The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1907-08-19
Wicked Deeds Done by the
Imp of the PerVerSe
AMUSING ERRORS In PRINT
Examples of What Is Liable to Happen
When compositor Blunders or When
the Usually Alert and Careful
Proofreader Mods.

| Sometimes the proofreader mods, and
| in this connection the late Lord
Goschen told at public dinner story
/ of reader who worked for his tLord
Goschens) grandfather and who, In
answer to denunciation from his en-
| ployer, cried:
/ LET some other man work at cor
/ rectness of Typography ! despair. My
own thoughts often hinder me as they
seize and hold the authors otherwise
| than shey ought to do. 1t Is quite pos
sible that niggling about words and
| syllables may often so to the wall
| when my soul cannot tear itself loose
| from some thought or picture. Errors
have been found In sheets which /
thought / had worked backward and
| forward with the greatest particular
/ ity. / read always as 1t should be-"
| 1t is when a reader is in this soulful
| condition that the general public are
1 permitted to read, as they did once
I in morning paper not given to humor
that celebrated politician, In a
speech, described some one as sitting
at the feet of the game bird of Bir
mlngham,9 instead Of "Gamallel.' In
the same journal, too the following
startling announcement appeared I'M
| der the heading Of Births
| NIcHoLsoN-on the 18th inst. at Bel
( ton road. sideup, the son Of Alfred Mich
! olson, OF daughter.
/ In another newspaper a most pathet.
&c account appeared Of doctor who
4 died owing to having accidentally In.
fected himself while injecting some
| plague virus into 'gnat." The mys-
terry was solved the next day, when an
1 apology was printed explaining that
the word should have been rat"
"Come over and try some new
soup a lady novelist did not write;
songs was the word 1T is a sickly
kopje OF the real article" was perhaps
exeusable. It appeared in a paper
during the Boer war.
These mistakes are curious enough,
but they pale into insignifcance before
some Of those that never reach the
printed sheet
Cold milk. fathers' once demanded
a compositor In cold type. and he was
aggrieved to have 70 alter 1t to "Caed
mile failthee' ''Rrer Fox was made
aBoer Fol-" that was also during the
South African war
On 4 hot summers day another tired
/ typesetter turned THE Tdes Of March"
into "The idea OF Work"
In a sermon celebrated divine was
made to say, "And they erected ma
rine store at the mouth Of the sepul-
cher" Massive stone were the cor
rect words.
Authorizations are at times the bane
Of the compositor, but he had no ex-
cuse In setting up, In an account OF
Mansion House function, that among
those present were cold Isaacs and Old
TreIoar" He should have known that
aid" was an Authorization Of alder.
man" In the same take" Of copy the
lord Mayor was received with a
crash" Should be "eclat'D and was
followed by the sheriffs in their "mar-
garine (mazarine) gowns"
LET the gulled Judy wink" appeared
In another first proof. and the proof
reader YEARLY made II the CALLED jade
vince" "Die, lusty platterr has quite
transporting flavor, but the copy"
said "Die Lustige Batter" "a German
weekly paper.
"Pignut Of the enunclatlon" does not
seem convincing; Pigment Of the imng.
nation is better. "Pettlcoats long on
Sunday morning IS a disgrace" IS all
right when the first two words arc
read "Petticoat lane"
In a police court assault case the
prosecutor was made to say that the
prisoner had given him twins" What
the prisoner really did was to give the
prosecutor a turn "a fright "Tha
government were suffering from men.
tai alteration" must have been sea
up by a compositor OF the opposition
politics. The real charge was MUTUAL
admiration"
"De mortar ivil nice loreum' would
trouble Latin scholar. "De mortula
nil nIsi bonumr Is more correct "Jim
the Pieman" is easily recognizable az
the hero Of play, and Putty Polly"
the racehorse, would throw up her
pretty head in disdain to see herself
80 described.
For "a pair Of scandals completed
the costume" read Sandals" and FOR
"Here is indeed a sundlal7 substitute
scandal" He lived In the "hubbubs"
should be suburbs and, "Call her,
Herr, in" is understandable when
printed ,"Caller herrin'"
A well known descriptive writer was
startled TO read In rough first proof
that he had described the fields sur.
rounding the Derby course as covered
with boots and shoes" He was pla.
Gated when informed that Il had been
altered TO 'booths and shows"
Columns could be filed with the
amazing and amusing blunders Of the
compositor, but here space forbids Of
more than a FINAL "howler" which Is a
classic in the printing world 20 tenn
pora! o moresw wrote a leader writ.
er at ten minutes to I'm the morning.
20 Moses, indesdw exclaimed the
proofrender a quarter OF an hour later
when he caught and bowled' the com
positor who had improved the phrase
into 80 Tennysonl o Mosesw-L London
Express.