Part 17 (2/2)

Not one of the armed prison guards, according to the best information now obtainable, raised a hand to prevent the mob accomplis.h.i.+ng its purpose. Frank was taken from his cell and rushed to a spot previously chosen for the lynching, about a hundred miles from the prison. Not a soul, it is said, knew positively whether the men were his friends or his enemies until the lifeless body was discovered this morning.

More. 8:45 P. M. Sherman

Then the final instalment might read:

The rope placed around Frank's neck was tied in such a way as to reopen the wound caused some weeks ago when a fellow prisoner attempted to kill him by cutting his throat. Loss of blood from the re-opened wound no doubt would have caused his death had he not strangled. Thirty. 9:15. Sherman

The ”thirty” is the telegrapher's signal indicating the completion of the story.

=299. Sporting News.=--In handling sporting news a few specific instructions are needful, the first being the necessity of absolute impartiality in all controversies. Local rival sportsmen in their keen desire to win are continually breeding quarrels, which frequently make it difficult for the observer not to be biased; but the correspondent must be careful to present simple facts only, without editorializing.

The need of filing all afternoon scores by 7:30 P.M., with 8:00 P.M. as the outside limit, should also be noted. Morning papers put their sporting news on inside pages and must make up the forms early. There is need of the utmost caution in having the news correct, particularly the box scores of baseball games, which have an unhappy way of failing to balance when one compares individual scores with the totals. In all contests where a seeming new record has been made, the correspondent should be sure of the record before telegraphing it as such. If there is the slightest doubt, report it as ”what is said to be a record.”

Finally, one should be cautioned against reporting mere high-school contests, boxing bouts between local men, and other sporting news possessing limited interest only.

=300. General Instructions.=--In conclusion, a few general instructions may be given for the guidance of correspondents:

1. When forwarding time stories, advance ma.n.u.script of speeches, cuts, etc., send by mail. The express companies do not deliver at night.

2. In telegrams spell out round numbers; and mark the beginning of speeches by the word _quote_, and the end by _end quote_.

3. Keep the telegraph companies informed always of your street address and telephone number. It is well also to maintain friendly relations with the operators. Frequently they can be of valuable service to a correspondent.

4. Finish all incomplete stories. It sometimes happens that one will wire a dispatch of the beginning of a seeming big fire or a seeming great murder mystery, which the paper will feature as important news, but which later will prove of no worth. Such stories should be cleared up and the results made known to avoid keeping the paper in a quandary over the outcome.

5. When reporting fires, accidents, disasters, etc., locate the scene as accurately as possible. This is sometimes accomplished by reference to well-known buildings or landmarks, in addition to the exact street location.

6. When a big story breaks, go after it, no matter if there is need of incurring expense. Papers will stand any reasonable expense for valuable news.

7. Never forget the worth of sending time. Every minute is valuable.

8. Until you have received your first check, clip and keep every story printed. Most papers keep their own accounts with correspondents, but some require them to send in at the end of each month their ”string:”

that is, all their stories pasted together end to end. Payment is then made on the basis of the number of columns, the rates varying from $2 to $7 a column of 1500 words.

APPENDIX

STYLE-BOOK

I. HANDLING COPY

=1. Definition.=--_Copy_ is any ma.n.u.script prepared for printing, and is written according to the individual style rules of each newspaper. The first thing for a reporter to do on beginning work in an office is to ask for the style-book, the manual for the guidance of reporters, copy-readers, and compositors. The chances are nine to one that the paper will not have such a book, since only the larger dailies print their rules of style, and that the reporter must study the columns of the paper and the changes made in his own stories for the individual office rules. If the paper happens to be the tenth one, however, the reporter should employ every spare moment studying the manual and should write every story, even his first one, as nearly as possible in accord with the printed rules, as the copy readers will insist on a strict observance of the regulations. Many of the rules will be mere _don'ts_, embodying common errors of diction. Others may be particular aversions of the editor or the head copy-reader and may have little regard for or relation to best usage. But such rules must be observed, even though they may be as absurd and contrary to all custom, as that of one metropolitan paper which makes its reporters write ”Farwell-av,” a usage peculiar to that journal. All such requirements may be found in the style-book, which, whenever in doubt, the reporter should consult rather than the columns of the paper, as the paper is not always reliable.

Uncorrected matter is frequently hurried into the forms, causing variations that the rules of composition forbid.

=2. The Typewriter.=--The first requirement in preparing copy is a knowledge of how to handle a typewriter dexterously. In all offices the reporters are furnished with typewriters, and one is helpless until one learns how to use a machine. Longhand copy rarely is sent to the compositors nowadays. If such copy comes into the office, it is generally given to stenographers or reporters to type before being dispatched to the composing room.

=3. Longhand Copy.=--At times, however, when away from the office, one cannot obtain a machine and must write in longhand. In such cases, write with painstaking care for accuracy. Other things being equal, it is the legible copy that survives. Unusual proper names and technical words that are liable to be mistaken in copying should be printed letter by letter. If there is a possibility at any time of confusing an _o_ with an _a_, or a _u_ with an _n_, the _u_ and _a_ should be underscored and the _n_ and _o_ overscored. Quotation-marks should be enclosed in half-circles--thus, ”/jag”/--to show whether they are beginning or end marks. And instead of a period, a small cross should be used, or else the period be enclosed in a circle.

=4. Paper.=--Writing paper is always supplied in the office. Even when one is a correspondent in a neighboring town, stationery, including self-addressed envelopes, is frequently furnished by the journal for which one corresponds. Some newspapers, however, do not provide writing supplies. In such cases the correspondent should choose unglazed paper of a neutral tint--gray, yellow, or manila brown. The paper most commonly used is unruled print paper 6 x 9 or 8-1/2 x 11 inches in size and of sufficient firmness to permit use of either ink or pencil.

=5. Margins.=--Except for the writer's name in a ring at the extreme left corner of the page, the top half of the first page of copy should be left blank, so that the headlines may be written there by the headline writer. All the sheets should have a margin of an inch at the bottom and at each side of the paper, and all other sheets than the first should have a margin of an inch at the top. The side margins are necessary for the corrections of the copy editors; the margins at the bottom are for convenience in pasting the sheets together; and the top margins are necessary for paging.

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