inually searching for new situations that will present new
problems. And any story that will provoke a reader's thought will be
enjoyed as news.

=41. Timeliness.=--But there are certain definite features that add
greatly to the interest of stories. Timeliness is the first of these.
Indeed, timeliness is so important in a story that one prominent
writer[3] on journalism deems it an essential of a good story. Certainly
it figures in ninety per cent of the published articles in our daily
newspapers. The word _yesterday_ has been relegated to the scrap heap.
_To-day_, _this morning_, _this afternoon_ should appear if possible in
every story. And the divorce that was granted yesterday or the accident
that happened last night must be viewed from such an angle that _to-day_
shall appear in the write-up. Close competition and improved machinery
have made freshness, timeliness, all but a requisite in every story.

[3] Professor Willard Grosvenor Bleyer. See his
_Newspaper Writing and Editing_, p. 18.

=42. Closeness of the Event.=--Next to nearness in time comes nearness
in place as a means of maintaining interest. Other things being equal,
the worth of a story varies in inverse proportion to its closeness in
time and place. A theft of ten dollars in one's home town is worth more
space than a theft of a thousand in a city across the continent. A visit
of Mrs. Gadabit, wife of the president of our city bank, to
Neighborville twenty miles away is worth more space than a trip made by
Mrs. Astor to Europe. Whenever possible, the good reporter seeks to
localize his story and draw it close to the everyday lives of his
readers. Even an accidental acquaintance of a man in town with the noted
governor or the notorious criminal who has just been brought into the
public eye--with a brief quotation of the local man's opinion of the
other fellow, or how they chanced to meet,--is worth generous space in
any paper. Oftentimes a resident man or woman's opinion of a statement
made by some one else, or of a problem of civic, state, or national
interest, is given an important place merely by reason of the fact that
the story is associated with some locally prominent person. Always the
effort is made to localize the news.

=43. The Search for Extremes.=--Again, say what one may, the American
public loves extremes in its news stories. If a pumpkin can be made the
largest ever grown in one's section, or a murder the foulest ever
comm