Part 6 (1/2)

=113. Boxed Summaries and Features.=--When a story is unusually long and complicated and the number of details numerous, or when important points or facts need particular emphasis, it is customary to make a digest of the princ.i.p.al items and box them in display type before the regular lead. Boxed summaries at the beginning of a story are really determined by the city editor and the copy readers, but a grouping of the outstanding facts for boxing is often a welcome suggestion and a valuable help to the sub-editors. If the reporter is in doubt about the need of a boxed summary, he may make it on a separate sheet and place it on the city editor's desk along with the regular story. Types of stories that most frequently have boxed summaries are accidents, with lists of the dead and the injured in bold-face type; important athletic and sporting events, with summaries of the records, the crowds in attendance, the gate receipts, etc.; speeches, trials, and executions, with epigrams and the most important utterances of the judges, lawyers, witnesses, or defendants; international diplomatic letters, with the main points of discussion or most threatening statements; lengthy governmental reports, etc. An ill.u.s.tration of the boxed summary is the following, featuring the last statement of Charles Becker, the New York police lieutenant, electrocuted in 1915 for the death of Herman Rosenthal:

=POLICE OFFICER PAYS PENALTY WITH HIS LIFE= +----------------------------------------------------+

”MY DYING STATEMENT.”

”Gentlemen: I stand before you in my full senses,

knowing that no power on earth can save me from the

grave that is to receive me. In the face of that,

in the face of those who condemn me, and in the

presence of my G.o.d and your G.o.d, I proclaim my

absolute innocence of the foul crime for which I

must die.

”You are now about to witness my destruction by the

state which is organized to protect the lives of

the innocent. May almighty G.o.d pardon everyone who

has contributed in any degree to my untimely death.

And now on the brink of my grave, I declare to the

world that I am proud to have been the husband of

the purest, n.o.blest woman that ever lived,--Helen

Becker.

”This acknowledgment is the only legacy I can leave

her. I bid you all good-bye. Father, I am ready to

go. Amen.”

”CHARLES BECKER.”

+----------------------------------------------------+

Ossining, N. Y., July 30.--At peace with his Maker,

a prayer on his lips, but with never a faltering of

his iron will, Charles Becker expiated the murder of

Herman Rosenthal at 5:55 this morning. Pinned on his

s.h.i.+rt above his heart, he carried with him the

picture of his devoted wife. In his hand he clutched

the crucifix.

The death current cut off in his throat the whisper,

”Jesus have mercy.” It was not the plea of a man

shaken and fearful of death, but rather the prayer

of one with the conviction that he was innocent.

Just before he entered the death chamber he declared

to Father Curry, ”I am not guilty by deeds,

conspiracy or any other way of the death of

Rosenthal. I am sacrificed for my friends.”

Previously at 4 A.M. he issued ”My Dying Statement.”

It was a pa.s.sionate reiteration of innocence, and is

left as his only legacy to his wife: ”I declare to

the world that I am proud to have been the husband

of the purest, n.o.blest woman that ever lived,--Helen

Becker.”

Absolute quiet reigned in the death house at 5.50

A.M. Suddenly the little green door swung open.

Becker appeared. He had no air of bravado. Behind

him in the procession came Fathers Cas.h.i.+n and Curry.

Becker walked una.s.sisted to the death chamber. As he

entered he glanced about, seemingly surprised. His

face had the expression of a person coming from

darkness into sudden light, but there was no hint of

hesitancy to meet death in the stride with which he

approached the chair which had already claimed the

lives of four others in payment for the Rosenthal

murder.

The doomed man held a black crucifix in his left

hand. It was about ten inches long, and as he calmly

took his place in the chair, he raised it to his

lips. Following the chant of the priests, he

entoned, ”Oh, Lord, a.s.sist me in my last agony. I

give you my heart and my soul.”

When all was ready, the executioner stepped back and

in full view of the witnesses calmly shut the

switch. As the great current of electricity shot

into the frame of the former master of gunmen, the

big body straightened out, tugging at the creaking

straps. For a few moments it stretched out. A slight

sizzling was heard and a slight curl of smoke went

up from the right side of Becker's head, rising from

under the cap. When the shock was at its height, his

grip tightened to the crucifix, but as the

electrocutioner snapped the switch off the cross

slipped from the relaxed fingers. A guard caught it.

The whole body dropped to a position of utter

collapse.

Becker's s.h.i.+rt was then opened. As the black cloth

was turned back to make way for the stethoscope, the

picture of Mrs. Becker was revealed. It was pinned

inside. The doctors pushed it aside impatiently,

evidently not knowing what it was. They held

stethoscopes to the heart. Another shock was

demanded of the cool young executioner. He stepped

back and swung the switch open and shut again. The

crumpled body clutched the straps again. Once more

the doctors felt his heart. They seemed to argue

whether there was still evidence of life. Once again

the executioner was appealed to and once again he

snapped on and off the switch. The lips then parted

in a smile. The stethoscope was applied and it was

declared that Becker was dead....[12]

[12] George R. Holmes, of the United Press a.s.sociations, in _The Appleton Post_, July 30, 1915.

=114. Informal Lead.=--The opposite of the summarizing lead is the informal, or suspense, lead. This type begins with a question, a bit of verse, a startling quotation, or one or two manifestly unimportant details that tell little and yet whet the appet.i.te of the reader, luring him to the real point of interest later in the story. Such leads, sometimes known as ”human interest” leads, are admittedly more difficult than those of the summarizing type, their difficulty being but one effect of the cause which makes them necessary. An examination of a large number of these leads shows that their purpose is to make attractive news that for some cause is lacking in interest. Most frequently the news is old; often it is merely commonplace; or possibly it may have come from such a distance that it lacks local interest. In such cases the aid of the informal lead is invoked for the purpose of stimulating the reader's interest and inducing him to read the whole story. And this explains the difficulty of the informal lead. Its originality must compensate for the poverty of the news it presents. It must be more attractive, more striking, more piquant than the ordinary lead. And the only ways of obtaining this attractiveness, this piquancy, are by novelty of approach and of statement.[13]

[13] For an additional discussion of the informal lead, see Chapter XIX.

=115. Question Lead.=--A few ill.u.s.trations of informal leads will make clearer their exact nature. First may be cited the question lead, two examples of which are given below, with enough of the story appended in each case to show the method of enticing the reader into the story.

How long can the war last?

It's a fool question, because there is no certain

answer. But when there is an unanswerable question,

it is the custom to look up precedents. Here are a

few precedents....

If you planned to wed in September and married in

July just to suit your own convenience, would you be

provoked if your dear neighbors immediately seated

themselves and wove a beautiful romance out of it?

Grace Elliott Bomarie, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.

Charles Elliott Bomarie, of 930 Lawrence Avenue, and

sister of Bessie Bomarie, former famous champion

golf player, was not angry to-day. Instead she

laughed the merriest kind of a laugh over the

telephone and said:

”Call me up in half an hour and I will tell you all

about it.”

But she didn't. On the recall (that's the proper

word in this day of equal suffrage), she was not at

home. Mrs. Bomarie was, and said:

”Please just say that Mr. and Mrs. Charles Elliott

Bomarie announce the marriage of their daughter,

Grace Elliott, to Mr. Albert Wingate.”

=116. Verse Lead.=--The lead beginning with a bit of verse is more difficult than the question lead because of the uncertainty with which most persons write metrical lines. The following may serve as a fairly successful attempt:

=U. S. JACKIES WANT MAIL=

Perhaps you've seen a jolly tar

A-pus.h.i.+ng at the capstan bar

Or swabbing off the deck,

And figured that a life of ease

Attends the jackie on the seas

Who draws a U. S. check.

His lot, it seems, is not quite so;

Just hear this plaintive plea of woe

That comes from off the BUFFALO.

The sailors rise to raise a wail

Because they say they get no mail.

Will some Milwaukee misses in their spare moments do

Uncle Sam a favor by writing letters to cheer up

some of his downhearted nephews in the navy?

The boys are just pining away from lonesomeness,

owing to the fact that no one writes to them. At