for "elevated railroad" is perfectly clear to readers in New York, Boston, and Chicago. The names of states are not usually abbreviated, although "U.S." is frequent. Abbreviations like "auto," "taxi," and "phone" are so general that they are used without question in headlines.
Colloquial contractions like "can't," "we're," etc., although not common, may give the life and naturalness often well suited to a story, as for example in the following head:
ROCKEFELLER, HE'D HELP HER
So Mary Mayogian, Who is 12, Came
Here to See Him.
In the first deck short words are preferred, because in rapid reading they are more easily grasped than long ones, and because two or three words in each part of the line make a better looking, more symmetrical head. To meet the need for short equivalents for long words that are generally accepted terms, new words have been coined and new functions given to old ones. For the long noun "investigation" and the verb "to investigate," the words "probe" and "quiz" are favorites with the headline writer, and are often used to excess. Long words like "criticize," "censure," "rebuke" give way to shorter ones like "hit," "rap," and "score." The concise but inelegant "nab" is a headline substitute for "arrest." The verb "peril," rarely used elsewhere, appears in heads as an equivalent for "imperil" or "endanger," as in "Shipwreck Perils Many." The verb "wed" is a convenient short form for "marry." Words condemned by good usage, such as "to suicide" and "to kill self," have found a place in the headlines of some newspapers because of their clearness and brevity.
