News Writing Part 15

[38] _New York Sun_, January 21, 1917.

=WEDDING= Miss Celia Cravis, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Myer Cravis, of 1817 North Thirty-second Street, became the bride of Harry Ca.s.sman, of Atlantic City, Thursday. The ceremony was performed at 6:30 o'clock in the evening in the green room of the Adelphi Hotel by the Rev. Marvin Nathan, a.s.sisted by the Rev. Armin Rosenberg. The father of the bride gave her in marriage. Her gown of white satin was given a frosted effect by crystal bead embroidery and was made with court train. Her tulle veil was held by a bandeau of lilies of the valley. A white prayer book was carried and also a bouquet of orchids, gardenias and lilies of the valley. The maid of honor was Miss Katherine Abrahams, wearing blue satin trimmed with silver. She carried a double shower bouquet of tea roses and lilies of the valley, and a yellow ostrich feather fan, the gift of the bride. The bridesmaids, Miss Estelle Freeman, Miss Tillie Greenhouse, Miss Estelle Sacks and Miss Leonore Printz, were dressed in frocks of different pastel shades, ranging white, pink, blue and violet. Each carried a basket of roses and a pink feather fan. Miss Madeline Cravis and Miss Sylvia Gravan, the flower girls, wore pink and carried baskets of pink roses. Herbert W. Salus acted as best man. The ushers were Lewis E. Stern and Walter Hanstein, of Atlantic City; I. S. Cravis and Henry Gotlieb. A reception for about 250 guests followed the ceremony. After a tour of the South, Mr. and Mrs. Ca.s.sman will be at 217 South Seaside Avenue, Atlantic City.[39]

[39] _Philadelphia Public Ledger_, December 17, 1916.

=TEAS, DINNERS, LUNCHEONS= Miss Alice Williams, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward T. Williams, was presented to society yesterday afternoon at a tea in the home of her parents, 1901 Eighteenth Street. Miss Williams was born in Shanghai, China, during her father's connection with the United States legation there, and she has lived most of her life in the Orient. Mr. Williams was charge d'affaires of the United States at the time of the recognition of the new Chinese republic. At the time of the outbreak of the war in Europe Miss Williams was a student in Paris. Mr. Williams is now the head of the Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs in the State Department. Mrs. Williams presented her daughter, with no a.s.sistants save three of her daughter's young friends, Miss Helen Miller, Miss Virginia Puller and Miss Ethel Christiensen, who presided in the dining room. The drawing room and dining room were both transformed into bowers of blossoms, sent to the debutante, which were charmingly arranged. Mrs. Miller wore a graceful gown of black net and lace over black satin. The debutante wore a becoming costume of rose silk and silver tr.i.m.m.i.n.g and carried sweet peas a portion of the afternoon, and the bunch of roses sent by Mrs. Lansing, wife of the Secretary of State, the rest of the time. Miss Miller and Miss Christiensen were each in white net and tulle and Miss Puller wore blue and white.[40]

[40] _Washington Post_, November 26, 1916.

Mrs. Fred Enderly, who has recently returned after a long absence in the East, was specially honored with a Halloween birthday dinner given by Mrs. Lottie Logan, of No. 1532 Ingraham Street Tuesday evening. The table was in yellow, with a floral center of chrysanthemums and favors of black cats, diminutive pumpkin people and other suggestive Halloween conceits. The guests were whisked up to the dressing-rooms by a witch, and Mrs. George H. Rector, attired in somber soothsayer's robes, told fortunes. Place-cards were written for Mr. and Mrs. Enderly, Mr. and Mrs. Archibald Hart, Mr. and Mrs. George Rector, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Henderson, Mr. and Mrs. George McDaniel, Mrs. Fred Detmer, Miss Wilhelmina Rector, Miss Talcot, Messrs. Mark Ellis, Jack Bushnell, L. D. Maescher and O. H. Logan.[41]

[41] _Los Angeles Times_, November 5, 1916.

=RECEPTION= Mr. and Mrs. Henry V. Black of Broadway, Irvington, gave a reception this afternoon for their debutante daughter, Miss Latjerome Black. Receiving with Mrs. Black were Mrs. P. F. Llewellyn Chambers, Mrs. Frederick Sayles, Mrs. Charles Coombs, Mrs. Benjamin Prince, Mrs. Theodosia Bailey, Mrs. Charles Hope, Miss Caramai Carroll, Miss Dorothy Brown, Mrs. Robert C. Black and Miss Dorothy Black. Receiving with Miss Black were the Misses Marion Townsend, Helen Sayles, Dorothy Clifford, Marion Becker, Helen Geer, and Genevieve Clendenin. Miss Black wore a dress of white silk embroidery and pink roses. The decorations were of autumn leaves and chrysanthemums. Among the guests were Dr. and Mrs. Albert Shaw, Mrs. Edwin Gould, Mrs. Howard Carroll, Mrs. Finley J. Shepard, Miss Anne Depew Paulding, Mrs. William Carter, Miss Millette, Mrs. John Luke, Mrs. Adam Luke, Mrs. H. D. Eastabrook, Mrs. John D. Archbold, Mrs. Henry Graves, and Dr. and Mrs. D. Russell.[42]

[42] _New York Sun_, September 24, 1915.

=DANCE= Elaboration of detail marked the oriental ball given by the Sierra Madre Club at its rooms in the Investment Building last evening. More than 400 members and guests attended in garb of the Far East--costumes whose values ran far into the hundreds. The club rooms were draped in a bewildering manner with tapestry of the Celestial Empire and the land of Nippon, and the rugs of Turkey and Arabia. It was a most colorful event--sultans robed in many colors with bejeweled turbans; Chinese mandarins in long flowing coats; bearded Moors, who danced with Geisha girls of j.a.pan, gowned in multi-colored silken kimonos; pet.i.te China maids in silken pantaloons and bobtailed jackets; Salome dancers of the East, in baggy bloomers and jeweled corsages, and harem houris in dazzling draperies. Preceding the dancing, a remarkable dinner, featuring the choicest foods of the Orient, was served by attendants wearing the dress of Chinese coolies. The rare old syrups of the Orient were enjoyed by the diners, while the fragrant odor of burning incense lent an air of subtle mysticism. Among the 400 guests present were:[43]

[43] _Los Angeles Times_, February 18, 1917.

=CLUB MEETING= At this week's meeting of the New England Women's Press a.s.sociation, Miss Helen M. Winslow, chairman of the programme committee, presented Joseph Edgar Chamberlin of _The Transcript_, who spoke on "The Work of Women in Journalism." Mr. Chamberlin gave many personal reminiscences of women writers whom he had known in his connection with various publications. He expressed regret that women are not doing more in editorial work, as in the earlier years of their entrance into the newspaper field, and the belief that it would be of advantage to journalism and to the public if they gave more attention to writing of this character rather than that directed almost exclusively for women's departments and others of superficial value. Mr. Chamberlin paid especial compliment to the work of Margaret Buchanan Sullivan, Jeannette Gilder, Jennie June Croly and Kate Field. Mr. Chamberlin spoke in high praise of Miss Cornelia M. Walter (afterward Mrs. W. B. Richards) who was editor-in-chief and had full charge of _The Transcript_ from 1842 to 1847. The executive board voted to co-operate with the Travelers' Aid Society and Mrs. Ralph M. Kirtland was elected chairman of the committee to formulate plans.[44]

[44] _Boston Transcript_, December 9, 1916.

=CHARITY BENEFIT= On Thursday afternoon at 4 o'clock Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt of 660 Fifth Avenue will open her house for a benefit entertainment in aid of the Appuiaux Artistes of France. Viscountess de Rancougne is to give her talk on the work being done in the French and Belgian hospitals and in the bombarded towns and villages, ill.u.s.trated with colored slides from photographs taken by herself. An interesting musical program also has been arranged for the afternoon, with Miss Callish, Mr. de Warlich, and Carlos Salzedo appearing. Mrs. Kenneth Frazier of 58 East Seventy-eighth Street is receiving applications for tickets at $5 each. On the Executive Committee are Kenneth Frazier, Ernest Peixotto, Edwin H. Blashfield, Charles Dana Gibson, Joseph H. Hunt, and Janet Scudder. Mrs. W. Bourke c.o.c.kran, Mrs. Howard Cushing, Mrs. E. H. Harriman, Mrs. Philip M. Lydig, Mrs. H. P. Whitney, and Miss Grace Bigelow make up the committee in charge.[45]

[45] _New York Times_, February 20, 1916.

=PERSONALS= Mrs. Robert R. Livingston and her son, Robert R. Livingston, have returned from a trip to the Pacific Coast and are at their town house, 11 Washington Square North, until they open Northwood, the Livingston estate near Cheviot-on-Hudson. They spent about six weeks on the coast. Mr. and Mrs. C. Oliver Iselin will return to their country place at Glen Head, L. I., late in April for the early summer. They are now occupying Hopelands, their place at Aiken, S. C. Mrs. and Mr. Francis de R. Wissmann have returned from a trip of some weeks to San Francisco and have been at the Gotham for a few days before opening Adelslea at Throgs Neck, Westchester, for the summer. The Rev. Dr. J. Nevett Steele of 122 West Seventy-sixth Street, vicar of St. Paul's Chapel, who has been ill with pneumonia since March 13, is now convalescing and will soon be able to resume his church duties. A son was born yesterday to Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., at their home, 165 East Seventy-fourth Street. The child is a grandson of Col. Theodore Roosevelt and will be named Cornelius Van Schaick Roosevelt, after his great-great-grandfather. This is the third child of Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt. Their first boy, Theodore Roosevelt, III, was born June 14, 1914. Mrs. Roosevelt was Miss Eleanor B. Alexander, daughter of Mrs. Henry Addison Alexander of 1840 Park Avenue.

=SOCIETY IN PROSPECT AND REVIEW= Never has a Washington season begun so early as this one. The middle of December finds the White House dinners in full sway, the President and Mrs. Wilson having dined with the Vice President and Mrs. Marshall, and the first state reception of the season in the White House due in two days. President and Mrs. Wilson already have had three large and formal dinner parties, the first one on December 7, in honor of Mr. Vance McCormick, chairman of the Democratic national committee; and on Tuesday of last week they entertained the Vice President and the members of the cabinet and their wives, with a number of other distinguished guests and a few young people. After this dinner a programme of music was given in the east room and the evening was a charming success. The First Lady of the Land never was more lovely than she was on this occasion. The President's niece, Miss Alice Wilson, of Baltimore, came over with her father for the evening. Miss Nataline Dulles, niece of Mrs. Lansing, made her first appearance at a state dinner, and Miss Margaret Wilson and Miss Bones were among the guests. On Thursday evening the visiting governors, former governors and governors-elect here for the conference this week, and their wives, were dined, with an interesting company. Friday evening the Vice President and Mrs. Marshall gave their annual dinner to the President and his wife, and had a senatorial company to meet them. The debutantes are in the full splendor of their glory, and the next three weeks will give them a supreme test of endurance, for luncheons, teas, dinners and dances not only follow one another closely, but pile up, with several in a day and not one to be neglected. There are no diplomatic buds, no cabinet buds, and few army, navy and congressional buds. But it is a strong residential year, with a number of debutantes in the smartest and most exclusive of the substantial old families. During the Christmas holidays the buds of the future, some of a year hence, others of two years, are vying with the older girls for busy days, and the social calendar shows scarcely a resting moment from the day they come home from school until they rush back to their studies in time to reach the first recitation cla.s.s. And as for beauty sleep, there will be none. There will not be a night during the Christmas vacation when this younger set will not be dancing. Time was when dinner parties were composed of elderly, or at least middle-aged, people only, but now even the near-debutantes and their circle have a steady round of "dining out," with no fear of being considered "along in years," for there are dinners for all ages. Washington has given three of her most distinguished, most beautiful and most popular girls to foreign lands within two months, two of them having become princesses and the third a baroness. The first to wed was Miss Margaret Draper, heiress to several millions of her father's estate. She is now Princess Boncompagni of Rome, and her mother is now just about joining her and the prince in Paris, the three to proceed to the prince's home in Rome, where they will spend Christmas together, after which the prince will return to duty with his regiment. The second of these brides of foreigners was Miss Catherine Birney, daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Theodore V. Birney, who was married December 2 to Baron von Schoen, of the German emba.s.sy staff, and is just back now from the wedding trip. They returned for the marriage of Miss Catherine Britton to the Prince zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfuerst, of the Austro-Hungarian emba.s.sy staff. Baron and Baroness von Schoen will spend Christmas with the latter's sister, with whom she has made her home since the death of her parents, and then they will proceed to Mexico, whence the baron has been transferred. The marriage of Miss Britton and Prince zu Hohenlohe was not unexpected, but the wedding date was hurried about three months, the prince becoming an impatient wooer. He was a.s.signed to duty at the Austro-Hungarian consulate in the summer and agreed to remain away for a year. He stood it as long as he could, and then returned to claim his bride. The consent of the prince's family has not been forthcoming, but the marriage has the sanction of the emba.s.sy, presumably by order of the new emperor, and it was a happy wedding scene. The bride is one of the famous beauties of Washington society. She was never lovelier than in her singularly simple wedding gown of satin with pearl tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, tulle sleeves, and enormous wedding veil. Society is dancing its way through the season. The fever is making inroads even upon the incessant auction-bridge playing, and he or she who neither dances nor plays auction has a dull time of it. Washington society is rather methodical in its dancing. Monday nights are given up to the subscription dances at the Playhouse, and another set at the Willard. Tuesday night the army dances are given at the Playhouse. On Wednesdays are the regular Chevy Chase Club dinner dances, and on Thursdays are those at the Navy Club. On Friday nights, beginning on January 5, will be the ten subscription dances at the Willard, and on Sat.u.r.day nights there are dances everywhere. The private dances are scattered all through, afternoons and evenings, until there is scarcely a date left vacant on the calendar until Ash Wednesday.[46]

[46] _Washington Post_, December 17, 1916.

=256. Clubs.=--The particular attention of the prospective society editor may be called to club news. The work in literature, education, community betterment, general social relief, and kindred subjects now being undertaken by women's clubs is sometimes phenomenal and offers to live society editors a vast undeveloped field for constructive news. Too frequently the society page is filled with dull six-point routine, forbidding in style and still more forbidding in content, when it might be made alive with buoyancy and interest by added attention to new studies and interests in the women's clubs. What the women are doing in their study of the garbage question, in their campaigns against flies, in their efforts to provide comforts for unprivileged slum children,--such topics, properly featured and given attractive individual heads, may be made interesting to a large percentage of the intelligent women in the community and may be made instrumental in building up a strong, constructive department in the paper.

=257. Typographical Style.=--The prospective society editor will find it well, however, to study and to follow at first the typographical style of the society column in her paper. Some newspapers run each wedding, engagement, or social affair under a separate head. Others group all society stories under the general head of _Society_, indicating the different social functions, no matter how long the write-ups, only by new paragraphs. Sometimes this necessitates paragraphs a half-column long. In preparing lists of names in society reports, the editor should group like names and t.i.tles together. That is, she should group together the married couples, then the married women whose names appear alone, then the unmarried women, and finally the men. An ill.u.s.tration is the following:

Among the several hundred guests were Mr. and Mrs. S. Bryce Wing, Mr. and Mrs. Felix D. Doubleday, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Gouvernour Morris.... Among the debutantes and other young women present were Misses Gretchen Blaine Damrosch, Priscilla Peabody, Irene Langhorne Gibson, Rosalie G. Bloodgood.... The young men present included Messrs. Lester Armour, Edward M. McIlvaine, Jr., Edgar Allan Poe, William Carrington Stettinius, Nelson Doubleday, Herbert Pulitzer....

=258. Spurious Announcements.=--A word may be said in conclusion about getting society news. One of the first precautions to a prospective society editor is not to accept announcements of engagements, marriages, and births of children from any others than the immediate persons concerned. In particular, one should beware of such news given by telephone. Too many so-called practical jokes are attempted in this way on sensitive lovers and young married couples. Many newspapers have printed forms for announcements of engagements and weddings. These are mailed directly to the families concerned and require their signatures.

=259. Sources for Society News.=--In cases of important news, such as weddings and charity benefits, the editor generally has little difficulty in obtaining all the facts needed. Some social leaders are naturally good about giving one details of their parties. Others, however, shun publicity even to the extent of denying prospective luncheons, dinners, and card parties--particularly if they are small--after all plans have been made, and the details may be had only after they know the reporter has definite facts. To get these first facts is often one's hardest task. Frequently one can acquire the friendly acquaintance of some one in society who likes to have her name appear with the real leaders. Men, too,--even husbands,--often are not so reticent about their immediate social affairs and are glad to give pretty society editors advance tips of coming events. But the best sources are the caterers, the florists, and the hair-dressing parlors.

The caterers are engaged weeks in advance. The florists provide the decorations. And the hair-dressing parlors are hotbeds of gossip. By visiting or calling regularly at these places one generally can keep abreast of all the society news in town. But always when getting news from such sources--or from any other for that matter--one must be sure of the absolute accuracy of all addresses, names, and initials. If one is not careful,--well, only one who has seen an irate mother talk to the city editor before the ink on the home edition is dry can appreciate the trouble that will probably result.

XVIII. FOLLOW-UPS, REWRITES

=260. "Follow-ups."=--"Rewrites" and "follow-up" stories are news stories which have appeared in print. The distinction between the two is that "follow-ups" contain news in addition to that of the story first printed, while "rewrites" are only revisions. Few news stories are complete on their first appearance. New features develop; motives, causes, and unlooked-for results come to light in a way that is oftentimes amazing. Sometimes these facts appear within a few hours; again they are days in developing; and occasionally, after they have developed, the story will "follow" for weeks, months, and even years without losing its interest. The Thaw, Becker, and Charlton stories ran for years. The first item about the _t.i.tanic_ disaster was a bulletin of less than half a stick; yet the story ran for months.

=261. Constructive Side of "Follow-ups."=--A reporter, therefore, must not consider a story ended until he has run to ground all the possibilities or until the new facts have ceased to be of interest to a large body of readers. Indeed, it is in the "follow-up" that the reporter has one of his greatest opportunities to prove himself a constructive journalist. There is every reason, too, for believing it will be in the "follow-up" that the big newspaper of the future will find its greatest development. At present, stories often are dropped too quickly, so quickly that the really constructive news is lost. A great epidemic sweeps a city, taking an unprecedented toll of life and entailing expenditures of hundreds of thousands of dollars. All the reporters grind out pages and pages of copy about the plague, but few follow the physicians and scientists through the coming weeks and months in their unflagging determination to learn the causes of the disease, to effect cures, and to prevent a recurrence of it as an epidemic. Yet such news is constructive and is of greater value probably to the readers than the somewhat sensational figures of the plague. For the scientists will conquer in the end, and all along the way their improved methods of cure and prevention will be of educational value to the public. So also with strikes, wrecks, fires, commercial panics, graft and crime exposures, etc.; the reporter is advised to follow the story through the weeks to come, not necessarily writing of it all the while, but holding it in prospect for the constructive news that is sure to follow.

=262. Following up a Story.=--The first story which the new reporter will have to follow up he will some day find stuck behind the platen of his typewriter. It will have been put there by one of the copy-readers who has read the local papers of the preceding morning or afternoon and has clipped this article as one promising further developments. The first thing to do is to read the whole story carefully. (As a matter of fact, the reporter really should have read and should be familiar with the story already. Familiarity with all the news is expected of newspaper men at all times.) Then he should look to see if the reporter writing the story has played up the real features. In his haste to get the news into print, the other reporter may have missed the main feature. A delightful case in point is a "follow-up" of an indifferent story appearing in a New York morning paper:

Because they were penniless and hungry, Charles Ewart, 31 years old, and his wife Emily, living at 646 St. Nicholas Avenue, were arrested yesterday in the grocery store of Jacob Bosch, 336 St. Nicholas Avenue, charged with shoplifting. When arrested by Detective Taczhowski, who had trailed them all the way from a downtown department store, seven eggs and a box of figs were found in Mrs. Ewart's handsome blue fox m.u.f.f....

But the cause of the couple's pilfering was not poverty or hunger, as was shown by a clever writer on the _New York World_ who covered the story that afternoon. Here is his write-up, in which the reader should note the entire change of tone and the happy handling of the human interest features:

=CONFESSED SHOPLIFTERS= Mrs. Emily Ewart, slender, pet.i.te, pretty, sat in the police department to-day, tossed back her blue fox neckpiece, patted her moist eyes with a lace-embroidered handkerchief, carefully adjusted in her lap the handsome fox m.u.f.f which the police say had but lately been the repository of seven eggs and a box of figs, and told how she and her husband happened to be arrested last evening as shoplifters. As she talked, her husband, Charles Ewart, thirty-one years old, sat disconsolately in a cell, his modish green overcoat somewhat wrinkled, the careful creases in his gray trousers a bit less apparent, and his up-to-the-minute gray fedora a trifle out of shape and dusty. Nevertheless, he still retained the mien of dignity with which he met his arrest in the grocery store of Jacob Bosch at No. 336 St. Nicholas Avenue. Of course, you understand, it was really Mrs. Ewart's fault that she and her husband should stoop to pilfering from a hardworking grocer eggs worth 42 cents (at their market value of 72 cents a dozen) and a box of figs, net value one dime. At least, so she told the police. She too, she said, led him to appropriate a travelling bag worth $10 from a downtown department store. If it hadn't been for her, young Mr. Ewart might have gone right along earning his so much per week soliciting theatre curtain advertis.e.m.e.nts for the Bentley Studios, at No. 1493 Broadway, and might never have run afoul of the police. The Ewarts, so the young woman's story ran, came here from Chicago two weeks ago. Of their life in the Western city she refused to tell anything. But since coming to New York, she admitted, they had travelled a hard financial road. Detective Taczkowski's attention was first called to Ewart in a downtown department store yesterday afternoon, when Ewart tried to return a travelling bag which he said his wife had bought for $10. Investigation of the store's records showed Mrs. Ewart had bought a bag for $3.95, but that the $10 bag had been stolen. Ewart was put off on a technicality and the detective followed him when he left the store. Outside Ewart was met by his wife. Into the subway Taczkowski shadowed them and at last the trail led to the Bosch grocery on St. Nicholas Avenue. In the store, Taczkowski kept his eyes on Mrs. Ewart, in her modish gown and furs, while Ewart engaged a clerk in conversation. Suddenly, Taczkowski alleges, he saw an egg worth six cents disappear from a crate into Mrs. Ewart's handsome fur m.u.f.f. Another egg followed, and another, he says, until, like the children of the poem, they were seven. When a box of figs followed the eggs, Taczkowski says, he arrested the pair. A search of the Ewarts' apartment at No. 646 St. Nicholas Avenue, the police say, revealed a great quant.i.ty of men's and women's clothing of the finest variety. Mrs. Ewart, the police say, admitted she had stolen the blue fox furs from a downtown store and the police expect to identify much of the handsome clothing found in the apartment as stolen goods. "We were hungry and had no money," Mrs. Ewart sobbed at police headquarters. "We had all that clothing, but not a cent to buy food. I am the one to blame, for I encouraged my husband to steal." Ewart and his wife were arraigned in Yorkville Court before Magistrate Harris to-day and were held in $500 bail each for further examination.[47]

[47] _New York Evening World_, November 11, 1915.

=263. New Facts.=--Generally in the "follow-up" it is the newly learned facts that are featured. In the case of a sudden death, for instance, it would be the funeral arrangements; in a railway wreck, the investigation and the placing of blame. The following stories ill.u.s.trate:

=Story in a Morning Paper= Dashing through a rain-storm with lightning flashes blinding him, William H. Blanchard, manager for the Wells Fargo Express Company, drove his automobile off the approach of the open State Street bridge to-night and was drowned. Otto Eller, teacher of manual training in the West Side High School, escaped by leaping into the river. Eller says the warning lights were not displayed at the bridge. When the automobile was recovered, it was shown that the car was not moving fast, as it had barely dropped off the abutment, a few feet from sh.o.r.e. The bridge was open because its operating equipment had been put out of order by a stroke of lightning.

=The Follow-up= The body of William H. Blanchard, manager of the Wells Fargo Express Company, who lost his life when he drove an automobile into an open drawbridge, was recovered this morning about 100 feet from where the accident occurred. Investigations have been started by the coroner and friends to place the blame for the accident. The electrical mechanism of the bridge was out of commission on account of a storm and it was being operated by hand. Spectators declare no warning lights were on the bridge.

=264. Results Featured.=--Frequently the lead to the follow-up features the results effected by the details of the earlier story:

=Original Story= The total yield of the leading cereal crops of the United States this year will be nearly 1,000,000,000 bushels less than last year. The government estimates of the crop issued to-day showed sensational losses in the spring wheat crop in the Northwest, a further shrinkage in winter wheat, and big losses compared to a month ago and last year in corn and oats. Both barley and rye figures also indicate greater losses compared to a year ago than were shown in the July government report.

=The Follow-up Next Day= American wheat pits had a day of turmoil to-day such as they have not seen since the stirring times when war was declared in Europe. Influenced by the startling government report showing enormous losses in the spring wheat crop, prices soared even more sharply than the wiseacres had antic.i.p.ated. They were 5 to 8 cents higher when the gong struck, the report, released after the close of 'change Tuesday, having had its effect over night. At the close they registered a gain of from 10-5/8 to 11-3/8 cents for the day. Wheat had gone above $1.50 a bushel. Two months ago it was around $1.05.

=265. Probable Results.=--Where no more important details can be learned, it sometimes is wise to feature probable results.

A break in diplomatic relations between the United States and Germany as a result of the torpedoing of the Lusitania by a German submarine is the expressed belief to-day of high Washington officials.

=266. Clues for Identification.=--In stories of crime, when the offenders have escaped, the lead to the follow-up may begin with clues for establishing the ident.i.ty of the criminals.

If a piano tuner about forty years of age, wearing a pair of silver spectacles and accompanied by a pet.i.te, brown-eyed girl twenty years his junior, comes to your house for work, telephone the Boston police. They are the two, it is alleged, who robbed the Mather apartments yesterday.

=267. Featuring Lack of News.=--In rare cases the very fact that there is no additional news is worth featuring.

Up to a late hour to-night nothing had been heard of Henry O. Mallory, prosecuting attorney in the Howard murder case, who disappeared yesterday on his way to Lexington.

=268. Opinions of Prominent Persons.=--An otherwise unimportant follow story may sometimes be made a good one by interviewing prominent persons and localizing the reader's interest in men or women he knows.

That the new eugenics law pa.s.sed by the state legislature of Wisconsin yesterday is doomed to failure from the start, is the opinion of Health Commissioner Shannon, who was in Madison when the final vote was taken.

=269. Summary of Opinions.=--Sometimes, indeed, it is well to interview a number of local persons and make the lead a summary of their views.

Widely different opinions were expressed by prominent physicians, professors, clergymen, and social workers throughout this city to-day on the ethics of the course taken by Dr. H. J. Haiselden of Chicago in allowing the defective son of a patient to die.

=270. Connecting Links.=--In all these stories, the reader should note, sufficient explanatory matter has been included to connect the incidents readily with the events of the preceding days. This is important in every follow-up; for always many readers will have missed the earlier stories and consequently will need definite connection to relate the new events with preceding occurrences. It is also important for these connecting links to be included in, or to follow immediately after, the lead, because they give the reader necessary facts for understanding the new information--give him his bearings, as it were,--without which he will not read far into the story.

=271. "Rewrites."=--While most stories are not complete on their first appearance, it sometimes happens, nevertheless, that the first publication of an item contains all the facts of interest to a paper's readers and that priority of publication has been gained by another journal. Yet the story will be of interest to the readers of one's own paper and must be published. It is the duty of the rewrite man to handle such a story, and to handle it in such a way that it shall bear no resemblance to the story published by the other paper. For this reason the most skillful reporters on a daily are the rewrite men. They must find new features for old stories, or new angles of view, or new relations of some kind between the various details.