You read of
clerks being educated by sham forms of business. You might as well read
of men gambling with counterfeit money. Business men want clerks who
have been private, corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, captain. When a man
starts in as captain he is likely to get discharged as private. In the
great printing houses
PROOF READERS
are required, to see that the types are spelled out, one by one, into
the right words, and that the right words are rightly spelled. Now let a
college graduate apply for such a position. He knows Greek and Latin. He
can spell--or thinks he can. He can turn you out a sentence, which,
after going about so far, refers to what it is talking about, cuts a
pigeon-wing like the boys on the ice, tells a little tale between two
dashes, and one inside of that between two parentheses ("finger-nails,"
the printers call them), again refers to what it is talking about, and
closes up with three unaccented syllables following a heavy sound.
Sometimes folks hire this gentleman. The proof-slip is thrown in wet,
greatly to his horror, and after drying it he finds they are waiting for
it outside, and some other proof-reader is compelled to take it.
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