with the heading, " Spot him! spot him! spot
him!"

The following melancholy advertisement is
culled from an Oregon paper:

"Will the gentleman who stole my melons
on last sabbath night be generous enough to
return me a few of the seeds, as they were
a very rare variety."

Marriages are expected to be, or, at least,
are, accompanied with some guerdon to the
printers. At the end of these announcements
you generally see something like the following,
"Our staff return thanks for their present, and
drank the happy couple's health in flowing
bumpers of champagne." The present consists
almost always of a few bottles of champagne,
as no charge is made for such announcements
in the local papers.

Typographical errors are always troublesome,
and a Western paper is usually distinguished
for their number and variety. Occasionally these
errors become matter of considerable difficulty to
the editor, and add one more responsibility to
many others. For instance, a friend of mine
got into a little trouble that way. In a
weak moment he agreed to conduct the weekly
paper in a mining village, for the editor, who
was called off on other business. All went well
until a leading man among the miners brought
in an obituary of his deceased wife, who was
about the only white woman in the village.
Now, as items are scarce, it was sent straight to
the printer. On revising the proof my friend
found that it read, " she was distinguished
for her virtue and benevolence." He concluded
that the husband must have meant virtues.
A proof was accordingly despatched to the
husband, with a request to correct it and
send it to the printer. My friend went to
bed. Early next morning he was roused by an
acquaintance with a paper in his hand, inform-
ing him that Jim So-and-So (the author of the
obituary aforesaid) " was hunting him (i.e. the
editor) all over town." Now, as " hunting" a
man means, in the West, going through all the
drinking shops with a huge revolver in hand,
shouting " Where is he?" my friend had
just reason for alarm, and inquired what
in the world he was being " hunted" for?
"Oh!" was the reply "fun is all right, but you
know that item about old Mother———- was a
little too much. She mightn't be just the
correct thing, but still Jim thought a sight
of her!" It was some time before the temporary
editor could understand what was meant,
until the paper was shown him with the
obituary intimating that " Mrs.———- was
distinguished for her virtue (?) and her bene-
volence." The husband knew nothing about a
proof, and the printer had treated the query as
an editor's correction. After considerable
difficulty the indignant husband was consoled, and
peace was made over " drinks" in the nearest
"saloon."

Errors of context are not unfrequent.
Thus, the San Diego paper announces that the
schooner, General Harney, had just arrived
in the harbour, with "no passengers but
Nathan Brown, who owns half the cargo and
the captain's wife," or that there was lost " a
valuable new silk umbrella belonging to a
gentleman with a curiously carved head."
Sometimes the "make-up" of the paper is a
little out of joint. Thus, it was rather a mistake,
savouring of grim humour, to put the arrangements
for a police commissioner's funeral under
the head of " Rural Sports." Paying in
advance is always one of the cardinal virtues in
the subscriber to any periodical; but perhaps
the pious editor of the Christian Index need
not have announced so prominently that " but a
week since we recognised the death of an old
father in the church, a careful reader of the
Index and who paid for three papers in advance."
In a country where every year thousands of
emigrants from the south-western states arrive
over the " plains" and the Rocky Mountains,
full of stories of Indian fights, and " chock full
of alkali," a good itemiser of such matters is
important. Accordingly we find announced
that " We have engaged the services of an
immigrant editor, to whom is entrusted all
matters connected with Injuns, fights, and
alkalied subjects." Utah editors, notwithstanding
the presence of the saints, are rather
profane fellows. One of them heads his leader
with the startling title of " Hell Boiling Again."

English newspaper readers would be rather
surprised to find some morning their favourite
organ printed on brown packing paper, by
reason of the office having run short of the
usual paper. I have seen this more than once in
Vancouver Island. Again, the Chronicle, a
paper published in the same English colony, off
the north-west coast of America (worth stating,
as its whereabout seems only to be known to
a few F.R.G.S.'s) announces in a paper before
me, that, " Owing to the market being bare of
paper of the usual size, we shall be compelled
to appear in a reduced form until the arrival of
the mail steamer Active with a supply." Again,
the same paper on one occasion appeared with
one side blank, accompanied by an explanatory
note that, " Owing to an accident, the
composed matter got disarranged, and as there
was no more time to set it up again, our
readers will please excuse the blank page."
Letters to the paper are not addressed as in
England " To the Editor of———- ," but " Editors
Stump City Gazette," and commencing "Messrs.
Editors." Some of these papers are edited by
women, and in the controversy about women's
rights it is worthy of remark that the feminine
editorials are not the least truculent of the
literary efforts: especially in times of political
contest, when one of the sterner sex ventures
to raise the lady's virtuous indignation. A female
editor announces that, " Being a woman, she
cannot take satisfaction of the low-lived hound who
wrote the article in our contemporary over the
way, but, she has a little boy who will clean him
out handsomely in about two minutes." Generally,
just before an election contest fresh papers
are started to advocate particular views, and