The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-02-19
rxnorranhical Errors.

typographical Errors.
asev M. W. II. Stone, of Newly rk, 1ate-
w delivered very interesting and val
liable lecture in, that city, upon the
"Early History of Newspapers in Amer
ica.' In the course of the lectura &C.
ours the following:
The New York, Gazette. was common
ced by Wayman. In 1776 Wayhlan
was arrested and imprisoned for con-
tempt of the Assembly, upon no other
charge than that of two typographical
errors in printing the speech OF Sir
Henry Moore, the Governor of the Col
ony. One of those errors consisted IN
printing the world never for ecer, by
reason of which the meaning of the sem
tence was reversed. Nothing can be
more annoying to authors and publish
ers than errors of the Press; and yet
those who are unskilled i'll the art OF
printing can scarcely conceive the dlffl-
Guilty ofavoiding them. To arrive at
ordinary accuracy in daily newspaper
requires the reading and correction OF
two proofs and even then an editor
who has not become casehdrttene6 by
long endurance, will often be shocked
at the transformation of sense into non
sense, or the numbering of one of his
happiest conceits, or the plucking of the
point from one his neatest paragraphs,
by a typographical 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 q volume of ordinary size to
contain page upon page OF errata at the
close. One of the most remarkable
instances of this kind was the curious
treatise of Edward Leigh on Rebel
lion and Learning" published in 1856.
At the close Of the work were three
folio pages of corrections in very min.
ute type. 1t is singular fact that the
edition of the Latin Vulgate by Pope
Sixtus ", although carefully superin-
tended, sheet by sheet, by His Holt
ness, has ever remained without riv
al in typographical inaccuracy. Still
more curious was the fact that the Pope,
in the plenitude of his pontitical infalli-
bility prefixed to the first volume bull
of accommodation against any and
every printer who, in reprinting the
work, should ever make any alterations
in the text. Among instances of typo
graphical error 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 prin-
ting, came upon the name of Hecote,
one of the lady divinities of the lower
world, occurring in line like this: "She
shall reign the Kocate of the deepest
He'll" The boy, thinking he had dis
covered an error. ran to the master
printer, and inquired eagerly whether
there was e in cat. "Why, no, you
blockhead,' was the reply. Away
went the boy to the press-room, and |
extracted the obiectional letter. But |
fancy the horror of both poet and pub
Usher when the poem appeared with the
the deepest He'll" This, however, was
not so bad as the manner in which the
printers treated Miss Landor. In
speaking oft she says, "And when I
had written full blown roses" the mas
ty things made it full blown noses"
Benjamin Franklin once putting to
press ." 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 horror of the devout worship.
pers, the passage read: GIVE shall all
be hanged in the twinkling of an eye"
Franklin has been 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
book form or the page of a newspaper
is composed, the wonder is that the err
rors of the Press are not far more nu-
merous than they are. A single page
of one of our largest papers cannot con-
tain less than $4,000 separate pieces
ofmetal, each of which must be nicely
adjusted in its own proper place, or err
ror and confusion will ensue.