Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1905-03-22
EnNOn;.:s Oh PRINTERS
RLuMDERs OF TIE TYPES BOTH
LUCKY AND uMLUCKY.

Once IN Awhile the Compositor VIII
stumble or O.: improvement on the
Au:i.or-!hc Sn:l Havoc tl,e Change
of u Letter May MIKE.
Among the masterpieces OF blunder-
ing Typography must be rcckoncd two
perpetrated in Il southern newspaper
An editor, wishing to congratulate
General Pillow after his return from
Mexico as ii battle Scared veteran,
was made by the types TO characterize
him as ~ battle scared veteran" The
Indignant general, rushing into the ed
itorial sanctum, demanded nu eNpiana-
ton, which was given and IL correction
promised in the next days paper.
Judge of tie clltor's feelings on the
morrow when, as if ito heap horrors
upon horrors head" he found the gem
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 euphony, turgidity into
sublimity and nonsense into sense 1t
is true that once i'll Il century thought
is actually improved by typograph-
ical blunder. 1t is told, for example, of
Malherbe that when in his famous
cpistle to Du Perrier, whose daugh-
ter's name was Rosette, lie had written,
"Et Rosette a vecu ce que vivent les
roses" (And Rosette has lived as 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 vccu ce que vi
vent les roses, 'espece dun matin'
(And Rose she has lived as the roses
live, the space of a morningl. Bus
cases like these are exceedingly rare.
Some years ago the London Times,
in speaking of a discussion before the
council of ministers when Lord Brough-
am was chancellor, stated that "the
chandelier had thrown an eXtraor-
dinary light on the question" In the
London Christian World in 1888 writ
er, referring to an address at Christ
church by the Rev. Theodore Hookes,
represented him as saying that some of
the clergy had gone back ito the black
lie (tie) of their boyhood."
In one of the editions of Davidson's
Popular English Grammar the prin-
cipal parts of the verb ''to chide" were
given as follows: present infinitive,
to chide; past finite, 1 child; past in
finitee to have children" In the Lon
don Courier many years ago his majes-
ty George Nv. was said to have fit Of
the goat at Brighton. Another journal
advertised sermon by celebrated
divine on the immortality of the Soul"
and also the Lies of the Poets'-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 We're suffering at that
time from high rate of morality"
A letter more or letter less makes
strange havoc of Il sentence. Early in
the French revolution the Able Sieyes
in correcting the proof sheets of Il
pamphlet in defense of his political
conduct, read, Il have abjured the
republic" "a misprint for adjured.
"Wretch!" he cried to the printer do
you wish to send me to the guillotine"
What is treason, once asked wag, but
reason to "t"?-which st" an accident
of the press may displace with most
awkward effect. On the other hand,
printer who omitted the first letter of
Mr.. Caswell's name might have plead
ed that 1t was "as well" without the G.
Pope SiXtus ", in order to exclude
every possible error from an edition Of
the Vulgate Bible which he essayed to
publish, personally superlntended the
printing of every sheet, yet it swarmed
with errors. Heretical printers made
great fun OF this demonstration of pa
pal infallibility. especially of the bull
prefxed to the first volume eXcom-
municating all printers who in reprint
ing the work should alter the text.
An edition of the Bible printed ut the
Clarendon Press In 1917 is known as
the "Vinegar Bible" because in the IT,
tie Of the twentieth chapter Of Luke
the parable Of the vineyard is printed
parable Of the vinegar" Perhaps the
most fearful error Of the 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: 1--WE 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: Eve shall all be hanged in
the twinkling of an eye"
Mistakes in punctuation, such as the
omission or misplacing Of comma,
sometimes greatly change the sense Of
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 eclectic
with full assurance that 1t will not be
metamorphosed by the typographical
imp into electric" and may take up q
proof from any respectable publisher
without shuddering with fear that, ii
Hoods phrase, all his roses have. beer
turned into noses, all his apr into
angles and all his happiness int pap
plness.-William Mathews in Phlladel
phia Post.
A Donkey's Sweet Tooth.
Seven nlum nuddinrS hunv In {