Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1884-12-18
Printers Brrore.

As class, the manipulators Of type may
be truthfully called the best land worst)
abused men in the world, and with sufficieat
reason. Very few outside Of the trade know
the difficulties under which they labor, or
have q faint conception OF the skill, care
and patience required. Absolute correct.
ness is prime essential to secure public APP
probation. and how very little is done ia
the way of assistance! Copy properly pre-
pared is great desideratum and rarely re-
ceived. That which is called good ia oftsn
the very reverse. II may be fair 10 the eye
and yet blind to the sense. The patron
does not know exactly what he needs. II
he has any ideas upon the subject they may
he perverted ones, and the little smattcrins
he has of the art tends to lead him astrsy
and demand impossibilities. His judgment
has not been trained in the matter of letters.
He knows nothing of justification except
that he believes he has il in the largest
sense TO give the printer particular fits
whenever an error is found. Why Six-line
Plea and Noupsrel cannot be made to
chime like notes of music is beyond his
ideas of the eternal fitness ofinaninate mat
ter. According to his views, il is the most
simple of undertakings to set, makeup and
work of hundred pages more or less, in
the most unreasonably short space OF time.
Before pouring out the vials of their wrath
upon the head of the printer, IL might be
well for men to pause and consider how
much he is TO blame. Somewhere. in our
desultory reading, we have met with the
statement that any old piece of mosaic work
containing few hundred pieces, is exalted
to the skies and pronounced wonderful. IL
required patience. no doubt, probably taste
and study, but carrying out the drft OF the
article read) how very little in comparison
to the tens and hundreds Of thousands of
still more slender and minute particles
the printer is required to handle TO make
up paper OF book. Take solid page
of the CaJinet az an example IL con-
tains $1,000 ems or shout 81 900 pieces.
This is greatly more than any mosaic known,
and they had to be placed without any chis-
cling or sand-papcring, As could be done
in the delicate work of table. chair or pic
ture. Taking this as basis, calculation is
easy AS TO the amount of type compositor
handles during his hours of daily labor in
distributing and setting. Easy 1t is TO con-
ceive how letter or space may be dropped,
a word spelled incorrectly, point b. wrong,
how errors will creep in despite of all care
and the generous public bo outraged At
the gross carclessncss and stupidity Of the
printer"
Errors do occur, We must admit. but they
are fabulously uncommon when compared
10 the chances Of their being made. snd
books and papers are monuments to the cor
rectness Of the craft, their swiitness and cer-
tainty Of touch, education and never cea-inG
vigilance. We write not thus for the craft
they practically know the truth o: our
words but we do write for the multi
tude of outsiders, and with tho hope that
the simple illustrations given may open
their eyes to the great injustice done 10
those who with their noses in the space
box" toll away their lives for the beDeht OF
the world at arge.-IriHfers' CdJinSf.