The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1864-05-11
WHOLE NO. 395.
Tricks I'm Language Curiostties o
Printing-Queer Thlngs Dome II

Printins-a1ser fhlns. Dsns IN IL
| Type.
From the New York Evening Post.
The mistakes of printers are often
very funny to readers and very exas.
perating to authors. A single letter is often
the greatest importance, and small mistake
| frequently changes the whole effect of an
| article. Some very funny stories are told
Of mishaps of this character, and we give
below some of the best:
An English paper once stated that the
Russian General Backinoffkowsky was
found dead with "a long word in his
mouth 1t should have been Sword"
In this case. however, the printer could not
have been blamed for leaveing out letter
after setting up the Russian name correctly.
During the Mexican war one Of the English
newspapers hurridly announced an impor.
tant item of news from Mexco-that Gen
eral Pillow and thirty seven ofhis men had
been lost "in bottle" 1t should have
read "battle"
A lad in printing office came upon the
name of Hecate, occurring in line like
this:
''shall reign the Hecatc of the deepest hell"
The boy thinking he he had discovered an
error. ran to the master printer and inquired
eagerly whether there was an in cat.
"Why, no, you blockhead," was the reply
Away went the boy to the press room and
extracted the Objectionable letter. But
fancy the horror Of both poet and publisher
when the poem appeared with the line:
"shal, reign the He Cat of the deepest he'll"
A newspaper some time ago gravely in.
formed its readers that rat descending the
river came in contact with a steamboat with
such serious injury to the boat that great
exertions were necessary to save it. TWAS
a raft, and not a rat, descending the river.
In the directions for conducting the Cath
olc service in place of ignorance, shock
ing blunder once occurred in printing "ca,
lotte," "culotte" Now ''culotte' means
what would be known in drawing room
The sentence read, "Here the priest will
take off his culotte."
LETT RS DROPPED OUT.
But let form Of type be ever so correct
when sent to the press, errors not unfre-
quently happen from the liabili y of letters
to drop out when the form has not been
properly adjusted or locked sufficiently
tight. A printer putting to press form
of the Common Prayer, the IN the follow
ing passage dropped oat unpcrceived by
him:
1--WE shall all be changed in the twink,
ling ofan eye"
When the book appeared, to the horror
of the devout worshipper the passage read !:
1--WE shall all be hanged in the twink
ling IAN eve"
A newspaper recently stated, in report
of battle, that the conflict was dreadful,
and that the enemy was repulsed with great
laughter (slaughter) A man was said
once to have been brought up to answer
the charge Of having eaten (beaten) a stage
driver, for having demanded more than his
fare. The public were informed some Time
ago that man was committed for having
stolen a small OK (box) from lady's work
bag. The stolen property was found in his
vest pocket. In an account Of Fourth Of
July dinner it was stated that none OF the
the poultry was eaten but the owls Qowls
MAKE Up sLUNDER.
A laughable mistake is shown in the fol.
lowing mixing of two articles-one con-
cerning preacher, and the other about the
freaks Of a mad dag, which occurred in a
hurried make up in printing office:
"Rev. James Thompson, rector of St.
Andrews church, preached to large con-
course of people on Sunday last. This was
his last sermon. In few weeks he will
bid farewell to his congregation, and his
physician advises him to cross the Atlantic.
He exhorted his brethren and sisters, and
after short prayer took whim 70 cut
some frantic freaYs. He ran up Timothy
street to the college. At this stage of the
proceedings, a couple of boys seized him
and tied tinkettle to bis tail, and be again
started. A great crowd collected, and for
and confusion. After a long race, he was
finally shot by policeman"
1t is not stated whether the following
item, which is said to have been printed
once upon time, was the result Of inebrie-
ty on the part Of the printer or reporter:
"HoRRIBLE CATTAsTRoPHY."-Yes Yesterday
morning, at four o'clock in the afternoon, a
small man named Jones Or Smith, with a
heel in the hole of his trousers, committed
arsenic by swallowing a desc Of suicide.
The verdict Of the inquest returned Jury
that the deceased came to the fact in ac
cordance with his death. He left a child
I'd six small wives to lament the end OF
his unfortunate loss. In death we are in
the midst Of life"
THE POWER OF COMMAS.
The following sentence from recently
written novel, shows the Importance of
punctuation:
"He enters on his head, his helmet on
his feet, armed sandals upon his brow,
there was cloud in his right hand, his
faithful sword in his eye, an angry glare he
sat down."