The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 | Page 4

tempest in a tea-cup could have been raised
by Harte's bit of character sketching. But, recovering my gravity, I
advised that the whole question should await Mr. Roman's return. I was
sure that he would never consent to any "editing" of Harte's story. This
was agreed to, and when the publisher came back, a few days later, the
embargo was removed. The Luck of Roaring Camp was printed as it
was written, and printing office and vestal proof-reader survived the
shock.'
It is amazing to think that, but for the determination and
self-confidence of quite a young author, a story that has gladdened and
softened the hearts of thousands,--a story that has drawn welcome
smiles and purifying tears from all who can appreciate its
deftly-mingled humour and pathos,--a story that has been a boon to
humanity--might have been sacrificed to the shallow ruling of a prudish
'young-lady' proof-reader, and a narrow-minded, pharisaical
deacon-printer!
It is appalling to think what might have happened if through
nervousness or modesty the writer had been frightened by the

premature criticisms of this precious pair.
The "deacon-printer" mentioned by Pemberton was Jacob Bacon, a fine
specimen of the printer of the latter half of the last century. He was the
junior partner of the firm of Towne and Bacon, the printers of Harte's
first volume, The Lost Galleon. Mr. Towne (not Tane, as spelled in
Merwin's Life of Bret Harte) obtained judgment in Boston for the
printing of that volume. (See further, Mrs. T. B. Aldrich's Crowding
Memories, as to satisfaction of judgment.)
A half-tone portrait of the "prudish 'young-lady' proof-reader" (what a
lacerating taunt!) is printed in the Bret Harte Memorial Number of the
Overland (September, 1902).
The proof-readers have not dealt kindly with The Luck of Roaring
Camp; but the first of that ilk to mutilate the story was also the worst,
to wit, the aforesaid "prudish 'young-lady' proof-reader."
Good usage in typography was utterly unknown to this young
lady,--punctuation, capitalization, the use of the hyphen in dividing and
compounding words. In practice she did not--perhaps could
not--recognize any distinction between a cipher and a lower-case o. As
to spelling, one may find "etherial," "azalias," "tessallated."
Noah Brooks, in the Overland Memorial Number, says (p. 203),--
He [Bret Harte] collected some half-dozen stories and poems and they
were printed in a volume entitled "The Luck of Roaring Camp and
Other Sketches," (1870.)
There were no poems printed in that volume. It was published in
Boston by Fields, Osgood, & Co. Printed at the University Press at
Cambridge, then unquestionably the best book-printing house in the
United States, of course many of the typographical errors were weeded
out. This volume was reprinted in London by John Camden Hotten.
It is to be regretted that the University Press was not more painstaking
in the proof-reading, for the Overland typographical perversions persist

in some instances to the present day. The reader is not misled by the
lubbering punctuation of the sentence, "She was a coarse, and, it is to
be feared, a very sinful woman." The usage in such a construction is,
"She was a coarse, and it is to be feared a very sinful, woman." But
note where the sense is affected:--
Cherokee Sal was sinking fast. Within an hour she had climbed, as it
were, that rugged road that led to the stars, and so passed out of
Roaring Camp, its sin and shame forever.
Cherokee Sal could not possibly be the sin and shame of Roaring Camp
forever; hence the sense calls for a comma after "shame," in the extract.
It is gratifying to note that the comma is used in the Hotten reprint.
Another egregious blunder which has persisted is the printing of the
word "past" for "passed," in the extract below.
Then he [Kentuck] walked up the gulch, past the cabin, still whistling
with demonstrative unconcern. At a large redwood tree he paused and
retraced his steps, and again passed the cabin.
It remained for a proof-reader at the Riverside Press to reconstruct the
sentence by deleting the comma after the word "gulch"; thus, "the gulch
past the cabin." That Kentuck "again passed the cabin" seems not to
have been considered. Hence, in the Houghton Mifflin Company's
printings of The Luck of Roaring Camp, the last error is worse than the
first.
These errors are not venial. Those that are such have not been
mentioned, as they occur in almost every book, and appear to be
unavoidable. Other errors, evincing a lack of knowledge of good usage
in book-typography, must also pass unnoticed.
The Luck of Roaring Camp having been disposed of, consideration of
Dr. Royce's review of the Shirley Letters will be resumed.
The Doctor, on page 350 of his work, says, "In her little library she had
a Bible, a prayer-book,