SLIPS THAT PASS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 255, 8 January 1941, Page 5

SLIPS THAT PASS

NEWSPAPER HUMOUR

ERRORS BY THE PRINTER

There are Printer's Errors which have become almost classic, and many New Zealand newspapers have contributed—if unwittingly—to a most imposing list. "The morality amongst the lambs this year is very low," has appeared more than once, and the word seemed to be fatal to the old-time compositor. In a King Country township* a well-known baritone was reported:" ". . . the resonant voice of our worthy townsman was heard to great advantage, in 'Land of Hops and Glory.'" The concluding sentence in the report, "A collection was being taken up as our representative left," suggested a certain degree of malice aforethought. To cap the story, it came out that the singer had a certain weakness. A form of prose-poem prepetrated by another journed opened with some lines from Gray's Elegy—a somewhat revised version! The ploughman homeward plods his weary w T ay, And leaves the girl to darkness and to me. There was a bitter complaint from the editorial side which met with little sympathy from the compositor, who considered that "it was darned . considerate of the ploughman, anyway." The .visit of a school inspector was responsible for another blunder by the same erring comp: "Mr Smith said he had considered the situation from all ankles, and had decided to award the prize to the girls-" Some wag wrote to Ihe paper demanding to know if this was the form of higher education he had heard so' much about. "The bride walked up the aisle with a lovely bunch of Friesians on her arm/' brightened up a wedding report considerably.