Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1908-09-02
'SOME OF THE FUNNY
ERRORS IN PRINT
ABSURD MISTAKES THAT SLIP
BY THE PROOF
READER.
JUST ONE WRONG LETTER
OFTEN DESTROYS THE
SENSE.

The late Julian Ralph used to- tell
with a mixture of annoyance and
amusement of curious thing that the
Telegraph operators, the printers and
| the proofreaders once did to him.
| Mr.. Ralph was at the time at Sara
| toga during the height of the season,
when William G. Whitney's enterprise
had put new life into the racing and
when Canfeld's gambling establish
ment ran wide open and was one of
| the sights of the town. He had writ
ten an article for New York news
paper in which he gave character
sketches of Messrs. Whitney and Can
field, describing them as, each in his
Saratoga.
After calling one evening on Mr..
Garfield the correspondent came
away and wrote, among other things,
that Mr. Garfield wore evening dress,
ruff1ed shirt and talked of oriental
ceramics. When it got into type it
read, "Mr. Garfield wore an evening
dress, a ruff1ed shirt and talked of orr
entail ceremonies.
Mr.. Ralph was somewhat chagrined,
but Mr. Garfield was highly delighted.
But people will certainly think me
eccentric said he.
Despite the staff of highly trained
proofreaders that every big printing
establishment maintains for the ex-
press purpose of preventing it, errors
no less absurd are constantly being al
lowed to go forth to an amused public.
Even in the case of books it occasion
ally occurs, and many an edition of a
famous work takes on greater value
in the eyes of collectors because, as
the booksellers catalogue so often
reads, "of curious typographical er-
lror on page 319."
Such an error occurred in a volume
of fiction brought out recently by one
of the Oldest and most successful of
New Yorks publishing houses. tShe
twirled about so suddenly" the unfor-
tunate author is made to say, that
her blue stockinged angles twinkled
momentarily in the sunlight" which
was a manifest injustice to the sweet
girl and a heroine.
One whose interest in all things hui
morous has induced him to gather a
collection Of errors such as these that
have appeared in various newspapers
holds the belief that the dramatic and
book reviewers are more frequently
victimized than any other writer's for
| the daily press. He also holds that
| the error is often SO much truer than
| the thing that was written that it de-
serves applause and not reproof Here
lis such an example:
Lady Virginia, wife of an unworthy
commissioner sent out by Charles IL
seems more genuine and wears van
ishing costumes that suggest Mrs. Pat
/ rick Campbell" Substitute ''ravish-
ing for vanishing" and you have
the original, but is it an improve
ment?
"The stage setting another review
err was made to say, is the familiar
/ one of the huge castle with secret
stairways, hanging of. arras and floors
strewn with sweethearts." Of course
the floor covering was not sweet
hearts, but sweet herbs.
Scarcely less amazing was it to read
that "her last venture was a thousand
mile trip to Moscow, including the At
las mountains" If you substitute Mo
rocco for Moscow the geography be-
comes impeccable. Nor could one be
other than surprised to read of this
feat, made remarkable by an error in
just one letter:
Last night Matthews, mounted on
IA house, drove into the dynamo sec