The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1905-06-02
ERRORS OF PRINTERS
PLUMBERS or THE TYPES BOTH
LUCKY AND UNLuCKy.

Unee IN AWh1he the COmpO0ftOr VIII
Stumble on an Improvement ON the
Author-The sad Havoc the Change
u : Letter May Make.
y Among the masterpieces Of blunder-
Ing Typography must be reckoned two
perpetrated in southern newspaper.
An editor, wishing I'd congratulate
General Pillow after his return from
Mexico as battle SCARED veteran,
was made BY the types to characterize
him as "a battle scared veteran" The
Indignant general, rushing into the ed
itorial sanctum, demanded an explana-
ton, which was given and a correction
promised in the next days paper.
Judge Of the editors feelings on the
morrow when, as IL ito heap horrors
upon horrors head" he found the gen,
eral styled in the revised paragraph
ethat bottle SCARED veteranr'
1t has often surprised those who have
been victims Of typographical errors
that amid the minute 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. It
is true that once in a century thought
is actually improved by typograph-
ical blunder. 1t is told, for eADmple, Of
Malherbe that when In his famous
epistle to Du Perrier, whose daugh-
ter's name was Rosette, he had written,
"Et Rosette vecu &c que vivent les
roses" land 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: EFT Rose, ellie yecu ce que vi
vent les roses, pespece dun matin"
(And Rose, she has lived as the roses
live, the space of morning.. .. But
cases like these are exceedingly rare.
Some years ago the London Times,
in speaking of discussion before the
council of ministers when Lord Brough-
am was chancellor, stated that ''the
chandelier had thrown an extraor-
binary 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 Gie) 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 chide; past finite, child; past in
fnitee, to have children" In the Lon
don Courier many years ago his majes-
ty George ~ was said to have a fit Of
the goat at Brighton. Another journal
advertised sermon by celebrated
divine on the immortality of the Soul"
and. also the Lilies 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 were suffering at that
time ''from high rate of morality"
A letter more or a letter less 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, II 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 a ''t'?-which 1t" an accident
of the press may displace with most
awkward effect On the other hand, a
printer who omitted the first letter Of
Mr.. Caswell's name might have plead
ed that it 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 superintendent 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 at the
Clarendon Press in 1877 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
sc" dropping out of the following pas
sage in a 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: I'VE shall all be hanged in
the twinkling of an eye"
Mistakes in punctuation, such as the
omission or siisplacing of comma,
sometimes greatly change the sense Of
a passage, as when a compositor-prob-
ably a crusty old bachelor-in setting
up the toast, Woman-without her,
man would be savage" put the COM
ina in the wrong place and made the
sentence read, Woman. without her
man, would be a savage
During the last half century there
has been a remarkable improvement in
regard to errors OF the press. A writ
err today may use the word eclectic"
wifi fflll assurance that n will MT ha