The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1885-08-06

Printers, Errors,

As a class, the manlpulators OF typo
may truthful,y be called the best (and
worst) abused men in the world, and
without sufficient reason. Very few
outside of the trade know the difficult
ties under which they labor or have
even a faint conception of the skill,
care and patience required. Absolute
correctness is a prime essential to se-
cure public appreciation, and how very
little is done in the way OF assistance
s.Ccpy'' properly prepared is great
desideratum and rarely received. That
which is called good" is often the very
reverse. II may be fair to the eye and
vet blind to the sense. The patron does
not know exactly what he needs. II he
has anv ideas upon the subject they
may be perverted ones, and the little
smattering he has of the art tends to
lead him astray and demand impossi-
bilities. His Judgment has not been
trained in. the matter OF letters lie
knows nothing of Justification except
that he believes he has it in the largest
sense to give the printer particular
fits'' when an error is found. Why six
line plea and nonpareil can not be made
to chime like notes of music is beyond
his ideas of eternal fitness of inanimate
matter. According to his views It is
the most simple Of undertakings to set,
make up and work off one hundred
pages, more or less, in the most un-
reasonably short space of time
Before pouring out the vials of their
wrath upon the head of the printer, it
might be well for men to pause and con-
s der how much he is to blame. Some
where 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. 1t re-
quircd patience, no doubt, probably
taste and study, but carrying out the
drift Of the article ready 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 or book.
Take solid page of the Cabinet as an
example. 1t contains some $4,000
'sems," or about $1,000 letters. This
is greatly more than any Mosaic known.
And they had to be placed without any
chiseling or sand-papering, as could be
done in the delicate work Of table, chair
or picture.
Taking this as basis. calculation is
easy rs to the amount of type COM
positor handles during his hours OF dali
ly labor in distribution and setting.
Easy it is also to conceive how such
little fragments of metal will slip out OF
place, how a letter or space may be
dropped, word spelled incorrectly, q
point be wrong, how errors will creep
in despite all care and the generous
public be outraged at the gross care
lessness and stupidity of the printers
Errors do occur, we must admit, but
they are fabulously uncommon when
compared to chances of their being
made, and books and papers are monu-
ments to the correctness of the craft,
their swiftness and certainty of touch.
education and never-ceasing vigi-
lance.
We write not thus for the craft.
They practically know the truth of our
words. But we do write for the multi
tudc of outsiders, and with the hope
that the simple illustration we have
given may open their eyes to the great
Injustice done to those who, ''with their
noses in the space box, (" toll away their
lives for the beueiit of the world at
large. Rounds Printers Cabinet.