THE TRICKY COMMA

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 138, 7 December 1929, Page 20

THE TRICKY COMMA

ONE THAT. COST £400,000

Nowadays .■considcrabie. "stress, is laid upon punctuation, and examiners are keen in ascertaining whether students ai-e properly equipped '•' in this"respect. In:"fact,.;a .Tecent.examination" paper containe'a"th<?:lines':-^-"!: ':". :;, •" .. ."' " .; .. Every lady, in the. land ; :.' .. ■ -... i Has;twenty; nails -Tipon.each hand'•:" ; .;.;J?ivo .and',twenty..on.vKands and feet-: ;-■ This 1- true without deceit; ■---•-• --': : far the nueahing to be shown^by punctuation^ .- ■■,:,:■.•■-. -.;. •;".■': .■■_:.:■■-...' : Kvideatly due. aftentibn'.-was'- iot- paid to .this subjcctrformerly,; or'it-'would' not have beenv necessary for Lord: Lyttolton ta pay some hundreds of pounds^ for-the. punctuation of. his '.^'History of Henry .the Second." Dr. Johnson states that he would' not trust the . printer,' but employed-a man who professed'to be an. expert, and yet, ■ notwithstanding this great, outlay, the work was badly done. , Printers must have taken on this duty in the past, for we .find Lord Jeffrey, the Edinburgh : reviewer, be-: seeching his printer not to. "sprinkle his pepper box full of. commas, too generously over his work." " ': ' This promiscuous sprinkling is responsible for. some peculiar mistakes. An Irish advertiser, for instance; required "a country girl to wash arid milk; one cow," while another paper offered "a good stylish bicycle, £10 for sale, by a young lady enamelled black and geared to sixty-eight.'' ' : ■ The United States suffered heavily through the- wrongful placing" of a comma some years: ago. The Congress drafted a Tariff: Bill, and in enumerating the articles to bo admitted free included, "all foreign fruit-plants." When copying, however, the clerk omitted the hyphen, and placed a comma after fruit, so that the clause read, "all foreign fruit, plants," etc.. As the matter could not be rectified for about a year all kinds of, foreign fruits, such as lemons, oranges, grapes, bananas, and others entered duty free, and the Government lost at least £400,000. ' ' ■ Liverpool has also had an experience of the value of the comma. In TSI9 a contract was entered into for lighting the then.town, which read: "The lamps to bo in number 4050, of two spouta each, composed of twenty -threads'' of cotton," but when: the contractor proceeded to comply with this it was lound that the comma should have precoded, and not followed, the word each Iho intention was that each spout should contain twenty threads, but as thia was not the contractor's idea of his .obligation the contract- was can.ceUed in order to. avoid -a- lawsuit ■The omission of a eomms gave^ rise to .a-.-Goutt ease; a few years ago. -Aii address plate had. been prepared, and as a comma had been left out after tho figure 1, the purchaser .refused to pay the account. The' Judge, however did not think the comma was essen-ti.ad,.-.and -therefore.,-idirectecl' that the engraver should be paid. .:;.: :