Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-12-12

and bobtails of creation into ou1
Order,9 and which was so penned
that the compositor was really jus.
titled in calling ia 10 and send
ing in a proof sheet with: We are
nO'0 taking the rag-tags and bob
tails of creation into our Orderp a
piece of news which would certainly
have astonished the Grangers at
large, as well as the particular cor
respondent.
We noticed in Moore's RuraI
Nea0 Yorker, an account of the no.
BILE conduct of Newfoundland dog,
which bravely plunged, to rescue a
drowning person, "frOm bluff fully
fifteen feet out of the water" 1t
would be hard to say whether the
compositor was to blame for his evil
dent servatism in the matter of fig
ures, for probably the 'copy" was
here only conundrum.
Punctuation is a matter for which
the compOsitor and proof reader are
responsible; yet, in some cases, the
fault, if there be one, should be at
tributed to the writer. The import
ance of correct punctuation was
strongly illustrated, recently at a
meeting of the Ways and Means
Committee, when it was shown that
a comma in one place was worth $2,-
100000. In the tariff bill which
went into effect Aug. l, 1872, the
free list was extended by the addi-
ton of several hundred articles
Among the number added were
''fruit plants, tropical and semi-trop-
ical," for the purpose of propoga-
tion and cultivation. In engrossing
the bill, or in the process of copy
ing it for official printing, a comma
was inserted after ''fruit," and all
fruit was thereby placed upon the
free list. The custom officers how
ever, not noticing the change, con-
Iinued to collect duties on fruit un-
til the error was discovered. The
Ways and Means Committee report
ed bill to remove the comma, IN
accordance with intent of the law
of 1872. The amount of tax illegally
collected is not far from 100000.
The comma, like the tongue, is
little thing, and like it will make
nonsense, just according as it is
used. Take, for instance, the old
nursery rhyme. With the commas
misplaced, it is so nonsensical that
it needs commentary to explain 1t:
Every lady in the land
Has twenty nails on each hand,
Five and twenty on hands and feet
This is true without deceit.
After the position of the commas and
the meaning is clear
Every lady in the land
Has twenty nails, on each hand
Five, and twenty on hands and feet /;
This is true without deceit
The omission of a comma has fire.
quently given a very awkward turn
to a sentence. We remember an
epitaph which suffered severely
from such an oversight. It ran
pretty much as follows: Erected
to the memory of John Phillips,
accidentally shot as a mark of afec-
tion by his brother"
A printer meddling with verdict
Of a Coroner's jury, struck out a
comma after the word "apoplexy,"
making it read thus S'EDecease
came TO his death by excessive
drinking, producing apOplexy In the
minds of the jury"
A correspondent introduces a
piece of poetry to the editor of an
American newspaper in these words:
''The following lines were written
fifty years ago by one who has for
many years slept in his grave mere
lE for his amusement" A comma
at grave" would have rendered
the sentence, at all events, compre-
hensihie, though nothing would
efface its absurd diction.