Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-06-26
IT'S THE PROOF.REAOER.
A Defense of the Nfuch-Blamed "Inteul'
gent Composition"

The intelligent compositor' is the
man who Is supposed to make all the
mistakes which occur in the printing Of
newspaper, writes Dominick O'Con-
nor in the Union. Every newspaper
has one. He is the scapegoat of the
establishment. He is damned alike by
the publisher editor, contributor and
reader. He does not appear TO have
any friends, therefore it is safe TO
blame him for any blunder that may be
made, and they all do it with wonder
full unauimity.
With all Of these gentlemen, says
one the compostor has no relations.
They are at liberty TO abuse him all
they like He does not care; he knows
them not The one exception is the
proof-reader. With him the compost
tor is at war-a neyer-euding. ire
preside conflict, which began with the
first proof-rrader and will continue
until the last newspaper has gone TO
press.
But the conflict is one-sided. The
proof-reader has it all his own way.
lie has somehow won the confidence of
tor to his hearts content and the pub
lie seems to believe him. There are
two sides to every question, however
and because the compositor meekly ac-
cepts all this blame il does not follow
that it is always his due.
| well remember the night ! set up a
review in which occurred the quotation
from Gray's "Elegy:' Far from the
madding crowd" The proof-reader
marked it 'maddening ! went in to
see him about it. lie laughed at me in
a superior sort of way, and said there
was no such word as 'maddiug.n l
tried to tell him about poetic license,
but he knew As much about poetic Ii
cense a. he did about Greek Argu-
ment only made him angry, and he
loftily asked me if | wanted his situa-
ton. | beat an ignomiuiOus retreat
and went out and bumped my head
against the wall several times to
COO off, one Of my fellow-compositors
remarking wi,h hypocriucal sympathy:
You ought to know better than TO talk
Chuctaw 10 a Chinaman.N
An amusing Dlnnder-for which the
compositor received the entire blame
happened on the Press several wears
ago, in an editorial by Colonel Forney.
Like shuhjuga red rag at bull' is a
quotation which any -cEool-bov ought
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tor Or tou chronicle the death of
Bucks county statesman and wake
up ia The morning and find that be
vu, nD.u Borks Whose fault was
,h;ua HE compositor s? Byuu means
These are lust few instances which
recur TO memory at the moment In
each of them the compositor. while not
1iamelcSs, was much less at fault than
the prOof-reader This is very often
the case. The proof-reader is rarely
revised. In the hurry of preparing for
the press time is everything. Couse-
Iuenty, while the writer of an article
gets a first proof, " he seldom GETS a
revise. And right here is where the
proof-reader gets in his most deadly
work.