Part 12 (2/2)

Du Pont Company officials have ordered a searching

investigation, and every employee who was near the

destroyed building will be put through an

examination in an effort to get some clue as to the

cause of the explosion....[21]

[21] _New York World_, December 1, 1915.

It is worth noting, in this story, the shrewdness with which the reporter plays up the probable cause of the accident, adding to the actual facts and promising possible further developments in to-morrow's paper.

=223. Stories of the Weather.=--The weather takes its place in the accident division of news stories because of its frequent harmful effects on life and property. Men's pursuits are all a gamble on the weather. Usually a story about the weather depends for its value largely on the felicity of its language, though when there has been severe atmospheric disturbance, resulting in loss of life, destruction of property, or delayed traffic, a simple narrative of events is sufficient to hold the reader's attention. The following are different types of weather story, the first being of the pure accident type, the second, of the more commonplace daily routine.

=TERRIFIC STORM KILLS 4=

Rain, hail, snow, sleet, gales, thunder and

lightning combined in an extraordinary manner early

yesterday to give New York one of the most peculiar

storms the city ever experienced. Four persons died

and scores were injured. Unfinished buildings were

blown down, roofs were blown off, and signs

demolished.

The storm played havoc with the railroads, delaying

trains and adding to the difficulty of moving

freight. It made so much trouble for the New Haven

that the company last night issued a notice saying

that ”on account of storms and acc.u.mulation of

loaded cars” only live stock, perishable freight,

food products, and coal would be carried over

portions of the line.

Adrift in the gale, fifteen ca.n.a.l barges and cargo

scows from South Amboy, N. J., went ash.o.r.e at Sandy

Hook after those on board, including twenty women

and children, had suffered from exposure and one man

washed overboard from the barge Henrietta had been

drowned. The California and the Stockholm, with

pa.s.sengers on board and inbound, were delayed by the

storm and will reach port to-day.

The wind in Newark unroofed the almshouse, injuring

two aged women, blew down buildings, smashed

windows, and crippled the entire wire service of the

city....[22]

(Then follows a detailed account of the dead, the

injured, and the delay of traffic.)

[22] _New York Herald_, December 27, 1915.

=COLD WAVE ON WAY HERE=

Indianapolis to-day stands on the brink between rain

and snow. Before to-morrow dawns it may bend

slightly one way or the other, meteorologically

speaking, and the result will be little flakes of

snow or little drops of water. It is forecast that

to-morrow its feet will slip entirely and it will be

plunged into the abyss of cold weather. The forecast

is the work of the weather man, who has some

reputation locally and elsewhere as a forecaster of

questionable accuracy.

Cold weather is drifting this way on northwest

winds, says the weather man, and soon will be hard

by in the offing, ready to pounce on Indianapolis.

The fate of Indianapolis is to be the fate of

Indiana also, and of the entire Middle West, for the

weather man is no respecter of localities, and when

he once gets started forecasts with utter

abandon....

The Northwest has experienced a drop of 20 degrees

in temperature and the cold wave is rapidly sweeping

this way. It is due to reach Indianapolis to-morrow

morning. The local forecast is for cloudy to-night

and Wednesday, with probabilities of rain or snow,

and colder Wednesday. It was the same for the state,

but rain was predicted for the south part and snow

for the north.

The temperature in Indianapolis at 7 o'clock this

morning was 38 degrees, a drop of 6 degrees being

recorded in the last twenty-four hours. The coming

cold wave is expected to give this part of the

country its first real touch of winter. The

temperature hovered near the zero mark in the

northwest. The weather bureau reported snow in

Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, and Minnesota.[23

]

[23] _Indianapolis News_, October 28, 1913.

To write this second type of story interestingly means that the reporter must exert himself especially, since the daily routine of weather reports soon becomes wearing in its monotony,--so much so that one finds it exceedingly difficult to present with any degree of originality the same old little-varying facts from day to day. Yet one's readers are always interested in just this item of news, and one can be sure of more expectant readers for this particular story than perhaps for any other single item in the paper.

=224. Deaths and Funerals.=--Stories of deaths and funerals may be included in the monotonous cla.s.s of accident news. There is this additional difficulty in writing death and funeral stories, however, that in attempting to write sympathetically, appreciatively, of the person who has died, and so meet the expectations of surviving friends and relatives, one is running always on the border line of bathos. It is probably easier to make oneself ridiculous in such stories than in any other kind of news article. As a result, most newspapers require their reporters to confine themselves to bare statements of facts concerning the dead person's life.

=225. Content of Death Stories.=--There are a few facts which all death stories should contain. The person's name, age, street address, and position or business should normally be included in the lead, with possibly a statement of the cause of his death. The duration of his illness may well follow. Then may come the names of surviving relatives and any relations.h.i.+ps with persons well known, locally or nationally. If the person is married, the date of the marriage, the maiden name of the wife, and any interesting circ.u.mstances connected with the marriage may be recalled. The length of residence in the city should also be included, with possibly a statement of the person's birthplace and the occasion of his settlement in the city. If the person is a man or a woman of wealth, an account of his or her holdings and how they were acquired is always interesting. The story may close with the names of the pallbearers, the time and place of the funeral, the name of the minister officiating, and the place of burial. The following story of the death of Justice Lamar, while not observing the order of events just given, is an excellent ill.u.s.tration of a dignified presentation of the facts in a man's life. (The article has necessarily been abbreviated because of its length.)

=JUSTICE J. R. LAMAR DIES=

Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., Sunday.--Mr. Joseph Rucker Lamar,

a.s.sociate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United

States, died to-night at his home in this city after

an intermittent illness of several months. The

immediate cause of his death was a severe cold,

which he contracted ten days ago, and which proved

too great a strain for his weakened heart.

Justice Lamar's health began to fail early last

summer and he was obliged to absent himself from his

duties on the bench. His physicians advised a long

period of rest, as they feared that over-work would

seriously affect the action of his heart.

Accordingly, he spent the greater part of the summer

at White Sulphur Springs and returned to Was.h.i.+ngton

about two months ago feeling much improved.

His condition was not such, however, that it

permitted him to attend the sessions of the Court,

although he was able to take outdoor exercise. Two

days before Christmas he contracted a heavy cold and

was obliged to go to bed. Specialists were

consulted, but he gradually grew weaker until this

afternoon, when he sank into unconsciousness and

pa.s.sed away peacefully just before nine o'clock.

At his bedside when the end came were Mrs. Lamar and

their two sons. Chief Justice White arrived at the

Lamar home within a few minutes after the death of

his colleague.

The funeral ceremonies will be in accordance with

the custom of the court. It is probable that the

services will be held on Tuesday and that interment

will be at the family home in Ruckersville, Ga.

Justice Lamar was born at Ruckersville, Elbert

county, Ga., on October 14, 1857, the son of the

Rev. James S. and Mary Rucker Lamar. He attended the

University of Georgia. He was graduated from Bethany

College, West Virginia, in 1877. After a year in the

Was.h.i.+ngton and Lee University Law School, he was

admitted to the bar at Augusta, Ga. There he lived

until appointed to the Supreme Court.

He was a cousin of the late a.s.sociate Justice L. Q.

C. Lamar, of Mississippi, who was a member of the

United States Supreme Court from 1888 to 1893.

When Justice Lamar went on the Supreme Court bench

he was little known beyond the borders of his own

state. Mr. Taft became acquainted with him a short

time before his inauguration when the

President-elect was playing golf at Augusta. Justice

Lamar had been a member of the Supreme Court only a

few months, however, when his ability was

recognized. His opinions were regarded as

masterpieces of logical reasoning and applications

for rehearings were made in few cases he helped to

decide.

Justice Lamar was selected by President Wilson as

the princ.i.p.al commissioner for the United States in

the ABC mediation at Niagara Falls in 1914 between

this country and Mexico over conditions in the

neighboring republic.

Justice Lamar made many notable contributions to the

legal literature of his state. Among them were

”Georgia's Contribution to Law Reforms,” ”A History

of the Organization of the Supreme Court,” ”Life of

Judge Nesbit” and ”A Century's Progress in Law.”

More than two hundred of his opinions are embraced

in six volumes of Georgia Reports.

Justice Lamar married, on January 30, 1879, Miss

Clarinda Pendleton, a daughter of Dr. W. K.

Pendleton, president of Bethany College. He is

survived by his wife and two children, Philip Rucker

Lamar and William Pendleton Lamar.[24]

[24] _New York Herald_, January 3, 1916.

=226. Obtaining the Information.=--The gaining of information about a man who has just died is not difficult. One should be cautioned, however, against seeking details from members of the family. If the person is of little prominence, one should go first to the undertaker.

He will have all the details about the funeral--the names of the pallbearers and of the minister, the time and place of the funeral, the place of burial--and probably all the facts about the person's life that the family wishes made public. If the undertaker does not have this information, he will be able to tell the reporter from whom it may be obtained. Additional facts may sometimes be had from the county and state directories, and even from the city directory. Old residents or close friends, too, often are able to give interesting details about the person's life, his failures and his successes, and in this way a reporter can publish an appreciative account without editorializing on the man's accomplishments. If the one who has died is of decided prominence, the reporter can find accounts of him in the various _Who's Who_ volumes and probably a rather full obituary all ready in the morgue. One must be careful in using the morgue write-up, however, to bridge naturally and easily the gap between the new and the old material, so that the reader shall not suspect he is reading a story partly written years ago. The following is an ill.u.s.tration of poor coherence between the two parts:

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