Newspaper Reporting and Correspondence Part 7

Fatalities:

Six men were killed and a dozen seriously injured early to-day by an outbound Panhandle pa.s.senger train crashing into the rear end of a Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul stock train at Twelfth and Rockwell streets.--_Chicago Record-Herald._

Manner:

Run down by her own automobile, which she was cranking, at First and G streets, northwest, Dr. Alma C. Arnold, a chiropractic physician, 825 Fifteenth street, northwest, was forced against the wheel of a pa.s.sing wagon and seriously injured this morning.--_Washington Times._

Cause:

Over-balanced by a granite stone weighing four tons, the entire cornice over the west portico of the new west wing of the capitol fell to the ground this afternoon, carrying with it Daniel Logan, foreman for the Woodbury Granite Company.--_Madison Democrat._

Attendant Circ.u.mstances:

With a blast that shook the entire city and was believed by many to be an earthquake, three boilers in the new engine house of the Pabst brewery on Tenth street, between Chestnut street and Cold Spring avenue, exploded at about 4 o'clock this morning.--_Milwaukee Free Press._

=2. Robberies.=--Another large cla.s.s of news stories is concerned with robberies of various kinds. Unfortunately for the reporter, very few robberies are alike; beyond the common ground of the interest in the amount stolen and the cleverness of the robber's work, there is seldom any one thing that may be looked for as the feature of a robbery story.

The reporter must decide what in the story makes it worth printing.

Robbery stories may include anything from petty thievery to bank defaulting. Some of the possibilities are horse and automobile stealing, burglary, hold-ups, train and street-car robbery, embezzlement, fraud, kidnapping, safe-cracking, shop and bank robbery. It is well for the reporter who has to cover a story of this cla.s.s to acquaint himself with the distinctions that characterize the various kinds of robbery and the various names applied to the people who commit this sort of crime: e.g., robber, thief, bandit, burglar, hold-up man, thug, embezzler, defaulter, safe-cracker, pick-pocket.

In general the chief interest in robbery stories is in the result of the work--the amount taken--usually accompanied by a term to designate the sort of robbery. Just how the crime was committed is often the feature, as in a train robbery or a clever case of fraud. If the victim or victims are at all well known their names may become the most interesting thing in the story--or even the name of a well-known criminal or band of robbers. In some stories, especially if another paper has already covered the story, the pursuit or capture of the criminals is often interesting; the stories of bank robberies often begin in this way. Other attendant circ.u.mstances, such as the number of persons who witnessed the crime, may be the feature. In hold-ups, burglaries, and crimes of that sort, the death or wounding of the victim is often played up. Sometimes the reason for the crime, as in a kidnapping case, is of great significance. In the case of a robbery of a bank or any other inst.i.tution which depends upon credit for its business, the story usually begins with, or at least mentions near the beginning, the present condition of the robbed inst.i.tution. It is safe to say that in no case is the name of the criminal, the manner of his arrest (if it is not unusual), the police station to which he was taken, or the charge preferred against him worth a place in the lead.

Some robbery stories from the daily press:

Amount taken:

Furs worth $40,000 were stolen in the early hours of yesterday morning within a stone's throw of Madison Square. Apparently a gang in which there was a woman expert in choosing only the best furs carried off the costly skins, etc.--_New York World._

Manner of hold-up:

Seized by thugs in broad daylight as he was crossing the railroad tracks at the foot of First avenue east, Fred Butzer, a stonemason of Butler, Minn., was thrown to the ground, a gag placed in his mouth, his pockets were rifled of $36.--_Duluth News-Tribune._

Unusual sort of pickpocket:

A young man in evening dress, who was going down into the subway station at Times Square with the theater crowd that filled the entrance just outside of the Hotel Knickerbocker early last night, paused, knocked a woman under the chin and took away her silver chatelaine purse containing $20 as deftly as he might have flicked the ash off his cigarette. Then he disappeared.--_New York Times._

Unusual thieves:

Two girl thieves not more than twelve years old and small in stature for their age have been operating with great success in the different stores in the neighborhood of Amsterdam avenue and Seventy-ninth street. Five or six thefts, etc.--_New York Telegram._

Pursuit and capture:

After a chase along Forty-second street and up the steps of the Hotel Manhattan, a woman, who said she was Sadie Brown, thirty-three years old, of No. 215 West Forty-sixth street, was arrested early today on suspicion of having picked the pocket of a man at, etc.--_New York Telegram._

Present conditions of robbed bank (second paragraph of an embezzlement story):

Banking Commissioner Watkins this afternoon declared that he found the bank perfectly sound, that all commercial paper was found intact, that none of the accounts have been juggled and that no erasures of any kind were discovered.--_Philadelphia Inquirer._

Unusual sort of burglar:

Wearing a Salvation Army uniform, a burglar was caught early yesterday in the home of Walter Katte, a vice-president of the New York Central railroad, at Irvington-on-the-Hudson.--_New York World._

=3. Murder.=--The reports of crimes of this sort can hardly be cla.s.sified, for there are so many things that may be worth featuring in any murder case. The story itself is usually of such importance that the mere fact that a murder has been committed gives it news value even if there is nothing unusual in the crime--just as in the case of a featureless fire story that begins with "Fire." The handling of a crime depends upon the character and circ.u.mstances; the reporter must weigh the facts in each case for himself. However, we usually find a feature in the number of persons murdered, the manner in which the crime was committed, the name of the victim, if he or she is well known, the reason for the deed, or in some of the many attendant circ.u.mstances, such as arrest, pursuit, etc. One rule must always be followed in the reporting of a murder story: the reporter must confine himself to the necessary facts and omit as many of the gruesome details as possible. He must tell it in a cold, hard-hearted way without elaboration, for the story in itself is gruesome enough. Just as soon as a murder story begins to expand upon shocking details it becomes the worst sort of a yellow story.

Examples of murder stories from the newspapers:

Manner:

After crushing in the head of his superior officer with an axe, James Layton, boatswain of the Liverpool sailing ship Colony, refused to submit to arrest, and, still waving the b.l.o.o.d.y weapon, committed suicide by jumping into the sea.--_New York Mail._

Motive:

In revenge for a beating he received the day before, Gaetona Ambrifi yesterday shot and instantly killed Frank Ricciliano, a sub-section foreman on the Pennsylvania Railroad, while they were working on the roadbed near Peddle street, Newark.--_New York Sun._

Prominent name:

Mayor William J. Gaynor of New York City was shot and seriously, perhaps fatally, wounded on board the steamer Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse at 9:30 as he was sailing for Europe.

Resulting pursuit:

The police of Brooklyn have another murder mystery to unravel through the finding early today of the body of Peter Barilla on Lincoln road, near Nostrand avenue, Flatbush. There were two bullet wounds in the body and four stab wounds in the back.--_Brooklyn Eagle._

Attendant circ.u.mstances:

A hundred or more persons who were about to take trains witnessed the shooting to death of a Jersey City business man in the Pennsylvania Railroad station there this afternoon.--_New York Mail._

=4. Suicide.=--What is true of murder stories is also true of suicide.

Each individual case has an unusual feature of its own. We ordinarily find a good beginning in the manner of the suicide, the name of the person who has killed himself if he is well known, the reason for the act, or some one of the attendant circ.u.mstances--often the manner of resuscitation if the crime is unsuccessful. For some unexplained reason many papers do not print accounts of ordinary suicides, except when the individual is prominent. At any rate the story must be told without gruesome details and as briefly as possible.

Examples from the press:

Name:

William L. Murray of Rockview avenue, North Plainfield, paying teller of the Empire Trust Company of New York, committed suicide at Scotch Plains early this afternoon by shooting himself in the head. No reason is a.s.signed for the act.--_New York Sun._

Motive:

Driven insane by continued brooding over ill health, Miss Ada Emerson, a former teacher in the Beloit city schools, killed herself in a crowded interurban car Sat.u.r.day afternoon by slashing her throat with a razor.--_Beloit Free Press._

Here the manner is the feature, but it is not played up in the first line because it is too horrible.

=5. Big Stories.=--The big stories of catastrophes are usually handled on a large scale--played up, as the newspaper men say. The story in itself is of sufficient importance to make it unnecessary to play up any single feature of the story. However, the reporter, in looking for a good beginning, often finds it in the most startling fact in the story.

If he is reporting a riot he usually begins with the number of killed or injured, the amount of property destroyed, the character of the riot, or the cause, as in this example: