Punctuation makes a great many bulls in this country. The other day I
picked up a newspaper in Wisconsin full of curious things. I enclose a
few specimens:
“The procession at Judge Orton’s funeral was very fine and nearly two
miles in length as was the beautiful prayer of the Rev. Dr. Swing from
Chicago.”
Another:
“A cow was struck by lightning on Saturday belonging to Dr. Hammond
who had a beautiful spotted calf only four days old.”
A distressing accident is thus chronicled:
“A sad accident happened to the family of John Elderkin on Main
street, yesterday. One of his children was run over by a market wagon
three years old with sore eyes and pantalets on that never spoke
afterwards.”
The next morning after lecturing at Jonesville, I saw this paragraph:
“George Peck, an intemperate editor from Milwaukee fell over the
gallery last night while Eli Perkins was lecturing in a beastly state
of intoxication.
“The coroner’s jury brought in a verdict that Mr. Peck came to his
death by remaining too long in a cramped position while listening to
Mr. Perkins’ lecture which produced apoplexy on the minds of the jury.”