The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-02-08
TxnoSrnphtcul Errors.

Nr. W. L. OtcHc, VI NcW IOIh,
lately delivered a very in resting
and valuable lecture in tL..y city,
upon the ''Early History of News
papers in America In the course
of the lecture occurs the following:
The New York Gazette was com
menced by Wayman. In 1776, Way
man was arrested and Imprisoned
for contempt of'the Assembly, upon
no other charge than that of two ty-
geographical errors in printing the
speech of Sir Henry Moore, the
Governor of the Colony. One of
these errors consisted in printing the
word neoey for ecer, by reason Of
which the meaning Of the sentence
was reversed. Nothing can be more
annoying to authors and publish
ers than errors Of the press; and vet
those who are unskilled in the art of
printing can scarcely conceive the
difficulty of avoiding them 70 ar
rive at ordinary accuracy in. daily
newspaper requires tAc reading and
correction OF ut least two proofs;
and even then an editor who has
not become case-hardcned by long
endurance, will often be shocked at
the transformation Of sense into
nonsense, OF the numbering Of one
of his happiest conceits, or the pluck
ing OF the point from one Of his
neatest paragraphs, by Topographic
cal error. In the early stages of the
art OF printing, errors were far more
numerous than in books Of modern
execution. 1t was then very common
for Il volume OF ordinary size to con
tam page upon page Of errata at tho
Close. One of the most remarkable
instances of this kind was the curious
treatise of Edward Leigh on '.Reli-
gion and Learning," published in
1856. AT the close Of The work were
three folio pages of corrections in
very minute type. 1t is a singular
fact that the edition of the Latin
Fulgate by Pope Sixtrls V, although
carefully superintended, sheet by
sheet, by His Holiness, has ever re-
malned without Il rival in typograph-
lcal inaccuracy. Still more curious
was the fact that the Pope, in the
plenitude Of his pontifcal infallibil-
ity, prefxed to the first volume
bull of communication against
any and every printer, who, in re-
printing the work, should make any
alterations in the text. Among in
stances of typographical errors the
lecturer gave the following: a lad
in printing Office. who knew more
about type-setting than he did of the
Greek mythology, in looking over
poem they were printing, came
upon the name of Hecate, one of
the lady divinities of the lower world,
occurring in q line like this: '.Shc
shall reign the Becatc Of the deepest
He'll. The boy, thinking he had
discovered an error, ran to the mas
ter printer, and inquired cargerly
whether there was an c in cat. why,
no, you blockhead," was the reply.
Away went the boy to the press-room
and extracted the objectional letter.
But fancy the horror of both poet
and Publisher when the poem ap-
peared with the line She shall
reign the He Cat of the deepest
He'll" This, however, was not so
bad as the manner in which the
printers treated Miss Landon. In
speaking of it, she SAYS: And
when / had written full blown
roses, the nasty things made it full
blown noses" Benjamin franklin
once putting to press q form" of
the Common Prayer, the letter in
the following passage dropped out
unperceived by him: eve shall all be
changed in the twinkling of an eye"
When the book appeared, to the hor-
ror OF the devout worshippcrs, the
passage read: ''We shall all be hanged
in the twinkling of an eye Frank
iif has Reen suspected OF having done
this intentionally, but it appears to
me without good reason. But after
all, when it is considered of how
many separate and minute pieces
of metal newspaper is composed,
the wonder is that the errors of
the press are not far more nume-
rous than they are. y single page
Of one Of our largest papers can
not contain less than 315, 900 separate
pieces Of metal, each of which must
be nicely adjusted in its own proper
place, OF error ana confusion will en-
sue.
a Paris letter thus describes Roths-
child's abode III that city: 1T is an
immense building, seven stories high,
and would cover about one block
| Won orn cnp,ov-I,,+ 70 coo