how 1,500 Yale |
|men yelled at the Waldorf last night for |
|Bill Taft of '78. Etc. |

A question is often used at the beginning of a human interest story:

| A near-suicide or an accident. Which? |
|Keeper Bean is somewhat puzzled to say |
|which, but it is quite certain it will |
|not be tried again. At least, Keeper Bean |
|does not think it will. |
| |
| But, it was a sad, sad Sunday for the |
|little white-faced monkey. For hours he |
|lay as dead, etc. |

Many of these stories, animal or otherwise, begin with a name:

| Long Tom, a Brahma rooster that had |
|been the "bad inmate" of Jacob Meister's |
|farm at West Meyersville, N. J., for |
|three years, paid the penalty of his |
|crimes Christmas morning when he was |
|beheaded after his owner had condemned |
|him to death. Bad in life, he was good in |
|a potpie that day, etc. |

The beginning of a human interest story is always the most important
part; just like a news story, it must attract attention with its first
line. In the same way, a good beginning is something more than half
done. But here the similarity between the two ends. The news story,
after the lead is written, may slump in technique so that the end is
almost devoid of interest; the human interest story, on the other hand,
must keep up its standard of excellence to the very last sentence and
the last line must have as much snap as the first. It is never in danger
of losing its last paragraph and so it may be more rounded and complete;
it must follow a definite plan to the very end and then stop. In this it
is like the short story, although it seldom has a plot. There are no
rules to help us in writing any part of the human interest story. Each
attempt has a different purpose and must be done in a different way. Yet
the reporter must know before he begins just exactly how he is going to
work out the whole story. He must plan it as carefully as a short
story. A few minutes of careful thought before he begins to write are
better than much reworking and alteration after the thing is done. Thi