Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1905-07-06
ERRORS OF PRINTERS
eLuNpERs OF THE TYPES BOTH
LUCKY AND UNluCNY.

Once In Awhile the CompOsitOr VIII
stumble on s.n Improvement ON the
| Author-Thc sad Havoc the Change
Of n Lettef>aday Make.
Among the masterpieces of blunder-
Ing Typography must be reckoned two
pcrpctrated in q southern newspaper.
General Pillow after his return from
| Mexico as battle SCARED veteran,
was made by the types to characterize
him as III battle scared veteran" The
Indignant general. rushing into the ed
ltorial sanctum, demanded an explana-
ton, which was given and IL correction
promised in the next days paper
Judge of the EDITORS feelings OH the
morrow when. as IL ITO heap horrors
upon horrors head" he found the gen.
eral styled in the revised paragraph
that bottle Scared veteran!'
| 1t has often surprised those who have
been victims of typographical errors
that amid the infinite combinations Of
| types there are hardly any lucky blum
ders in the authors favor. turning
cacophony into cuphony, turgidity into
sublimity and nonsense into sense. 1t
is true that once in IL century Il thought
is actually improved by a typograph-
ical bl,lndcr 1t is told, for example. Of
| Mulherbe that when in his famous
| epistle to Du Perrier, whose daugh-
| tcr's name was Itosette, he had written.
'Et Rosette vecu ce que vivent les
roses" (And Rosette has lived AZ the
| roses live), the printer, who found the
manuscript difficult to read. put "Ro-
selle" instead of "Rosette." Malherbe
In reading the proof was struck by the
change and rewrote his verse as fol-
| lows: "Et Rose, ellie q vecu ce que vi
vent les roses, l'espece dun matin"
(And Rose, she has lived as the roses
live, the space Of q morning). But
cases like these are exceedingly rare.
| Some years ago the London Times.
in speaking Of IL discussion before the
council of ministers when Lord Brough
am was chancellor, stated that the
chandelier had thrown IN extraor-
dinary l.ht on the question" In the
London Saristian World in 1883 writ
cr, referring to an address Mt Christ
church by the Rev. Theodore Hookes,
represented him as saying that some Of
the clergy had gone back Ito the black
lie (tic) OF their boyhood."
In one of the editions OF DavidsOn's
Popular English Grammar the prin.
cipal parts of the verb Ito chide" were
given as follows: Present infinitive,
= TO chidc; past finite, clil; past in
fnltee, to have children" In the Lon
don Courier many years ago his majes-
ty George Nv. was said to have fit Of
the goat ut Brighton. Another journal
advertised sermon by celebrated
divine on the "I,nmorality Of the Soul.'
and also the Lies OF the POetB"-a
work, no doubt. Of many volumes. The
London Globe once gave an extract
from the registrar generals return In
which it was stated that the inhabit-
ants Of London were suffering at that
time from high rate Of morality"
A letter more or letter less makes
strange havoc OF sentence Early In
the French revolution the Abbe Sieyes
IN correcting the proof sheets Of
pamphlet In defense Of his political
conduct, read, II have abjured the
republic" "a misprint for adjured.
'Wretch!" be cried to the printer. "Do
you wish to send me to the guillotineY
What is treason, once asked q wag, but
reason to "t"q-which 1t" an accident
Of the press may displacc with most
awkward effect. On the other hand,
printer who omitted tie first letter OF
Mr.. Cnswclls name might have plead
cd that II was ''us well'' without the c.
Pope SiXtus ", in order to exclude
every possible error from IN edition OF
the Vulgnte Bible which he essayed to
| publish, personally superintended the
printing OF every sheet. yet 1t swarmed
with errors. Ieretical printers made
great fun OF this demonstration Of pa
prcnXed to the first volume excom-
municating nli printers who in reprint
ing the work should alter the text.
An edition Of the Bible printed at the
Clarendon Press In 1917 IL known as
the ''Vinegar Bible" because in the II
tie OF the twentieth chapter Of Luke
the parable Of the vineyard is printed
parable Of the vinegar" Perhaps the
most fearful error Of tue press that
ever occurred was caused by the letter
&c" dropping out Of the following pas
sage in form Of the Book Of Common
Prayer: I'VE shall all be changed In
the twinkling Of an eye" When the
book appeared the passage. to the hor-
ror Of the devout reader was thus
/ printed: I'VE shall nll be hanged In
the twinkling OF IN eye"
Mistakes IN punctuation. such as the
omission or misplacing Of a comma,
sometimes greatly change the sense OF
a passage as when compositor-prob-
ably crusty old bachelor-in setting
up the toast, "Woman-without her.
man would be a savage" put the COM
ma in the wrong place and made the
sentence read, woman. without her
man. would be savage"
During the last half century there
has been remarkable Improvement in
regard to errors Of the press. A writ
er today may use the word "eclec1c''
with full assurance that It will not be
metamorphosed by the typographical
imp into electric and may take up a
proof from any respectable publisher
without shuddering with fear that, in
Hoods phrase. all his roses have been
turned into noses. all his angels into