The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1906-04-13
NATIONS COSTLY ERRORS.
Some Of the Little Mistakes That Hav,
Cost Various Governments Large
Sums.

: ten apparently trivial. in govern
ment printing. The United States
some years ago. destroyed 1000.
, Zoo telegraph forms, owing to The
? misspelling of single word. In
1888 several thousand greenback:
were cancelled before issue owing
to the same cause. An employe
was convicted for attempting to
steal some of these worthless notes,
with the intention OF selling them
to collectors, says the London
Globe.
The Austrian government is so
intolerant of mistakes that it can
GELS documents not only on the
ground of serious mistakes or mis-
spelling, but even as the result of
a misshapen letter. The use of a
small instead of a capital B in The
word Briefe" led a short time
ago to the destruction Of $4,000
forms issued to the various post
offices.
In 1880 an Austrian designer of
banks notes signed his name in
tiny letter at the foot of a drawing.
The engraver copied the name.
and before the mistake was discov-
cred 10000 notes were printed, all
of which had to be burned.
A symbolic figure on another
Austrian note was malicioasly Civ
en- a board which could be seen if
the note were held at certain an
gle in the light.
Before the union of Italy more
than one attempt was secretly made
to turn official papers and notes to .
propagandist uses. 4 custom house
regulation form was so spaced by
the compositor that the initial
words in every line, if read con
secutively, were a declaration
against the papaI claim to govern
Rome
In another case the spacing of
words i'll certain bank notes was SO
that by drawing a pencil
line in a particular way rude out
line of the arms of Savoy resulted.
These notes, of course, never saw
The light, the device being too OBJ
rious to escape detection.
In 1901 a Spanish engraver was
heard Boosting that he had sign
ID his name" on every one of ten
thousand bank notes just about to
De issued. When called up and
asked for an explanation he declar-
ID that be had been joking. But
III examination o! the notes show
ID that certain letters in one line !.
we're raised a microscopical dis
ance above those next to them.
Those raised letters spelled the en-
oloye's name. Seven hundred and
fifty dollars was the price paid by !
he authorities for their engraver 5
oke.
The Kaiser's persistent inter
erence in all matters of art has
,ost the Fatherland heavy losses in
printed matter. One of +
lis first acts as sovereign was to- !
show his subordinates how the I'M
,erial arms should be printed AT :
er many thousand forms and docu- |
nents had been impressed with
hese arms an antiquary of high at :
hority proved to His Majesty that
he new design was not only
wrong, but also humiliating to
himself. Seven thousand FIVE hun
ired dollars worth of papers were
promptly reduced to ashes.
In another case the Kaiser sub
edited the German money order
.orm in such a way that the public
could not make head or tail of it.
Finally the new form had to be
called in and thousands of unissued
,opies destroyed.
Fifteen thousand pounds worth
Of the eleven shillings postal orders (
had to be destroyed by the British
general postoffice some time ago
oviug TO the poundage stamped on