The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-04-25

Amusing Blunders Which Often Escape the
Proof Readers Eye.

fault is proportionately divided between the COM
positor and the proofreader although the latter
prevents many ludicrous blunder from reach
ing the pubic eye. A reporter on Bingham
ton journal, in his account of ball, intended
to say that the belle of the evening Cooked au
fat.h The composition thought he knew BETTER
and set it up so that it read that the young lady
pssssd ths a lsst Iss sad ss
item was thus published. The
effect upon the editor ard the belle of the
evening" is concealed from curious public
In description of the study of a popular
dropped by the compositor and overlooked by
the proofreader that the paper was made to
say that the windows of her room were taste
fully decorated with choice hanging pants" A
Minneapolis minister, in recent Sunday SER
mon, used the expression, ''All Europe is coming
here Again the awful compositor, who put it
into type, ''All Europe is crying hell" In a
port OF dinner given by the Bowdoin alumni,
OF Portland, Me-, recently, the menu was pub
lished in full by local paper, and under the
heading of Poisson" fish the misplacing of
period made it appear rather ridiculous Of
course. boiled chicken haiibut anchovy sauce"
was the piece dc resistance, but the newspaper
saw fit to print it, Boiled chicken. Halibut,
anchovy sauce"
IAN expression found its way into our columns
| yesterday" says Montreal paper, which we
much regret. In reference to Sir John
y Macdonads singularly mistaken remarks with
regard to Sir Richard Cartwright, the sentence
should have read: Sir John must have been in
toxicated with his trimming honors, ETC. The
two words Drumming honors' appeared in print
as cumming heroes Very recently critic of
l4lding newspaper wrote description of a
piece produced at the Thalia Theater called
die Fliedermaus,' and after an effort the COM
posltor put it into type, die Fledexmans." In
the same article reference made to the
opera of FRA Diavola," and still another
struggle by the compositor resulted in Fra
Travis" A metropolitan reporter wrote for
his journal an account of church cere-
| mony, and description given of the
appearance of the chancel during which he
used the words, ''the altar was surrounded by
supplied fathers" The compositor improved
1t, as he thought, by putting it into type. the
altar was surrounded by scorpions feathers"
An attempt was made by correspondent at
Montreal, during the excitement concerning the
defalcation and flight of Emo, who had been
seen In hotel in that city in a somewhat excis-
ed frame of mind to say that Emo walked the
corridors all night" The compositor went
wrong, the proofreader followed him in the
same direction, and the paper was made to say
that Emo walked the car-riders all night" "A
partner of Mr.. Marquand" had been transformed
into "a partner of the rear guard" "a jury Sc
lected from panel in New York; into "a jury
selected from panel in the dark" 1.-The husks
which the swine did eat" into ''the husks which
the prince did eat" ''rancor, acerbty," into
.'ranconacerbity," RED Letter Days" into RED
Setter Dogs" ETC., and the list could be extend
ed beyond the limits of newspaper space
1t was somewhat annoying TO Boston people to
have their city alluded to- in q recent work on
Dickens, as the Hut of the Universe" and also
to readers anywhere, and particularly the author
when he wrote Prisoner of Chillon," to have it
appear "Posoner of Children II am
Engishman first, and am Catholic always"
were the words written in an account of an ad-
dress delivered by a gentleman in the city of
New Y ork on certain occasion. By the Subst-
tuition of rather mild profane word. the capital
~ having been somewhat like written 3D."
the compositor formed a sentence which was not
passed by the proof-reader, and the community
was not proportionately shocked. TIE blasting
of rocks in the upper part of the city
noyed the residents of the neighborhood good
deal, and an appeal was made to the news
papers. A reporter addressed, in the course
of an article she subject, the following appeal
to the commissioners: Cannot something be
done to prevent the careless and reckless blast
ing In the vicinity of Central ParkW The sub
joined beautifully complicated sentence the
product of the compositors brain: Cannot
something be done to prevent the camels and
sheep from bleating in the vicinity of Central
Parkw The subject of tontine insurance has
been given much prominence in the newspapers
lately. and to some compositors the word does
not seem to be a familiar one. ''Towline" in
surance and "routine" insurance make their ap-
pearance occasionally on the proof-sheets. A
Western congressman of some prominence,
whose name. we believe goes into the small
capital, independent, collection of names
sional votes, wrote an article for his local
paper in which narrowing sentence was round
ed off with the words, 1.-The dwarfed and bag
gard children of the poor The compositor put
it into shape thus, .The dooryard and hog,fed
children of the poor" misplaced punctuation
mark sometimes alters the sense OF printed
sentence New Haven paper recently found
it necessary to explain at some length why a
comma went astray. The sentence was printed
as follows: However much the Postmaster
general may disappoint the multitude. the place
seeker, she will command the approval of the
general public" OF course the words place
seeker, sne,' should have read place seekers,
he." the mistake arising from the transposition
of the comma and the letter ''s,' but the editor
felt it incumbent upon him to explain, as a.
sharp-eyed reader had written to inquire if that
paper considered Postmaster general Villas an
old woman.
In transmitting over the wires to newspaper
a long account OF the arrest in Montreal of a
counterfeiter, telegraph operator encountered
in the correspondents written story the slang
phrase showing the queer" His education had
been neglected, no doubt, in the direction of
slang, or the manuscript was very bad for the
operator at the New York end of the wire heard
licked out on his instrument that the prisoner
had been arrested for shaving the Queen" A
dramatic critic whose penmanship was wretched
wrote criticism for the comic opera "Girofe
Giroha." and was considerably agitated on find
ing In the proof at stated inveryals 'Snif1e-
Snafie." In long article headed tsMen of
Letters giving an account of coiapoSitorS and
their peculiarities, Boston journal remarked
sBad manuscript is fruitful source of annoy
ance and loss to the compositor, and is repon-
sble for as many errors as anything else. Still.
the compostor can occasionally exhibit strik-
ing instance of misdirected genius even with
printed copy or faultless manuscript. If he
should happen to be interested in a conversation
not even the fact of printed copy can save him
from introducing it in the type One of the intel
ligent compositors' of a daily, more intent on a
conversation than his duty, produced the as
founding police item that Samuel Jones was ar
rested for being drunk at the corner of Shaw
NUT avenue and Constantnople;' an
other, eagerly discussing the drama, made
'shepherdless sheep appear as Shakspeares
sheep Sheer ignorance, though that is not a
common fault, made one fresh from the rural
districts speak of Prince Beeswax and his pol
icy instead of Prince Bismarck. When time
y = la.a l.