The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1867-04-05
TYPOGRAPHICAL Errors.

Mr.. w. l., STONE, of New York, lately
delivered very interesting and valuable
lecture in that city, upon the Early His
tory of Newspapers in America" In the
course of the lecture occurs the following
The New York Gazette was commenced
by Wayman. In l716 Wuyman was ar.
rested and imprisoned for u contempt OF
the Assembly, upon no other charge than
that of two typographical errors in print.
ing the speech of Sir Henry Moore, the
Governor of the Colony One Of these
errors consisted in printing the word ncper
for ecer. by reason of which the meaning
o! the sentence was reversed Nothing
can be more annoying to authors AMI pub
fishers than errors of the Press; and yet
those who are unskiled in the art of print
ing can scarcely conceive the difficulty of
avoiding them. To arrive at ordinary ac-
euracy in a daily Newspaper requires the
reading and correction of at least two
proofs and even then an editor who has
not become case. Se.haTdeaed by long endu
rance, will often be shocked at the trans.
formation of sense into nonsense, or tho
numbering of one of his happiest concets,
or the plucking of the po.nt from one Of
his neotest paragraphs, by Typographical
error. In the early stages Of the art OF
printing, errors were far more numerous
thcuin books of modern execution. 1t waH
then very common for 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 "Relgion and
Learning, published in 1856. At the close
of the work were three folio pages of cor
rection in very minute type. 1t is singular
fact that the edition OF the Latin Vulsate
by Pope Sextus ", although carefully su
perintended, sheet by sheet, 10y His Holt
ness, has ever remained without rival in
typographical inaccuracy. Still more Gu
rious was the fact that the Pope, in the
plentiude of his pontical infallb l1y pre-
fixed to the first volulre bull of ex com.
munication against any and every printer
who, in reprinting the work, should ever
make apy alterations in the text. Anon :
instai oes OF typographical errors the ! C.
turer gave the following A lad in a
printing Office, who knew more about type
setting than he did of Q Greek mytholo sy,
in looking over poem they were printing,
came upon the name of Hecdte one of the
lady divinities OF the lower world, occur.
ring in line like this "She shall reign the
Hecnte of the deepest Hell" Tue boy 4,
thinking he had discovered an error, ran to
the master printer, and inquired eagerly
whether there was + in cat "Why, no,
you blockhead," was the reply, Away
went the boy to the press-room aud ex.
tracted the objectional letter. But fancy
tie horror of both poet and publisher when
he poem appeared with the line" She
shall reign tue He Cat of the deepest He'll"
This, however was not so bad as the man.
ner in which the printers trea ed Miss
Landor. Iu speaking of il she says, Aud
when had written full blown roses" the
nasty things made il full blown noses"
| Benjamin Franklin once putting to press a
form of the Common Prayer. the letter
in the following passage dropped out un-
perceived by him. ave shall all be changed
in the twinkling of an eye" When the
book appeared, to the horror OF the devout
worshippers, the passage read I'VE 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 ana
minute pieces of metal u book form or tlie
page of newspaper is composed, the
wonder is that the errors Of the Press are
not far more numerous than they are. A
single page of one of our largest papers
cannot contain less than $4,000 separate
| p eces of metal, each of which must be
nicely adjusted in its own proper place, or
error aud confusion will ensue.