The Portland daily press., 1885-07-25
HUMoRs OF THE TYPE.
The Funny Part the composItor plays
In the journalism Of To-day.
IN. X. Times.)

IN. X. Times)
Manifold are the vicissitudes of the manu-
script Of newspaper writer's. Many OF the
| errors revealed in cold type are extremely
comic. The fault is proportionately divided
between the compositor and the proof-reader,
although the latter prevents many ludi
erous blunder from reaching the public eye.
A reporter on Binghamton journal, in his
account of ball, intended to say that the
belle of the evening "looked au fait." The
compositor thought he knew better and set
it up so that it read that the young lady
looked "all feet" The proof-reader passed
this awful 'bulP' and the item was thus pub
lished. The effect upon the editor and "the
belle of the evening" is concealed from a Gu
rious public. In description of the study
of popular authoress very important little
'P' was dropped by the composltor and over
looked by the proof-reader, so that the paper
was made to say that the windows of her
room were ''tastefully decorated with choice
hanging pants" A Minneapolis minister.
in a recent Sunday sermon, used the express
sion IAN Europe is coming here" Again the
awful compositor, who put it into type, can
Europe is crying hell" In a report 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
a period made it appear rather ridiculous. OF
course, boiled chicken halibut, anchovy
sauce" was the piece de resistance. but the
newspaper saw fit to print it BOILED chicken.
Halbut, anchovy sance."
San expression found its way into our col
(which we much regret. In our reference !,
to Sir John Macdonald's singularly mistaken
remarks with regard to Sir Richard Cart
wright, the sentence should have read: Sir
John must have been intoxicated with his
brimming honors, &c. The two words
'brimming honors appeared in print as bum
ming heroes. Very recently critic Of
leading newspaper wrote description of
piece produced at the Thalia Theatre, called
Die Fledermaus," and after an effort the
compositor put it into type, die Fiedex-
mans" In the same article reference was
made to the opera of Era Diavolo," and
still another struggle by the compositor re-
suited in ERA Travis" A metropolitan re-
porter wrote for his journal an account of
church ceremony, and description was Civ
en- of the appearance of the chaneel. during
which he used the words, ''the altar was sur
rounded by surpliced fathers" The c0mpos-
itOr improved it, as he thought, by putting 1t
into type, the altar was surrounded by Scor-
pions' feathers" An attempt was made by
a correspondent in Montreal during the ex-
citement concerning the defalcation and
flight of Emo, who had been seen in a hotel
in that city in somewhat excited frame Of
mind, to say that Emo walked the corridors
all night" The compositOr went wrong, the
proof-reader followed in the same direction,
fho 10 hat Inc.
walked the car-riders all night" "a partner
Of Mr.. Marquand' has been transformed into
"a partner of the rear guard" "a jury se-
leeted from panel in New York, into "a
jury selected from panel in the dark" the
husks which the swine did eat into ''the
husks which the Prince did eat;' "rancOr,
acerbity," into ''raneonacerbity," RED Let
ter Days" into ''red setter dogs" &C., and
the list could be extended beyond the limits
OF newspaper space.
1t was somewhat annoying to Boston peo-
pie to have their city alluded to, in a recent
work on Dickens, as the Hut of the Uni
verse, and also to readers anywhere, and
particularly the author, when he wrote
Prisoner of Chillon," to have it appear
''P0iSoner of Children" Il am an English
man first and am Catholic always" were
the words written in an account of an ad-
dress delivered by gentleman in the city Of
New York on a certain occasion. By the
substitution of a rather mild profane word,
the capital having been somewhat like
written d, the compositor formed sentence
which was not passed by the proof reader,
and the community was not proportionately
shocked The blasting of rocks in a part Of
the city annoyed the residents Of the neigh
b0rhoOd good deal, and an appeal was made
to the newspapers. A reporter addressed in
the course of an article ON the subject the
following appeal Ito the commissioners: Can
not something be done to prevent the care
less and reckless blasting in the vicinity of
Central Park?" The subjoined beautifully
complicated sentence was the product of the
cOmpositOr's brain: Cannot something be
done to prevent the camels and sheep from
bleating in the vicinity of Central Park? ?"
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 familiar one. TOW
line" and routine" insurance make their
appearance occasionally on the proof sheets.
A Western Congressman of some prominence
whose name, we believe, goes into the small
capital or independent collection of names in
the newspaper reports of Congressional
votes, wrote an article for his local paper in
which narrowing sentence was rounded off
with the words: "The dwarfed and haggard
children of the poor" The cOmpositor put
1t into shape thus: ''The dooryard and hog
fed children of the poor" "a misplaced
punctuation mark sometimes alters the sense
OF printed sentence. A New Haven paper
recently found it necessary to explain at some
length why comma went astray. The SEN
tence was printed as follows However
much the Postmaster General may disap-
point the multitude of place seeker, she win
lie. Of course the words 'place-seeker,
she" should have read ''place-seekers, he,''
the mistake arising from the transposition Of
the comma and the letter IS" but the editor
felt it incumbent upon him to explain, as
sharp-eyed reader, had written to inquire il