made.
picture and from vaudeville to cabaret, but the thirty -six plots possible in dramatic action are not increased in number. The interest in the news secured from all of these and similar sources is the interest that attaches to individuals . From the standpoint of news, it matters little whether it concerns a hardened criminal,
an unknown man who is the victim of an accident, or a distin guished visitor whose presence is disclosed by hotel register or steamer passenger list. Everything that relates to an individual in unusual circumstances is news, and a tale about such an indi vidual is important whether it concerns one person or another. An occasional source of news is afforded by clergymen , physi cians, charity organization societies, and other semi-public
individuals and organizations. In this class also it is the individ
ual that is in the limelight, - the extraordinary marriage, the distressing accident, the mysterious death , theman once rich who is now an object of charity , - all of these afford " copy " that the
reporter considers of unusual interest and importance . Special sources ofnews are found in the meetings of local legis lative bodies and of different executive boards, as the board of
education, of public works, of public health , and of police com missioners ; of the boards of trustees of museums, art galleries,
universities, and other privately endowed institutions. In in formation derived from such sources the interest concerns mainly
platforms, policies, activities, endowments, and the extension or contraction of work already undertaken .
All these sources of information may be unimpeachable, and yet the resulting “ story " may, from the historian's point of view , leave much to be desired . This may be explained by the con ditions under which the reports are written out. Charles Dickens,
in an address at the second annual dinner of the Newspaper Press Fund in 1865, gives a vivid account of his experiences as a reporter:
" I have pursued the calling of a reporter under circumstances of which many of my brethren here can form no adequate con ception . I have often transcribed for the printer , from my
short-hand notes, important public speeches in which the strictest accuracy was required , and a mistake in which would have been to a young man severely compromising, writing on the palm of my hand , by the light of a dark -lantern , in a post-chaise
