work, the same
reader handles it from start to finish.

If the proof-reader finds any passages whose meaning is not clear, or
sentences of faulty construction, he will call the author's attention
thereto. He will also call attention to Biblical or poetical
quotations which he may know to be incorrect. Many authors will quote
Scripture or poetry from memory, which is found to vary in many
respects from the original on verification. And then they complain
because "the printer did not set it up right,"--when they are charged
for corrections. But why should the compositor bear the expense of
correction--or the master-printer for that matter--when the copy was
clearly wrong in the first instance? A moment's thought will show the
injustice of such a procedure.

From what we have said may be seen the importance of the reading of
"first proof." Many offices have the proofs read twice, first without
referring to the copy, when the more glaring errors may be corrected
at leisure, and then again carefully read by copy. The proofs are then
returned to the compositors for correction, each man correcting the
portion he set up.

A second proof is now taken which is put in the hands of another
proof-reader (or "reviser") for revision. His business is to see that
the corrections of the first reader have all been duly made. Should
he find any palpable errors that have been overlooked by the first
reader, he will call his attention thereto and on approval mark them.
It may be necessary to return the proofs again to the compositors for
correction, and even a third time. When found to be what is called
"clean," they are sent to the author (usually in duplicate) along with
the copy.

And now the author sees himself in print, perhaps for the first time.
He will notice that his work presents a different appearance from what
it did in manuscript. Here and there a passage can be improved, a
phrase polished, an idea amplified--the same man will think
differently at different times; and lo, here, the stupid printer has
made him speak of a marine landscape when he wrote Maine landscape!
(That proof-reader must be disciplined.) And here a sentence has been
left out which he wrote on the back of his copy and has been skipped
by compositor, copy-holder, proof-reader, and reviser alike! Then the
queries of the proof-reader must be answered, and a few commas here
and there would improve things,--and so he proceeds to mark up his
proofs, for all of