us that a man fell off the car or that there was any
fire at all.

The effort to answer these questions at once has led to the peculiar
form of introduction characteristic of every newspaper story. Newspaper
people call it the lead. It is really nothing but the statement of the
briefest possible answers to all these questions in one sentence or one
short paragraph. It tells the whole story in its baldest aspects and
aims to satisfy the reader who wants only the gist of the story and does
not care for the details. When all his questions have been answered in
one breath he is ready to read the details one at a time, but he won't
be satisfied if he must read all about how the fire was discovered
before he is told what building burned, when it burned, etc. For
example:

| Fire of unknown origin caused the |
|practical destruction of the famous old |
|"Crow's Nest," at Tenth and Cedar |
|streets, perhaps the best known and |
|oldest landmark in the Second ward, |
|yesterday afternoon.--_Milwaukee Free |
|Press._ |

This is the lead of an ordinary news story--a newspaper report of a
fire. The lead begins with "Fire" because the story has no unusual
feature--no element in it that is more interesting than the fact that
there was a fire. The reporter considers "Fire" the most important part
of his story and begins with it. As soon as we read the word "Fire" we
ask, "When?"--"Where?"--"What?"--"Why?"--"How?" The reporter answers us
in the same sentence with his announcement, "yesterday afternoon"--"at
Tenth and Cedar Streets"--"the famous old 'Crow's Nest,' perhaps the
best known and oldest landmark in the Second ward"--"unknown origin."
_How_ is not worth answering, in this case, beyond the statement that
the destruction was practically complete. Thus the reporter has told us
his bit of news and answered our most obvious questions about it at the
very beginning of his story--in one sentence. According to newspaper
rules this is a good lead. The order of the answers will be considered
later. For the present we are concerned only with the facts that the
lead must contain.

V

THE SIMPLE FIRE STORY

The simplest news story is the story which has no feature--which has no
fact in it more important than the incident which it reports--e.g., the
fire at the end of the last chap