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The Cause

The desire to have maple syrup on his pancakes led to the capture of Oscar Norrie, who was arrested by Deputy United States Marshal Congdon this morning charged with desertion from the army. He was on his way from his mother's home, 116 Easton Street, to the nearby grocery store to buy some syrup.

The Result

Twenty miners are entombed in the Indian Creek Coal Company's main shaft as the result of an explosion early this morning which blocked up the entrance, but which did not, it is believed, extend to the part of the mine where the men imprisoned were at work.

The Significant Circumstance

Posing as a gas meter inspector, a thief gained access to the home of John C. Schmidt, 1416 Cherry Lane, yesterday afternoon, and carried off a gold watch and a pocketbook containing $20.

How to Begin. The grammatical form in which the feature is presented in the first group of words of the lead varies according to the character of the point to be emphasized. Some of the convenient types of beginning are: (1) the subject of the sentence, (2) a participial phrase, (3) a prepositional phrase, (4) an infinitive phrase, (5) a dependent clause, (6) a substantive clause, and (7) a direct quotation.

The subject of the sentence frequently contains the most telling idea of the lead and therefore occupies the emphatic position at the beginning, as in the following stories: