 Business news, reporting, 50-51 
 
 Cable, getting news by. 108; dissemi- 
 nates news widely, 204 
 
 Card index, use of, 117 
 
 Cartoons, making of, 104, 180; in make- 
 up, 170 
 
 Cautions in news writing, 22-24 
 
 Chapman, Dr. J. Wilbur, interview with, 
 126 
 
 Chicago Inter-Ocean, editorial from, 
 
 147 
 
 Childs, George W., 197 
 
 Churchill, Winston, 92 
 
 Cincinnati Etiqtiirer, headline policies 
 of, 166 
 
 City editor, relation of, to reporters, 93 ; 
 as executive, 93 ; relation of, to pa- 
 per's policy, 94 ; duties of, in news- 
 paper campaigns, 94 ; resourcefulness 
 of, 94 ; duties of, when a Gaynor is 
 shot, 94-98 ; keeping tab on news, 
 99 ; patience of, 99 ; temperament of, 
 100; responsibilities of, 100; methods 
 of, loi ; making news, 102; reading 
 copy, 103 ; minor duties of, 104 
 
 Civil War, as reported in newspapers, 
 203 
 
 Cleveland Plain Dealer, story from, 73 
 
 Colonial newspapers, attitude of people 
 toward, 190; character of, 191 
 
 Consensus, interviews for, 128 
 
 Convention, reporting a, 48 
 
 Conventional expressions, 15-16 
 
 Conversation, advantages of, 30 
 
 Copy, practice of showing, 127; pre- 
 pared for printers, 170-174 
 
 Copyholder, duties of, 174 
 
 Copy readers, duties of, 112 
 
 Country papers, field of, 210; manage- 
 ment of, 218; adoption of cost sys- 
 tem by, 218 ; editorial page of, 219 
 
 Court trials, reporting of, 37 
 
 Courtesy of reporters, 127 
 
 Cowles, Edwin, 197 
 
 Crane, Stephen, 14, 92 
 
 Creation, story of, 2 
 
 297 
 
298 
 
 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Critic, point of view of, 136, 142 ; inde- 
 pendence of attitude of, 142 ; position 
 of, a high achievement, 143 
 Current Literature, criticism from, 132 
 Cuts, keeping of, 116; making of, 180 
 
 Daily Sun, first penny paper, 199 
 
 Dana, Charles A., lecture of, to young 
 men, 4 ; ideas of, on a reporter's edu- 
 cation, 80 ; synonym for New York 
 Sun, 114; personality of, 196 
 
 Davis, Richard Harding, comment of, 
 on news, 37 ; as reporter, 92 
 
 Dawson, Dr. W. J., interview with, 125 
 
 Day, Benjamin Franklin, 199 
 
 Death notices prepared from the 
 " morgue," 1 16-118 
 
 Declaration of Independence, tardy 
 recording of, 193 
 
 Denison, Lindsey, 5 
 
 Desk positions, 106 
 
 Detroit Fr-ee Press, story from, 26 
 
 Dickens, Charles, model of style, 13; 
 as reporter, 76, 92 ; portrayal by, of 
 journalistic methods, 194 
 
 Diplomats, difficulties in interviewing, 
 128 
 
 Drama, reporting of, 134 ; critic of, 134- 
 135 ; methods of writing reports of, 
 137 ; example of newspaper criticism 
 of, 138 
 
 Editor, of the past, 145 ; unbiased atti- 
 tude of, 148 ; in rural districts, 21 1 
 
 Editorial writer, qualifications of, 154- 
 155, 160 
 
 Editorials, changes in materials and 
 methods of, 144-145; general laws 
 governing, 147-148; types of, 148, 
 
 151-153' 155-157. 158-159 
 English, newspaper, 15-16 
 
 Exchange editor, waning importance 
 
 of, 114 
 
 Facts, importance of, i, 46, 49 ; digging 
 out, 50 
 
 P'eature story, defined, 59; example of, 
 59; in country papers, 215 
 
 " Fight for a Life," comment on, 12 
 
 Financial editor, duties of, iii 
 
 Fire, use of short sentences in reporting 
 a, 3 ; reporting a, 65 
 
 Fourth of July, methods of collecting 
 statistics of, 109 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, excerpt from Auto- 
 biography of, 193 
 
 "Fudge" plate, 178 
 
 Godkin, E. L., 201 
 
 Gossip, contrasted with news, 38 ; to be 
 avoided, 45 
 
 Grady, Henry \V., 197 
 
 Greeley, Horace, learning newspaper 
 business, 79 ; opinion of, of college 
 graduates, 80 ; connection of, with 
 New York Tribune, 114; as editorial 
 writer, 148; as politician, 196; work 
 of, on Trihutie, 196, 199, 201 
 
 Green, Bartholomew, 189 
 
 Half-tones, making of, 180 
 
 Halstead, Field Marshal, 114, 197 
 
 Hapgood, Norman, 206 
 
 Headlines, writing of, 164 ; purpose of, 
 165 ; various parts of, 165; relation of, 
 to newspaper policies, 167; relation 
 of, to circulation, 170-171 
 
 Heads, beginning with one word, 166; 
 words to use in, 167 ; divisions of, 
 168; expression of opinion in, 168; 
 relationship of, to story, 169 
 
 Head writer, instructions of, 166 
 
 Hearn, Lafcadio, 92 
 
 Hearst, telegraph service of, 107; chain 
 of newspapers of, 205 ; editorials in 
 newspapers of, 151 
 
 Henry, O., 92 
 
 Hoe, Richard M., 203 
 
 Howells, William Dean, 76 
 
 "Human interest," story with, 69, 70; 
 examples of, 70-74; in editorial, 152 ; 
 as type of newspaper, 205 
 
 Human nature, reading of, 123; hobbies 
 of great men a study in, 124; knowl- 
 edge of, 124-125 
 
 Illustrations, cost of, 116; in make-up, 
 170 ; kinds of, 180 ; place of, in coun- 
 try papers, 214 
 
 Impersonality in news writing, 1,12 
 
 Independence in reporters, 85 
 
 "Index Expurgatorius," 17-22 
 
 Initiative in reporters, 85 
 
 Interviewing, definition of, 119; diffi- 
 culties of, 119; cases of, cited, 123, 
 126, 128, 129; requirements for, 
 129 
 
 Interviews, for consensus, 128; blind, 
 128; expense of getting, 128; with 
 Roosevelt, 129; form of writing, 130; 
 model, 130 
 
 Irving, Sir Henry, 126 
 
 Irwin, Will, story of San Francisco, 31 ; 
 excerpt of, from Americafi Magazitie^ 
 89 ; as reporter, 92 
 
INDEX 
 
 299 
 
 Jefferson, Joseph, 141 
 
 Journalism, comparative national types 
 of, 1 97 ; sensational, 205 ; conservative, 
 206; the new, 209; country, 210 sqq.; 
 mechanical equipment for, 212-213 
 
 Kansas City Star, style of, 15 
 Kipling, Rudyard, 92 
 
 Laffan telegraph service, 107 
 
 Lamont, Daniel S., 76 
 
 " Leads," requirements for writing, 28 ; 
 
 examples of, 28-33; ^^ freshen up, 
 
 32 ; suggestions on writing, 35 
 Lincoln, Abraham, visit of, to West 
 
 Point, 87 
 Linotype, description of, 180-182; in 
 
 country office, 212 
 Literary criticism, requirements for, 
 
 141 ; forms of, 141- 142 
 London Times ^ conservative newspaper, 
 
 206 
 
 McClure, Samuel S., on magazine writ- 
 ing, 63 
 
 MacCullough, Joseph B., 197 
 
 Madison, James, connection of, with 
 constitutional convention, 195 
 
 Magazines, writing for the, 62-63 
 
 Magistrate's court, stories in, 68 
 
 Make-up, as outward sign, 164; rules 
 for, 169 
 
 Make-up man, duties of, 169, 174 
 
 Mallon, George, opinion of, 5 ; ethics of, 89 
 
 Managing editor, duties of, 106 
 
 Mansfield, Richard, 141 
 
 Market editor, duties of, in 
 
 Matrix, paper, description of, 176 
 
 Matter, definition of, 175 
 
 Mechanical inventions, relation of, to 
 newspaper's growth, 203-204 
 
 Medill, Jacob, 196 
 
 Memory, value of, to musical critics, 141 
 
 Mergenthaler, Ottmar, inventor of lino- 
 type, 181 
 
 Ministry, as a man's work, 125 
 
 Mission of the news writer, i 
 
 " Morgue," as an information bureau, 
 115-117 
 
 Murder, handling of, for a newspaper, 
 
 52-54 
 Musical criticism, essentials of, 140; 
 mistaken idea about, 140 
 
 Nethersole, Olga, criticism of, 138 
 New Hampshire Gazette^ type of Revo- 
 lutionary paper, 193 
 
 New York as field for reporter, 91 
 New York Evening Post, editorials from, 
 
 148-149, 155-159 
 New York Herald, English of, 15; story 
 
 from, 72 ; methods of, 198, 201-202 
 New York Sun, style of, 4 ; stories from, 
 5, 69, 70 ; English of, 15; leads from, 
 30-31; editorial from, 153; one-line 
 head of, 166 
 New York Times, stories from, 40, 67 
 New York World, story from, 65-66 
 News, definition of, 36-37 ; range of, 
 38 ; quality of, 39 ; as advertising, 42 ; 
 kinds of, 43 ; value of, 43 ; routine 
 and special, 43 ; selection of, 43 ; 
 treatment of, 44 ; gathering of, 44 ; 
 system in gathering, 46; timeliness 
 of, 48; "human-interest," 71-73 
 News gatherer, importance of, 56 ; vol- 
 unteer, 215 
 News story, characteristics of, i, 2; 
 construction of, 26 ; plan for develop- 
 ment of, 26 
 News writers, in politics and business, 92 
 Newspaper, purpose of. i ; as a commer- 
 cial enterprise, 144, 204; typographical 
 make-up of, 164; the Colonial, 189; the 
 Revolutionary, 193; as party organ, 
 194 ; the modern, 203 ; number of news- 
 papers in United States, 204; present- 
 day policy of, 204 ; the ideal, 206 ; 
 owner's relation to, 207 ; the future 
 of, 208; the country, 210-212 
 Newspaper office, order in, 4-5 
 Newspaper reader, requirements of, 145 
 "Nineveh,"bookofversesby Viereck, 137 
 
 Obituary, writing of, 46; ante-mortem, 47 
 Observation in news gathering, 13, 56 
 Organization in newspaper office, 106 
 Originality in news writing, 4 
 
 Painting, criticism of, 142 
 
 Party organ in journalism, appearance 
 of, 194 
 
 " Patent insides " for country news- 
 papers, 216 
 
 Pennsylvania Gazette, Benjamin Frank- 
 lin's paper, 193 
 
 Phillips, David Graham, 92 
 
 Photographers as illustrators of local 
 news, 104 
 
 Police as news gatherers, 64-65 
 
 Police department, organizationof,64-65 
 
 Politicians, interviews with, 1 19 
 
 Politics, first appearance of, in news- 
 papers, 194 
 
;oo 
 
 ESSENTIALS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 Prentice, (ieorge D., 197 
 
 Press, flat-bottomed, 190, 203 ; multiple, 
 
 176-177 
 Press agent, function of, 42-43; relation 
 
 of, to politics and business, 162 
 Printing, description of process of, 172- 
 
 173 ; evolution of machinery for, 203 
 Proof reading, requirements for, 182; 
 
 marks for, 182-183; specimen sheet 
 
 of, 183 
 
 Raymond, Henry J., 199-201, 206 
 
 Reid, Whitelaw, 76 
 
 Reporter, business of, i ; qualities of a 
 good, 44; three viewpoints of, 45; 
 tasks of the new, 46 ; mistaken con- 
 ceptions of, 76 ; nature of work of, 
 76; temptations of, 76; materials of, 
 77 ; full duty of, 77; art of, 77; "star," 
 77; qualifications of, 78; as detective, 
 79; education of, 80 ; social instincts 
 of, 81 ; suggestions and advice to, 81- 
 85 ; golden rules for, 86 ; ethics of, 
 87 ; qualities of, needed to secure 
 success, 90 ; opportunities for, 90 ; 
 as officeholders, 90 ; in New York, 
 91; chances for promotion of, 91-92 ; 
 knowledge of human nature of, 123 
 
 Revolutionary press, independent tone 
 
 of, 193 
 
 Rewriting from other papers, 32 
 
 Rockefeller, John 1)., reported inter- 
 view with, 129 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore, return of, from 
 Africa, 129; methods of displaying 
 story about, 167 
 
 Root, Elihu, interview with, 123 
 
 Sage, Russell, attempt on life of, 79 
 
 " Scoop," example of, 102 
 
 Scott, General Winfield, conference of, 
 with Lincoln, 87 
 
 Sculpture, criticism of, 142 
 
 Sembrich, aria of, critic's memory of, 141 
 
 Sentence, structure of, 3 ; long and 
 short, 3-4 ; importance of opening, 27 
 
 Shakespeare, as model of style, 13; 
 sonnets of, 131 
 
 Sinclair, Upton, 92 
 
 Society reporter, qualifications for, 113 
 
 Special correspondents, work of, 161- 
 163 
 
 Sporting editor, duties of, 1 1 1 
 
 Stage celebrities as subjects for inter- 
 views, 126 
 
 State correspondents, duties of, no 
 
 State editor, duties of, 109-110 
 
 Stereotype, development of, 203 
 
 Stoddart, Alexander McD., article in 
 Independent^ 94 
 
 Story, length of newspaper, 34; the run- 
 ning, 34 ; the feature, 59 ; samples of 
 feature stories, 59-62 ; the police, 
 59-62 ; " human-interest," 70-74 
 
 Style, newspaper, 1-4, 12-13; inaccu- 
 racies of, 1 5 
 
 Subscriptions, early attitude toward, 
 195; for country newspapers, 216-217 
 
 Suicide, reporting of a, 67 
 
 Syndicates, market for stories and pic- 
 tures, 161-162 
 
 Synonyms, use of, 22 
 
 Taft, William H., as a reporter, 76 
 " Takes," assembling of, 174 
 " Tear dope," as money-maker, 206 
 Technical terms, necessity for translat- 
 ing, 121 
 " Tips," advantage of, 67 
 Telegraph editor, duties of, 107 
 Telegraphic news, how gathered, 108- 
 
 109 
 Tetrazzini, interview with, 126 
 Trade journal, as channel for newspaper 
 
 men, 91 
 Tschaikowsky, Overture 181 2 of, 140 
 Type, best styles of, for the newspaper, 
 184-186; making of, 185 ; in country 
 offices, 213-214 
 Typographical arrangement of news- 
 paper, 164 
 
 United press telegraph service, 107 
 
 Vocabulary, choice of, 15 ; inaccuracies 
 
 in, 15 sqq. 
 Viereck, George Sylvester, interview 
 
 with, 131 
 
 Watterson, Henry, advice of, to news- 
 paper men, 89 ; connection of, with 
 dmi-ier Journal^ 114, 197; opinions 
 of, on the sensational press, 205 
 
 Webster, Daniel, failure to report ad- 
 dress of, 195 
 
 Wellman, Walter, 76 
 
 When a Gaynor is shot, 94-98 
 
 " Who 's Who " as a reference book, 
 1 22 
 
 W^oman's service on a newspaper, 113- 
 114 
 
 Words, choice of, 14, 16, 22 
 
 Wreck, reporting a, 55-56 
 
 Wynne, Robert J., 76 
 
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. THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 ^'^ ' • STAMPED BELOW 
 
 ' AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN i 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 
 
 
 
 StP 19 1939 
 
 
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 ilJG 11 043 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 LD 21-20m-5, '39 (9269s) 
 
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 C032D37mD