Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1890-01-29
TO ERR IS HUMAN.
An Explanation OF tho Origin OF Many
Typographical Errors.

weekly paper published by the students
Of Yale College was astonished, and,
even more, scandalized, to learn that an
editorial which he had regarded with
fond prido referred to old maids who
served as pudding for a dinner party.
Turning the page he scanned another
product of his pen, thrilling romance,
and discovered that the baffled villain
had fired three 6dHets into himself.
The said editor had written in the
first article:
old maids who served as padding for q
dinner party"
In the second article he had written:
fired three bullets into himself"
1t is often asked with virtuous indig-
nation why such typographical errors as
these occur. The explanation, aside
from the total depravity of inanimate
things, can readily BIO given. In fact,
the wonder grows that such mistakes do
not far oftener occur.
Immediately before a written article
Is given to compositors to be ''set," the
copy" as the manuscript is termed by
printers, is scissored into "takes." or
portions of ten or twenty lines. Some
times slight attention is paid to the
the written page when the article is
thus cut up, and, consequently, the last
line of a take" may often end in the
middle of a sentence. When such is the
case tho "take" is said to lend even."
After a manuscript is cut up the
takes" are commonly put on a copy
hook, and indicated by letter of the
alphabet, followed by consecutive
figures For instance, the editorial
which brought such CONSERVATION to the
student-edltor was cut up into three
takes" indicated as e /, e and g.
Tho first "ended even" with the word
AS" and the second "began even"
with the words padding for dinner
party" The compositor who took from
the hook the first "tal1e" set it &C
cording to copy, while the compositor
who took the second "take" made the
error "a very common one) of MISLEADING
a for Il, and so converted ''padding" into
'pudding." The first compositor
finished his stake" quickly, and proof
Of it was Immediately read by the
proof-reader. The other compositor
was slow, and did not finish his stake"
until several minutes after compositor
No. had finished his. In the mean
time, the proof-reader having been
busted with important and pressing
statistics. had forgotten the exact end
ing of E 1. Seeing that E began with
pudding for dinner party" and be-
neV1ng that pudding was proper and de-
slrable at dinner party, he did not de-
tect the compositor's error. This error,
in fact, should have been detected by the
''copy-holder," or person who followed
with his eye the wording in the copy"
as the proof-readcr read aloud from the
proof; but in this case, the copy
holder" duplicating the mistake Of the
composition, also mistook a for H.
similar mistake was made in the
case of the scheming villain who fired
three ballets into himself"-with tho
exception that was mistaken for q.
The first take" "endcd even" with the
word three" and the next ''began
even" with "bullots." The compositor
who set the second "take" subseouent-
ly observed that he didn't have time to
make sense Of the stake" and thought
that no had done his duty in following
(as he believed ut the time). the copy"
The same editor who experienced the
two narrowing surprises referred to
subsequently wrote, in reporting an
evening address by Chaunccy M. Depew,
the sentence: "Wo do not thus sully our
arms" In reading the printed account
the next morning he saw to his horror:
I'VE do not thus Sally our arms" The
constderate compositor had mistaken
tho u in "sul]y" for an q and, to make
sense had made tho first letter in tho
word upper case" or capital.
MORAL: Write your us and your a's in
such wise that typc-setters can not mis-
take them.-N. Y. Ledger.