In the first place, the answer to some one of
the reader's questions may be the feature--e.g., the answer to _when_,
_where_, _what_, _how_, _why_, _who_. On the other hand, the feature may
be in some unexpected attendant circumstance that the reader would not
think of; for instance, loss of life, an interesting rescue, or
something of that sort. Such a distinction is entirely arbitrary and
would not be considered in a newspaper office, but it will make the
matter simpler for the purposes of study.

A. FEATURES IN ANSWERS TO READER'S CUSTOMARY QUESTIONS

(_When_, _Where_, _What_, _How_, _Why_, _Who_).

Suppose that John Jones's house did not burn in the usual way--suppose
that there is some striking incident in the story that makes it
different from other fire stories. The story has a feature. Perhaps the
answer to some one of the reader's customary questions is more
interesting than the answers to the others--so much more interesting
that it supersedes even the fact that there was a fire. Then it would be
foolish to begin with the mere word "fire" when we have something more
interesting to tell. The fire takes a second place and we begin with the
interesting fact that supersedes it. For the present we shall consider
that this interesting fact is the answer to one of the questions that
the reader always asks; for instance, why the house burned or when it
burned.

=1. Why.=--Perhaps Mr. Jones's house was set on fire in a very unusual
way. There was a little party in session at the Jones's and some one
decided to take a flash-light picture. The flash-light set fire to a
lace curtain and before any one could stop it the house was afire. Few
fires begin in that way, and our readers would be very interested in
hearing about it. The story has a feature in the answer to the reader's
_Why?_ And so we would begin our lead in this way:

| A flashlight setting fire to a lace |
|curtain started a fire which destroyed |
|the residence of John H. Jones, 79 |
|Liberty street, at 11 o'clock last night |
|and caused a loss of $4,000. |

In this way the feature is played up at the beginning of the sentence,
and yet the rest of the reader's questions are answered in the same
sentence and he knows a great deal about the fire. Or, leaving Mr. Jones
to his fate, we may give another example of an unusual cause taken from
a newspaper. This was