How To Write Special Feature Articles Part 21

Such is the make-up of the town which has been called "the most American city in the United States."

(8)

(_Kansas City Star_)

A KANSAS TOWN FEELS ITS OWN PULSE

Lawrence, Kas., was not ill. Most of its citizens did not even think it was ailing, but there were some anxious souls who wondered if the rosy exterior were not the mockery of an internal fever. They called in physicians, and after seven months spent in making their diagnosis, they have prescribed for Lawrence, and the town is alarmed to the point of taking their medicine.

That is the medical way of saying that Lawrence has just completed the most thorough munic.i.p.al survey ever undertaken by a town of its size, and in so doing has found out that it is afflicted with a lot of ills that all cities are heir to. Lawrence, however, with Kansas progressiveness, proposes to cure these ills.

Prof. F.W. Blackmar, head of the department of sociology at the University of Kansas, and incidentally a sort of city doctor, was the first "physician" consulted. He called his a.s.sistant, Prof. B.W.

Burgess, and Rev. William A. Powell in consultation, and about one hundred and fifty club women were taken into the case. Then they got busy. That was April 1. This month they completed the examination, set up an exhibit to ill.u.s.trate what they had to report, and read the prescription.

(9)

(_Popular Science Monthly_)

BREAKING THE CHAIN THAT BINDS US TO EARTH

BY CHARLES NEVERS HOLMES

Man is chained to this Earth, his planet home. His chain is invisible, but the ball is always to be seen--the Earth itself. The chain itself is apparently without weight, while the chain's ball weighs about 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons!

(10)

(_a.s.sociated Sunday Magazine_)

IN TUNE WHEN OUT OF TUNE

BY JOHN WARREN

How many persons who own pianos and play them can explain why a piano cannot be said to be in tune unless it is actually out of tune?

(11)

(_Railroad Man's Magazine_)

MAKING STEEL RAILS

BY CHARLES FREDERICK CARTER

To make steel rails, take 2 pounds of iron ore, 1 pound of c.o.ke, pound of limestone, and 4 pounds of air for each pound of iron to be produced. Mix and melt, cast in molds, and roll to shape while hot. Serve cold.

Rail-making certainly does seem to be easy when stated in its simplest terms; it also seems attractive from a business standpoint.

(12)

(_Leslie's Weekly_)

WHAT ELECTRICITY MEANS TO YOU

ONE CENT'S WORTH OF ELECTRICITY AT TEN CENTS PER KILOWATT-HOUR WILL OPERATE:

Sixteen candle-power Mazda lamp for five hours Six pound flatiron 15 minutes Radiant toaster long enough to produce ten slices of toast Sewing machine for two hours Fan 12 inches in diameter for two hours Percolator long enough to make five cups of coffee Heating pad from two to four hours Domestic buffer for 1 hours Chafing dish 12 minutes Radiant grill for 10 minutes Curling iron once a day for two weeks Luminous 500 watt radiator for 12 minutes

Hardly as old as a grown man, the electrical industry--including railways, telephones and telegraphs--has already invested $8,125,000,000 in the business of America. Its utility companies alone pay Uncle Sam $200,000,000 every year for taxes--seven out of every ten use it in some form every day. It is unmistakably the most vital factor to-day in America's prosperity. Its resources are boundless. As Secretary of the Interior Lane expresses it, there is enough hydro-electric energy running to waste to equal the daily labor of 1,800,000,000 men or 30 times our adult population.

BEGINNING WITH A QUOTATION. Words enclosed in quotation marks or set off in some distinctive form such as verse, an advertis.e.m.e.nt, a letter, a menu, or a sign, immediately catch the eye at the beginning of an article. Every conceivable source may be drawn on for quotations, provided, of course, that what is quoted has close connection with the subject. If the quotation expresses an extraordinary idea, it possesses an additional source of interest.

Verse quotations may be taken from a well-known poem, a popular song, a nursery rhyme, or even doggerel verse. Sometimes a whole poem or song prefaces an article. When the verse is printed in smaller type than the article, it need not be enclosed in quotation marks. In his typewritten ma.n.u.script a writer may indicate this difference in size of type by single-s.p.a.cing the lines of the quotation.

Prose quotations may be taken from a speech or an interview, or from printed material such as a book, report, or bulletin. The more significant the quoted statement, the more effective will be the introduction. When the quotation consists of several sentences or of one long sentence, it may comprise the first paragraph, to be followed in the second paragraph by the necessary explanation.

Popular sayings, slogans, or current phrases are not always enclosed in quotation marks, but are often set off in a separate paragraph as a striking form of beginning.

The most conspicuous quotation beginnings are reproductions of newspaper clippings, advertis.e.m.e.nts, price lists, menus, telegrams, invitations, or parts of legal doc.u.ments. These are not infrequently reproduced as nearly as possible in the original form and may be enclosed in a frame, or "box."

QUOTATION BEGINNINGS

(1)

(_New York Evening Post_)

"DIGNIFIED AND STATELY"

BEING AN ACCOUNT OF SOME HIGH AND LOW JINKS PRACTICED ABOUT THIS TIME ON COLLEGE CLa.s.s DAYS

BY EVA ELISE VOM BAUR

_Our sorrows are forgotten, And our cares are flown away, While we go marching through Princeton_.

Singing these words, 'round and 'round the campus they marched, drums beating time which no one observed, band clas.h.i.+ng with band, in tune with nothing but the dominant note--the joy of reunion. A motley lot of men they are--sailors and traction engineers, Pierrots, soldiers, and even vestal virgins--for the June Commencement is college carnival time.

Then hundreds upon thousands of men, East, West, North and South, drop their work and their worries, and leaving families and creditors at home, slip away to their respective alma maters, "just to be boys again" for a day and a night or two.

(2)

(_Harper's Monthly_)