"Use Italics for names of ships, names of characters in plays, names of newspapers and magazines, and all foreign words.
"Use quotation marks for names of books.
"Spell out all numbers under 100.
"Compound co-operate, to-day, to-morrow.
"Use period after per cent., and Roman numerals I. VI., etc.
"Bible references in this style: 2 Kings vii. 29.
"All poetical quotations to be in smaller type than text."
Now, some authors will not accept the above style and insist on one entirely different. Many will accept Webster's spelling but draw the line at theater, which they want spelt theatre, and balk at skillfully and skillful or installment. They will order spelling according to the Standard Dictionary, yet will not accept sulfur, rime, or worshiping. One man wants all his numbers in figures, and another does not like compound words. Still another abhors dashes or colons, or quotation marks, and yet another will not have Italic type used in his work.
So it frequently happens that a proof-reader will have passing through his hands three or four books in entirely different styles, each of which he must bear in mind and conform to if he would avoid trouble. But whatever style be adopted, it is essential that it be strictly adhered to throughout the work; therefore in large printing-offices where there are many proof-readers care is always taken that, however many compositors may be engaged in setting up the work, the same reader handles it from start to finish.
If the proof-reader finds any passages whose meaning is not clear, or sentences of faulty construction, he will call the author's attention thereto. He will also call attention to Biblical or poetical quotations which he may know to be incorrect. Many authors will quote Scripture or poetry from memory, which is found to vary in many respects from the original on verification. And then they complain because "the printer did not set it up right,"—when they are charged for corrections. But why should the compositor bear the expense of correction—or the master-printer for that matter—when the copy was clearly wrong in the first instance? A moment's thought will show the injustice of such a procedure.