A Lesson In Punctuation,

Otago Witness, Issue 2051, 15 June 1893, Page 50

A Lesson In Punctuation,

I am going to give you (says a writer ma Home paper) quite a new kind of subject this week, suggested by some funny lines I read the other day, showing the jimportance of proper punctuation. I think they will amuse you. This is how they read with the wrong punctuation :—: —

A TERRIBLE SIGHT. I saw a peacock with a fiery tail ; I saw a blazing comet pour down hail ; I saw a cloud all wrapt with ivy round ; I saw a lofty oak creep on the ground ; I saw a beetle swallow up a whale ; I saw a foaming sea Brimful of ale ; I saw a pewter cup sixteen feet deep ; I saw a well full of men's teara that weep ; I saw wet eyes in flames of living fire ; I saw ahou3e as high as the moon and higher ; I saw the glorious sun at deep midnight ; I saw the man who saw this wondrous sight.

Now, to make sense of the above, just remove the semicolon which is at the end of each line, and place it after the first noun in each line ; then ses how it reads. Here is another of the same kind :—: — I saw a pack of cards gnawing a bone I saw a dog seated on Britain s throne I saw King George shut up within a box I saw an orange driving a fat ox I saw a butcher not a twelvemonth old I saw a greatcoat all of solid gold I saw two buttons telling of their dreams I saw my friends who wished I d quit these themes.

Does ib not read madly? But by simply placing a semicolon after "cards" in the first line, and after the first noun in each following line, you make sense of it.