The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1897-09-17

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OF the making of books there is no end
Of some there should have been no begin
ming. But aside from that class many Il
book that was intended to be faultless by
its author has issued from the press with
glaring blemishes. He reads with amaze
ment in tho printed copy statements which
he had never formed and ideas which he
had never conceived. Since the days of
Adam man has laid faults at some other
PERSONS door. The bookmaker recalls in
his mind the various persons through
whose hands his manuscript has passed,
and rs they stand before the bar Of judg
ment-his Judgment of course-he reads
them severe lecture Who is to blamc2
Was it the typcsetter or the proofres.der or
that denizen of the inky office-the print
er's devilf Looking upon the thwarted at
tempts at perfection, he believes it to be
decidedly inpish
Preserves often spoil. Every housewife
knows it. EconomiZing n spoonful of sug-
ar results in the loss of "a jar of fruit. so
the art preservative' sometimes fails to
preserve the writer's thought, whether
through false economy or negligence l
say not. Sometimes it is amateur mex
perience. By request once sent an ami
versary sermon to IL local weekly for in
sertion. 1t was inserted. Such rendition
of my fair written manuscripts! could
weep as l saw the distorted, diSjointed SEN
fences and paragraphs; all the "ographies''
and "ologies" seemed to have passed
through collision or experienced All
earthquake. The title was Memorial
Stones" when sent 1t away, but lol the
truly original rendition given by that
progressive printer was this, Memorial
Stares." no longer trust amateur print
ers. l must first see the proof sheet. Hap
PLY the sheet had the small circulation it
deserved. The older residents regarded
each issue as joke perpetrated.
Sometimes perhaps the author might
blame himself instead Of the printer.
Great thinkers are not always good writ
ers. Indeed the reverse seems to be true
generally. Thought can form faster than
ink can flow from the fountain pen. This
often causes curtailment, the syncopation
of words, or even the telescoping of sew
eral at once; dropping finals, bisecting
niddles or showing only the initial letters
of one word and the final letters of Others,
leaving the poor typesetter to reproduce
the thought from the scanty remains. All
printers are not Yankees at guessing.
Sometimes the mistakes are simple. Let
ters that would never be COMPOUNDED in
print through imperfect construction are
often COMPOUNDED I'm writing-e. g., "a"
and IA" bear no resemblance in print, but
an Enclosed written "a" looks very much
like the 'u,' or "a" and 40" may be
changed. Whether it Is capitol or capital
the printer must decide from the context
and the dictionary. Sometimes they don't
observe either, but typewriters will obVi-
ate some of these difficulties. AS the Irish
man could ride afoot" on the bicycle, so
the amanuensis hereafter can write print
with the machine"
Imperfectly written copy lies at the base
" many mistakes. The author, not the
printer, Is to blame. DIR. Farrar writes of
Dean Stanley and his poor penmanship:
Words that were Eat absolutely essential
to the meaning were often mere flourish,
which might stand Tor 80 different COM
binations of letter. Where there was no
Glow to the sensb the unhappy reader
might go very widely astray. On one oc-
casion he directed IL letter to me to MARI
borough college, WVas That letter never
reached me. 1t hssl gone to some gentle
man of totally diiSieent name at Merthyr
Tydvil, Wales. Tb4 gentleman, seeing by
tho printed addrela Mat tho letter came
from the deanery 81 Westminster, but un-
able to make out uSe name or place for
which the letter haS been intended, sent
IL back to the deSA Vho inclosed the old
envelope to me In q I,ew ono, embellished
with several notes oil admiration after the
Merthyr Tydvil poANark."
Benjamin FRANKLIN ia said to have
taught his master pfanter lesson in types
and consequences. Ghe proof sheet showed
many minor errora letters were dropped.
The critical eye of FRANKLIN and his sense
of right protested. The work was not as
good as it ought to be, but his boss said:
"Let it 60. What Is letter anyhow. Ev-
erybody knows what was intended" ID
happened soon after that Franklin was
typesetting. He had sentence from !
Corinthians XIV to set up. He saw his oP-
portunity, and he took It, The paper was
Issued Then came that negligent mastsG
unto his keen witted type boy in a very
wrathful mood. What do you mean By
perverting the words of DIR. -? YoA
have set the whole town to talking"
why" said Franklin, "Only yesterday
you said it did not matter if n letter Wae
dropped. Now that sentence is familiar %
ALL or should be, In n moment, in ~
twinkling of an eye, at the last trump
the dead shall DO raised incorruptible hD%
we shall DO changed There is but oss
letter, C, dropped" The type copy rsases
I'VE shall be hanged" not changed.
1.-The Pittsburg Dispatch contains tso
following:
"A ridiculous typographical error in IN
Arkansas paper has aroused indignatio3
in little town in that state. A wedding
took place between two prominent meK1-
bers of the village society, and the editoe
took particular pains to give the young
couple a good send off. He wrote up tho
event in ford style and displayed it under
a three line head and enjoyed Unconscious
feeling of duty well performed.
Imagine his horror, however, when he
read the next morning in letters that
seemed big enough for q circus poster:
Charming Home Wedding. Pink and
White We're the Prevailing Tights. Many
Monkish Gowns We're Worn by the Fair
Guests Tho editor had written 'tints
and 'modish. Hector in Episcopal Re.
corder.