Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1902 — Blunders in the Type. [ARTICLE]

Blunders in the Type.

Errors of the press often begin with errors of the reporters Who have misunderstood spoken words. The rule of follow copy compels the compositor to repeat the exact words written by the reporter and the following blunders are the result of -obedience to •this rule. - A speaker made this statement: “In these days clergymen are expected to have the wisdom and learning of Jeremy Taylor.” But the reporter wrote, and the compositor repeated: the wisdom and learning of a journeyman tailor.” Another speaker quoted these lines: Oh, come, thou goddees fair and free, In heaven yclept Euphroyne. They were printed as written:' Oh, come, thou goddess fair and free, In heaven she crept and froze her knee. Another orator quoted this line from Tennyson’s “Locksley Hall”: Better fifty years of .Europe than a cycle of Cathay. But the quotation was written and printed: Better fifty years in Europe than a circus in Bombay. One of the worst perversions of a hackneyed quotation (incorrectly given by the speaker) is this, which seems to be the joint work of the zealous reporter and the equally reckless printer: Amicus Plato, amicus Socrates, sed major veritas. 1 may cuss Plato, I may cuss Socrates, said Major Veritas. —The Practice of Typography, T. L. De Vinne.