The Difficulties of Proof-Reading
—There are a good many people who think proof-reading one of the easiest things in the world, and who get very impatient over mistakes in books and newspapers. A writer in the June number of The Galaxy gives some interesting instances of typographical errors. He mentions one edition of the Bible which contained 6,000 mistakes. He gives the following example of the difficulties in the way of getting out a perfect book. Some professors of the University at Edinburgh resolved to publish a book which should be a model of typographical accuracy. Six proof readers were employed, and after it was thought to be perfect, the sheets were pasted up in the hall of the university, and a reward of two hundred and fifty dollars was offered for every mistake that should be discovered. When the book was printed, it was found that it contained several errors, one being in the title-page and another in the first line in the first chapter. The only books that are believed to be entirely free from errors, are an Oxford edition of the Bible, a London and Leipsic Horace, and an American reprint of Dante.