The woman lecturing on dress reform was greatly shocked when she read the report as published in the local paper. The writer had been innocent enough, for his concluding sentence was:
“The lady lecturer on dress wore nothing that was remarkable.”
But the merry compositor inserted a period, which was left undisturbed by the proofreader, so that the published statement ran:
“The lady lecturer on dress wore nothing. That was remarkable.”
* * *
The poet, in a fine frenzy, dashed off a line that was really superb:
“See the pale martyr in his sheet of fire.”
The devilish compositor so tangled the words that, when the poem was published, this line read:
“See the pale martyr with his shirt on fire.”
* * *
The critic, in his review of the burlesque, wrote:
“The ladies of Prince Charming’s household troops filled their parts to perfection.”
The compositor, in his haste, read an n for the r in the word parts, and the sentence, thus changed, radically in its significance, duly appeared in the morning paper.