Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1897-10-16
PRINTERS MISTAKES.
lMPERFEcTLY WRITTEN COPY USUAL
LY CAUSES THE ERRORS.

Newspapers.
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
it's author has issued from the press with
glaring blemishes He reads with amaze
ment in the printed copy statements which
i be had never formed and ideas which he
had never conceived. Since the days of
Adam man has lail faults at some other
4 person s door. The bookmaker recalls in
his mind the various persons through
whose hands his manuscript has passed,
I and as they stand before tho bar Of iudg-
| ment-his Judgment Of course--he reads
them severe lecture. Who is to blame9
\ Was it the typesctter or the proofreader or
that denizen Of the inBy office--the print
4 er's devil? Looking upon the thwarted at
/ tcmpts ut 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 a jar Of fruit. So
/ the art preservative" sometimes fails to
preserve the writer's thought, whether
+ through false economy or negligence
/ say not. Sometimes it is amateur mex
I DtTiIDE6s by TBiuNab 4 BfiJt HtHb All dUHl
yersary sermon to local weekly for in
sertion. 1t was inserted. Such rendition
| Of my fair written manuscripts / 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 | 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 SEQ 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 tn 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 tho telcscoping Of sew
eral Mt once; dropping finals, bisecting
middles or showing only the initial letters
1 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 Eever DO confounded in
| print through imperfect construction arc
| often COMPOUNDED in writing-e. g., "a
and u bear no rosem blance in print, but
| an Enclosed written "a" looks very much
| like the "u, or "a and 20" may be
| changed Whether it is capitol or capital
the printer must decide from the context
and the dictionary Sometimes they don t
/ - .nltx
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 writos Of
Dean Stanley and his poor penmanship:
Words that were not absolutely essential
to the meaning were often mere flourish,
which might stand for so different COM
binations of letters Where there was no
clew to the sense tho unhappy reader
might so very widely astray On one oc-
ension he directed d letter to me to MARI
borough college, Willis. That letter never
reached me 1t had gone to some gentle
man of totally different name Mt Merthyr
| Tydvil, Wales. This gentleman, seeing by
the printed address that the letter came
from the deanery of Westminster, hut un-
able to make out the name or place for
which the letter had been intended, sent
IL back to the dean, who inclosed tho old
envelope TO me in new one, embellished
with several notes of admiration after the
Merthyr Tydvil rostmark.
Benjamin Franklin is said to have
taught his master printer "a lesson in types
and 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 a letter anyhow. Eg-
cry body knows what was intended. " 1t
happened soon after that Franklin was
typesetting. He had a sentence from l
Corinthians XIV TO set up, He saw his OPP
portunity, ard no 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 the words OF DR. --? You
have set the whole town to talking"
why" said Franklin, "only yesterday
You said il Gid 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 incorruptble and
we shall DO changed. There is but one
letter, c. dropped. Tho type copy read.
We shall be hanged, E" not changed.
1.-THE Pittsburg Dispatch contains the
following;
"A ridiculous typographical error in an
Arkansas paper has aroused indignation
In "A 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
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
i seemed big enough for circus poster;
| Charming Home Wedding. Pink and
Wkito Were the Prevailing Tights. Many
! Monkish Gowns Were Worn by the Fair
1 Guests The editor had written 'tints'
1 and modiSh. Hector in Episcopal Re-
4 corder.
Hans Scored One.
| A bumptious Englishman was dining
with a lady at table hote Seated OPP
posite to them was German on whose
/ hands Vvprp some RINGS