News Writing Part 13

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

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

=227. Crime Lead.=--In the lead to a crime story, one may feature either the names of the persons involved, the number of lives lost or endangered, the motive of the criminal, the nature of the crime, clues leading to the identification and arrest of the criminal, possible effects of the crime, or even public sentiment resulting from the deed.

Of the possible leads, probably the names of the persons involved, either of the criminal or of those whose rights were infringed, are most often played up. Thus:

Leo M. Frank was lynched two miles outside of Marietta, the home of Mary Phagan, at an early hour this morning.

Mrs. Allie Detmann, 1409 Broad St., was shot and killed yesterday by Stanley Mouldan, 1516 Philadelphia Ave. The man then shot himself in the right temple, dying an hour later in St. Elizabeth's Hospital.

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

Ill.u.s.trations are:

_Number of Lives Lost_

Two women are dead at the Good Shepherd's Rest because Pat Nicke kept the back door of his saloon open on election day.

_Motive_

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

_Nature of the Crime_

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

_Clues_

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

_Results_

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

=228. Body of the Crime Story.=--The body of the crime story, like that of the accident, follows the lead in a simple chronological narration of events. Interest may be added by quoting direct statements from persons immediately connected with the crime,--how it feels to be held up, how the robber gained entrance to the building, how the bandits escaped. In stories of burglaries and robberies the value of the stolen goods and any ingenious devices for gaining entrance to the house, stopping the train, or halting the robbed party should always be given. It may be added that, unless the purpose is entirely obvious, as in robberies and burglaries, due emphasis should be given to the motive for the crime.

One should be on one's guard, however, against accepting readily any motive a.s.signed. The star reporter never takes anybody at his word--the police, the detectives, or even the victims--in any statement where crime is involved. He investigates for himself and draws his own conclusions.

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

XVI. SPORTS

=230. Slang.=--In writing stories of athletic meets and games the reporter will find that in matters of language he has almost complete freedom. For this there are two reasons: the fact that it is necessary half the time to get final results of contests into print within a few seconds or minutes after the outcome has been decided, and the fact that athletic devotees--"fans" in American slang--are not naturally critical.

Time is the all-important element with them. The results of a baseball game are wanted within a few seconds after the last man has been put out in the final inning. Whether the writer says the Red Sox defeated the Tigers, or nosed them out in the ninth, or handed them a lemon, means little to the followers of the game provided the information is specifically conveyed that Boston beat Detroit. Slang is freely used,--so much so that the uninitiated frequently cannot understand an account of a game. The "fans" can, however, and they const.i.tute the public for whom reporters on the sporting pages maintain they are writing. If, then, one can brighten up his sporting stories--make them sparkling, electric, galvanic--by using slang, he will find them acceptable to any editor. The only caution to the beginner is that he must be sure every detail is clear to the "fans." Slang can easily be overdone,--much more easily than one would suppose,--with the result that an otherwise good story is choked with near humorous, foggy jargon.

Better no slang than a story cloyed with it.[25]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Inability to hit, coupled with poor fielding at critical moments, caused the defeat of the New York University nine by the Stevens Inst.i.tute of Technology yesterday on Ohio Field. The score was 5 to 3.

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

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

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

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

_The Weather_

High winds and bad light made the marksmans.h.i.+p poor at the local shoot yesterday, the best score being a 93, made by Lawrence Bowen.

_Condition of Grounds_

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

_Size of the Crowd_

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

_Effect on the Crowd_

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

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

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

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

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

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