-1 VALLEY FRONTIERSMAN
PRINTED AT PALMER. ALASKA.EACH FRIDAY
_ By the Matanuska Press, Inc.
Entered u second cists matter on Oct if1047. at the post office at
_Pfcimer. Alaska, under the Act of March 1. 1079
Publisher, Business Manager A1 J. DeJulto
Lucille Kennedy Mick
Virginia Gallant
Barbara Carter _ ~Wasilla Corresponded
Subscription Rates 50c a month, $5 a year
Mailed to all points in Alaska and the United States
HOW TO READ A NEWSPAPER!
Editor's Comment: We reprint the following editorial by John
S. Ryan because of its singular timeliness for the observance of
National Newspaper Week. Anything that Editor Ryan says
about the Fairbanks News-Miner applies equally to the Valley
Frontiersman. We hope our readers enjoy it as much as we did.
• • * * •
By JOHN J. RYAN
Editor, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
It has come to our attention that certain readers are occasionally
puxxled by typographical errors, and makeup mistakes, that acca
sionally creep into the best newspapers.
We maintain that the News-Miner makes its share of these
m mistakes, but no more than its share
Consider for a moment, how your newspaper is made up. Every
sentence in it must be cast into a solid slug of lead, then placed
in the page forms in the right position.
This painstaking process is subject to error, and that's why you
fmd typographical errors in your newspapers.
Editor
Associate Editor
Let us consider the various ■
types of typographical errors,
study them, and evolve methods
of solving the mysteries they pre
sent the reader.
* • • •
The first and foremost type of
etror is an annoying type we shall
call the “little fluker”. This is
merely a wrong letter that occa
sionally creeps into a word. You
might find the word Fairbanks
spelled Fairbankz.” Or the word
city spelled Ciqy. This type of
error offers no challenge to an
enterprising reader. To solve it
all you must do is study the word
a few minutes, and then guess the
right letter that makes the word
sensible. We’ll pass this one up.
* • # *
The second type of error you
will encounter in the average
newspaper is much more serious.
I call this type the “printers de
* light.” In this particular type of
mistake, the linotype operator,
while he is setting the copy into
lead type, not only hits the wrong
letter, but inserts another letter |
that makes a good word, but
which doesn’t belong in the sen
tence at all.
Let me illustrate, from a mis
take that our News-Miner proof
reader caught last week. The sen
tence was supposed to read: “The
airline will now operate regularly t
scheduled runs between Fair
banks and Portland”.
But the operator inserted a T
instead of a W, and here’s how
the sentence read: “The airline
will not operate a regularly
scheduled service between Fair
banks and Portland.”
Do you see why “the printers
delight” is such a deadly type of
error? It completely changes the
sense of the sentence, but yet the
sentence looks fine. The only con
clusion the reader can come to
is that the reporter who wrote j
the story must have been smoking :
marijuana.
Once while working for a
^Stateside newspaper, I had what
I considered to be a beautiful
story completely ruined by one of
these “printers delights”. I was
so broken hearted by the mishap,
that I went home that night and
suffered a nightmare. I dreamed
that I was being chased by two
inebriated printers, who were
- threatening to scalp me with a
pica rule. I tried to call for assist
ance, but each time I shouted, the
words came out like this:
Hepl, Polde
• • • •
The third type of error we shall
call the “transposition.’’ This form
of error rarely puzzles a good
reader. In such an error, all the
but they aren’t in the right order,
letters of the word are present,
You probably have made such a
mistake on your typewriter.
For instance, the word Missis
sippi might turn up as Missssiippi.
All the esses and eyes are there,
but they are scrambled. Most fre
quently encountered is the word
“the” spelled hte. Or the word
“with” spelled wiht. This should
not hold up a single reader, so we
won’t delve deeply into the mat
ter.
* * • *
The fourth type of error is
hardly worth mentioning. I call
it the “printers practice swing.”
Occasionally you will find a line
in a story reading something like
this:
ETAOIN Shrdlu zzzzz bmw xy
This mistake comes about when 1
the linotype operator is starting
work, and feels an urge to try out
his machine, and clear the keys.
He just hits all the letters in wild
order, as sort of a warmup. The
line is cast, of course, and occa
sionally it isn’t thrown out. So, i
the reader pops his eyes at this j
complete alphebetical confusion.
Just disregard such lines.
* * * *
The fifth type of error we shall
call the “suspense ending’’.
In this particular type of error,
a few lines of a story are left off
as the printer inserts it in the
form. The reader suddenly comes
to the end of the story, right in
the middle of a sentence.
It might go something like this:
President Truman said that he
would move immediately to block
the . . . then it just ends there.
Furthermore, it isn’t bad en
ough that the lines are missing
but they invariably turn up some
where else where they don’t be
long.
This generally gives you a re
sult something like this:
The two automobiles collided
As Truman said that he would
alongside a street car, where j
i dented that Acheaon ever Mid he
when the ambulance arrived
j there ... etc
I will frankly admit that when
you encounter such a hodge
podge the best thing to do is just
to skip to some other page in the
paper, and become interested n j
a new story. |
• • • •
The sixth, and last type of er
ror I call the "sciatic scramble", j
In this type of error, all sentences ;
of the paragraph are there, but
they aren’t in the right order.
This form of a mistake generally
occurs when the makeup man
drops a story, then attempts to
: assemble it again.
For instance, you might run in
to a paragraph like this:
"Five men were killed and 15
were injured when a bus plunged
into the vehicle survived when
the driver lost none of those
aboard the ill-fated slippery pave
ment into the clutches of the
river.”
frigid waters of Swift river last
the dark waters. Rescuers said
that control and the bus skidded
of the night, and immediately
vanished in the swift moving
This problem shouldn’t puzzlej
a clever reader. Just read each
line slowly, and look through the
paragraph until you find the line
that continues the sense. You’ll
have to skip around a bit, but you
should get the idea, before long.
After all, a newspaper only costs
a dime, and you can’t expect your,
news on a platter for ten cents.
• * • •
Casting all typographical er
rors aside, we would like to say
that we are trully sorry for each
mistake you find in our paper, or
any paper, for that matter. We
are watching for them constantly,
and we are certain that you wfu
rarely find any in our paper, in
the future.
We are making every effort to
see that the News-Miner is typo
graphically across any errors, you
will know that every effort had
been made to eliminate perfect,
and we know that we can make,
it so. If in the future, you run
them, and that our ability to con
trol.
the mistake was completely be
* * * *
(Note to the linotype operator:
Did you ever have more fun in
your life?)
* * * *
Linotype operator’s note:—(All
the boneheads at the News-Miner
aren’t in the printing depart
ment).
COFFEY INSURES
EVERYTHING. REMEMBER?
Insurance
of All Kinds
Real Estate
Now a New
Magazine Subscription
Agency
Pioneer Insurance
and Really
Wright Building Palmer
rugs and linoleums
Prints or Plains
Imports or Domestics
Ask for Our Estimot.s on Aspholt T.l«
«.i.l/l00*J!OVI»INO
Interior Freight Lines
Cloy Prewitf ond Cliff Steodmon. Own.r,
Fnl** HmHilag Between Valfa
Phone 62-J-3
************************************.
■"^•»**»********************************^*********
MUSIC '!
For Dancing and Listening
Informal
HALLOWEEN DANCE
Wednesday Niqht
I
*
*
*
*
*
*
T&T
*
*
*
*
*
Sourdough Stage Bar]
Palmer, Alaska
<HHHHHH^H^******************************** ***4
>5
OASTUJISfc
line
Offering Scheduled Freight Service Between
California—Portland—Seattle—Alaska
S. S. JOHN W. BURGESS
Arrive Valdez October 28
S. S. CHARLES CROCKER
Arrive Seward October 26
S. S. SEAFAIR
Leave Seattle October 25
Arrive Seward-Valdez . October 30
S. S. TARLETON BROWN
Leave Long Beach October 26
Leave San Francisco October 29
Leave Portland November 4
Leave Seattle November 9
Arrive Seward-Valdez November 15
SEWARD
A. E. Freight Depot
Main 164
Captain T. Ble
Operating Manager
ANCHORAGE
223 Central Bide.
P. O. Box 592
Phone 34401
George Hutton
Dlst. Manager
FAIRBANKS
P. O. BOX 1201
Jameson Engineer*
lng Building
Phone—East 80S
M. J. Wilcox,
Dlst. Freight Agt.
Modern Coutwlse Steamship Transportation