Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1897-10-02
PRINTERS MISTAKES.
i. lMPERFEcTLYWR WRITTEN copy USUAL
w CAUSES THE ERRORS.

sezlES DlundcTs hzaCe IN BOOKS ana
Newspapers.
OF the making of books there is no end;
of some there should have been no begin
ming. But aside from that class many q
book that was intended to be faultless by
its author has issued from the press with
glaring blemishCG. He reads with amaze
ment In the 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
person. door, Tho bookmaker recalls in
his mind the various persons through
whose hands his manuscript has passed,
and as they stand before the bar of judg-
ment-his Judgment of course-he reads
them a severe lecture. Who is to blanc?
Was it the typesctter or the proofreaaer or
that denizen of the inky ofice--the print
er's devil? Looking upon tho thwarted at
tempts at perfection, he believes it to be
decidedly impish.
Preserves often spoil Every housewife
knows it. Economizing a spoonful of sug-
ar results in the loss of jar Of fruit. So
the art preservatiye' 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
versary sermon to a local weekly for in
sertion. 1t was inserted. Such a rendition
Of my fair written manuscriptsi I could
weep as saw the distorted, disjointed SEN
fences and paragraphs; all the Biographies"
and "ologies'' seemed to have passed
through collision or experienced an
earthquake. The title was Memorial
Stones when 1 sent it away, but loi 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 o joke perpetrated.
Sometimes perhaps the author might
blanc 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 tho fountain pen. This
often causes curtailment, the syncopation
of words, or even the telesooping of sew
eral at onoe; dropping finals, bisecting
middles or showing only the initial letters
of one word and the final letters of others,
the thought from the scanty remains. All
printers arc not Yankees at guessing
Sometimes the mistakes are simple. Let
tiers that would never be COMPOUNDED in
print through imperfect construction are
often COMPOUNDED in writing-e. g., "a"
and "u'' bear no emblance in print, but
an Enclosed written "a" looks very much
like the "u,'' or "a'' and so" 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 obyi-
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
of many mistakes The author, not the
printer, is to blame DR.. 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 so 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 letter to me to MARI
borough college, Willis That letter never
man of a totally different name at Merthyr
Tydvil, Wales This gentleman, seeing by
the printed address that the letter came
from tho deanery Of Westminster, but I'M
able to make out the name or place for
which the letter had been intended, sent
it 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 lesson in types
consequences. The proof sheet showed
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 q letter anyhow. Ev-
erybody knows what was intended" 1t
happened soon after that franklin was
typesetting. He had sentence from I
Corinthians XIV to set up. He saw his op-
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
peryerting tho words of DR.. -? You
have set the whole town to talking"
"Why," said Franklin, "only yesterday
you said it did not matter il q letter was
dropped. Now that sentence is familiar to
all, or should be, In 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 ono
letter, C, dropped" The type copy read
"We shall be hanged" not changed.
1.-THE Pittsburg Dispatch contains tho
following:
"a ridiculous typographical error in an
Arkansas paper has aroused indignation
in 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 forid style and displayed it under
a 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 q circus poster:
Charming Home Wedding Pink and
White We're the Prevailing Tights. Many
Monkish Gowns We're Worn by the Fair
Guests. The editor had written 'tints'
and 'modish. Hector in Episcopal Re-
corder.