cutioner was appealed to and once again he |
|snapped on and off the switch. The lips then parted |
|in a smile. The stethoscope was applied and it was |
|declared that Becker was dead....[12] |

[12] George R. Holmes, of the United Press
Associations, in _The Appleton Post_,
July 30, 1915.

=114. Informal Lead.=--The opposite of the summarizing lead is the
informal, or suspense, lead. This type begins with a question, a bit of
verse, a startling quotation, or one or two manifestly unimportant
details that tell little and yet whet the appetite of the reader, luring
him to the real point of interest later in the story. Such leads,
sometimes known as "human interest" leads, are admittedly more difficult
than those of the summarizing type, their difficulty being but one
effect of the cause which makes them necessary. An examination of a
large number of these leads shows that their purpose is to make
attractive news that for some cause is lacking in interest. Most
frequently the news is old; often it is merely commonplace; or possibly
it may have come from such a distance that it lacks local interest. In
such cases the aid of the informal lead is invoked for the purpose of
stimulating the reader's interest and inducing him to read the whole
story. And this explains the difficulty of the informal lead. Its
originality must compensate for the poverty of the news it presents. It
must be more attractive, more striking, more piquant than the ordinary
lead. And the only ways of obtaining this attractiveness, this piquancy,
are by novelty of approach and of statement.[13]

[13] For an additional discussion of the informal lead,
see Chapter XIX.

=115. Question Lead.=--A few illustrations of informal leads will make
clearer their exact nature. First may be cited the question lead, two
examples of which are given below, with enough of the story appended in
each case to show the method of enticing the reader into the story.

|How long can the war last? |
| |
|It's a fool question, because there is no certain |
|answer. But when there is an unanswerable question, |
|it is the custom to look up precedents. Here are a |
|few precedents.... |

|If you planned to wed in September and married in |
|July just to su