The following advertisement was inserted in papers throughout the United States:
FOR SALE—A Moving Picture Theatre, cheap. Can be operated to great advantage by man or woman who is good singer and entertainer.
Three days ago an answer was received from Wintonville, Miss. The writer signed his name as W. R. Reinhard. The handwriting was recognized by experts as that of Wein, and the young man was yesterday arrested by operatives of the Pinkerton Detective Agency in the Mississippi city. Both Wein and his wife will be brought to Chicago tomorrow.
CHAPTER IX
FEATURE STORIES
Kinds of Feature Stories. Most news stories, it has been seen, aim to be nothing more than concise presentations of the essential facts concerning current events. They are intended primarily to inform rather than to instruct or entertain. In a feature story, on the other hand, the writer takes the day’s events and tries to present entertaining or instructive phases of them that cannot well be developed in the limited compass of the news story itself.
For one type of feature story the reporter takes the facts of the news and finds behind them the real meaning of the event to those who play a part in it. The event thus becomes an episode in the drama of human life, sometimes comic, sometimes tragic. Such a story involves feelings as well as facts. To write it successfully the reporter must be able to see the picturesque, humorous, and pathetic phases of life about him; he must feel with those to whom the events mean much. Keen insight into human nature, and sympathy with its strength and its weakness, are essential. This type of story, which is often called the “human interest” story, enjoys no small degree of popularity because it appeals to the reader’s feelings. In some newspapers it takes a place of prominence beside the best news stories; in many of them it is given a less conspicuous position; only a few neglect it entirely.
Another kind of feature story, quite different in character, undertakes to explain, interpret, and describe fully significant phases of the day’s news and timely topics generally. Brief news stories often arouse the reader’s curiosity to know more of the persons and things that they mention. It remains for the feature story to supply causes, motives, results,—the full significance of the bare facts of the news. Accordingly, some newspapers set aside two or three columns on the editorial pages each day for a feature story of this kind. In magazine sections of Saturday and Sunday issues such articles are supplied in greater numbers. These feature stories are frequently illustrated. They seldom fill less than a column; more often they are several columns in length.
“Human Interest” Stories. Material for the “human interest” type of feature story is to be found anywhere and everywhere in the reporter’s daily round of news gathering. The many police court cases furnish an abundance of humorous and pathetic incidents. Accidents and minor crimes of all kinds many times are worth only a few lines as news, but as the basis for feature stories, they contain great possibilities. An incident in a crowded street car, a mishap on the street, a bit of conversation between two newsboys, a mistake made by a person unaccustomed to the ways of the metropolis, or any one of the hundred little episodes in the daily life of a city may be taken by the reporter as the subject of his feature story. Little children, because of the great appeal that they make to men and women of all classes, often furnish good material. Animals, wild or tame, are always available as subjects. A visit to the “zoo” is sure to furnish at least one good story. For the alert reporter with a knowledge of human nature and an appreciation of the humor and the pathos of life, there is never any dearth of material.