The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1893-04-27
QUEER LITERARY BLuNDERs.
Common Mistakes Which Are Made
by Grown People and Children.


There Is book just published called
Literary Blunders." The writer al
though no less a person than prof
Wheauey, might possibly have got
Iresher illustrations; but some of them
one does not remember to have heard
over two or three times. And to do
the author justice, there are few new
ones. ~"
ms book gives the story of MANY
interesting blunders, perpetuated on
account or the impossibility of calling
In q Whole edition after it has once
Deen scattered. 1t also gives some of
the common blunders of ignorance,
llKe Mr.. Gladstone dumping against
Scylla or Charybidis." ut has gener-
ally been supposed" says the author
nalVely, that Scylla only was a rock. ="
ms line satire will probably be lost
upon an average reader, who NAV think
that the learned professor did not know
himself.
one interesting perpetuated blunder,
into which most of us have probably
fallen without taking the trouble to
look about us, is the use of the word
'animalculae" in the plural. There is
no such plural, as any Latin scholar
knows at once If he stops to think.
Animalcula is the plural of animalcu-
lum, and yet one fancies that it would
require some courage to use animal
cula" in the plural in a mixed assem-
bly, without explaining, so strongly has
| this particular error taken root. The
best word to use is, of course. the En-
glish plural animalcules, but most peo-
pie cling to the incorrect Latin with
great pertinacity.
The coming of the word knises, which
was originally only a misprint for
knives, is laughable, and shows how
much value is to be set upon far
fetched derivation.
School children's blunders, as seen in
their published answers to examina-
ton papers-how such publicity can be
recOnciled with good faith, one hardly
Sees-are such serious reflections on the
teaching, that there are polite reasons
why they should be kept dark. The
recurrence of set phrases-like: "All
fish would die, and the earth be held
in an iron grip" regardless of cOnnec-
ton, shows how little attention is paid
in some schools to the clinching of the
nail which might have been driven in
at the elbow, instead of at the brain.
The absolute jargon in which dozens
of these papers are expressed shows
hopeless muddling, disgraceful to the
person who allowed such a class to ex-
list for months. 1t is easy enough to
see whether a child understands his
lesson or not, by making him express
it first in his own words. These blum
ders are sadder than they are amusing,
although most people find them de-
liciously humorous.
The mistakes in proper names fill
chapters and are interesting, names Of
inns in England notably, perverted
through ignorance Of spelling some
times of pronunciation. In our own
neighborhood there is blunder of this
sort probably. The town of Joliet,
named, as many suppose, from the
French priest of that name and Ameri-
canized, was, according to a certain
young woman's solemn observation,
christened for the heroine of one of
Shakespeare's plays. And its propin-
guilty to a town named for a hero of
that very tragedy makes such suppo-
sitiOn most, likely! Joliet was near
enough to Juliet, and if not that, why
is Romeo so nigh ?-Chicago Tribune.