spatches is
of the highest value and we would rather be beaten
than send out an untruthful statement, there is such
a thing as carrying the effort to secure accuracy so
far as to delay the perfectly proper announcement of
a rumor. So long as it is a rumor only it should be
announced as a rumor.

=288. What to Send.=--After cautioning the correspondent against sending
stories containing merely local news, unfounded rumors, and details
offensive to good taste, one must leave him to gather for himself what
his paper wants. Big news, of course, is always good; but those special
types of news, those little hobbies for which individual papers have
characteristic weaknesses, one can learn only by studying the columns of
the paper for which one corresponds. Some newspapers make specialties of
freak news, such as odd actions of lightning, three-legged chickens,
etc. Others will not consider such stories. One daily in America wants a
bulletin of every death or injury resulting from celebrations of the
Fourth of July. Another in a Middle Western state wants all sporting
news in its state, particularly that concerning colleges and high
schools. Still another, an Eastern paper this time, wants educational
news--what the colleges are doing. Other kinds of information in which
individual publications specialize are news of nationally prominent men
and women, human interest love stories, odd local historical data,
humorous or pathetic animal stories, golfing anecdotes, increase or
decrease in liquor sales or the number of saloon licenses, etc.

=289. Conducting a Local Column.=--When conducting a column giving the
news of a particular locality or neighborhood, the one thing not to
write is that there is little news in the community this week or to-day.
The readers of a column should not be allowed to suspect that one has
little information to present. All about one are unnumbered sources of
news if the correspondent can only find them--humorous incidents,
reminiscences of old pioneers, stories of previous extremely wet, dry,
hot, or cold seasons, recollections of Civil, Spanish American, and
European War battles, etc. Such stories may be had for the asking and
played up when there is "nothing doing this week." The use of good
feature stories bearing directly on the life of the community will fill
one's column, put money into one's pocket, and add readers to the
subscription list of the paper.

=290. Stories