Illegible Manuscripts — 240
What guessers printers must be! A New York editor, in descanting upon the guess-at-half-of-it style of writing in which many articles are sent to be printed, gives the following amusing specimen. A piece of poetry before him, written in what, at a reasonable glance, seemed to be intelligible, when examined a little closer appeared to present the following:—
Alone toss’d rolls a tear by Moses,
A many things we mourn by day;
Tom and the shouting Indian chorus,
And seethe their lambs at play.
Knowing, however, that his correspondent was not a fool, he more carefully examined it, and he guesses that the following version is nearer the author’s intentions:—
I love to stroll at early morn
Among the new-mown hay,
To mark the sprouting Indian corn,
And see the lambs at play.