Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-07-25
BLUNDERS In PRINT.
Some Remarkable Specimens,
All tho Year Round.

&A abbAAA bA0hNS oRPColOA III VIC |
parliamentary report of the Daily
Telegraph on the occasion of Mr..
Gladstone's resolutions on the Eastern
policy of Lord Beaconsfeld's govern
ment. There a right honorable gen.
tleman was represented as accounting
for the action of another member oil
the House by the statement that he
had sat at the feet Of the Gamebird
Of Birmingham an allusion to his
perception which was not so intelligi-
BILE as the rendering of other journals,
the Gamaliel Of Birmingham" Per.
haps Irish reporters, owing to the
recognized tendency OF the soil and
climate, are privileged in matters Of
this kind.
One of them in describing the result
of a recent conflict between the police
and the people in which firearms were
used, writes: I'm the Union Infrmary
lies John Smith with his shattered Lex,
which was amputated on Tuesday last. u
Ordinary mortals might have imagined
that the surgeon would have caused
the shattered member to be removed
from the immediate vicinity of the
crippled patient. That Ireland has a
strict monopoly of this class of compo-
sition can hardly be sustained if this
be correctly credited to a Glasgow
papers account Of a shipping disaster:
"The captain swan ashore, as did also
the stewardess. She was insured for
$4,000 pounds, and carried 200 tons of
pig iron"
But less ephemeral publications than
newspapers have occasionally fur.
nished instances Of ludierous ambigu
ity. Morse's old geography, for ox-
ample, pointed out an architectural
peculiarly of an extraordinary charac-
ter when it informed the rising
generation Of its time that a certain
town contained 400 houses and 1000
inhabitants all standing with their
gable ends to the street." A few
months ago an Irish county journal in
reporting the remarks Of the County
Court Judge, who condoled with the
family of a recently deceased solicitor,
actually ascribed to His Honor the
expression that he "sympathized with
his depraved wife and family which
a rival print dwelt on with satisfac-
ton rs a melancholy instance
of advancing imbecility." His
tory does not record whether
this modification was due to
the unconscious ingenuity OF the re
porter or printer. Sometimes, how
ever, the mistakes which occur are so
clearly the work Of the compositor
that a denial will not avail, and he
will then, too often justly, pass on the
blame to the abominable caligraphy
of the writer.
If a certain pressman, for instance,
had written a "copperplate" hand a
daily paper in its obituary notice of a
distinguished continental character,
referring to the time at which the
subject Of the notice left his alma
mater, would not have infcgmSd i,s
readers that at the sge sf pipsteen iae
left his alum Water.' Nor, under
similar circumstances, would a Lon
don daily, in an advertisement Of the
recent International Temperance Ex.
hibition at the Agricultural Hall.
have informed the public that BY a
visit to the tcetotal show they could
see strong drinks from foreign coun.
tries" instead of strange drinks
etc. IL is. on the other hand oman IN
questicn whether the best cali.
graphy ever produced would have
prevented reverend gentle
man, who, in a sermon at
CsrdiR spoke Of women clothed with
sanolity," being reported, owing to an
unfortunate transportation of a single
letter, as abiding to women clothed
with "scantity," 4 young member of
the British House Of Representatives,
much addicted to the use Of inflated
diction, expressed at = meeting of his
constituents a wish that he had a
window in bis bosom, that they might
see the working Of bis heart. Among
other blunders which a hastily COM
posed report Of his address contained,
was the substitution Of widow" soE
window"
Nowhere are more ludfcrous blum
ders 10 DO with than in the compost
tions Of advertisers, due, no doubt, in
some measure, to the restraint imposed
by limited space, and it is scarcely
possible to look through the columns
|, devoted TO these in any of the princi-
! pal daily papers without meeting nu-
merous instances of the inability Of
many persons to state exactly what
they wish to announce, and Of very
J loose use Of words and phrases, fire.
quently giving rise to amusing ambig-
uity. Thus the Times announced.
1.-Two sisters want washing" and the
tobacco manufacturers ideas Of
I public %propriety T evidenced
by his advertisement, Twenty
0 boys wanted to strip" We are
/. aware, too, Of the existence Of the in
( FAINT terrible for whom was required