has been written about printers' errors and the mistakes of "the
intelligent compositor." Aside from those caused by illegible
manuscript, mistakes arise from faulty "distribution," that is to say,
the type has been thrown into the wrong boxes. Thus we get _c_ for
_e_, _h_ for _n_, _y_ for _p_, etc., these boxes being contiguous and
the letters of the same thickness; if, for instance, the compositor
picked up _u_ instead of _t_ the difference in thickness would at once
be noticed by him and the mistake rectified. Then letters are
sometimes set upside down and we find letters of a different "face"
which have got into the case by mistake. In type set on machine,
errors arise from striking adjacent keys, or some matrix will stick
in the channel and make its appearance later, sometimes even in the
next line. But the chief source of error is illegible or carelessly
prepared manuscript, and to the author's slips of the pen must be
added in these days the slips of the typewriter.

It is quite possible for a man to be an expert in astronomy, medicine,
or natural history and yet have hazy ideas on spelling and
punctuation. "When in doubt use a dash" is an old standing joke, but
some authors use dashes all the time, making them do duty for commas,
semicolons, and periods. They will write indifferently 4 or four and
frequently their capital _a_'s _c_'s, _m_'s, and _n_'s cannot be
distinguished from the small letters. They will commence a story
telling that the "Captain" did so and so, and lo, on the next page the
"captain" sinks into a common noun; and so with "Father," "mother,"
"Aunt," "uncle," etc. Just see what the story would look like if set
according to copy!

Now the proof-reader is expected to rectify all this, thereby drawing
on his head the wrath of the compositor, who says "he followed the
copy," and occasionally incurring the wrath of the author as well for
departing therefrom. Sometimes instructions are given that the
author's spelling, punctuation, etc., are to be carefully followed,
when of course no question can arise; and the proof-reader will query
on the proof submitted to the author anything which does not seem to
him to be correct.

The great newspapers and magazines have what they call a "style sheet"
for the guidance of their compositors and proof-readers and insist on
its being faithfully followed. Only by this means could uniformity in
the appearance of the paper be secured. In this style sheet carefu