Page:The practice of typography; correct composition; a treatise on spelling, abbreviations, the compounding and division of words, the proper use of figures and nummerals by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914.djvu/155

 noted as preferable, are not free from objection, and should be avoided when it can be done.

Webster allows discrep-ancy; Worcester prints the word as discre-pancy. English printers divide father and mo-ther as is here shown, but American printers render the words as fa-ther and moth-er.

The rule that words must be divided on syllables compels a very great waste of time. At least once every hour (and five or more times an hour if the measure is narrow) the compositor has to pause and think before he decides the question, Shall I divide on this or on that letter? He may decide wrongly, and be required by the proof-reader to divide on another syllable and to overrun many lines. The author may overrule the proof-reader and divide in a third way. The time wasted in overrunning and respacing lines to avoid divisions objected to by proof-reader and author is a serious tax upon the cost of composition not less in the aggregate than one fifth the cost of type-setting alone. To correct the supposed fault words may have to be spaced wide in one line and close in the next line, to a much greater disfigurement of the composition.

Are the rules now in force for dividing words in syllables really needed in printing? A book is