In accordance with the foregoing there are several possible ways in which to begin the lead of the report of any speech. It would be wrong to say that any one is more common or better than the others; the choice of the beginning must rest with the reporter. And yet there are various things to be noted in connection with each of these beginnings.
=1. Direct Quotation Beginning.--Sentence.=--The quotation that is to have the first line must of course be the most striking or the most interesting statement in the speech. If it consists of a single sentence--and it cannot be less than a sentence--the report may begin thus:
| "Participation in government is not | |only the privilege, but the right, of | |every American citizen and should be | |considered a duty," said the Rev. | |Frederick W. Hamilton, president of Tufts| |College, who spoke on "The Political | |Duties of the American Citizen" at the | |monthly men's neighborhood meeting in the| |Roxbury Neighborhood House last | |night.--_Boston Herald._ |
Here the reporter has given us a sentence that is practically a summary of the speech, has told us who said it, when and where, and has completed the paragraph with the title of the speech. Sometimes the title of the speech is not of great importance and its place in the lead may be given to a little summary as in the following:
| "The modern man isn't afraid of hell," | |was the concise explanation which W. | |Lathrop Meaker gave in Franklin Union | |Hall yesterday afternoon and evening of | |the fact that the churches are losing | |their grip on the average man.--_New York| |Sun._ |
A question which embodies the content of a speech may often be quoted at the beginning; thus:
| "Will the Baptist church continue to | |maintain an attitude of timidity when | |John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil is | |mentioned?" asked the Rev. R. A. Bateman,| |from East Jaffrey, N. H., of the | |ministers assembled in Ford Hall last | |evening at the New England Baptist | |conference.--_Boston Herald._ |
The opening quotation may sometimes be made an excuse for a brief description of the speaker or his gestures as in the following. This is good at times but it may easily be overworked or become "yellow" in tone.