The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1881-07-28
A UsefuI Little Book

/
Punctuation. and other Typographical Mot
terS. for The Use Of Printers, Authors,
Teachers, and Scholars. BY MARSHALL
| r. BIGELOw, CoTector at the University
| Press. Boston: LEE a. SHEPARD. New
York: CHARLES T. DLLINGHAM. 1881.
This is. we think, the best book OF the
sort we ever saw, as it ought to be, seeing
that il comes from Harvard University.
The author has bad an experience OF nearly
fifty years IS a practical printer; has read
prooi sheets at TIE University Press for more
than thirty years; aud has had other adj
vanlages which assisted in qualifying BIN
for performing well the task he undertook
in writing this book. II is very small
volume-onlY 1l2 pages; but it contains
mucb instruction for the classes for whom
il was written.
There are thirteen pages devoted to in
structIOns as TO the use OF the comma. we
end in the fest ten pages not direction to
which we can take exception. Here Is,
however. disticb OF doubtful punctuation
" Some mute, insiorious Milton here NAV rest,
some Cromwell, gultless of his c)un rvs biooc''
Either the comma after CROMWELL
ought TO be omitted. or the first line should
end with a semicolon. A. the sentence
stands. il leaves II doubtful whether MILTON
was or was not "guiltless OF his country's
blood"
We quote again:
"Shaw, c. j. delivered the opinion OF
the court" "Vol. |. p. 145, mol Vol. l.,
p. 49,"
We won't say that the punctuation is
wrong. We merely call attention to it.
We have found nothing else to object TO
in all that is said as to the other marks Of
punctuation.
AS to the possessive case, he lays down
the following rule, which we commend to
ttbe attention OF one OF our religious week.
lies:
"All nouns in the singular number,
whether proper names OrnOt, and all nouns
in the plural ending with any other letter
than s, form the pOssesSlYe by the addition
OF the apOstrOphe and the letter $; as,
mans, mems, chiid'S, Chiidren'S, CbdrleS'S,
FeliJ'S, H1StingS'S, ,oitReSS'S, CONTESTS"
eve should not think OF saying, In the
reason for saying, THE Charles times"
We can't agree with Mr.. BIGELOw a; to
not compromising such words as "good-
will" Goodwill is noun to all Intents
and purposes. II il were not, another ad-
Elective could be connected with it by con-
Junction without destroying either the Ell.
phOpy or the sense OF the sentence; thus
we could say, "lt is a valuable and good
will" But that won't do. We are com.
peiled TO say rather, /" IL is a valuable good
WILL" This test proves that Mr.. BIGEtOw is
wrong as to all similar wOrds-that is, adiec-
tives which have lost their descriptive
sense and become part OF the nouns they
once described. We can say ga good
grand Jury" but not, ga good and grand
jury" Why not? The reason is given
above.
We quote the following as correct:
Meantime, meonIohile, d,ohae, as ad
verbs, are made single words; but ia the
phrases, In the mean time,' in the mean
while after WHILE they should be
separated"
Page 81, first line, without is used as {
conjunction. Such use Of il is hardly al
lOwabe in anybody; surely not in Har
ward man. Even WEBSTER discounlenance,
; such use of - loithOut."
As to dividing words, we have never
been able TO see why they should not be di
yided anywhere without regard to sylables
That will be tue fashion before many years,
we predict. 1t will save the printers a vas
amount OF trouble.
MIR. BIGELOw is a true Yankee. He cam
: get it into his head that long vOwes may
become short ones, even in related words
The spelling OF "na,ion" and "ratiOn ,
has led New England into the pronuncia
ton OF nG/-tional for national and rd/tIona
for rational II those words had been writ
ten "nashuu " and "rashun" the correc
pronunciation Of "ndSh.unal " and crash
unal" would have followed. Nobody find
any difficulty in changing "de>ier" tC
difference" "re/fer" TO Conference
"pre/cede TO precedent" Qbe noun
not the adiec,iye) And nobody ought t.
find any difficulty in pronouncing "pred/
eeessor,' product" progress" or any
other similar words, as we have writer
three Of them. 1t is an offence in Mr.. BIGE
; Low to countenance the heresy that because
the vowel is long 10 one word it must ne
cessariIy be longin all kindred words.
TAese, however, are but slight defects
The book Is an excellent one.
For sale by j. WI RANDOLPH a. ENGLISH
- N