[The need of accuracy, or how insignificant things sometimes change the
meaning, is shown by the following.]
A merchant of London wrote his East India factor to send him 2 or 3 apes;
but he forgot to write the "r" in "or," and the factor wrote that he had
sent 80, and would send the remainder of the 2 0 3 as soon as they could be
gathered in.
13. A very well-known writer had a similar experience. He was selling
copies of his first literary venture, and telegraphed to the publisher to
send him "three hundred books at once." He answered. "Shall I send them on
an emigrant train, or must they go first-class? Had to scour the city over
to get them. You must be going into the hotel business on a great scale to
need so many Cooks." I was bewildered; but all was explained when a copy of
the dispatch showed that the telegraph clerk had mistaken the small "b" for
a capital "C."