Tombstone epitaph., 1890-02-15
TO ERR IS HUMAN.
An Explanation of the Origin of Man,
 Typographical Errors.


 Typographical Errors.
 Some years ago an editor of a bi- 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 pride referred to old maids who served as pudding for dinner party. Turning the page he scanned another product of his pen, thrilling romance, and discovered that the baff1ed villain had fired three bullets into himself
 The said editor had written in the first article:
 @old maids who served as padding for . dinner party"
 In the second article he had written:
 "- fired three bullets into himself"
 It is often asked with virtuous indig- nation why such typographical errors as these occur. The explanation, asids from the total deprayity of inanimase things, can readily be given. In fact, the wonder grows that such mistakes do not far oftener occur.
 Immediately before 6 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 paragraphing and the punctuation of the written page when the article is thus cut up, and, consequently, the last line of "take" may often end in the middle of sentence. When such is the case the "take" is said to lend even."
 After 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 consternation to the student-ed1tor was cut up into three takes" indicated as E 1, E 9 and E 8. The first tended 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 "take" set it ac- cording to copy, while the compositor who took the second ''take" made the error Ia very common one) of mistaking for q, and so converted padding into padding" The first compositor finished his ''take" quickly, and proof of it was immediately read by the proof-reader. The other compositor was slow, and did not finish his ''take'' until several minutes after compositor No. had finished his. In the mean time, the proof-reader, having been busied with important and pressing statistics, had forgotten the exact end ing of B 1. Seeing that E began with pudding for dinner party" and be- sirable at dinner party, he did not de- tect the competitors 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-reader read aloud from the proof; but in this case, the ''copy- holder" duplicating the mistake of the compositor, also mistook q for L.
 A similar mistake was made in the case of the scheming villain who fired three bdllets. into himself'-with the exception that was mistaken for q. The first ''take" tended even" with the word "three," and the next began even" with Outlets" The compositor who set the second 'stake" subsequent ly observed that he didn't have time to make sense of the "take," and thought that he had done his duty in following (as he believed at the time) the ''copy."
 The same editor who experienced the two narrowing surprises referred to subsequently, wrote, in reporting an evening address by Chauncey M. Depew, the sentence: "We do not thus sully our arms" In reading the printed account the next morning he saw to his horror: ''We do not thus Sally our arms" The considerate compositor had mistaken the u in ''sully" for an and, to make sense, had made the first letter in the word ''upper case," or a capital.
 MORAL: Write your us and your as in such wise that type-setters can not mis- take them.-N. Y. Ledger.