Clip of the Week: August 21, 2024

If the head-scratching stories featured on this blog are any judge, American newspapers from centuries past took full advantage of their right to free expression—especially their freedom to be snarky and petty. But does the First Amendment protect the right to typos?

In a Missouri newspaper office, recently, the boy who “makes up” the forms got the galleys mixed. After putting the first part of an obituary in the form, he, by mistake, took the next handful of type from a galley containing a description of a fire. The paragraph thus made read as follows:

“The pallbearers lowered the body to the grave. It was consigned to the flames. There were few, if any regrets, for the old wreak had been an eyesore to the town for years. Of course there was individual loss, but that was fully covered by insurance.”

We all want to be remembered after we’re gone—but maybe there is such a thing as bad publicity.

And in a religious newspaper of this State last week we find the following amazing statement:

“By scorching the scriptures you may learn how a sinner may be saved and how a Christian may become stronger in spiritual things.”

Of course, we know that editors get pretty hard up during the summer months, but until this appeared we supposed that none of them had tried to cook the Bible. Perhaps this editor has a long list of delinquents, too.

– The Progressive Farmer, August 9, 1898

The Bible is one of the few things I’ve not accidentally set on fire in the kitchen, but if the newspaper tells me it’s a recipe worth trying, it must be so.  Bon appétit!

As a former college newspaper copy editor, I’ve never felt more validated for all the late nights I spent vanquishing typos and Oxford commas.