One of Johnnie Wilt's original ideas for entertaining his twin sister Charlotte is to build a big bonfire on the floor of their playroom.
Johnnie, who is 4 years old, carried his plan into execution at the Wilt home, 2474 Lake View avenue, for the first time yesterday afternoon, with results that made a lasting impression upon his mind and the finishings of the interior of the house.
The thing was suggested to him by a bonfire he saw a man build in the street. Charlotte hadn't seen the other fire. For some reason Charlotte's feminine mind refused to understand just what the fire was like.
Consequently nothing remained for Johnnie to do but build a fire of his own. He piled all of the newspapers and playthings that could be found in the middle of the room and then applied a match.
When the flames leaped to the ceiling, however, and a cloud of smoke filled the room, Johnnie began to doubt the wisdom of the move. While Charlotte ran to tell a maid he retreated to that haven of youthful fugitives—the space beneath a couch.
The frightened maid summoned the fire engines and the fire was soon extinguished. But Mrs. Wilt discovered that Johnnie had disappeared. She telephoned to Charles T. Wilt, president of the trunk company that bears his name, and half hysterically told of the fire and the disappearance of Johnnie.
Just then there was a scrambling sound from beneath the couch. Johnnie, looking as serious as a 4-year-old face can look, walked out.
Mrs. Wilt seized him and, to an accompaniment of "I-won't-do-it-agains," crushed him to her bosom. Last reports from the Wilt home were that Johnnie had not yet been punished for his deed.—Chicago Record-Herald.
The student will notice how all the facts of the story and the answers to the reader's questions are worked in here and there, how the content of a news story lead is scattered throughout the entire account.
3. Writing the Human Interest Story.—It is one thing to be able to distinguish material for a human interest story and another to be able to write the story. The whole effectiveness of the story, as we have seen, depends upon the way it is written. Many a poorly written, ungrammatical news story is printed simply because it contains facts that are of interest, regardless of the way in which they are presented. But never is a poorly written human interest story printed; simply because the facts in it have little interest themselves and the story's usefulness depends entirely upon the presentation of the facts. Hence, the human interest story, more than any other newspaper story, must be well written. And yet there are no rules to assist in the writing of such a story. In fact, its very nature depends upon originality and newness in form and treatment.