The Progress., 1893-09-30
The journalistic Thorn.

~ ~ the brightest heaven of in
ton. and fondly anticipates the
,.ore that his emanation will ere
ate
Ia the article appear--thc print
-. have made hash OF his well-round
a 1sontences. and Pegasus falls toearth
ritb a sickcning thud.
The typographical error, while small
g.. .;,self is large with annoyance. To
.ho unframed eye Of the reader 1t may
undetccted, but TO him who writes
=. proportion7 grow and seem a, CO.
io.sal As Ossa piled on Pelion.
10 a writer ever 50 strong-mindcd,
aver 50 old in the service Of the pen. he
5oss not become Injured to the insid-
IONS error Typographical His hide
NAV be impcryious to the 7lingo and
arrows Of outrageous fortune. but the
n,ick Of the pcsky journalistic thorn
ril invariably, leave a smart.
The blame of the typographical cr-
.or attaches either TO the eXccrablc
obiroqraphy of the writer, to the
nrinter or proof reader Careless and
basty handling of type is frequently
,ho source of the trouble, but Oft-timcs
tbe printers mistake escapes even the
lvnx-eye of the reader of proof. 'Tis
then that the typographical error is as
alusiye as the one traditional eel in
,he bag of ninetv-nine snakes.
The error typographical represents
smultitude of sins. The symmetry of
clean copy is marred by its presence
and the writer suffers the discredit of
putatiye blunders that are attributed
10 ignorance or idiocy by minds that do
not grasp the mysteries and miseries of
the art preservative. Typographical
errors could be more strongly termed
typographical terrors, and were each
writer to make black list of those
that had fallen to. his lot, it would
form volumes Of rich reading.
In our journalistic career we have
beep a favored victim Of the typo
graphical errOr-our experiences have
been thrilling-our escapes of the hair
breadth order. Some OF the errors
have been gems of their kind. Once
in our carly days of newspaper work.
we wrote news item about Miss
Drexel, the Philadelphia heiross, who
joined a convent. We stated concisely
that Miss Drcxtel had decided to be-
come nun.
Imagine our CONSERVATION when we
we're made 10 present in bold print The
Unprecedented announcement that
s'Miss Drexel had decided to become a
mani
Il was shock that caused our
journalistic reputation TO tremble in
the baance-but we rallied-as ours
Is the constitution of the lean dog that
runs the long chase.
Again, at later period in our news
paper career, AN unexpected union of
two items brought us to grief We had
written of the completion of levee that
contained over 100000 cubic feet Tor
yards of earth. and in the same issue
Of the paper We had mentioned that
Mrs. Blank, of Blankville, had been
struck by lightning.
In making up the forms, we presume,
portion of each item strayed of, and
the result was case of Siamese twins
to this effect. 1t was the levee that had
been struck by lightning, and the com
pleted Mrs. Blank contained over
10000 cubic feet Tor yards) of earth.
Statements smacking SO powerfully
ofthe unusual, called forth copious chat
ing from our friends and the funny
men Of the fraternity-and the climax
was reached when we received letter
from a circus agent Offering to organ
lle stock company for the purpose of
nhibiting Mrs Blank al the wonder OF
the age.
10 the train Of the typographical err
fcr our plain statements are dished up
sensations, our eloquence is butch
cred, aud We are made to spell and use
grammar bv ear. as it were. We send
copy containing the "nausca"-aI
are nauscated, indeed, to see it sadly
ehanged by one letter to ''nauser." No
oouot 1t was set up by healthy print
er-the ills that flesh is heir to were
Unknown to HMM his vocabulary
mere was no such word as nausea.
In descriptive article of an enter
Sinmert, we mention that the house
was beautifully decorated with palms.
evidently, it is pious printer who
handles the copy, for in cold type we
iearn that "the house was beautifully
uecDrafad ,v;.h ne, A. -.