that mars the occasion itself furnishes a story feature of
greater importance than the monotony of the parade and the contests.

=207. Current Magazine Articles, etc.=--News stories of articles
appearing in current magazines, books, government publications,
educational journals, and the like are of the same type as stories of
addresses. The lead may feature the theme, the title, the author, a
single sentence, an entire paragraph, the society or organization
publishing the article or report, or even the motive back of the
article. And the body follows usually with direct quotations summarizing
the whole. Such news stories generally are very readable, particularly
if they are timely. But the reporter must be careful to avoid extended
analysis or learned comment. A long catalogue of errors with the page on
which each may be found is good in scholarly magazines, but worthless in
news columns. The reporter's office is to write for the entertainment
and enlightenment of the public, not for the instruction of the author
about whose article he is writing. Hence he should report only those
details that are of interest to the readers of his journal.

=208. Courts.=--Court, trial, and inquest stories are but a combination
of the methods of handling interviews and speeches, the questions and
answers of the attorneys and witnesses being the interviews, the
arguments of the lawyers and the decisions of the court being the
speeches. The writing of the court story as a whole follows closely the
method already outlined for interviews and speeches. The lead, however,
varies greatly accordingly to the stage of the court proceedings. If a
verdict has been brought in, the guilt or innocence of the defendant,
the penalty imposed, or an application for a rehearing may be featured,
and the body of the story continues with a statement from the prisoner,
quotations from the speeches of the opposing attorneys, and the judge's
charge to the jury. If the trial has reached only an intermediate stage,
the lead may feature the cause of the court proceedings, a significant
bit of testimony, the name of an important witness, the point reached in
the day's work, the probable length of the trial, any unusual clash of
the attorneys over the admission of certain testimony, or possibly the
prisoner's changed attitude resulting from the long nervous strain. Then
the body, as in reports of speeches, may follow with interesting bits of
quotation from the testi