“I know it isn’t right to fake, Mr. Patton,” said a new reporter; “but is exaggeration never permissible?”
“It is,” said Patton. “You may use exaggeration whenever it is needed to convey to the reader an adequate but not exaggerated picture of the event you are describing. For instance, if you are reporting a storm at Seabright, and the waves are eight and one-half feet high by the tape which you surely carry in your hip-pocket for such emergencies, it will hardly do to inform the reader that the waves are eight and one-half feet high; his visualization of the scene would not be perfect. Yet, if you write that the waves ran mountain-high, I shall change your copy if it comes to me. The expression would be too stale. Hyperbole is one of the gifts.”
SAMUEL A. WOOD
OSCAR KING DAVIS
THOMAS M. DIEUAIDE
SAMUEL HOPKINS ADAMS