The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-01-09
TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
THAT CAUSED TROUBLE
Washington Starr


When a leading London newspaper. in
noticing the floating of new CONNER
eial enterprise. spoke of the issuing of
"one hundred thousand snares at 81
each" a statement which however true,
was hardly intentional. the splendid fu-
~ of the promoters Of that enterprise was
fully balanced by the large satisfaction,
not to say glee, of its enemies, and 10
one stopped to think that the innocent
fact of the close juNtapOsition IN which
the letters and stand to each other
on the typewriters of today. or slip
on the part Of the typeSetter in the com
posing room. fully accounted for the err
rOr' a typographical error may be an
evil thing. 4 is sometimes very seri-
Gus thing but il never fails of being.
from some point of view. funny to the
last degree.
The presence of the typewriter in the
newspaper offices of today has done much
to make easier the lives of the author,
the editor and the compositor but the
typewriter. with all its advantages, has
no automatic pUnctuating device, and the
virtue of comma IS amply illustrated
extract from whose sermon as it appeared
in a local paper. reads:
only last Sabbath. my friends, a
young woman died in this parish very
suddenly. while ] was endeavoring to
preach the word in a state of beastiy in
tOxication-"
And over a poem printed in a weekly
appeared the startling comment:
THE following verses were written more
than fifty years ago. by gentleman who
has for fifteen years lain in his grave
for his own amusement
Unusual handwriting. however, has
more to answer for than the vagaries of
the typewriter. The greater the author.
the greater the scrawier" is only too
frequently true. and it is not always fair
to put the blame for this sort of blum
Il .o ef,o of pnu1npEtfgT
Carlyle and Balzsc were two whose copy
few printers could read and none would
handle for more than an hour at a time
Victor Hugo and Byron were impossibiy
bad penmen, and Sydney smith IS quoted
as frankly saying:
4 must decline reading my own hand
writing twenty-fOur hours after / have
written it.
Easily king of wretched penmen. HO-
race Greeley stands out at the head OF
the American journalistic line. The hOr-
rified CITY of a new composition when first
given some OF the great editors copy.
Good Cod If Belshazzer had seen this
writing on the wall he would have been
more terrified than he was IS still quot
ed in newspaper offices. a man who
could read Greeiey's manuscript correctly
at sight was looked on as wonder among
his kind
The Illinois Press association once sent
Mr.. Greeley an invitation asking him TO
.
/ held and the editor was at last. reluc-
| family. obliged TO decline. in these words:
L have waited. till longer waiting would
/ be discourteous. only to find that ] cannot
attend your press meeting next June. as
7 would like to do. ] find so many cares
and duties pressing me that with weight
/ of years I feel Obliged to decline any in
vtation that takes me away days jour
nsy from home"
The following translation was finally ar
rived at By the committee which re-
eeived the note. after long and earnest
study:
I have wondered all salong whether
/ any squirt had denied the story about
I the president meeting James in the woods
Saturday. I have hOminy. carrots and
/ railroad ties more than I could move with
eight steers. If cells are blighted dig them
early. Any insnuation that brick ovens
are dangerous to hams gives me the hor-
roTs."
Not al the errors that creep into print