(When, Where, What, How, Why, Who).
Suppose that John Jones's house did not burn in the usual way—suppose that there is some striking incident in the story that makes it different from other fire stories. The story has a feature. Perhaps the answer to some one of the reader's customary questions is more interesting than the answers to the others—so much more interesting that it supersedes even the fact that there was a fire. Then it would be foolish to begin with the mere word "fire" when we have something more interesting to tell. The fire takes a second place and we begin with the interesting fact that supersedes it. For the present we shall consider that this interesting fact is the answer to one of the questions that the reader always asks; for instance, why the house burned or when it burned.
1. Why.—Perhaps Mr. Jones's house was set on fire in a very unusual way. There was a little party in session at the Jones's and some one decided to take a flash-light picture. The flash-light set fire to a lace curtain and before any one could stop it the house was afire. Few fires begin in that way, and our readers would be very interested in hearing about it. The story has a feature in the answer to the reader's Why? And so we would begin our lead in this way:
A flashlight setting fire to a lace curtain started a fire which destroyed the residence of John H. Jones, 79 Liberty street, at 11 o'clock last night and caused a loss of $4,000.
In this way the feature is played up at the beginning of the sentence, and yet the rest of the reader's questions are answered in the same sentence and he knows a great deal about the fire. Or, leaving Mr. Jones to his fate, we may give another example of an unusual cause taken from a newspaper. This was a big fire, and yet the unusual cause was of greater interest than the fire itself or the amount of property destroyed:
A tiny "joss stick," the lighted end of which was no larger than a pinhead, is thought to have been responsible for a fire that destroyed the White City Amusement Park at Broad Ripple last night. The loss to the amusement company is $161,000.—Indianapolis News.
2. Where.—To return to Mr. Jones, there may have been some other incident in the burning of his house aside from the cause that was of exceptional interest. Let us say that his house stood in a part of the town where a fire was to be feared. Perhaps it stood within twenty feet of the new First Congregational Church. The burning of Jones's house would then be insignificant in comparison to the danger to the costly edifice beside it, and our readers would be more interested in an item concerning their church. The answer to Where? is more interesting than the fire itself. Hence we would bury, so to speak, Mr. Jones's misfortune behind the greater danger, and the story would read:
Fire endangered the new First Congregational Church on Liberty street, erected at a cost of $100,000, when the home of J. H. Jones, in the rear of the church, was destroyed at midnight last night.
Or:
The First Congregational Church, recently built at a cost of $100,000, was seriously threatened by a fire which destroyed the residence of John H. Jones, 78 Liberty street, within twenty feet of the church, at midnight last night.