In the olden times the printer made his own bodkin by inserting the blunt end of a large steel needle in a piece of wood or cork. At the present day, when every thing is prepared to the workman’s hand, bodkins are manufactured by printers’ furnishers, and he may take his choice of styles. The above cut shows a common form; but in some cases (as in table work) tweezers or a spring bodkin may be preferred. Knives may also be had with bodkin attached, which serve a double purpose. The objection to the knife-bodkin is that the handle is too heavy and cumbersome, and it is sure to injure type should it happen to slip from the fingers and fall on the page. [Illustration: TWEEZERS.] [Illustration: SPRING BODKIN.] The most careful compositor cannot at all times avoid leaving a word out, or composing the same word twice. When this happens, he should consider the best mode of rectifying the accident, by driving out or getting in, either above the error or below it. This ascertained, let the matter be taken upon a galley, and overrun in the composing-stick. Overrunning on the stone is an unsafe, unworkmanlike, and dilatory method, destroying the justification and rendering the spacing uneven. [Illustration: KNIFE AND BODKIN.] In correcting, care should be taken to avoid hair-spacing a line, by overrunning either back or forward. In overrunning the matter, the division should be used as little as possible; for, though the compositor may carefully follow the instructions laid down in this work on the subject of spacing and dividing, yet the effect of his attention will be completely destroyed if not followed up at the stone. We here emphatically remark that, if authors were careful to spell properly the names of persons and places, technical and scientific terms, &c., and to write legibly, marking the end of sentences clearly, the work of the compositor would be facilitated, many errors would be prevented, and time, temper, and expense greatly economized. Further. Let us remind authors that every correction made on their proof that is a variation from the copy as furnished to the printer is charged for according to the time required to make it. The justice of the charge is obvious; yet, strange to say, there is probably no item so frequently disputed by publishers. A man employs a mechanic to build a house according to fixed specifications; but, in the course of its erection, he improves or changes the plan, and orders certain portions to be torn down and rebuilt: is the mechanic to bear the loss? Certainly not. So, when a compositor builds up his page of type according to the copy furnished, he is right in requiring compensation for alterations made in it. He is not to suffer for the author’s desire to improve his intellectual edifice. [Illustration: PRINTER’S KNIFE.] TYPOGRAPHICAL MARKS EXEMPLIFIED.