mony or from the arguments of the attorneys,
with summarizing paragraphs of the evidence and the proceedings as a
whole. Occasionally, in order to bring out significant points in the
depositions, it may become necessary to quote verbatim questions and
answers in the cross-examination, but generally a more readable story
may be had by reporting the testimony continuously and omitting the
questions altogether. Even when playing up a court decision, it is
rarely wise to quote large extracts verbatim, owing to the heaviness of
legal expression and the frequent use of technical terms. Only when the
form of the decision, as well as the facts, is vital, should the
language of the decree be quoted at length. And even then it is better,
as a rule, to print the entire decision separately and write an
independent summarizing story. When writing up trials continued from
preceding days, one must be careful to connect the story with what has
gone before, explaining who the persons are, the cause of their
appearance in court, and where the trial is being conducted. Only in
this way can readers who have not kept up with the trial understand the
present story.

=209. Humorous Court Stories.=--A word of caution must be given against
the temptation to write court stories humorously at the expense of
accuracy and the feelings of those unfortunate ones drawn into public
notice by some one's transgression of law or ethics. The law of libel
and its far-reaching power has been dwelt on in Part II, Chapter X, and
it need not be emphasized here that libel lurks in wrong street numbers,
misspelled names, misplaced words and phrases, and even in accidental
resemblance between names and between personal descriptions. But the
reporter should be cautioned against warping facts for the sake of
making a good story. Those who stand before the bar of justice, no
matter for what cause, how wrong or how right, are keenly sensitive
about even the publication of their names. Indeed, it is fear of
newspaper notoriety that keeps many a man from seeking and obtaining
that justice which is due every individual at the hands of the law. The
present writer has seen many an innocent person in a state of nervous
collapse over a barbed thrust made by a satirizing humorist in the
columns of a paper. No criticism is made of true reports; objection is
made only to those warped for the sake merely of producing a good story.
In a leading Southern paper appeared the followi