How To Write Special Feature Articles by Willard Grosvenor Bleyer

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The charges for developing films and for making prints and enlargements
are now so reasonable that a writer need not master these technicalities
in order to use a camera of his own. If he has time and interest,
however, he may secure the desired results more nearly by developing and
printing his own pictures.

Satisfactory pictures can be obtained with almost any camera, but one
with a high-grade lens and shutter is the best for all kinds of work. A
pocket camera so equipped is very convenient. If a writer can afford to
make a somewhat larger initial investment, he will do well to buy a
camera of the so-called "reflex" type. Despite its greater weight and
bulk, as compared with pocket cameras, it has the advantage of showing
the picture full size, right side up, on the top of the camera, until
the very moment that the button is pressed. These reflex cameras are
equipped with the fastest types of lens and shutter, and thus are
particularly well adapted to poorly lighted and rapidly moving objects.

A tripod should be used whenever possible. A hastily taken snap shot
often proves unsatisfactory, whereas, if the camera had rested on a
tripod, and if a slightly longer exposure had been given, a good
negative would doubtless have resulted.

REQUIREMENTS FOR PHOTOGRAPHS. All photographs intended for reproduction
by the half-tone or the rotogravure process should conform to certain
requirements.

First: The standard size of photographic prints to be used for
illustrations is 5 x 7 inches, but two smaller sizes, 4 x 5 and 31/2 x
51/2, as well as larger sizes such as 61/2 x 81/2 and 8 x 10, are
also acceptable. Professional photographers generally make their
negatives for illustrations in the sizes, 5 x 7, 61/2 x 81/2, and 8 x
10. If a writer uses a pocket camera taking pictures smaller than
post-card size (31/2 x 51/2), he must have his negatives enlarged to
one of the above standard sizes.

Second: Photographic prints for illustrations should have a glossy
surface; that is, they should be what is known as "gloss prints." Prints
on rough paper seldom reproduce satisfactorily; they usually result in
"muddy" illustrations. Prints may be mounted or unmounted; unmounted
ones cost less and require less postage, but are more easily broken in
handling.

Third: Objects in the photograph should be clear and well defined; this
requires a sharp negative. For newspaper illustrations it is desirable
to have prints with a stronger contrast between the dark and the light
parts of the picture than is necessary for the finer half-tones and
rotogravures used in magazines.

Fourth: Photographs must have life and action. Pictures of inanimate
objects in which neither persons nor animals appear, seem "dead" and
unattractive to the average reader. It is necessary, therefore, to have
at least one person in every photograph. Informal, unconventional
pictures in which the subjects seem to have been "caught" unawares, are
far better than those that appear to have been posed. Good snap-shots of
persons in characteristic surroundings are always preferable to cabinet
photographs. "Action pictures" are what all editors and all readers
want.

Fifth: Pictures must "tell the story"; that is, they should illustrate
the phase of the subject that they are designed to make clear. Unless a
photograph has illustrative value it fails to accomplish the purpose for
which it is intended.

CAPTIONS FOR ILLUSTRATIONS. On the back of a photograph intended for
reproduction the author should write or type a brief explanation of what
it represents. If he is skillful in phrasing this explanation, or
"caption," as it is called, the editor will probably use all or part of
it just as it stands. If his caption is unsatisfactory, the editor will
have to write one based on the writer's explanation. A clever caption
adds much to the attractiveness of an illustration.

A caption should not be a mere label, but, like a photograph, should
have life and action. It either should contain a verb of action or
should imply one. In this and other respects, it is not unlike the
newspaper headline. Instead, for example, of the label title, "A Large
Gold Dredge in Alaska," a photograph was given the caption, "Digs Out a
Fortune Daily." A picture of a young woman feeding chickens in a
backyard poultry run that accompanied an article entitled "Did You Ever
Think of a Meat Garden?" was given the caption "Fresh Eggs and Chicken
Dinners Reward Her Labor." To illustrate an article on the danger of the
pet cat as a carrier of disease germs, a photograph of a child playing
with a cat was used with the caption, "How Epidemics Start." A portrait
of a housewife who uses a number of labor-saving devices in her home
bore the legend, "She is Reducing Housekeeping to a Science." "A Smoking
Chimney is a Bad Sign" was the caption under a photograph of a chimney
pouring out smoke, which was used to illustrate an article on how to
save coal.

Longer captions describing in detail the subject illustrated by the
photograph, are not uncommon; in fact, as more and more pictures are
being used, there is a growing tendency to place a short statement, or
"overline," above the illustration and to add to the amount of
descriptive matter in the caption below it. This is doubtless due to two
causes: the increasing use of illustrations unaccompanied by any text
except the caption, and the effort to attract the casual reader by
giving him a taste, as it were, of what the article contains.

DRAWINGS FOR ILLUSTRATIONS. Diagrams, working drawings, floor plans,
maps, or pen-and-ink sketches are necessary to illustrate some articles.
Articles of practical guidance often need diagrams. Trade papers like to
have their articles illustrated with reproductions of record sheets and
blanks designed to develop greater efficiency in office or store
management. If a writer has a little skill in drawing, he may prepare in
rough form the material that he considers desirable for illustration,
leaving to the artists employed by the publication the work of making
drawings suitable for reproduction. A writer who has had training in
pen-and-ink drawing may prepare his own illustrations. Such drawings
should be made on bristol board with black drawing ink, and should be
drawn two or three times as large as they are intended to appear when
printed. If record sheets are to be used for illustration, the ruling
should be done with black drawing ink, and the figures and other data
should be written in with the same kind of ink. Typewriting on blanks
intended for reproduction should be done with a fresh record black
ribbon. Captions are necessary on the back of drawings as well as on
photographs.

MAILING PHOTOGRAPHS AND DRAWINGS. It is best to mail flat all
photographs and drawings up to 8 x 10 in size, in the envelope with the
manuscript, protecting them with pieces of stout cardboard. Only very
large photographs or long, narrow panoramic ones should be rolled and
mailed in a heavy cardboard tube, separate from the manuscript. The
writer's name and address, as well as the title of the article to be
illustrated, should be written on the back of every photograph and
drawing.

As photographs and drawings are not ordinarily returned when they are
used with an article that is accepted, writers should not promise to
return such material to the persons from whom they secure it. Copies can
almost always be made from the originals when persons furnishing writers
with photographs and drawings desire to have the originals kept in good
condition.

PART II

AN OUTLINE FOR THE ANALYSIS OF SPECIAL
FEATURE ARTICLES

I. SOURCES OF MATERIAL

1. What appears to have suggested the subject to the writer?

2. How much of the article was based on his personal experience?

3. How much of it was based on his personal observations?

4. Was any of the material obtained from newspapers or periodicals?

5. What portions of the article were evidently obtained by interviews?

6. What reports, documents, technical periodicals, and books of
reference were used as sources in preparing the article?

7. Does the article suggest to you some sources from which you might
obtain material for your own articles?

II. INTEREST AND APPEAL

1. Is there any evidence that the article was timely when it was
published?

2. Is the article of general or of local interest?

3. Does it seem to be particularly well adapted to the readers of
the publication in which it was printed? Why?

4. What, for the average reader, is the source of interest in the
article?

5. Does it have more than one appeal?

6. Is the subject so presented that the average reader is led to
see its application to himself and to his own affairs?

7. Could an article on the same subject, or on a similar one, be
written for a newspaper in your section of the country?

8. What possible subjects does the article suggest to you?

III. PURPOSE

1. Did the writer aim to entertain, to inform, or to give practical
guidance?

2. Does the writer seem to have had a definitely formulated
purpose?

3. How would you state this apparent purpose in one sentence?

4. Is the purpose a worthy one?

5. Did the writer accomplish his purpose?

6. Does the article contain any material that seems unnecessary
to the accomplishment of the purpose?

IV. TYPE OF ARTICLE

1. To which type does this article conform?

2. Is there any other type better adapted to the subject and
material?

3. How far did the character of the subject determine the
methods of treatment?

4. What other methods might have been used to advantage in
presenting this subject?

5. Is the article predominantly narrative, descriptive, or expository?

6. To what extent are narration and description used for expository
purposes?

7. Are concrete examples and specific instances employed
effectively?

8. By what means are the narrative passages made interesting?

9. Do the descriptive parts of the article portray the impressions
vividly?

V. STRUCTURE

1. What main topics are taken up in the article?

2. Could any parts of the article be omitted without serious
loss?

3. Could the parts be rearranged with gain in clearness, interest,
or progress?

4. Does the article march on steadily from beginning to end?

5. Is the material so arranged that the average reader will
reach the conclusion that the writer intended to have him reach?

6. Is there variety in the methods of presentation?

7. Is the length of the article proportionate to the subject?

8. What type of beginning is used?

9. Is the type of beginning well adapted to the subject and the
material?

10. Would the beginning attract the attention and hold the interest
of the average reader?

11. Is the beginning an integral part of the article?

12. Is the length of the beginning proportionate to the length of
the whole article?

13. Is the beginning skillfully connected with the body of the article?

VI. STYLE

1. Is the article easy to read? Why?

2. Is the diction literary or colloquial, specific or general, original
or trite, connotative or denotative?

3. Are figures of speech used effectively?

4. Do the sentences yield their meaning easily when read rapidly?

5. Is there variety in sentence length and structure?

6. Are important ideas placed at the beginning of sentences?

7. Are the paragraphs long or short?

8. Are they well-organized units?

9. Do the paragraphs begin with important ideas?

10. Is there variety in paragraph beginnings?

11. Is the tone well suited to the subject?

12. Do the words, figures of speech, sentences, and paragraphs
in this article suggest to you possible means of improving
your own style?

VII. TITLES AND HEADLINES

1. Is the title attractive, accurate, concise, and concrete?

2. To what type does it conform?

3. What is the character of the sub-title, and what relation
does it bear to the title?

(_Boston Herald_)

TEACH CHILDREN LOVE OF ART THROUGH STORY-TELLING

"----And so," ended the story, "St. George slew the dragon."

A great sigh, long drawn and sibilant, which for the last five minutes
had been swelling 57 little thoraxes, burst out and filled the space of
the lecture hall at the Museum of Fine Arts.

"O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!" said 27 little girls.

"Aw-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w, gosh!" said 30 little boys. "Say, Mis' Cronan,
there wasn't no real dragon, was they?" A shock-headed youngster pushed
his way to the platform where Mrs. Mary C. Cronan, professional story
teller, stood smiling and wistfully looked up at her. "They wasn't no
really dragon, was they?"

"'Course they was a dragon! Whadd'ye think the man wanted to paint the
picture for if there wasn't a dragon? Certn'y there was a dragon. I
leave it to Mis' Cronan if there wasn't."

Steering a narrow course between fiction and truth, Mrs. Cronan told her
class that she thought there certainly must have been a dragon or the
picture wouldn't have been painted.

It was at one of the regular morning story hours at the Museum of Fine
Arts, a department opened three years ago at the museum by Mrs. Cronan
and Mrs. Laura Scales, a department which has become so popular that now
hundreds of children a week are entertained, children from the public
playgrounds and from the settlement houses.

On this particular day it was children from the Bickford street
playground under the guidance of two teachers from the Lucretia Crocker
School, Miss Roche and Miss Hayes, who had, in some mysterious manner,
convoyed these 57 atoms to the museum by car without mishap and who
apparently did not dread the necessity of getting them back again,
although to the uninitiated it appeared a task beside which grasping a
comet by the tail was a pleasant afternoon's amusement.

For the most part the story of St. George and the Dragon was a new thing
to these children. They might stand for St. George, although his
costume was a little out of the regular form at Jamaica Plain, but the
Dragon was another thing.

"I don't believe it," insisted an 8-year-old. "I seen every animal in
the Zoo in the park and I don't see any of them things." But the wistful
little boy kept insisting that there must be such an animal or Mrs.
Cronan wouldn't say so.

"That is the way they nearly always take it at first," said Mrs. Cronan.
"Nearly all of these children are here for the first time. Later they
will bring their fathers and mothers on Sunday and you might hear them
explaining the pictures upstairs as if they were the docents of the
museum.

"The object of the story hour is to familiarize the children with as
many as possible of the pictures of the Museum and to get them into the
way of coming here of themselves. When they go away they are given cards
bearing a reproduction of the picture about which the story of the day
has been told, and on these cards is always an invitation to them to
bring their families to the Museum on Saturday and Sunday, when there is
no entrance fee."

The idea of the story hour was broached several years ago and at first
it was taken up as an experiment. Stereopticon slides were made of
several of the more famous pictures in the Museum, and Mrs. Cronan, who
was at the time achieving a well earned success at the Public Library,
was asked to take charge of the story telling. The plan became a success
at once.

Later Mrs. Scales was called in to take afternoon classes, and now more
than 1000 children go to the Museum each week during July and August and
hear stories told entertainingly that fix in their minds the best
pictures of the world. Following the stories they are taken through the
halls of the Museum and are given short talks on some art subject. One
day it may be some interesting thing on Thibetan amulets, or on
tapestries or on some picture, Stuart's Washington or Turner's Slave
Ship, or a colorful canvas of Claude Monet.

It is hoped that the movement may result in greater familiarity with and
love for the Museum, for it is intended by the officials that these
children shall come to love the Museum and to care for the collection
and not to think of it, as many do, as a cold, unresponsive building
containing dark mysteries, or haughty officials, or an atmosphere of
"highbrow" iciness.

"I believe," says Mrs. Cronan, "that our little talks are doing just
this thing. And although some of them, of course, can't get the idea
quite all at once, most of these children will have a soft spot
hereafter for Donatello's St. George."

At least some of them were not forgetting it, for as they filed out the
wistful little boy was still talking about it.

"Ya," he said to the scoffer, "you mightn't a seen him at the Zoo.
That's all right, but you never went over to the 'quarium. Probably they
got one over there. Gee! I wish I could see a dragon. What color are
they?"

But the smallest boy of all, who had hold of Miss Hayes's hand and who
had been an interested listener to all this, branched out mentally into
other and further fields.

"Aw," said he, "I know a feller what's got a ginny pig wit' yeller spots
on 'im and he--" And they all trailed out the door.

* * * * *

(_Christian Science Monitor_)

One illustration, a half-tone reproduction of a photograph showing the
interior of the greenhouse with girls at work.

WHERE GIRLS LEARN TO WIELD SPADE AND HOE

To go to school in a potato patch; to say one's lessons to a farmer; to
study in an orchard and do laboratory work in a greenhouse--this is the
pleasant lot of the modern girl who goes to a school of horticulture
instead of going to college, or perhaps after going to college.

If ever there was a vocation that seemed specially adapted to many
women, gardening would at first glance be the one. From the time of

"Mistress Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?"

down to the busy city woman who to-day takes her recreation by digging
in her flowerbeds, gardens have seemed a natural habitat for womankind,
and garden activities have belonged to her by right.

In various parts of the country there have now been established schools
where young women may learn the ways of trees and shrubs, vegetables and
flowers, and may do experimental work among the growing things
themselves. Some of these schools are merely adjuncts of the state
agricultural colleges, with more or less limited courses of
instruction; but, just out of Philadelphia, there is a school, to which
women only are admitted, that is located on a real farm, and covers a
wide range of outdoor study.

One begins to feel the homely charm of the place the moment instructions
are given as to how to reach it.

"Out the old Lime-kiln road," you are told. And out the old Lime-kiln
road you go, until you come to a farm which spells the perfection of
care in every clump of trees and every row of vegetables. Some girls in
broad-brimmed hats are working in the Strawberry bed--if you go in
strawberry time--and farther on a group of women have gathered, with an
overalled instructor, under an apple tree the needs of which are being
studied.

Under some sedate shade trees, you are led to an old Pennsylvania stone
farmhouse--the administration building, if you please. Beyond are the
barns, poultry houses, nurseries and greenhouses, and a cottage which is
used as a dormitory for the girls--as unlike the usual dormitory as the
school is unlike the usual school. A bee colony has its own little white
village near by.

Then the director, a trained woman landscape gardener, tells you all
that this school of horticulture has accomplished since its founding
five years ago.

"Women are naturally fitted for gardening, and for some years past there
have been many calls for women to be teachers in school gardens,
planners of private gardens, or landscape gardeners in institutions for
women. Very few women, however, have had the practical training to
enable them to fill such positions, and five years ago there was little
opportunity for them to obtain such training. At that time a number of
women in and about Philadelphia, who realized the need for thorough
teaching in all the branches of horticulture, not merely in theory but
in practice, organized this school. The course is planned to equip women
with the practical knowledge that will enable them to manage private and
commercial gardens, greenhouses or orchards. Some women wish to learn
how to care for their own well-loved gardens; some young girls study
with the idea of establishing their own greenhouses and raising flowers
as a means of livelihood; still others want to go in for fruit farming,
and even for poultry raising or bee culture.

"In other countries, schools of gardening for women are holding a
recognized place in the educational world. In England, Belgium,
Germany, Italy, Denmark and Russia, such institutions have long passed
the experimental stage; graduates from their schools are managing large
estates or holding responsible positions as directors of public or
private gardens, as managers of commercial greenhouses, or as consulting
horticulturists and lecturers. In this country there is a growing demand
for supervisors of home and school gardens, for work on plantations and
model farms, and for landscape gardeners. Such positions command large
salaries, and the comparatively few women available for them are almost
certain to attain success."

Already one of the graduates has issued a modest brown circular stating
that she is equipped to supply ideas for gardens and personally to plant
them; to expend limited sums of money to the best advantage for beauty
and service; to take entire charge of gardens and orchards for the
season and personally to supervise gardens during the owners' absence;
to spray ornamental trees and shrubs, and prune them; and to care for
indoor plants and window boxes.

"She is making a success of it, too. She has all she can do," comments
one of the women directors, who is standing by.

A smiling strawberry student, who is passing, readily tells all that
going to a garden school means.

"Each one of us has her own small plot of ground for which she is
responsible. We have to plant it, care for it, and be marked on it. We
all have special care of certain parts of the greenhouse, too, and each
has a part of the nursery, the orchard and the vineyard. Even the work
that is too heavy for us we have to study about, so that we can direct
helpers when the time comes. We have to understand every detail of it
all. We have to keep a daily record of our work. This is the way to
learn how long it takes for different seeds to germinate, and thus we
watch the development of the fruits and flowers and vegetables. You see,
the attendance at the school is limited to a small number; so each one
of us receives a great deal of individual attention and help.

"We learn simple carpentry, as part of the course, so that we shall be
able to make window boxes, flats, cold frames and other articles that we
need. We could even make a greenhouse, if we had to. We are taught the
care and raising of poultry, we learn bee culture, and we have a course
in landscape gardening. There is a course in canning and preserving,
too, so that our fruits and berries can be disposed of in that way, if
we should not be able to sell them outright, when we have the gardens
of our own that we are all looking forward to."

In the cozy cottage that serves as a dormitory, there is a large
classroom, where the lectures in botany, entomology, soils and
horticultural chemistry are given. There is a staff of instructors, all
from well-known universities, and a master farmer to impart the
practical everyday process of managing fields and orchards. Special
lectures are given frequently by experts in various subjects. In the
cottage is a big, homelike living-room, where the girls read and sing
and dance in the evening. Each girl takes care of her own bedroom.

The costumes worn by these garden students are durable, appropriate and
most becoming. The school colors are the woodsy ones of brown and green,
and the working garb is carried out in these colors. Brown khaki or
corduroy skirts, eight inches from the ground, with two large pockets,
are worn under soft green smocks smocked in brown. The sweaters are
brown or green, and there is a soft hat for winter and a large shade hat
for summer. Heavy working gloves and boots are provided, and a large
apron with pockets goes with the outfit.

All in all, you feel sure, as you go back down the "old Lime-Kiln road,"
that the motto of the school will be fulfilled in the life of each of
its students: "So enter that daily thou mayst become more thoughtful and
more learned. So depart that daily thou mayst become more useful to
thyself and to all mankind."

* * * * *

(_Boston Transcript_)

BOYS IN SEARCH OF JOBS

BY RAYMOND G. FULLER

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