Mountain Home bulletin. (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1888-1889, 1889-05-25
TYPOGRAPHICAL sUlLa.


Master Productions OF the Imte1tlIo0t
Compositor and Wise proof-ssesder.
The machine printer" or ''black-
smith" is one of the chief obstacles
with which writer's have to contend.
He 1t Is who sets up whatever the copy
looks like to him, regardless as to
whether it makes sense or not. Such
a one it was who set up ''Gambetta"
as II am better" and made a heading
intended for Bridge carried away by
a drive OF logs" read Bridge carried
away by drove OF hogs" Another
OF this ilk made an advertisement
no cross, no crown" appear as ''The
Christian Dream; no cows, no cream"
A reporter OF Chicago paper once
mentioned an intelligent craftsman as
"a thinking tailor" but the machine
printer who got the take made him
appear as ''thieving tailor" The
proof-reader was Of course responsible
for the error, but the vengeance OF the
irate tailor was visited upon the I'M
fortunate reporter.
Another Chicago writer described
an exquisite as one .whose manners
would adorn drawing-room," but the
unthinking compositor made it read.
"whose manners would alarm q drown
ing man."
The Cincinnati Enquirer once created
a genNine sensation by stating. in dis
play type, that gang OF American
counterfeiters had been shaving the
queen" when SHOWING the queer"
was evidently what was intended.
One of the worst instances Of mis-
prints caused by bad chirography was
where the heading IA Honeymoon cut
short was printed in full-face as IA
Hungarian cut-throat."
Another equally disagreeable blum
der, to the parties interested, was
where distinguished traveller was re-
ported as having recently died 'in the
richness of SIM" The paper. however,
apologized for this candid admission
on the following day. by saying that
what the editor intended to write was
s.the interior OF Asia"
Perhaps no newspaper writer wa
ever more disturbed by triae than
was the society reporter who. in de-
scribing the belle OF recent fashiona.
BILE party, intended to say ''she looked
au fait." but found that an unfeeline
blacksmith had made it, 'she looked
all feet."
or all editorial writer's, Horace
Greeley was most noted for illegiblt
copy On one occasion the ''moderu
, Franklin penned something abou
Suburban journalism advancing" bu
the type setter thinking it one Of hi
famous agricultural articles. launched
, out wildly with the words, "Superl
Jerusalem artichokes."
1t is somewhat singular how Otter
the omission of single seemingly in
3 significant letter will alter the entir
( meaning of sentence. For instance
: several errors are recorded where tn
: letter m has been omitted from tn
, word "window," invariably placing
8 a "widow" in some embarrassing posi-
Q ton; as where, on the occasion OF
= street pageant a gentleman unwittingl
. | auVefulScu -SeNcFtl WluOWS lOi lAliCs
t and the even worse blunder, in a re
o ligious paper, which gratefully recorde
D the fact that "Mr - had very ger
o erously placed stained glass wido'
It in the church at -
n Errors of substitution are usuall'
h caused by bad distribution, or by lei
a tiers dropping into an adjoining box i
an over-full case of type. That tn
. letters co. and ''a.o are so frequentl
y transposed is due to the fact that thes
: letters are kept in adjoining boxes
e and the same rule holds good with RI
II gard to other vowels and most FRI
A, quently used letters. An error OF thi
a. description recently occurred in a
,t article by the present writer, where a
alusion to the time-honored tune
!. yankee Doodle" was printed
u .Yankee Boodle." The proof-read'
. who allowed this error to pass ev
81 IDENTIFY hailed from Canada and col
j. sidered the new title rs more sugge
r. tive and appropriate to the prese
il day.-N. Y. Epoch.