MR. CRAIG WEDS MISS SCHELL
Mr. Joe Craig and Miss Cora Schell, both of Mena, were quietly married at the Hotel Main, Durant, Okla., Monday, and are boarding at this hotel. Mr. Craig is well known as a skilful bricklayer, honest and industrious. The bride is well known in this city and proved her worth by the years she served the Lochridge Dry Goods Company as cashier. She is a member of the Woodmen Circle and carries a large insurance. We regret that she must leave, but like Rebekah of old, she leaves home, family, and friends to travel the journey of life with her "Isaac" (Joe) in a distant land. We feel that the expression of all her friends is that the best this world affords will be theirs to the end of their journey and that a new life awaits them in another and higher sphere.
169. Essentials of the Sentence.—If a reporter can write grammatically correct sentences,—if he can coördinate and subordinate accurately the different parts; if he can give all the pronouns definite antecedents; if he can keep his verbs consistent, having them agree in person and number with their subjects; if he can make effective use of ellipsis,—his sentences will possess the first essentials of a good sentence,—accuracy. If he can make his sentences clear and forceful,—if he can keep grammatically connected words, phrases, and clauses close together; if he can eliminate lengthy parenthetic expressions; if he can avoid unnecessary shifts of subjects within sentences; if he can make readily clear the relation of every phrase in a sentence to every other phrase in it and adjoining sentences; if he can put important ideas at the beginning and the end of the sentence; if he can make his sentences short and concise; if he can acquire delicacy of expression,—his sentences will possess the second requisite of a good sentence,—interest. Accuracy and interest, these are the elements that make a sentence good. And the greater of these is accuracy.
XIII. WORDS
170. Accuracy and Interest.—For words, as for sentences and stories, the same law holds,—accuracy and interest. If one's words are accurate and stimulate interest in the reader, they are good.
171. Accuracy.—Accuracy comes first. It is necessary always to write with a nice regard for exact shades of meaning. As Flaubert declared, "Whatever one wishes to say, there is only one noun to express it, only one verb to give it life, only one adjective to qualify it. Search then till that noun, that verb, that adjective is discovered. Never be content with very nearly; never have recourse to tricks, however happy, or to buffoonery of language to avoid a difficulty. This is the way to become original." An accurate writer avoids looseness of thinking and inexactness of expression as he avoids libel. The adjective lurid is an illustration of a word over which careless reporters have stumbled for generations. When the casualties of the war against inaccuracy are recorded, lurid will be among the missing. As used by ignorant scribblers, the word means something like bright or brilliant, or perhaps towering; yet its precise meaning is pale yellow, wan, ghastly. Journalists of the last quarter of the nineteenth century will remember a long list of such sins against precision, recorded by Charles A. Dana, editor of the New York Sun. A few additions have been made to his list, and the whole is given below. The reader should distinguish keenly between each pair of words and should be careful never to misuse one of them. Do not use:
| above or over | for | more than | last | for | latest |
| administered | for | dealt | less | for | fewer |
| affect | for | effect | like | for | as if |
| aggravate | for | irritate | materially | for | largely |
| allude | for | refer | notice | for | observe |
| and | for | to | murderous | for | dangerous |
| audience | for | spectators | onto | for | on or upon |
| avocation | for | vocation | partially | for | partly |
| awfully | for | very or exceedingly | pants | for | trousers |
| balance | for | remainder | past two years | for | last two years |
| banquet | for | dinner | perform | for | play |
| beside | for | besides | posted | for | informed |
| call attention | for | direct attention | practically | for | virtually |
| can | for | may | prior to | for | before |
| claim | for | assert | propose | for | purpose |
| conscious | for | aware | proven | for | proved |
| couple | for | two | raise | for | rear |
| date back to | for | date from | quite | for | very |
| deceased | for | died | section | for | region |
| dock | for | pier or wharf | spend | for | pass |
| dove | for | dived | standpoint | for | point of view |
| emigrate | for | immigrate | suicide | as | a verb |
| endorse | for | approve | suspicion | for | suspect |
| exposition | for | exhibition | sustain | for | receive |
| farther | for | further | transpire | for | occur |
| favor | for | resemble | universal | for | general |
| groom | for | bridegroom | vest | for | waistcoat |
| happen | for | occur | vicinity | for | neighborhood |
| hung | for | hanged | viewpoint | for | point of view |
| infinite | for | great, vast | witness | for | see |
| in our midst | for | among us | would seem | for | seems |
| in spite of | for | despite |
172. Clearness.—To secure interest, a word must be clear and forceful. It should not be technical or big, but simple. The biggest words in the average newspapers are the handiwork and pride of the cub reporters. Yet clearness, force, brevity all demand little words,—simplicity. And the simplest words are those of everyday speech,—Anglo-Saxon words generally,—such as home rather than residence, begin rather than commence, coffin rather than casket. The reporter who uses ornate, technical, or little-known words does so at his own peril and to the injury of his story; for the average newspaper reader, without the benefits of a college education and having a limited vocabulary of one to two thousand words, does not know and has no time to look up the meaning of unfamiliar words and phrases. This is why many city editors prefer to employ high-school students and break them in as cubs rather than take college graduates who, proud of their education and vocabularies, attempt to display their learning in every story they write. Simple, familiar, everyday words, those that every reader knows, are always the most forceful and clear, and hence the most fitting. The following is a list of words which young writers are most commonly tempted to use:
| accord | for | give | inaugurate | for | begin |
| aggregate | for | total | individual | for | person |
| appertains | for | pertains | obsequies | for | funeral |
| apprehend | for | arrest | participate | for | take part |
| calculate | for | think, expect | per diem | for | a day |
| canine | for | dog | perform | for | play |
| casket | for | coffin | purchase | for | buy |
| commence | for | begin | recuperate | for | recover |
| conflagration | for | fire | remains | for | body, corpse |
| construction | for | building | render | for | sing |
| contribute | for | give | reside | for | live |
| cortège | for | procession | retire | for | go to bed |
| destroyed by fire | for | burned | rodent | for | rat |
| donate | for | give | subsequently | for | later |
| elicit | for | draw | tonsorial artist | for | barber |
| hymeneal altar | for | chancel | via | for | by way of |
173. Force.—Force demands that one's words be emphatic. Unfortunately a reporter cannot have readers always eager to read what he writes. If he had, his readers would be satisfied with having his words merely accurate and clear. Instead, they demand that their attention be attracted, compelled. The words must be fitting, apt, fresh, unhackneyed, specific rather than general. The spectators gathered in the field must not be a vast concourse, but ten thousand persons. Nor must it be about ten thousand. The about should be omitted. A specific ten thousand persons present is much more effective and, being a round number, is a sufficient indication that no actual count has been made. In all cases where there is a choice between a specific and a general term, the specific one should be used.