The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-15

Gil, l know that it is occasionally ne- cessary to shorten the dress column, but do woner that any man has the courage to cut it. How can he relent- lessly erase some twenty or thirty lines out of the middle of description of chlHons, when he knows that he may destroy all the meaning of the pas sage? How can he lay his sacr lagious hand upon these delicicate frills and furheloWs? It is just the same as stamping upon train l remember in sale-time describing very m.nutely some blouses which were on view at an entelprlsing g.overs. The first one was worth two suineas if it was worth penny. The second was a cheap print blouse, which was being offered during sale-time at half crown. The space was unusually precious on the Sunday when this appeared, and the sub-editor Ca most unimpressonabe man with a long beardD struck out all the descrip- tion of the half-crown blouse, merely appending that ridiculous price to the description of the first one-a Paris model in surah and "mousseline de sole The shop was crowded next day with females from every outlying suburb demanding these veritable bar gains of the astonished shopman. So great is my dislike to these painful misprints that at one time I used to take the trouble to go to Fleet street every week to see the proof of a syndi- cate ladies letter, which | could not see in any other way, owing to the haste in which it had to be sent out. One morn ing I went in to find the whole office on the grin, and clerk, who was the very pink of politeness, could not quite re- l strain a smile as he came forward to l tell me to look very carefully at my proof, as there was something very pe- culiar in it. Snatching at the proof I ran my eye over the account of the opening by royal princess of a Brigh- ton bazar, and came upon this sen tence: "The princess was gracefully attired in a sable huff The printers i had dropped" about six lines which i occurred after the word "attired," with ! the result that the poor lady was rep resented as wearing a toilet almost as light as that of the South Sea Islanders, who were apt to attire themselves in 1 pair of spectacles and a smile. As l happened to be on the spot, and was able to write in" the correct descrip- i ton of the royal costume. no harm hap pened; but very fearful misprint oc- cured the other day in the account of one of the dresses at the Press bazaar, which I wrote for London daily. Coming across the wife of my chief, very beautifully dressed, at enc of the stalls, both admiration and policy sug- gested that I should give her few flS nf ;,,tiA tai1 equal credit to herself and her milliner, and I said no more than was just when I wrote that Lady Dash was beauti- fully attired in graceful gown, in which every lovely shade of blue, | mauve and green strayed softly into one another" The printer printed it 1 garland" Lady Dash was attlred in | a garland according to the fiend in human form who set up the type.
 The origin of all the ladies' columns in daily papers is due to misprint, and as this fact is not very generally known will detail the circumstances. Many years ago press man was going down to the Derby for a certain Lon don daily, when his editor remarked to him, en passant, By the way, old boy. you may put in a line or two about the frocks, if you can do it. The lady read CTS will like to know what was worn" The scribe went off obediently, and on the following day appeared the follow ing remarkable passage: '"The mere man cannot describe the sartorial beau ties of the scene, but red with pink, lemon- color with blue, and orange wi h green appeared to be thn most popular combinations" The woman reader I winced as she read this passage, but more was to follow: Many beautiful CT nolettes were worn. Where all the ladies looked so well it is almost invid- ious to mention names, but we will only say that Mrs. Langtry looked lovely in her mauve crinolette, as did Mrs. Corn wallis West in hers of pure white" When the young man next saw his ! chief the latter remarked to him, quite kindly: q say So-and-S So your frocks were rather rough. I have been think ling I'll send lady writer down next time in addition to you, just to do that part of the work" The lady writer went--she saw she conquered, she wrote the modest paragraph, the longer notice the weekly column--it began to swell into two! These frocks are del- uging the paper, said the editor, at last, but a discreet fear of conse- quences kept him from trying to stem the tide. How that word crino!atte got into the paper no one knows. It has never been satisfactorily accounted for
 but either the press man thought it meant toilet or else the printer took it for such. Anyway, it is mainly respon- slble for the floods of dress information which are printed in the newspapers, and is the only instance I know of in which a misprint has been productive of good.--London Globe.
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