A snapper up of unconsidered trifles.
Shakspeare.
ERRORS OF THE PRESS.
By a Reporter.
I once had occasion to report, that a certain "noble lord was confined to his house with a violent cold"—next morning, I found his lordship represented to be "confined with a violent scold!" In the same way, on the occasion of a recent entertainment, I had said "that the first point of attraction and admiration were her ladyship's looks;" this compliment was transferred by the printer to her "ladyship's cooks!" My praises of the "Infant Lyra" were converted to a panegyric on the "infant lyar." In an account of General Saldanha's conduct at Oporto, I observed that he "behaved like a hero," while the printer made it appear that he "behaved like a hare."—"We," says the John Bull, "often suffer in this way—about two years since, we represented Mr. Peel as having joined a party of fiends in Hampshire for the purpose of shooting peasants; and only last week, in a Scotch paper, we saw it gravely stated that a surgeon was taken alive in the river and sold to the inhabitants at 6d. and 10d. per pound."
Atlas.
TESTAMENT OF A USURER.
"I order that my body be returned to the earth from whence it came, and I give my soul to the devil. I give likewise to the devil the souls of my wife and children, who encouraged me in usury for the sake of good cheer and fine clothes. Item. I give to the devil the soul of my confessor, who connived at my crimes by his silence."