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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 4

[miscellaneous paragraphs]

The record of the tariff in New Zealand is a suggestive one. Almost the first act of the first Governor was to establish the first Custom-house, which in its turn provoked the first Maori War, which led to the first colonial debt.

A correspondent of the Printers' Register enters a protest against the loose and inaccurate term « folding chases. » He says that it is the dread of every manufacturer or dealer in supplies when he meets with it in an order. « He knows full well, often by sad experience, that there is no worse trap in all the nomenclature of printing. Ask a dozen experienced printers what they understand, for example, by a pair of double-foolscap folding chases. Six of them, after a moment's consideration, will shake their heads and decline to risk their reputation by a reply; two of the remainder will probably say, 'two double-foolscap chases with a narrow bar to each; two others will say 'two foolscap chases with a narrow bar to each;' the remaining two will suggest 'four foolscap chases with a narrow bar to each.' Which is right? The answer to this is the funniest part of the riddle. Any one of the three, according to the meaning of the person who used the words. Does not this point to the necessity for a more exact means of describing what is wanted? My suggestion is that the foolish and ambiguous word 'folding' should be completely tabooed and forgotten, and that printers should describe a 'folding-chase' in the simple and natural way, naming the size, and the fact that it has one or two narrow bars. Instead, therefore, of 'a pair of double-foolscap folding chases,' a printer will say 'four foolscap chases, each with a narrow bar.' No doubt or mistake will then be possible. » We quite agree with the writer. Printers and catalogue-makers would do well to act on the hint he has given.

« Moses from an Old Mouse, » says the Iowa State Register, « is a pretty story, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne….. It is a large volume, and very interesting, as are all of the works of this noted author » —The Bay of Plenty people, according to a local paper, have a « turpentine track » over the ranges.—A reporter of the Auckland Herald records that at a late concert a lady « gave a solo with great taste and much applause. » —A Wanganui paper represents Mr Travers as stating before the Philosophical Society that since the sparrows had multiplied on the Canterbury Plains, it was scarcely possible to obtain a specimen of the once-numerous moths, « even for ethnological purposes. » — « The launch of the cruiser Cynthia, » says a home paper, « passed off successfully. The christening was performed with the customary rites by Miss Isabella Campbell. Her weight is 1300 tons, and she is made to carry six heavy guns below deck. » —In the libel case Butcher v. Wairarapa Daily, a newspaper-man testified that plaintiff had been dismissed by Messrs Smith & Hogg because the latter « were induced to believe that their throats were being cut behind their backs. » —A Victorian Supreme Court Judge thus sharply rebuked a loquacious witness: « I wish you would be so good, sir, as to hold your tongue and answer the questions! » [ « Orrrderrr in the Coorrrt. » ] His Honor is not an Irishman.—An up-country municipality, advertising in the local paper for its year's supplies, specifies, among other items, « timber legs, not less than twelve inches square. » Nearly as awkward as Miss Kilmansegge's celebrated artificial limb.— « In the absence of both editors, » says an Irish nationalist paper, « the publishers have secured the services of a gentleman to edit the paper this week. » A circumstance sufficiently extraordinary to warrant special mention.— The London Standard has perpetrated a bull that beats the record. Reporting the murder of a man named Listowel, it states that « he lived long enough after death to accuse a man named Griff en of having wounded him. »

New Zealand schoolboys contribute their fair share to the literature of blunders. Among those recorded by Inspectors in reports lately presented to Parliament are the following:— « Among the industries of Auckland was a large pump that lifted 10 tons of water per minute from a depth of 640 miles. » « The chief industry of Wellington is a House of Parliament. » Derivation of « hypocrite » — « Hippos, a horse; krites, a judge—a judge of horses. » « Annihilate—anna, again, nihil, nothing—to eat nothing. » « Antidote, a short story, » One boy with a descriptive turn wrote, « I seen a horke sitting on a goss fence, » and described the harmless necessary cat as the « dwaugh » of the animal kingdom.

It is calculated that the stationery ordered for the coming census of the United States would fill a room three blocks long, thirty feet high, and forty feet wide. In addition to the 20,000 population schedules now being printed, 10,000,000 more will be ordered at an early date. This will require 200 tons of paper, which is now being delivered at the rate of 30,000lb. a day. Twenty million blanks for statements of recorded indebtedness will be required; 7,000,000 or 8,000,000 manufacturers' schedules, and 2,000,000 agricultural schedules. These blanks are all about 9 X llin. in size. Six hundred different kinds of circulars have already been printed, the average number of copies of each being about 20,000, or, in round numbers, 12,000,000 miscellaneous forms. Besides the printed matter, millions of sheets of other paper are needed, one single order being for 100,000,000 blank cards for the use of the electrical tabulating machine. A part of this stationery will be sent through the mails, and for that purpose no less a number than 75,000,000 free-delivery envelopes has been ordered. These figures give only the amount of preliminary printing required. When the census is being taken and the returns are being computed, much additional printed matter will be used, and the printed census-records will consume more paper than is required both to get ready for and to take the census.

To many of Jour younger readers the name of « Matt Morgan, » whose death at the comparatively early age of 51 is reported from New York, will convey no idea; but twenty-two years ago, there was no more noted name in London than that of the young and rising artist of the Tomahawk, whose weird and powerful cartoons gave promise of a brilliant future. Tenniel is undoubtedly the greatest cartoonist of the century; but Morgan ran him close, and had he devoted himself to the work, might have taken the leading place. We open our Tomahawk volume at a magnificent and impressive double-page study—the date is 9th November, 1867—the subject « The French Memnon, or Waiting for War. » The Tomahawk cartoons (after the first few numbers) were enforced by a ground in an appropriate tint, the high lights being cut out. In this object the ground is a sombre brown; Louis Napoleon, as the Memnon—a bird of prey with outstretched wings upon his knees—sits rigid and inscrutable, facing the rising sun. The sky is filled with spectral armies, and the desert sands swarm with armed hosts, awaiting the sounds which the figure is to emit at sunrise. Doré never conceived nor drew anything finer; and this is but one of many. « Banquo at the Banquet, » in which the ghost of the murdered Maximilian rises and confronts the French emperor (20th July 1867) was another powerful work. « Alone in the World, » adapted from Doré (6th March 1869), is remarkable chiefly for its prophetic foreshadowing of the downfall of the third Napoleon. The literary standard of the paper was high, and its writing extremely caustic, but its great feature was the cartoons. It only lived about two years. It became involved in libel suits; and—gravest offence of all—the audacious artist ventured to caricature a royal favorite. This sealed the doom of the Tomahawk —a paper which did good service in its day. Morgan was the son of parents who were both actors and musicians, and he was brought up as a scene-painter; thereby acquiring a breadth of style and grasp of general effect which powerfully affected his style as a cartoonist. Before his association with the Tomahawk, he had travelled in Europe and in parts of Asia and Africa, as a correspondent of the Illustrated London News, and his desert and ocean scenes are drawn with a fidelity that shows how truly he had caught the spirit of the foreign regions through which he had journeyed. For a time he was associated with W. S. Gilbert and F. C. Burnand on the staff of Fun in its best days; and in 1870 he went to the United States, and joined Frank Leslie's Illustrated Paper. In 1874 he published « American War Cartoons. » He never abandoned his profession of scene-painting, and in fact in May last contracted the cold which caused his death while at work on the scenery of the new Madison Square Theatre. From 1880 to 1885 he resided at Cincinnati, where he carried on the business of theatrical lithographer. We believe that he was largely interested financially in the unfortunate Tomahawk. Had that paper survived, the genius of the young artist would doubtless have been embodied in work of a permanent character, and which would have brought him lasting fame.