The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-10-12
By JAMES MELVIN LEE.
Director Department of Journal
ism, New York University.

Ism. New York University. n
y HENRY, in speaking of his
short stories. once said to a
friend Of mine: Il write q
plain, ordinary tale. except that scat
ter a few raisins here and there and
put big one at the end. People seem
TO like these raisins." These raisins
were, of course. the epigramatic say
ings and the big one" was the I'M
expected ending. In newspaper Eng
lish the surprise" is usually put first.
Yet o. Henry was not the origina-
tor Of this idea Of getting readers to
bite. For cutting out raisins Macau-
lay wrote a strong letter of protest to
the editor of the Edinburgh ReUteto.
He began his protest in a most polite
way:
There were, by the bye, in my
last article a few omissions made,
Of no great consequence in them
selves; the longest, think, para
graph of twelve or fourteen lines.
should scarcely have thought this
worth mentioning, as 1t certainly
by no means exceeds the limits Of
editorial prerogative, which most
willingly recognize, but that the
emissions seemed to me, and to
one or two persons who had seen
the article in its original state. to
be made on a principle which. how
ever sound in itself, does not,
think, apply to compositions Of this
description.
The trouble was that the omissions
were raisins. To quote Macaulay's
own words, 1.-THE passages omitted
were the most pointed and ornamented
sentences in the review" After adj
ritting for high and grave works the
excellence of DR.. Johnson's rule-that
every sentence which the critic thinks
fine ought to be cut out--Macaulay
continued:
But periodical works like ours.
which, unless they strike at the
hrst reading are not likely to strike
at all, whose whole life'is month
or two, may. 1 think. be allowed
to be sometimes even. tviciously
forid.
Must Strike at Once or Fail.
All the charity which Macaulay asks
for the English of the Edinburgh Re
Vtel0 may be asked for that of the
newspaper. The latter's life is not a
month or two, but only day. In
metropolitan cities, where editions
come almost hourly from the press,
the life OF a newspaper is measured
not in hours but In minutes. or all
economic commodities news is possibly
the most perishable. II 1t strikes at
all 1t must strike not at the first read
ing, but at the FIRST glance. But 1t Is
the illustration concluding Macauley's
letter TO which ! want to call special
attention:
But 1t is not by his own taste but
by the taste Of the fish that the angler
determined in his choice Of bait"
The academic ana pedantic critic OF
newspaper Engssh will do well to re-
member this striking figure Of speech
used by Macaulay. Even II the taste
OF the fish determines the choice Of
oait, the angler. except for State game
laws, is free to decide what kind OF
nsh he wants to catch. Personally, /
would rather fish for trout than for
suckers. When we become fishers OF
men, in newspaper sense. practically
the same conditions obtain. This
point was well emphasized by the late
CHARLES Anderson Dana when he adj
dressed the students of Cornell Uni
Versity on the subject, THE Making
ot Newspaper Man" On that occa-
sion Mr.. Dana said:
'h"ries A. Dana's Classification.
Now, what have said relates to
the mechanical and intellectual
features of making a newspaper;
Dut there is a question which pre-
eeoes 1t, namely. What kind OF
newspaper will you make? And
mat question may be divided into