t is a necessary part of the inverted pyramid model. The lead is as follows: “At the Troy arsenal unusual bustle has been observable within the past week.” Had the story that followed this lead been about the “bustle” that had been observed at the Troy arsenal, then this would be a good lead suitable for a modern news story, however, the reporter goes on to tell of the relocation of three low ranking military officers, then how the rumored destination of an unnamed ship got into the hands of the reporter and only at the end of the story gives the clues that could indicate the ship’s terminus. Incidentally, the clue turned out to be a laundry list of repairs and modifications done to several vessels that had been chartered by the United States. Though the verbose narrative style had not yet given way to the inverted pyramid model, there is certainly evidence of its coming, especially among the smaller news stories toward the beginning of the news hole in the Times of 1861. By 1917 and the beginning of the Great War, the use of the telegraph, along with other forms of electric communication, had become almost universal. The telegraph was by then an intercontinental communication tool, allowing the next-day coverage of events happening in Europe in the papers in America. Also by this time, the reporters were more used to the telegraph reporting and had nearly completed the shift of style to the inverted pyramid. The lead from a front page story in the April 4, 1917 issue of the Times, reads, “From the Prime Minister down all ranks of the British Democracy have been stirred to the depths of feeling by the declaration which the president of the United States made on behalf of the American Nation. ‘Hands across the sea,’ is no longer an adequate expression of the relationship between the two great English-speaking peoples. It is now a union of hearts forged by the bonds of a common figh...
