Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1883-05-26
UNDER WHICH, KING?

The poor compositor, upon whose shoulders
is laid every error that ink and paper give to
the eyes Of the reading public, is more often
sinned against than shining. While strenu-
ously endeavoring to do his best with single
heartedness Of purpose, he finds himself forced
to worship at two shrines, and yield allegiance
TO a throne upon which two kingly -crowned
photographers sit demanding homage. To-
day the Gar Webster says some word shall be
spelled thus and SO, and tomorrow Emperor
Worcester dictates another fashion. In this
office the one is held up as gifted with impec-
cabiity in orthography, and in that the other
is alone recognized as an ortheopist TO be
trusted. In one school of the art preservative
the printer has served an apprenticeship only
to find, when he has changed base" that he
has been storing his mind with error, and the
proof he labored to make clean is foul, and
looked upon as a proof OF incompetency.
Under such circumstances, and they sur.
round him at every turn, well may the puzzled
comp" dig at the roots Of his ambrosial
locks for an idea OF what to do, and pleadingly
question "Under what King" is he ex-
pected to serve, and how he shall decide as TO
what is or what is not right.
Either Of the W's are good enough for all
the purposes Of our polyglot language. No
one will deny that. Either of them would be
sufficiently sure guide il there was none con-
nicting. That is conceded. But to be tossed
about as a shuttlecock from one to the other,
to be the football for photographed fate to
kick, is beyond even the proverbal patience
Of the good man Job, after whom. the innocent
old grand.dame imagined one branch Of print.
ing was named.
But in this matter the printer becomes the
suffering party, and without the power to
withdraw his neck from the trap the wiseacres
have set. The learned doctors of the language
and the sapient heads Of colleges have each
issued their dogmatical DEGREES, declared one
or the other Of the kings to be right, and
against them the preference of the foreman OF
-four. weigh as feathers against lead. Yet it is
very perplexing, all the same" to be perpe-
tually doing the correct thing and finding il to
be wrong; TO be Websterian when il should be
Worcesterian, and the reverse: to be one day
under the banner of one king, and the very
next, without even so much as "by your
leave, transferred to another.
As long as each of the kingly WIS have such
fervent admirers; as long as neither are will
ing to yield; as long as no compromise is
made, there is no remedy for the evil Of which
we complain; and il matters not to the grave
LII. DIS how much or how many printers are
perplexed, OF how much drawn to the verge
Of al leas, incipient profanity. They are the
great and mighty rulers OF the language, and
he OF the type and stick but a ser. But We
de protest, and strongly, that as long as there
is not but one established and recognized
guide; as long As one Office clings TO one OF
the W's and another to the other, all the sins
OF omission shall not be charged against the
composition, and that he shall not be made the
scapegoal Of everything the advocates Of a
particular lexicon shall choose to consider as
alone right and proper.
We have the very best of authority for
asserting thai il is hard to serve two masters,
and the poor printer has been endeavoring 10
do SO Tor years, has been forced against his
will INTO the unpleasant situation; and il is no
excuse OF paiation that in the main the kingly
dictators agree, for there are plenty Of discrep.
ancies, and until one or the other shall rule
alone. the ''Jordan" OF the comp" viii indeed
be hard road to travel, and he still retain the
title Of being the bcst.abused man in the
world. - ItIaly'J Cabiao.