Part 15 (2/2)

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.

Was.h.i.+ngton 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 Was.h.i.+ngton 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.

Was.h.i.+ngton 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] _Was.h.i.+ngton 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=

Das.h.i.+ng 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 Was.h.i.+ngton 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 establis.h.i.+ng 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.

<script>