e is in a
hurry, he may examine the map on his way to the car line, or while he is
calling a taxi. Actually he ought to know the city so well that he need
not consult a map at all (and the man whose ambition is to be a
first-class reporter will soon acquire that knowledge), but to a
beginner, a map is valuable.

=63. Finding the Place.=--Having arrived at Grove and Spring streets,
the reporter should go first to the policeman on the beat. Unless the
shooting is one that for some reason has been hushed up, the policeman
will know all the main details. Usually, too, if approached courteously,
he will be glad to point out the house and tell what he knows. If he
knows nothing or pretends ignorance, the reporter must seek the house
itself; nor must he be discouraged if he fails to get his information at
the first, second, or third house, nor indeed after he has inquired at
every door in the adjacent blocks. There are still left the neighborhood
stores,--the groceries, bakeries, saloons, meat markets, and barber
shops,--and maybe in the last one of these, the barber shop, a customer
with his coat off, waiting for a shave, will remember that he heard
somebody say a man by the name of Davis was shot "around the corner."
But he does not know what corner, or where the man lives, or his
initials, or who gave him his information.

=64. Regular Reports to the City Editor.=--The reporter's first step now
is to go to the corner drugstore and examine the telephone and city
directories for every Davis living in the neighborhood. While in the
drugstore he may call up the city editor and report progress on the
story. When away on an assignment there is need always of reporting
regularly, particularly if one is working on an afternoon paper. Some
city editors require a man to telephone every hour whether he has any
news or not. A big story may break and the city editor may have nobody
to handle it, or the office may have fuller information about the story
which the reporter is investigating. Besides, on an afternoon paper
where an edition is appearing every hour or so, every fresh detail,
though small, may be of interest to readers following the story.

=65. Retracing One's Work.=--If no Davises are listed in the city or
telephone directories, or none of those whose names appear knows
anything of the shooting, the reporter's work of inquiry is still
unfinished. He must go back to the patrolman on the beat and inquire if
any person by th