New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-05-16
Even Homer Nodded-1esser Lights Follow His Example

haste or any other circumstance Of newspaper
writing is any excuse for them Neither, how
ever. will I admit the right Of the before-men-
toned High Browed Brahmins to the scrbes
OF the Press as Pariahs because of them. For
these very error. and worse, both Of grammar and
OF fact occur in magazines and books about as
frequently as in newspapers. The very three
blunders which | have cited are VIGOROUSLY
numerous, even in the works of eminent
writer's Let me cite another: Equally as good"
Print that in The Tribune and some Apostle OF
Culture sneers at newspaper English Yet that
phrase was used by Edgar Allan Poe, whom we
are taught to regard as supreme master OF let
tiers, in whom II you do not believe you shall not
be saved And In the February number of
prominent magazine, in story by one OF the
foremost novelists OF the day, | met with the
Grass brutality different to" three times in
single chapter. F. P. A. is commercially vigilant
and memorable in pllorying "'Whom are you"
said Cyril"; but in a leading English magazine, in
a romance by one of the most popular writer. OF
our time, found the other day: "The Arabs en-
gagged themselves in peppering the Mazitu, whom,
think, they concluded were in full flight"
Statements Of fact, too, are as wildly erroneous
a. the grammar We were laughing recently at
the blunder of magazine story writer who made
her heroine feel embarrassment at Rio de ia
metro because she did not understand Spanish.
But II was not long before that | caught still
more popular novelist telling Of children gather
ing chestnuts in April. In another best seller
we were told of katydids among apple blossoms.
A third described the hero. lover the walnuts and
wine" as pceling a walnut with little silver
knife. One OF the most entertaining and also
most scholarly, Of English novelists of score
tLoJ ,bo t,y
another in the Alps, and astonished with the
information that in the thin air of those great
heights the gentlest football the softest whis-
per sounded like crash Of thunder! A few
days ago in a pseudo-scientifc romance encoun-
tered this gem, or, rather these twin gems, in
single sentence: THE Panama Canal which is
near the Equator and which runs east and west"
That, however. not the worst, for that same
day, in genuinely scientific article hydro
aeropanes, received the interesting information
that "to launch a seaplane properly in a choppy
the Naval Air Service mechanics often have
TO wade out up to their necks in water which
registers several degrees below zero"
The conviction was long ago forced upon me
that artists never permitted TO read or to
know the purport of the stories which they are
to illustrate, and this is confirmed by numerous
current examples. In case the writer de-
scribes his hero entering the room mot in his
dress clothes, but in gray business suit" and
the artist illustrates that very passage with a
picture OF him clad in q ceremonous frock coat
and trousers OF black. A story OF adventure tells
that the three four men in the hero's party
were quite unarmed. and the picture of them
shows each man to be a walking arsenal Of fire.
arms. Still another current story describes the
hero as clad in shabby second hand brown suit
which made him look like tramp, and as having
in his hand revolver which he had drawn from
the pocket OF man whom he had Knocked down;
a scene which the artist illustrates with a picture
of him arrayed in trim and stylish suit Of black
with no revolver visible.
1t would DO unjust, however, to intimate that