Errors Of The Press.

ERRORS OF THE PRESS .

( Continued from Page 115 . ) TI THOMAS MOOltb " , who w < is aware of the printer ' s liability to I commit errors , makes a happy iiit at them in his " Fudges in England : " —

" But a week or two since , in my ' Ode to the Spring , — Which I meant to have made a most beautiful tlnng—Whore I talked of tlio dew-drops fiom freshly-blown roses , ' The nasty things made it , from ' fleshy brown noses . ' "

In a copy of Dr . Johnson ' s tragedy of Irene , * one of tho characters has to address Mahomet II . thus : — " Forgive , great Sultan , that by fate prevented , I bring a tardy message from Irene . " Tho printer omitted the e in fate , " and gave it : —

" Forgive , great Sultan , that by fat prevented , Ac , " thus indicating that the messenger was too corpulent to reach his royal master in time to save tho heroine ' s life . In the little " Canterbury Poets" edition of Keats , I 860 , the lines in tho " Ode to Psyche * . "—

" Their lips touched not , but had not bade adieu , As if disjoin'dby soft-handed slumber , " are printed : — "Their lips touched not , but had not bade adieu , As if disjointed by soft-handed slumber , "

a disjointed lip being a " lusus naturte indeed . In Coleridge's " Ode to the Nightingale , " arethefollcwii g lines : " And swift jug jug ; And one low piping sound more sweet than all ; " but ono printer by the alteration of a single letter , entirely changed tho sense , thus : —

" And swift jug jug , And one low piping sound more sweet than ale . " A compositor , having to set in type the words of an illustrious author : —

" Sermons in stones , books in the running brooks , " treated tho readers to his own emendation , thus : — " Sermons in books , stones in running brooks . " A poetical bachelor wrote some verses for tho village paper , in which he expressed a wish that the time would soon arrive when he should : —

"—rest calmly within a shroud , With a weeping willow by his side . " i But imagine his horror and disgust when he found that his poetry had assumed this form : — " When I shall rest calmly within a shawl , With a weeping widow by my side . "

A printer named Johnson , published a circular in the year 1793 , in which he professed to have discovered a means of rendering errors impossible . It was ably reasoned in style , and carefully revised in the printing no doubt , yet the immaculate inventor would be annoyed when he found that with all his care the word " Majesty " had been printed " Najesty . "

Even the most popular newspapers are not always free from blunders : the London " Times " on Monday , the 18 th June 1888 , bore date of Sunday the 17 th , and a few days previously , the parliamentary report for the 12 th of June appeared under the date of 12 th July .

By an error of the press , the " Eclectic Review" was advertised as the Epilectic Review , and , on inquiry being made for it at a bookseller ' s shop , the bibliopole replied that "he knew of no periodical called the Epilectic Review , though there might he such a publication coming out by fits and starts . "

Though we should not criticise too severely tho Irish newspaper which announced that " Robespierre left no children behind him , except a brother , who was killed at the same time , " yet the information comes with startling surprise from an English journal that Her Majesty Queen Victoria was " the last person to wear another man ' s crown . " ¦ *

The Graphic once informed its readers that the Duke of Buckingham , o ' £ Queen Anne ' s reign , " was married three times , and on each occasion to three widows , " in wbich case he must have been troubled with a plurality of wives . A Tory editor wrote : — " Lord Cairns is less accustomed to parry and fence than Lord Beaconsfield . " The compositor rendered the expression thus * . —" Lord Cairns is less accxistomed to palsy aud fever than Lord Beaconsfield . "

¦ According to a newspaper of February 1882 , the Marquis of Queensberry was bitterly incensed against the " Times" for the single omission of " that often abused letter " h " in a communication which he had addressed to the editor . The Maiquis had referred to himself as a thinker , and much to his chagrin , " he was displayed before the world self-described as a ' tinker . '"

In the year 1888 , a letter appeared m one of the London papers from Mr . Osborne Morgan . Mr . Morgan complained that a speech of his had been misrepresented . He had been made to say that the Liberal-Unionists were " all asses but not masses , " whereas his

Errors Of The Press.

expression was that on their side were " all the classes but not the masses . " A metropolitan editor desired to abandon the use of Roman numerals in the columns of his paper , and issued an edict that for thc future all monarchical titles should be given in full . Thus Henry VIII . must be converted into Henry tho Eight , and so on according to tho style adopted . Nothing could be more explicit ,

but the compositor , —probably not knowing that X is the Greek equivalent to CH . and the initial letter of the Greek name Christ , in setting up it lufurcnce t >> Good Friday sermons , came upon tho abbreviated combination " Jesus Xt , " and obeying literally the instructions of his employer , ho set up tho words " Jesus tho Eleventh" in large , bold type . Ho had taken tho "Xt" for "XI . "

"It might be supposed that in so dignified and monarchical a publication as the Court Circular , the Queen ' s English would be respected , " says an evening paper of 17 th March 1890 . "A reference to the drowning of Sir Howard Elphinstone , however , reads thus : ' Ho had been selected by tlie Prince Consort to be governor of

His Royal Highness tho Duke of Connaught when he was only eight and a half years old . ' What is thus conveyed is that tho lato Sir Howard Elphinstone was extremely juvenile when he undertook the duty . But what is really meant is that the Duke of Connaught was then eight and a half years old . "

The Scottish poet , Alexander Smith , who wrote in his " Life Drama , " sc . II : — " See the pale martyr in a sheet of fire , " was no doubt disgusted when he found the line changed to , " See the pale martyr with his shirt on fire . " It is supposed that the original is to be found in " Juvenal ' s Satires " : —Qua stantes ardent qui fixo guttere fumant . "

The editor of the " Evangelical Observer , " in reference to an individual , took occasion to write that he was rectus in ecclesia , that is , in good standing in church . The typo setter , to whom this was a dead language , in the editor ' s absence , concerted it into rectus in culina , or of good standing in the kitchen .

The editor of a Tyneside evening paper wrote humorously with regard to a certain libel case , and stated in his remarks that " shooting your wife ' s pet cats may be an interesting pastime , but it deserves to be made a costly one . " The printer improved the humour as follows : — " shortening your wife's petticoats may bp an interesting pastime , etc . "

A leading journal once flashed upon its readers the important news that " upon one day in a certain week , one hundred and forty cases of cholera occurred in Naples in forty-eight hours . " Irish reporters , perhaps owing to the recognised tendency of the soil to produce " bulls , " are a privileged class , and entirely outside the pale of grammatical criticism . One of them , in describing the

result of a conflict between the police and the people , in which firearms were used , writes : — " In the infirmary lies John Smith with his shattered leg , which was amputated on Tuesday last . " An Irish author says that " among those mortally wounded at Waterloo was Major O'Brien , afterwards distinguished for his bravery in the Indian wars . "

Towards the close of tho year 1890 , an amusing mistake occurred in the speech of Mr . Parnell , member for Cork . This was made by substituting tbe word " priests " for " forests . " Speaking about Irish mining and iron producing works , Mr . Parnell is mado to say that , " with the denudation of the priests of Ireland , these smelting operations camo to an end , " thus implying that members of the ecclesiastical body had at one time been used as fuel .

Baron Dowse m giving judgment in a case of alleged libel which turned mainly on the omission of the word not , said that mistakes often occurred in newspapers , and gave an instance of his own experience . Addressing a Cork jury , he quoted the well known line from Tennyson's " Locksley Hall " : — " Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle in Cathay . " To his horror he found himself reported in a local paper as having said : — " Better fifty years of Europe than a circus in Bombay . " " Book of Rarities , " by Bro . Edward Roberts P . M . Asst . Prov . G . T . ( To bo continued . )

Masonic Sonnets, No. 88.

Masonic Sonnets , No . 88 .

BY BRO . CHAS . F . FORSHAW , LL . D ., 295 and 2417 ( E . C . ) Hon . Mem . 1242 ( E . C . ) and 24 ( S . C . ) — : o : — I have a friend—a true Masonio friend—A Craftsman good who loves The Mystic Tie ; Who loves our Art to praise and to defend ,

And loves still more our Architect on High , His heart is noble , for 'tis strong for Right , His deeds are Just , he would not hurt a foe ; His actions one and all will bear the Light , And he undaunted ' mid its brightest glow . I love him as a father loves his

child—True Masons know the love I would portray ; A love that wavers not—nor is defiled By earthly thorns we meet with day by day ; But grows in Strength when worldly tempests blow And plucks the seeds that malice fain would sow . Winder House , Bradford , 18 th April 1894 .

Dr . Conan Doyle , Author of " The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , " is to write a series of articles for " Great Thoughts , " the first of which will appear in the issue of 5 th May .