Part 12

If the case had not been of such broad interest a lead embodying a summary of the interviews might have preceded the individual statements. It might have been done in this way:

| Great surprise has been expressed by | |the prominent labor leaders of the | |country at the confession of the | |McNamara brothers in Los Angeles | |yesterday. That organized labor had no | |connection with the work of these men and | |that they should be fully punished is the | |consensus of opinion. | | | | Samuel Gompers, president American | |Federation of Labor--I am astounded; I am | |astounded; my credulity has been imposed | |upon. It is a bolt out of a clear sky. | | | | John T. Smith, president Missouri | |Federation of Labor--I can not believe it. | |Etc. |

In such a story as the above, the statements are usually printed without quotation marks; each paragraph begins with a man's name, followed by a dash and what he said. The grouping together of several interviews is often done less formally. The whole thing may be written as a running story, and sometimes the names of the persons interviewed are omitted; thus:

| Proprietors of the big flower shops, | |the places from which blossoms are | |delivered in highly polished and ornate | |wagons, drawn by horses that might win | |blue ribbons, and where, in the proper | |season, a single rose costs three | |dollars, do not approve of the comments | |made by a dealer who recently failed. | |Among these sayings was one to the effect | |that young millionaires spend a thousand | |dollars a week on flowers for chorus | |girls who earn twelve dollars a week, and | |who sometimes take the flowers back to | |the shop to exchange them for money to | |buy food and clothes. | | | | "That's all nonsense," said one dealer. | |(This paragraph is devoted to his opinion | |on the matter.) | | | | "We have enough trouble in this | |business," said another dealer, "without | |having this silly talk given to the | |public." (This paragraph gives this | |dealer's opinion)--_New York Evening | |Post._ |

(Each paragraph is devoted to a single interview.)

The same paragraph may be done with more local color as in the following:

| Chinatown feels deeply its bereavement | |in the deaths of the Empress Dowager and | |the Emperor of China. Chinatown mourns, | |but it does so in such an unobtrusive | |Oriental way that the casual visitor on | |sympathy bent may feel that his words of | |condolence would be misplaced. | | | | A reporter from this paper was assigned | |yesterday to go up to Chinatown and in as | |delicate a way as possible to gather some | |of the sentiments of appreciation of the | |merits of Kuang-hsu and his lamented aunt, | |Tzu-hsi. He was told that he might write a | |little about the picturesque though | |nevertheless sincere expressions of | |mourning that he might observe in Pell | |and Mott streets. | | | | Mr. Jaw Gum, senior partner in the firm | |of Jaw Gum & Co., importers of cigars, | |cigarettes, dead duck's eggs and Chinese | |delicatessen, of 7 Pell street, was at | |home. Mr. Gum was approached. | | | | "We would like to learn a little about | |the arrangements that are being made by | |the Chinese to indicate their sorrow at | |the deaths of their beloved rulers." | | | | "What number?" queried Mr. Gum. The | |question was repeated. | | | | "P'licyman, he know," remarked Mr. Gum | |sagely. | | | | (So on for a column with interviews and | |statements from several of Mr. Gum's | |neighbors.)--_New York Sun._ |

But this is very much like a human interest story--the reporter takes part in it--and we shall discuss that later.

XII

COURT REPORTING

Probably few classes of news stories present such a lack of uniformity and such a variety of treatments as the reports of court news. Legal stories belong to one of the few sorts of stories that do not tend to become systematized. But there is a reason for almost everything in a newspaper and there is also a reason for the freedom that reporters are allowed in reporting testimony. The reason in this case is probably in the fact that very rarely do two court stories possess the same sort of interest or the same news value.

We have seen that reports of speeches are printed in the daily press because our readers are interested in the content of the speech or in the man who uttered it. In the same way, our readers are interested in interviews because of the man who was interviewed, because of their content, or because of their bearing on some current event. On the other hand there is an infinite number of reasons why a court story is worth printing or why it may not be worth a line. Sometimes the interest is in the persons involved; sometimes in the significance of the decision. People may also be interested in a case because of its political or legal significance or merely because of the sensational testimony that is given. And again a very trivial case may be worth a large amount of space in the daily paper just because of its human interest--because of the pathos or humor that the reporter can bring into it. Thus the resulting reports are hard to classify. Each one depends on a different factor for its interest and each must be written in a different way so that its individual interest may be most effective. However there are general tendencies in the reporting of court news.

The news itself is comparatively easy to get. In a large city every court is watched every day by a representative of the press, either a reporter for an individual paper or for a city news gathering association. In some cities where there is no independent news gathering agency papers sometimes club together to keep one reporter at each court. The man who is on duty must watch all day long for cases that are of interest for one reason or another. Even with all this safeguarding sometimes an important case slips by the papers; often the reporter on duty considers of little interest a case that is worth columns when some paper digs into it. Every reporter however who is trying to do court reporting should learn the ordinary routine of legal proceedings; for example, the place and purpose of the pleas, the direct and cross examination of witnesses, and other legal business.

As we shall see when we begin to write court reports, it is necessary to exercise every possible trick to put interest into the story. In the actual court room all that relieves the dreary monotony of legal proceedings is an occasional bit of interesting testimony. And when the reporter tries to report a case he sometimes finds that interesting testimony is all that will lighten up the dull monotony of his story. Therefore while he is listening to a case he tries to get down verbatim a large number of the interesting questions and answers. Or if he is unable to be present he tries to get hold of the court stenographer's record to copy out bits of testimony for his account. Beyond this recording of testimony there is really little difficulty in court reporting except the difficulty of separating the interesting from the great mass of uninteresting matter.

As to the actual writing of the report of a legal trial, the one thing that the reporter must remember is that a case is seldom reported for the public's interest in the case itself. There is usually some other reason why the editor wants a half a column of it. That reason is the thing that the reporter must watch for and when he finds it he must make it the feature of his report to be embodied in the first line of the lead.

When we try to play up the most interesting feature of a court report we find that we must fall back upon the same beginnings that we used in reporting speeches and interviews. There are several possible ways of beginning such a story, depending upon the phase of the case or its testimony that is of greatest importance.

=1. Name Beginning.=--The proper name beginning is very common. It is always used when any one of prominence is involved in the story or when the name, although unknown, can be made interesting in itself--as in a human interest story. The name is usually made the subject of the verb testified, as in this lead:

| A. F. Law, secretary of the Temple Iron | |Company, a subsidiary company of the | |Reading Coal and Iron Company, called | |before the government investigation of | |the alleged combination of coal carrying | |roads, testified today in the Federal | |building that four roads had contributed | |$488,000 to make up the deficit of the | |Temple company during three years of coal | |strikes.--_New York Sun._ |

The name of a well-known company often makes a good beginning:

| The Standard Oil Company sent a | |sweeping broadside into the Government's | |case yesterday at the hearing in the suit | |seeking to dissolve the Standard Oil | |Company of New Jersey under the Sherman | |anti-trust law, when witnesses began to | |tell of the character of a number of men | |the Government had placed upon the | |witness stand.--_New York Times._ |

The name of the judge himself may be used in the first line:

| Judge Mulqueen of General Sessions | |explained today why he had sentenced two | |prisoners to "go home and serve time with | |the families." This punishment was | |imposed yesterday when both men pleaded | |drunkenness as their excuse for trivial | |offenses.--_New York Evening Post._ |

=2. Continued Case Beginning.=--Many court reports begin with the name of the case when the case has been running for some time and is well known. Each individual story on such a case is just a continuation of a sort of serial story that has been running for some time and in the lead each day the reporter tries to summarize the progress that has been made in the case during the day's hearing. However each story, like a follow-up story, is written in such a way that a knowledge of previous stories is not necessary to a clear understanding:

| The hearing yesterday in the | |Government's suit to dissolve the | |Standard Oil Company ended with a | |dramatic incident. Mr. Kellogg sought to | |show that the Standard compelled a widow, | |Mrs. Jones, of Mobile, Ala., to sell out | |her little oil business at a ruinous | |sacrifice.--_New York World._ |

In some cases this sort of a lead begins with the mere mention of the continuing of the trial:

| At the opening of the defence today in | |the sugar trials before Judge Martin of | |the United States Circuit Court, James F. | |Bendernagal took the witness chair in his | |own behalf, etc.--_New York Evening | |Post._ |

=3. Summary Beginning.=--The lead of a court report often begins with a brief summary of the result of the trial or of the day's hearing:

| What the Government has characterized | |as "unfair competition and | |discrimination" on the part of the | |Standard Oil Company continued to be the | |subject of the investigation of that | |corporation today before Franklin Ferris | |of St. Louis, referee, in the Custom | |House.--_New York Evening Post._ |

The summary may be presented in as formal a way as the _that_-clause beginning which we used in reports of speeches:

| That the Adams' Express Company's | |business in New England in 1909 yielded a | |profit representing 45 per cent. on the | |investment, including real estate and, | |excepting real estate, a net income of | |more than 83 per cent., came out in the | |course of the hearing before the | |Interstate Commerce Commission, | |etc.--_New York Evening Post._ |

=4. Direct Quotation Beginning.=--A direct quotation of some striking statement made by the judge, by a lawyer, by a witness, or by any one connected with the trial may be used at the beginning of the lead. Here is a lead beginning with a quotation from the title of a case:

| "Captain Dick and Captain Lewis, | |Indians, for and on behalf of the Yokayo | |tribe of Indians, vs. F. C. Albertson, T. | |J. Weldon, as administrator of the estate | |of Charley, Indian, deceased, Minnehaha, | |Ollagoola, Hiawatha, Wanahana, | |Pocahontas, etc." | | | | So runs the title of as unusual a case | |as jurists, etc.--_San Francisco | |Examiner._ |

=5. Human Interest Beginning.=--The human interest beginning is a more or less free beginning which may be used in the reporting of rather insignificant cases which are of value only for the human interest in them. The beginning is capable of almost any treatment so long as it brings out the humor, beauty, or pathos of the situation. Sometimes the story begins with a rather striking summary of the unusual things that came out in the testimony, as in this case:

| How suddenly and how radically a woman | |can exercise her inalienable prerogative | |and change her mind is shown in the | |testamentary disposition made of her | |estate by Mrs. Jennie L. Ramsay. She made | |a will on July 4 last, at 3 o'clock in | |the afternoon, leaving her property to | |her husband, and at 7 o'clock in the | |evening of the same day she made another | |will in which she took the property away | |from her husband.--_New York Times._ |

Here is an interesting illustration of the use of a trivial incident as the basis for a humorous lead:

| Bang, an English setter dog, accused of | |biting 11-year-old Sophie Kahn, made an | |excellent witness in the City Court today | |when his owner, Hirman L. Phelps, a real | |estate dealer of the Bronx, appeared as | |defendant in a damage suit brought by the | |girl for $2,000.--_New York Evening | |Post._ |

The lead of a report of legal proceedings is very much like the lead of a report of a speech or an interview. It always begins with the most interesting fact in the case and briefly summarizes the result of the trial or the day's hearing. It is to be noted that the lead of such a story always includes a designation of the court in which the hearing was held and usually the name of the judge and of the case.

After the lead is finished a court report usually turns into a running story of the evidence as it was presented. This may be condensed into a paragraph, giving the reader merely the point of the day's hearing, or it may be expanded into several columns following the testimony more or less closely. In form, it is very much like the summary paragraphs in the body of a speech report. The result is usually more or less dry and reporters often resort to a means, similar to dialogue in fiction, to lighten it up. Some of the more important testimony is given verbatim interspersed with indirect summaries of the longer or less important speeches. Its presentation usually follows the ordinary rules of dialogue. Here is an extract from such a story:

| After describing himself as a breeder | |of horses, Gideon said that he was a | |member of the Metropolitan Turf | |Association, the bookmakers' | |organization, but had never been engaged | |in bookmaking. He did not know where | |"Eddie" Burke, "Tim" Sullivan (not the | |politician), or any of the other missing | |"bookies" could be found. | | | | "You are a member of the executive | |committee of the Metropolitan Turf | |Association?" asked Isidor J. Kresel, | |assistant counsel of the committee. | | | | "Yes." | | | | "Now, what did your committee do in | |1908, when the anti-race track legislation| |was pending?" | | | | "I don't know." | | | | * * * * * | | | | "How much did you pay in 1908?" | | | | "Two hundred and fifty dollars." | | | | "To whom?" | | | | "Mr. Sullivan." | | | | "What for?" | | | | "Death assessments." | | | | Gideon said that the little he knew of | |the doings of the "Mets" was from | |conversation with the bookies. Etc., | |etc.--_New York Evening Post._ |

Sometimes this direct testimony is given, not in the dialogue form, but as questions and answers. Thus:

| In reply to other questions, | |Bendernagel said he ordered the office | |supplies, looked after the insurance on | |the sugar, and was responsible for the | |fuel, some 700 tons of coal a day. | | | | Question.--How much money was paid | |through your office in the course of a | |year? Answer.--Four million dollars. | | | | Q.--So yours was a busy office? | | A.--Exceedingly so. | | | | Q.--How long were the raw sugar clerks | |in your office? A.--About twenty years. | |Etc., etc.--_New York Evening Post._ |

Some papers would arrange these questions and answers differently, paragraphing each speech separately as in dialogue:

| Question.--Did you regulate their | |duties in any way? | | | | Answer.--No. | | | | Q.--Were you connected with the docks? | | | | A.--No; that was a separate department. | |It had its own forces, and they worked | |under Mr. Spitzer. He had entire charge. | |Etc., etc. |

The court records take cognizance only of the actual words uttered in the testimony, but a newspaper reporter never fails to record any action or movement that indicates something beyond the words. Very often action is brought in merely for its human interest; thus:

| "How long has it been since you have | |had a maid?" asked Mr. Shearn sadly. | | | | "Not for some time," she said. "Away | |back in 1907, I think." | | | | "What did it cost you for two rooms and | |bath at the Hotel Belmont, where you lived| |last year?" | | | | "About $300 a week altogether. The rooms| |cost $20 a day." | | | | There were tears in her eyes when she | |explained that she could no longer afford | |to keep up her own automobile. Etc., etc. | |--_Milwaukee Free Press._ |

This sort of dialogue is dangerous and may easily be overworked, but it is very often extremely effective. One word like "sadly," above, may convey more meaning than many lines of explanation.

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