If the story is concerned with a flood the human-life element is first, then the damage, the cause, the freaks of the flood, or the present situation. For example:
PARKERSBURG, W. Va., March 10.—Three persons are known to have perished in a flood which swept down upon the city on Friday when two water reservoirs on Prospect Hill burst without warning. Forty houses were destroyed and many persons are missing. The property damage will be nearly $500,000.
6. Police Court News.—The ordinary run of police court news is in a class by itself. Usually the only news value in the story depends upon some unusual incident or circumstance that attracts the attention of the reporter. This is of course the source of many of the stories of crime, mentioned before, but many stories turn up at the police courts which are not concerned with crime, although in some cases they are concerned with criminals. In this field of reporting there are many opportunities for the human-interest story which will be taken up in a later chapter. When the incident is reported in an ordinary news story the feature is usually in some attendant circumstance and the story might well be classed with one of the above groups. Here are two examples from the daily press:
Because he did not have sufficient money to buy flowers for his sweetheart, Henry Trupke, aged 21 years, forged a check for $22.50 on a grocer, J. Sieberlich, 781 Third street, and after a week's chase was caught last night as he got off a Wisconsin Central train.—Milwaukee Sentinel.
But a few hours before receiving a sentence of two years in the house of correction for stealing furs from the store of Lohse Bros., 117 Wisconsin street, John Garner, self-confessed thief, was married to Rose Strean, one of the witnesses in the case, which was tried yesterday in the municipal court.—Milwaukee Free Press.
7. Reports of Meetings, Conferences, Decisions, etc.—This group includes all reports of meetings, or conferences, of bodies of any sort, political or otherwise, reports of judicial or legislative hearings or decisions, or announcements of resolutions passed. Such as:
WASHINGTON, Jan. 15.—Acquisition of the telegraph lines by the government and their operation as a part of the postal system is the latest idea of Postmaster General Hitchcock. Announcement was made today that a resolution to this effect will be offered to Congress at the present session.—Wisconsin State Journal.
There is always one thing in these stories that gives them news value—the purpose or result of the conference, hearing, or announcement. This purpose or result, of course, must be played up. The one point that the reporter should remember is that a well-written lead begins with the result or purpose of the meeting or announcement rather than with the name of the meeting or the name of the body that makes the announcement. Never begin a story thus: "At a meeting of the Press Club held in the Auditorium last night it was resolved that——" Transpose the sentence and begin with a statement of what was resolved. In the following story the order is wrong:
The Supreme Court of the United States, through the opinion delivered by Justice Vandevanter, today declared constitutional the employers' liability law of 1908.
The import of the decision is buried; it should be written thus: