Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-11-22
Anecdotes of Book.Maktux

A curious list of translators' mistakes
or mistakes made in translation, might
be made out. Thus the Able yiel,
writing of Canterbury, and misled by
the word "canon," stated the cathedral
was surrounded by artillery. The
primate of all England was ap-
parently in his eyes a military ecclesi-
astic, like the ancient Nladika of Mon
tenegro. GuiZot, in his Life and
Times of Shakespeare" has, writing In
English, expressed a hope that Shakes
peare might be more and more "tra-
ducedn for the benefit of the French.
Authors mistakes, however, belong
only indirectly to the subject of book
making; nor is it always wise to point
them out. Indeed-as a famous ''prin-
ter's reader" once remarked IN poem
on the subject of his own occupation,
called "Corrector Typographicus"-tO
the man who corrects the errors of
another (and who ever thinks of cor
recting his own y
',Plus salts mvidie gloria nuIla manet.''
Erroneous opinions cannot always be
described as mistakes; though that
young man may fairly to be said to
have committed blunder who. having
stated before a board of examiners that
Charlemagne lived 500 years before
Christ, and being asked whether he did
not mean latter Christ persisted in his
original statement, adding: 81 am sorry
TO disagree with you, but that is my
opinion" Many authors cause GER
tain amount of confusion to their ad-
mirers by changing their opinions
their opinions properly so-called. Num-
bers of writers have begun as Revolu-
tionists to end as Conservatives. Victor
Hugo, however, who for the last
twenty eight wears has been an ardent
Republican, gained his first reputation
as a Legitimist. Apart from errors
made by themselves, good many au-
thors have been the cause of errors,
sometimes very droll ones, made by
others. Guarino's Pastor Fido" has
been included in a catalogue of religi-
ous books; we have the authority of
Mr.. Hill Burton for stating that Mr..
Ruskin's "NOtes on the Construction of
Sheepfoldsn was much asked for
among muirlandfarmers,a and that great
disappointment was caused by their
discovery of the real nature of the
work; Miss Edgeworth has herself told
how her Essay on Irish Bulls was
ordered by an agricultural association;
Mr.. Swinburne's Under the Micro
scope was classed by German pub
fishers as a scientific work, and Henri
Murger's "Scenes de la Vie de BOheme'
is reported to have had a corner given
to it by Herr Won Sybel in his "HistOr-
ische Monatsschrift.' Probably index
makers have shown themselves quite
as ingenious in misapprehendine their
authors intentions as Scatalogue-makers
themselves. The compiler of some
annual Record" is said TO have been
much annoyed at finding that in his in
dex, which he had intrusted to other
hands, no reference was made TO Par
hamentary proceedings. SO at least 1t
it seemed until at last under the head
of Public Meetings" he discovered
Meeting of Parliament" 4 very in-
dustrious index-maker, who letnothlng
escape him except now and then the
main subject of the sentence he was
dealing with, made in his index the
following entry: GREATNESS of Mind,
instance off, This correspOnded with
passage in the body of the work which
related how a certain Judge had de-
clared that he had "a great mind to
send the accused to prison without the
option of a tine.n Errors arising from
hasty and inconsiderate cutting down
are to be met with, not in books (fOr an
author always cuts himself down with
remarkable tenderness,) but i'll care
lessly edited newspapers. a barrister
of my acquaintance was much lrritated
at seeing it stated one morning In
London journal that he had defended a
certain person, '.who was accordingly
convicted" The chief causes of the
mans conviction, apart from the man
ner in which his counsel had defended
him, were not given. In connection
with eccentric journalism a story is told
of a reporter, in the days when descrip-
tive reporting had not been invented,
who, being instructed to report an
eclipse of the sun, and finding that no
speeches were delivered on the Occa-
sion. wrote, in stereotyped phrase, that
''the proceedings were entirely without
public interest A certain admiration
must be felt for that inexperienced re-
porter who, being sent to the Divorce
Court, caused much dissatisfaction in
the office by merely writing the plain
truth that ''the evidence was unfit for
publication. "-MdcmiIIdn's Mdga-ine.