The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-09-24
PRINTERS MISTAKES.
lMPERFECTLv WRITTEN COPY USUAL
LY CAUSES THE ERRORS.

OF the making of books there is no end;
Of some there should have been no begin.
ming. But oside from that class many a
book that was intended to be faultless by
its author has issued from the press with
glaring blemishos. 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 i'm
his mind the various persons through
whose hands his manuscript has passed.
and as they gsand before the bar OF judg-
ment-his Judgment of course-he reads
them severe lecture Who is Co blame9
Was it the typesetter or the proofreader or
that denizen of the inky oflice-the print
er's devilY Looking upon the thwarted at
tempts mt perfection, he believes it TO be
decidedly impish.
Preserves often spoil Every housewife
knows it, Economizing IA spoonful of sug
ar results in the loss of n jar of fruit. So
1.-THE art preservative" sometimes fails To
preserve tho writer's thought, whether
through false economy or negligence !
say not Sometimes it is amateur mex
perienCe BY request once sent an ami
yersary sermon To Il local weekly for in
sertiOn. 1t was inserted. Such a rendition
IF my fair written manuscripts! | could
weep as | saw the distorted, disjointod SEN
tencesand paragraphs; all the Biographies"
and "Ologies'' seemed to have passed
through "a collision or experienced an
earthquake. The title was Memorial
Stones" when | sent it away, but lol the
truly original rendition given by that
progressive printer was this, Memorial
Stares no longer trust amateur print
ers must first see the proof sheet Hap
PLY the sheet had the small circulation it
deserved The older residents regarded
each issue as a joke perpetrated
Sometimes perhaps the author might
blame himself instead of tho printer
Great thinkers are not always good writ
ers Indeed tho reverse seems Ia he true
generally Thought can form faster than
ink can flow from the fountain pen This
often causes curtnilment. the syncOpation
OF words, or even the telescoping of sew
eral ~ once; dropping finals, bisecting
middleS 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.
tiers that would never DO conlounded in
print through imperfect construction are
often COMPOUNDED in writing--e. g., IA"
and ~" bear no resemblance in print, but
an Enclosed written "a looks very much
like the ~" or 'a'' and 20" may be
changed Whether 1t 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 ut the base
of many mistakes. The author, not the
printer, is to blame. DIR. Farrar writes of
Dean Stanley and his poor penmanship:
Words that were not absolutely essential
to the meaning were often a mere flourish,
which might stand for 30 different COM
binations of letters Where there was no
clew to the sense the unhappy reader
might go very widely astray On one oc-
casion he directed a letter to me to MARI
borough college, Willis. That letter never
reached me. 1t had gone to some gentle
man of totally different name at Merthyr
Tydvil, Wales. This gentleman, seeing by
inc prlDteu HuurcsS tndb Viz icbGeT OduO
from the deanery of Westminster, but I'M
able to make out the name or place for
which the letter had been intended, sent
IL back to the dean, who inclosed the old
envelope to me in new one, embellished
with several notes of admiration after the
Merthyr Tydvil postmark.
Benjamin Franklin is said to have
taught his master printer n lesson in types
nj Tbo t,poOf sbpat ChnVyp1
many minor errors. 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 GO What is letter anyhow Ev
cry body knows what was intended" 1t
happened soon after that Franklin was
typesetting. He had n sentence from
Corinthians XIV to set up. He saw his OPP
portunity, and he took it. The paper was
issued Then came that negligent master
unto his keen witted type boy in very
wrathful mood what do you mean by
perverting tho words of DR.. -? You
have set the whole town to talking"
why" said Franklin. 'only yesterday
you said it did not matter IL letter was
dropped. Now that sentence is familiar to
all, or should be, In a moment, In the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trump
the dead shall be raised incorruptible and
we shall be changed. There is but one
letter, C, dropped. The type copy read,
I'VE shall be hanged" not changed.
1.-The Pittsburg Dispatch contains the
following:
"A ridiculous typographical error in an
Arkansas paper has aroused indignation
in u little town in that state "A wedding
took place between two prominent mem
bers of the village society, and the editor
took particular pains to give the young
couple good send off. He wrote up the
event in florid style and displayed it under
three line head and enjoyed the conscious
feeling of duty well performed.
Imagine his horror, however, when he
read the next morning in letters that
seemed big enough for n circus poster;
Charming Home Wedding Pink and
White We're the Prevailing Tights. Many
Monkish Gowns Were Worn by the Fair
Guests The editor had written 'tints'
and 'modish. Hector in Episcopal Re
corder.
Hans Scored One.
A bumptious Englishman was dining