le aggravation of "typographical errors," rightly so
called,--for, in nine cases out of ten, I opine it is the types
themselves which err.

I appeal to fellow-sufferers, if the substitutions and interpolations
and false combinations of letters are not often altogether too absurd
for humanity.

Take, as one instance, the experience of a friend, who, in writing in
all innocency of a session of the Historical Society, affirmed mildly in
manuscript, "All went smoothly," but weeks after was made to declare in
blatant print, "All went _snoringly_!"

As among men, so in the alphabet, one sinner destroyeth much good.

The genial Senator from the Granite Hills told me of an early aspiration
of his own for literary distinction, which was beheaded remorselessly by
a villain of this type. By way of majestic peroration to a pathetic
article, he had exclaimed, "For what would we exchange the fame of
Washington?"--referring, I scarcely need say, to the man of fragrant
memory, and not to the odorous capital. The black-hearted little dies,
left to their own devices one night, struck dismay to the heart of the
aspirant author by propounding in black and white a prosaic inquiry as
to what would be considered a fair equivalent for the _farm_ of the
father of his country!

Among frequent instances of this depravity in my own experience, a
flagrant example still shows its ugly front on a page of a child's book.
In the latest edition of "Our Little Girls," (good Mr. Randolph, pray
read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest,) there occurs a description of a
christening, wherein a venerable divine is made to dip "his _head_" into
the consecrating water, and lay it upon the child.

Disembodied words are also sinners and the occasions of sin. Who has not
broken the Commandments in consequence of the provocation of some
miserable little monosyllabic eluding his grasp in the moment of his
direst need, or of some impertinent interloper thrusting itself in to
the utter demoralization of his well-organized sentences? Who has not
been covered with shame at tripping over the pronunciation of some
perfectly simple word like "statistics," "inalienable," "inextricable,"
etc., etc., etc.?

Whose experience will not empower him to sympathize with that
unfortunate invalid, who, on being interrogated by a pious visitor in
regard to her enjoyment of means of grace, informed the horror-stricken
inquisitor,--"I have not been to church for years, I have been s