Claxton, Mary, 10 years, 1414 Cedar Street, broken nose, scalp wounds, St. Mary’s Hospital.
Shumacher, Mrs. Ida, 42 years, 191 12th Avenue, right arm broken, internal injuries, St. Mary’s Hospital.
Perkins, Charles, 31 years, 157 Washington Street, dislocated hip, scalp cut, Roosevelt Hospital.
Three passengers were killed, three seriously injured, and a dozen more badly shaken up when a south bound trolley car on the Wellington Park line crashed into one ahead that had stopped to take in passengers, at Fifty-second Avenue and Howard Place last night.
The Body of the Story. Following the lead is the body of the story, which generally consists of a more or less detailed account of the event. The main part of the report usually presents the incidents in the order in which they took place. In choice and arrangement of particulars, therefore, it does not differ from narration in general. As in all narration, so in news stories, it is essential to pick out those particulars that are most interesting and most significant in relation to the feature of the news. If the details are arranged in chronological order and this order is made evident by means of connective words and phrases, the reader can follow the account easily from beginning to end.
All of the methods used by writers of fiction to make short stories and novels realistic and attractive may be applied to the writing of news. Concise descriptive touches that suggest the picture rather than portray it by detailed description, are always effective. Accounts of eye-witnesses, exclamations and remarks made by the bystanders, comments by those concerned, dialogue between persons involved, when given in the form of direct quotations, all add to the life and interest of the story. Every legitimate literary device can be used to advantage in the writing of the day’s news, provided that it does not require too much space, for above everything else the news story must be concise.
Good emphasis at the beginning of each paragraph should always be sought, because in rapid reading, as has already been pointed out, the eye catches first the initial group of words at each indention. Unimportant connective phrases and clauses should seldom be given this position of prominence, but should be buried in the sentence. The emphasis at the end of each paragraph in the news story is not great and can therefore be disregarded. Although each paragraph need not end emphatically, it should be rounded out to give the effect of completeness.
The organization of details in the body of a story is shown in the account of a train robbery given below:
Spokane, Wash., March 15—In the guise of a postoffice inspector, a bandit obtained admittance to the postal car on the Great Northern Oriental Limited at Bonners Ferry, Idaho, early this morning, and after overpowering the two clerks, calmly rifled the through registered mail pouches while the train was proceeding to Spokane.
During the run of over 100 miles to Spokane, the robber received the mail at three stations where the train[Pg 90] stopped and threw off the newspaper mail.