Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-01-02
PRINTERS ERRORS.
(From Macmillan,a Magazine. J

From Macmillan's Magazine)
Many of the humors of the composing
room arise from mistakes in punctua-
ton. For example, the following was
prefXed to a contribution in the Poets
Corner of Cumberland journal: "These
lines were written nearly so years ago,
by gentleman who has for several
years lair in the grave for his own
amusement" Another paper, in report
ing a suicide, said: Deceased blew out
his brains after bidding his wife good
bye with gun" After the last Egyp-
tan campaign, a London evening paper
printed the following paragraph, head
ed "A Claimants Generosity: ITO show
the enthusiasm with which our troops
have been received, we may mention
that we have been told of several in
stances where cabmen have driven SOL
diers from Egypt to the barracks with
out charge" This was generous, no
doubt, but the journey must have been
hard upon the horses.
To writer in one of the many ladies'
journals we are indebted for the news
that 1T has become quite the fashion
of late for ladies to take their tea in
their hats and gloves" But the ladies
suffered still more severely at the hands
Of a Washington reporter, who, describ-
ception, had intended to say that Mrs.
B. wore nothing in the nature of dress
that was remarkable" He left hurriedly
for the west next day, when he opened
the paper and read: Mrs. Brown wore
nothing in the nature of a dress. That
was remarkab BILE" A London paper re-
ported on one occasion the capture in
"mid-channel of a large man-eating
shark" A provincial journal, copying
1a 1.ae nh hI1t q
the punctuation, gave a different YER
sion of the incident: "a large man, eat
ing shark, was captured in mid-chan-
nell"
The omission of a comma once gave
an awkward Interpretation to para
graph in a Dublin newspaper which
ran: "a very handsome memorial has
been erected in st. Jerome's cemetery to
the late Mr.. John Phillips, accidentally
shot as a mark of affection by his
brother" In the following instance, it
was no doubt a bachelor compositor
Who in setting up the toast, Woman,
without her man would be a savage"
by trifling transposition of the comma,
made the sentence read: Woman, with
out her man, would be a savage" In
a sermon on drunkenness, which APP
peared recently in a Dublin paper the
reverend gentleman was made to say:
st was only last Sunday that young
girl fell from one of the benches of this
church, while I was preaching in a
beastly state of intoXication."
Mr.. Herbert Spencer once wrote:
''Whales are not fish because they pos
sess fins and a fish-like tall but what
the pubic read was whales are not
fish, because they possess fins and a
fish-like tail" which truly is most re-
markable reason why whales are not
fish. In Ireland there prevails among
Roman Catholics a pious custom of in
serting in the weekly religious journals
advertisements asking for prayers for
certain intentions. A lady sent the fol-
lowing to one of these newspapers: "a
husband going to sea, his wife desires
the prayers Of the faithful but, as it
appeared, the faithful We're asked to
pray for "a husband going to see his
wife" MAY heaven cherish and keep
you from yours affectionately Peter D."
was the way another irish paper rem
dered the concluding portion of letter
written by a soldier serving in the late
Sudan campaign, to his wife in Cork
But perhaps the most amusing in
stance of the ludicrous effects of wrong
punctuation is afforded in the following
description of the jubilee procession,
which appeared in an East Anglican
weekly paper: Next came Lord Rob-
erts riding on q gray Arab steed wear
ing a splendid scarlet uniform, covered
with medals ON his head, field mar
shaPs hat with plumeS in his hand, the
baton of field marshal on his rugged
features; a smile of pleasure as he ack-
nowledged the laundering cheers of the
crowd"