him on the
back and said a few pleasant words in French, while the nurses and
assistants chatted amiably in English.

"How do you feel now?" the attending surgeon asked, after the lapse
of three or four minutes.

"All right," replied the boy animatedly, "'cept that my legs feel
like they was going to sleep."

The nurses now laid the patient down upon his back, throwing a
handkerchief over his eyes, so that he could not himself witness the
subsequent proceedings. There was, naturally, much holding of breath
as Dr. Virgil P. Gibney, the operating surgeon, raised his knife and
quickly made a deep incision in the heel of this perfectly conscious
patient. From the child, however, there was not the slightest
evidence of sensation.

"Didn't you feel anything, my boy?" asked Dr. Gibney, pausing.

"No, I don't feel nothin'," came the response from under the
handkerchief.

An operation lasting nearly half an hour ensued. The deepest tissues
were cut, the tendons were stretched, the incision was sewed up, all
apparently without the patient's knowledge.

Some types of articles, although expository in purpose, are entirely
narrative and descriptive in form. By relating his own experiences in a
confession story, for example, a writer may be able to show very clearly
and interestingly the dangers of speculations in stocks with but small
capital. Personality sketches are almost always narrative and
descriptive.

Many of the devices of the short story will be found useful in articles.
Not only is truth stranger than fiction, but facts may be so presented
as to be even more interesting than fiction. Conversation,
character-drawing, suspense, and other methods familiar to the writer of
short stories may be used effectively in special articles. Their
application to particular types of articles is shown in the following
pages.

SPECIAL TYPES OF ARTICLES. Although there is no generally recognized
classification of special feature articles, several distinct types may
be noted, such as (1) the interview, (2) the personal experience story,
(3) the confession article, (4) the "how-to-do-something" article, (5)
the personality sketch, (6) the narrative in the third person. These
classes, it is evident, are not mutually exclusive, but may for
convenience be treated separately.

THE INTERVIEW. Since the material for many articles is obtained by means
of an int