Composition-Rhetoric Part 46

"Come!" It was an angry voice--Mountain's at its worst.

Dayton opened the door. Mountain glanced up from a ma.s.s of papers before him. His red forehead became a network of wrinkles and his scant white eyebrows bristled. "And who are you?" he snarled.

"My name is Dayton--Fenimore Dayton," replied the reporter, with a gracefully polite bow. "Mr. Mountain, I believe?"

It was impossible for Mr. Mountain altogether to resist the impulse to bow in return. Dayton's manner was compelling.

"And what the dev--what can I do for you?"

"I'm a reporter from the ----"

"What!" roared Mountain, leaping to his feet in a purple, swollen veined fury....

--David Graham Philips ("McClure's").

CAUGHT MASQUERADING

When I took my aunt and sister to the Pequot hotel, the night before the Yale-Harvard boat race, I found a gang of Harvard boys there. They celebrated a good deal that night, in the usual Harvard way.

Some of the Harvard men had a room next to mine. About three a.m. things quieted down. When I woke up next morning, it was broad daylight, and I was utterly alone. The race was to be at eleven o'clock. I jumped out of bed and looked at my watch--it was nearly ten! I looked for my clothes. My valise was gone! I rang the bell, but in the excitement downstairs, I suppose, no one answered it.

What was I to do? Those Harvard friends of mine thought it a good joke on me to steal my clothes and take themselves off to the race without waking me up. I don't know what I should have done in my anguish, when, thank goodness, I heard a tap at my door, and went to it.

"Well, do hurry!" (It was my sister's voice.) "Aunt won't go to the race; we'll have to go without her."

"They've stolen my clothes, Mollie--those Harvard fellows."

"Haven't you anything?" she asked through the keyhole.

"Not a thing, dear."

"Oh, well! it's a just punishment to you after last night! That ---- noise was dreadful!"

"Perhaps it is," I said, "but don't preach now, sister dear--get me something to put on. I want to see the race."

"I haven't anything except some dresses and one of aunt's."

"Get me Aunt Sarah's black silk," I cried. "I will wear anything rather than not see the race, and it's half-past ten nearly now."

(Correct your theme with reference to the points mentioned in Section 146.)

+147. Number and Choice of Details--Unity.+--In relating experiences the choice of details will be determined by the purpose of the narrative and by the person or persons for whom we are writing. A brief account of an accident for a newspaper will need to include only a clear and concise statement of a few important facts. A traveling experience may be made interesting and vivid if we select several facts and treat each quite fully. This is especially true if the experience took place in a country or part of a country not familiar to our readers. If we are writing for those with whom we are acquainted, we can easily decide what will interest them. If we write to different persons an account of the same event, we find that these accounts differ from one another. We know what each person will enjoy, and we try to adapt our writing to each individual taste. Our narrative will be improved by adapting it to an imaginary audience in case we do not know exactly who our readers will be. In your high school work you know your readers and can select your facts accordingly.

To summarize: a narration should possess unity, that is, it should say all that should be said about the subject and not more than needs to be said.

The length of the theme, the character of the audience to which it is addressed, and the purpose for which it is written, determine what facts are necessary and how many to choose in order to give unity. (See Section 81.)

+148. Arrangement of Details--Coherence.+--We should use an arrangement of our facts that will give coherence to our theme. In a coherent theme each sentence or paragraph is naturally suggested by the preceding one. It has been pointed out in Sections 82-85 that in narration we gain coherence by relating our facts in the order of their occurrence. When a single series of events is set forth, we can follow the real time-order, omitting such details as are not essential to the unity of the story.

If, however, more than one series of events are given, we cannot follow the exact time-order, for, though two events occur at the same time, one must be told before the other. Here, the actual time relations must be carefully indicated by the use of expressions; as, _at the same time, meanwhile, already_, etc. (See Section 12.) Two or more series of events belong in the same story only if they finally come together at some time, usually at the point of the story. They should be carried along together so that the reader shall have in mind all that is necessary for the understanding of the point when it is reached. In short stories the changes from one series to another are close together. In a long book one or more chapters may give one series of incidents, while the following chapters may be concerned with a parallel series of incidents. Notice the introductory paragraph of each chapter in Scott's _Ivanhoe_ or Cooper's _The Last of the Mohicans_. Many of these indicate that a new series of events is to be related.

It will be of advantage in writing a narrative to construct an outline as indicated in Section 84. Such an outline will a.s.sist us in making our narrative clear by giving it unity, coherence, and emphasis.

EXERCISES

1. Name events that have occurred in your school or city which could be related in their exact time-order. Relate one of them orally.

2. Name two accidents that could not be related in their exact time-order.

Relate one of them orally.

3. Name subjects for real narratives that would need to be written in the first person; in the third person.

4. In telling about a runaway accident, what points would you mention if you were writing a short account for a newspaper?

5. What points would you add if you were writing to some one who was acquainted with the persons in the accident?

6. Consider the choice and arrangement of details in the next magazine story that you read.

+Theme LXXVIII.+--_Write a personal narrative in which the time-order can be carefully followed._

Suggested subjects:--

1. The irate conductor.

2. A personal adventure with a window.

3. An interrupted nap.

4. Lost in the woods.

5. In a runaway.

6. An amusing adventure.

7. A day at grandfather's.

(Consider the unity and coherence of the theme.)

+Theme LXXIX.+--_Write in the third person a true narrative in which different events are going on at the same time._

Suggested subjects:-- 1. A skating accident.

2. The hunters hunted.

3. Capsized on the river.

4. How he won the race.

5. An experience with a balky horse.

6. The search for a lost child.

7. How they missed each other.