A WOMAN WAS THE VICTIM OF KANSAS
HIGHWAYMEN.
Money Intended to Pay Off the Men of
the Sheridan Coal Company, Near
Pittsburg, Was Taken—Could
Have Had $30,000.
THE MECHANICS OF THE HEAD
The divisions of a head are known variously as lines, decks or banks. A two-line or a two-deck head is one divided into two parts by a dash. The word “line” in this sense means a complete division of a head, no matter what its length in type lines. The top deck, which is set in the largest type, should contain the leading feature of the story. This is amplified and minor features are added in the other parts. Most papers require that each division of a head shall state a complete thought, having a verb expressed or implied; or, to put the rule negatively, that no sentence shall be continued from one division into another. The other type of head—the running head—is shown in this example from the Cincinnati Enquirer, the dashes indicating the divisional breaks: “Pomp—Waits on Humility,—As Dignitaries of a Great Church Bow in Prayer.—Impressive Scenes Witnessed at Music Hall—When Episcopal Triennial Convention Opened.”
All heads are made local in their application. The word “here” in the head on an out-of-town story means the city in which the paper is published, not the place where the story originated. Time is given, in the head with reference to the date of publication. Thus a story dated May 9, is published in the morning paper of May 10, and “to-day” in the head means May 10.
SOME THINGS TO AVOID
Alliteration occasionally may be used with good effect in a head, but unintentional alliteration—as “Commercial Club Considers Cleaning Contracts”—should be avoided. Slang, unless apt and timely, has no greater justification in the head than in the story.
Some newspapers forbid the head that asks a question, except perhaps on stories of a freakish nature, on the theory that a newspaper’s business is to inform, not to ask questions. Others permit the questioning head as a means of qualifying a statement. Thus a report which has not been verified may be headed with a line followed by an interrogation point, as “Revolution in Cuba?” This style of head writing may easily be overworked. Seeing several question marks on the same page, the reader might jump to the conclusion that he had better subscribe for a paper that can tell him something instead of one that appears to deal mainly in rumors.
Another style of head discouraged or forbidden altogether by some papers is the unintentional imperative. This is a head beginning with a verb in the third person plural form, which may be read as an injunction to do something. “Kill Thirty Men” may be the head on a story of an insurrection. It means, of course, “They Kill Thirty Men,” but the form, when the subject is not expressed, is also the imperative. Only a few newspapers bar this head altogether, as there is seldom any possibility that it will be misconstrued. An iron-clad rule forbidding it can be justified only on the ground that the rule is part of a newspaper’s arbitrary style.