ANIMALS.  Wild or tame, at large or in captivity, animals attract us either for their almost human intelligence or for their distinctively animal traits.  There are few persons who do not like horses, dogs, cats, and other pets, and fewer still who can pass by the animal cages at the circus or the “zoo.”  Hunting, trapping, and fishing are vocations for some men, and sport for many more.  The business of breeding horses and cattle, and the care of live stock and poultry on the farm, must not be overlooked in the search for subjects.  The technical aspects of these topics will interest readers of farm journals; the more popular phases of them make a wide general appeal.

HOBBIES AND AMUSEMENTS.  Pastimes and avocations may be counted good subjects.  Moving pictures, theaters, music, baseball, golf, automobiles, amateur photography, and a host of hobbies and recreations have enough enthusiastic devotees to insure wide reading for special feature stories about them.

THE FAMILIAR.  Persons whom we know, places that we constantly see, experiences that we have had again and again, often seem commonplace enough, even when familiarity has not bred contempt; but when they appear unexpectedly on the stage or in print, we greet them with the cordiality bestowed on the proverbial long-lost friend.  Local news interests readers because it concerns people and places immediately around them.  Every newspaper man understands the desirability of increasing the attractiveness of a news event that happens elsewhere by rinding “local ends,” or by giving it “a local turn.”  For special feature stories in newspapers, local phases are no less important.  But whether the article is to be published in a newspaper or a magazine, familiar persons and things should be “played up” prominently.

THE PROMINENT.  Many persons, places, and objects that we have never seen are frequently as real to us as are those that we see daily.  This is because their names and their pictures have greeted us again and again in print.  It is thus that prominent men and women become familiar to us.  Because of their importance we like to read about them.  If a special feature article in any of its phases concerns what is prominent, greater attractiveness can be given to it by “playing up” this point, be it the President of the United States or a well-known circus clown, Fifth Avenue or the Bowery, the Capitol at Washington or Coney Island, the Twentieth Century Limited or a Ford.

LIFE AND WELFARE OF OTHERS.  Sympathy with our fellow beings and an instinctive recognition of our common humanity are inherent in most men and women.  Nowhere is this more strikingly shown than in the quick and generous response that comes in answer to every call for aid for those in distress.  So, too, we like to know how others feel and think.  We like to get behind the veil with which every one attempts to conceal his innermost thoughts and feelings.  Our interest in the lives and the welfare of others finds expression in various ways, ranging from social service and self-sacrificing devotion to gossip and secret confidences.  These extremes and all that lies between them abound in that “human interest” upon which all editors insist.