COMMUNICATION — THE MUDDLED MESSAGE
Horace Greeley, famous editor of the New York Tribune was noted for having about the most illegible handwriting there was. Often he couldn’t even read it himself if it was a few hours “cold.” One day he wrote an editorial just before they went to press and the typesetter could hardly read it, and it was too late for correction so it appeared in print with a number of rather outstanding errors. When Greeley read it he was furious. He fussed and fumed and tore his hair and fired the typesetter on the spot. He even wrote him a scorching letter in which he denounced him for his stupidity. But even this note was in such a terrible hand the typesetter couldn’t read it. But he had also been told in person that he was fired so he set out to look for another job at the office of a rival newspaper. The foreman at the other paper asked…
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