The Human Interest Story

Bob, a young journalism graduate from Arkansas, had gone to work for the New York Times. His first assignment was to write a brief human interest story. An idea came to Bob and he returned to one of the most remote areas he knew of in his home state of Arkansas.

Deep in the woods, Bob came upon a farmer’s house and decided this would be a good place to start.

He introduced himself to the back country farmer and explained why he was there. The farmer (named Farmer Jim) agreed to answer his questions.

Bob asked farmer Jim what event in his life had made him the happiest?

Farmer Jim replied, “One time a neighbor lost one of his sheep. We all formed a posse and found it. After we all had our way with it, we took it back to the farmer that lost it.”;

“I can’t print that,” said Bob the reporter, “Is there another event that made you really happy?” Farmer Jim thought for a minute and said, “Yep. One time the daughter of another local farmer got lost. She was a real good-lookin’. We all formed a posse and found her. After all of us had our way with her, we took her home.”;

Again Bob knew he couldn’t print the story and decided to take a different tack. He asked Farmer Jim, “Is there any event in your life that has made you really sad?”;

Farmer Jim hung his head and replied,“Well, I got lost once........".