and is not affected by any unusual circumstances, it has little interest for his fellow men. As soon as he violates the usual order, or is the victim of such violation, his departure from the level of conformity becomes a matter of greater or less interest according to the extent of the departure. Because hundreds of thousands of bank employees are honest, the dishonesty of one of them is news. So all crime, as a violation of established law and order, is news, unless, as unfortunately is sometimes the case, it becomes common enough to cease to be unusual. Every notable achievement in any field of activity, because it rises above the level, is news. A record aeroplane flight, an heroic action, the discovery of a new serum, the invention of a labor-saving device, the finding of remains of a buried city, the completion of a great bridge,—all are sufficiently out of the ordinary to attract attention. Accidents and unexpected occurrences, because they break in upon the usual course of events, are matters of news. The thousands of trains that reach their destination safely are as nothing compared to one that jumps the track. Millions of dollars' worth of property that remains unharmed from day to day does not interest the average man, but the loss of some of it by fire, wind, or flood immediately lifts the part affected out of the mass and gives it interest to hundreds of persons in no way concerned in the loss. It is not the crimes and misfortunes of others that give the reader pleasure; it is the fact that these are departures from the normal course that makes them satisfy his desire for something different from the usual round of life.
In almost every event the good newspaper man can find something that is out of the ordinary, and by giving due emphasis to this unusual phase can give interest to what might otherwise seem commonplace. What that
