Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1905-11-30
IsERORS or PRINTERS
I'll. jNDERs OF THE TYPES BOTH
L,lcxY AND UNLUcKv.

,acc In Aswllile the ComYositcr Will
Author--Ihc Sad Havoc the Change
of a Letter May Make.
Among the masterpieces of blun,.or
Ing typography must be reckoncd two
pcrretratcl In southern newspaper
An editor. wishing to congratulate
General Pillow after his return frcm
Mexico as battle Scared veteran,
Was made Dy the types to characterize
him as "a battle scared veteran" Tie
Indignant general. rushing into the ed
ilori;il sanctum, demanded an eNplana.
ton, which was given and correction
promised in the next days paper.
Ju(ge of tie editors feelings on the
morrow Wien. as ii ITO heap horrors
upGn horrors head he found the gem
er;il styled in TIE revised paragraph
that bottle SCARED vetcian!'
X Las oitca surprised those who i:,v )
been victims of typographical errors
lli"t amid the Infinite combinations OF
dcrs in the authors favor, tarnins
cacophony into cuphony, turgdity into
subl:nity ard Eonscnse into sense. II
is true that once in Il century Il thought
is actually improved ly Il typograph-
ical biunGcr 1t Is told. for example, Of
Ma!hclbe that when in hi; famous
episi!e TO Du Pcrlcr whose daugll-
ter's name was Hoscttc lie had written,
"Et RCscttc II vccu ce que vivent les
roses" (And Rose.tc has lived as the
roses live. tie printer, who found the
manuscript difficult to read. put "i,o-
selle" instead of "Isosette.' Malhcrbp
in reading the proof was struck by the
lows: 'Et Rose. ellie II vecu ce que vi-
vent les roses respcce dun matin''
(.And Rose she has lived as the roses
live the space of Il morning). But
cases like these are exceedingly Fare.
Some years ago the London Times.
in speaking of a discussion before the
council of ministers when Lord Brougl-
am was chancellor, stated that the
chandelier had thrown an eXtraor-
dinary li-lt on the question: In tho
London A.rissi.sn World in 1888 a writ
er. referring to an address nt Christ
church by the Rev. Theodore Hookcs.
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 Davi,lson's
Popular English Grammar the prin-
cipal parts of the verb Ito chi1e" We're
given as follows: present inlinitive,
to chide; past finite, child; past in
fnitee, to haye children" In the Lon.
don Courier many years ago his majes-
ty George ~. was said to have fit of
the goat at Brighton. Another journal
advertised sermon by n celebrated
sivine OH the "Immorali.y of the Soul -
and also the Lies of the Pocts'n
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 !-n.l.D:l were suffering at that
time 'from high rate of morality"
A letter more or Il letter lcs., makes
strange havoc of sentence. Early in
the French revolution the Able Sieyes
In correcting the proof sheets of a
pamphlet in defense Of his political
conduct, read, 81 have abjured the
republic" a misprint for adjurcd.
''Wrctch" he cried to the printer. "Dn
you wish to send me to the guillotine:"
What is treason. once asked a wag, but
reason to which IT an accident
CT the press may diiplace with mosi
printer who omitted the first letter o..
Mr. Caswcll's name might have p'ead
| ell that it was sas Well without the c.
Pope SiNtns ". in order to exclude
every possible error from an edition Of
tie Vulgate Bible which lie cssaycd to
publish, personally superintendcd tlie
printing of every sheet, yet it swarmed
with errors. Hcretical printers made
great fun of this demonstration of pa
pal infalliii!ity, especially of the bull
pranxed ID the first volume eXcom
municatiiig ;.ll printers who in reprint
I'M: tie wo..s should alter the text
AN edition of the Bible printed at the
Clarendon Press in 1917 is known as
the "vincgai. Bible" because in the IT,
tie of the twentieth chapter Of Luke
the parable of the vineyard is printed
"parabc 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 Il form of the Book Of Common
Prayer: I'VE shall all be changed in
the twinklilg Of an eye" When the
book appeared the passage. to the hor-
i)r of the devout reader, was thus
printed: I'VE shall all be hanged In
the .winkling of an eye"
Mistakes il punctuation, such az the
omission or misplacing Of comma.
sometimes greatly change the sense OF
a passage. as when compositor-prob-
ably Il crllsty old bachelor-in setting
up The toast, woman without her
MAJ! wo;lld be a savage" put the com.
ma in tile 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
metamorp,losed by the Typographical
imp into electric" and may take up q
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
angles and all his happiness into pap.
piness.- William Mathews In Philadel.