was looking for the blaze several |
|blocks away.--_New York Sun._ |

=3. When.=--Sometimes the time of the fire is very interesting. John H.
Jones's house may have caught fire from a very insignificant thing and
its location may have been unimportant, but the fire may have come at an
unusual time. Perhaps Mr. Jones's daughter was being married at a quiet
home wedding in her father's house and in the midst of the ceremony the
roof of the house burst into flames. The unusual time would be
interesting; the answer to _When?_ would be the feature. We might write
the lead thus:

| During the wedding of Miss Mary Jones |
|at the home of her father, John H. Jones,|
|78 Liberty street, last night, the house |
|suddenly burst into flames and the bridal|
|party was compelled to flee into the |
|street. |

Or:

| Fire interrupted the wedding of Miss |
|Mary Jones at her father's home, 78 |
|Liberty street, last night, when the |
|house caught fire from a defective |
|chimney during the ceremony. |

The daily papers furnish many illustrations of fires at unusual
times--here is one:

|When the snowstorm was at its height |
|early this morning, a three-story brick |
|building at Nos. 4410-18 Third Avenue, |
|Brooklyn, caught fire, and the flames |
|spread rapidly to an adjoining tenement, |
|sending a small crowd of shivering |
|tenants into the icy street.--_New York |
|Post._ |

=4. What.=--(_a_) _The Burned Building._--Many fire stories have their
feature in the answer to the reader's _What?_ Not infrequently the
building itself is of great importance. Naturally "The residence of John
H. Jones" would not make a good beginning, if John Jones is not well
known, because people would be more interested in reading about a mere
fire than in reading about the residence of John H. Jones, whom they do
not know. For it must be remembered that it is the first line that
catches the reader's eye and the interest or lack of interest in the
first line determines whether or not the story is to be read. Now,
suppose that a building that is very wel