Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1875-05-20

had the entree into society, she conde.
sccnded to treat her upon more equal
terms but she never forgot the humilia-
tion or the lesson of that days defeat
Youths Companion.
The Intelligent Compositor.
Messrs. Geo. P. Rower L Co.:
. A great deal, has of late, been said,
written and printed about the Intelligent
Compositor." Frequently articles of some
considerable length, embodying a large
number of typographical and ungram.
matical errors, besides. glaring absurdi-
ties, have been collected and put together
by some industrious hands, and yivea to
these much.abused typestickcrs. No
sooner does an article appear in one pa
per under that head, than it is copied, all
over the land, by the other papers, thus
leading the public to infer that nearly all
the compositors must be blockheads and
numbskulls, and cannot understand a
1.-THE of their business.
There is not shadow Of doubt that
the pickers-up of type are as prone to
commit errors as any one else; and it is
! somewhat remarkable that many Of them
make so few, when it is taken into con
sideration that they. have to pick up so
many thousand separate letters cacl, day
and week. Did the uninitiated understand.
even in small degree, the intricacies of
composing room, they would marvel at
the correctness Of their work.
1t is noticeable fact-and the state
ment can be verefed-that manuscript is
often placed in the hands Of co;npcsltors
that cannot he deciphcred by the writer's
themselves. Some of it is so bad that one
a spider had fallen into an ink bottle, ex
trieated himself, and crawled over the pa
per to rid himself of the inky fluid. With
such chirography before him, is it strange
that mistakes occur? The wonder is that
there is not more of them.
Now, instead of these wiseacres making
a butt Of the Intelligent compositor, it GER
tainly would be more creditable TO them
TO give the printer credit for his intelli,
gcnce and lcaring' How would some OF
them like to see their etfnsions in print
exactly as they put it down on paper
They, doubtless, would be horrifcd, and
deny the paternity of their offspring. And
how may, pray-and smart ones. too-un
, dcrstand punctuation, capitalization, spell
ling, and even constructing their senten
ces by the rules Of grammar? Very few
They have to rely solely on the printer
. for the medicine, as it were, that they give
to their articles to make them appear in
, convalesccnt state before discerning an(
! discriminating community. 1t would bt
r, amusing and laughab]e, truly, to prin
/ verbatim the manuscript of some Of tn
/. carpers who find fault with the inte,ligen
, compo>itor, because a few mistakes occ;
g sionaliy occur. Let those, who live i!
r glass houses, throw no stones, for TIE,
J. may possibly rebound and destroy thei
|, own brittle structure.
Y The casual reader of newspapers an,
S magazines. does not stop to cgi;;cise
o typnyraphica! mistake. 1t is only thos
T. who SO assiduously find fault with other
that make the most blunders tllemselve:
e for the very purpose Of shielding thei
It own shortcomings. The fact is patent
II that watever particular failing or weak
a ness person has, they imagine every on
Il to be affected with the same malady ali
disorder. An inebriated man believes thu
r. every man he meets is in the same cond
;, full Of errors and mistakes thcmselve:
suppose the intelligent compositor to b
8 laboring under the same fatality.
1t is positively true-and none kno"
q it so we'll as the so.called "Inteliiger
Compositor' many writers, an
u even /, any reporters and editors know les
l. about punctuation, capitalization an
even spelling than q scl1ool-boy. S., tof
t, their manuscript would compare favorab bl
2, with Chinese hiercglyphics; in fact, i
:. some cases, the latter is as plain to Il,
T. ccmpositor IS the former, and as interes
Il ing. With snch monstroslty before then
e these much-abuscd typos are expe cted I
h put it in type free ct errors and mistakes
n and they do it; yes, and they do it wei
n They punctuate it, capitalize it and atl
and drop words, as occasion may require
It they often reconstruct whole sentence
h To be plain, they make it grar,matic;
~ and readable 50 that when the writer rea(
$ it in print, he scarcely recognizes it as Ii
.r own.
le Compositors make mistakes, and som
\; times g!aring ones too. And who dot
,r not? Are these critics infallable then
le selves? One would judge so from til
manner in which they so industrious!
m collect the errers they find in newspaper
a and put them before the public under Il
er spurious title Of The Intelligent Con
,e positoi> Again" Better look at home b
- fore going elsewhere to find flaws in OF
ers. Such meanderings and wandering
to generally recoil. Doubtless the intelige;
ad compositor is as intelligent and smart: IN
e- even more so, than those who set in jud
H. ment against him, and in many respec
~ more than their peers.
W. But am taking up too much Of yo'
valuable space, and must stop. The abo'
or was indited as defence, in small wa
or of the much abused "intclligent compo:
to tor" knowing you are ever ready to pu
,f. lish both sides Of story.-W. c., inAmel
of can Newspaper Reporter.
HllnOr and Sarcasm.
Al 1t is not everyb body who knows w|le
H. to joke, OF when, or how; and whoever
srr fx>e M