Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1899-07-08
TOthc Dear Children.

~ iht DtuF = hiiuTth'
1t is again the JOURNALS duty to
call your attention, while fresh, to
several errors that were placed last
week under your innocent eyes.
1t was stated very seriously of a
noted character
George Francis Train eccentric crank, one
time addressed all his communications
through children, etc.
Could he have done better? Are
you not the depository of hopes that
bless every prophecy of a future better
than present and past?
But the JOURNAL cannot dwell long
er here than to ask-why is a ''crank'
described as "eccentric?' Would you
say a crazy lunatic Or an illiterate
ignoramus Or four footed quad
ruped OF course, not. Your native
sense of the fitness of things secures
you against the commission of any of
the superlative barbarisms of the full
grown "ignOramii."
Several things else are not under
stood, one of which is--the use of
Journal" in lieu of the first person
plural, especially in the local columns.
This may have occurred 81 times.
But was it as bad as the use of the
term, "well rendered." times in the
same article, and "acquitted them
selves times
Or so crude as Il sentence of IS
words, held together by no less than I
copulatives
That is commanding reason, chit
dren, why you should not want the
paper concerning which we are com
munlng to pay YOU compliment.
The JOURNAL pities several people out
without umbrella or parasol, who last
week got caught under a shower of
slobber. One paragraph it would like
to quote and analyze, but profound re-
spect for the victim prevents.
Times have changed since Byron's tjntc
1t reqtires men at present to attend to the
plant, as it req"i,es attoution the whole "A
hours.
Compare the italicsed words and
note the slip-shod character of work
that might go unnoticed in the marble
or tannery business, but never in jour
nalism.
Observe that diagram. AS a matter
of fact, Mr.. Dando occupied the corner
marked Bear and oice cerSa. SO all
the way around. The diagram was
made up exactly right for remaining a
diagram. But exactly all wrong for
printing. Dear children, if this artist
should ever want to print the portrait
of one of your number in his paper,
be careful. If you have a cute little
mole on your right cheek and a capti-
waiting dimple in your left, YOU may
find them So transposed in print as to
destroy your individuality. Indeed,
under its system of letter-press the big
drum cylinder might develop the mis-
chievOus, cunning little mole into a
ferocious, "dark-complected' wart.
In its baseball report the paper re-
ferred to had Frostburg beat Cumber-
land in the tabulated score, but when
it came to the report by innings it
turned out to be Midland that got the
licking.
"Where are we at ="
In the course of its reviews the
JOURNAL has not cited errors in pune
tuation, often as fatal to good rhetoric
as other lapses of structure. These
. will be attended to later.
"False syntax' has been chosen as
the field wherein to work, because it is
by analysis of error that the truth is
best evolved. 1t is deemed the proper
thing to close chapter 3 with para
graph that has been standing nearly
two months:
Advertisers desiring change in their adj
Vertisement must have their copy in-or let
us KNOW Oh lne CnanSe-nOt later IMAM lntlTS-
day noon of the week the change is to he
made. If this is not done we cannot guar.
antee change of their advertisement.
A careful reading discloses the fact,
on the one hand, that there is mole
than one advertiser on the other,
however, that there is but one adver.
tlSement
But it is not for the JOURNAL. chill.
dren dear, to help the unfortunate
paper out of its tang!eS. Perhap,
one of you will he good enough to get
at least that paragraph straight.
But don't talk to 1t of pluralS, per
sons, pronomlnal agreement of mum
Der and person, or of the usual har
monies which follow copulative rela
tions between certain parts Of speech
As well talk to Il guinea-pig of tn,
procession of the equinoxes.