Examples from the press:
Name:
William L. Murray of Rockview avenue, North Plainfield, paying teller of the Empire Trust Company of New York, committed suicide at Scotch Plains early this afternoon by shooting himself in the head. No reason is assigned for the act.—New York Sun.
Motive:
Driven insane by continued brooding over ill health, Miss Ada Emerson, a former teacher in the Beloit city schools, killed herself in a crowded interurban car Saturday afternoon by slashing her throat with a razor.—Beloit Free Press.
Here the manner is the feature, but it is not played up in the first line because it is too horrible.
5. Big Stories.—The big stories of catastrophes are usually handled on a large scale—played up, as the newspaper men say. The story in itself is of sufficient importance to make it unnecessary to play up any single feature of the story. However, the reporter, in looking for a good beginning, often finds it in the most startling fact in the story. If he is reporting a riot he usually begins with the number of killed or injured, the amount of property destroyed, the character of the riot, or the cause, as in this example:
In an effort to bring about the reinstatement of one of their number who had been discharged for non-unionism, a hundred or more journeymen bakers wrecked the bakeshop of Pincus Jacobs, at No. 1571 Lexington avenue, early this morning.—New York Evening Post.
In the case of a storm the human life element is of greatest importance, then the damage to property, and last, the peculiar circumstances. For example:
CLEVELAND, Dec. 11.—Fifty-nine lives were the cost of a storm which passed over Lake Erie Wednesday night and Thursday, and more than $1,000,000 worth of vessel property was destroyed.—New York Evening Post.