481. Never say biscake, for biscuit.
482. “Passengers are not requested to let down the chains, before the boat is fastened to the bridge.” [From a printed regulation on one of the New-York and Brooklyn ferry-boats.] The reading should be, “Passengers are requested not to let down the chains.”
483. “How will you swap jack-knives?” swap, although it is a word familiarly used in connection with “jack-knives,” is a term that cannot lay the least claim to elegance. Use some other of the many mercantile expressions to which trade has given rise.
484. “He’s put his nose to the grin-stone at an early age.” [A remark usually made by old ladies, suggested by the first marriage among their grandsons.] Say, grind-stone. A grin-stone implies a stone that “grins,” whereas, especially in this instance, the “nose” fulfills that office.
485. The importance of punctuating a written sentence is often neglected. Space does not permit the giving of rules on this subject, in this book. Business correspondence is generally blemished by many omissions of this character; for example, “Messrs G Longman & Co have recd a note from the Cor Sec Nat Shipwreck Soc informing them of the loss of one of their vessels off the N E Coast of S A at 8 P M on the 20 of Jan.” A clergyman, standing in his pulpit, was once handed a slip of paper, to be read in the hearing of the congregation, which was intended to convey the following notice: “A man going to sea, his wife desires the prayers of the church.” But the sentence was improperly punctuated, and he read, “A man going to see his wife, desires the prayers of the church!”
486. “The knave thereupon commenced rifling his friend’s (as he called him) pocket:” say, “The knave commenced rifling the pocket of his friend, as he facetiously called him.” The possessive case, and the word that governs it, must not be separated by an intervening clause.
487. “I owe thee a heavy debt of gratitude, and you will not permit me to repay it:” say, either “I owe you,” &c., preserving “and you will” in the second clause; or, “I owe thee,” and altering “and you will” into “and thou wilt.”
488. “Every lancer and every rifleman were at their post:” say, was at his post.
489. “I can lift as many pounds as he has:” add lifted.
490. Do not use to, the sign of the infinitive mood, for the infinitive itself. “I have not written to him, and I am not likely to,” should read, “I am not likely to write to him.”