When Bret Harte, the famous American writer of short stories, who died in 1902, was editor of a newspaper in a California mining town, he wrote an obituary for a highly respected lady, and concluded his remarks with the sentence: "She was distinguished for charity above all the other ladies in this town."
When the proof of this was handed to him, he found that the compositor had rendered his statement, "She was distinguished for chastity above all the other ladies in this town." Harte corrected the mistake thinking it sufficient to refer the compositor back to the original copy by a large query in the margin. To his horror, the following day the paper appeared with the statement: "She was distinguished for chastity (?) above all the other ladies in this town."
布雷特．哈特是美國著名短篇小說作家，一九零二年去世。他在加州一採礦城市擔任報紙編輯期間，嘗為一位深受尊崇的婦人撰寫訃聞，結尾一句是：「其慈善之情，本市婦女界無有倫比者。」
訃文的校樣送來時，哈特發覺排字工人把他寫的charity（慈善之情）誤作拼法相似的chastity（貞潔之情）：「其貞潔之情，本市婦女界無有倫比者。」他在校樣一側打個大問號，以為排字工人見到，當會參看原稿更正。第二天，他讀報，看到以下一句，不禁目瞪口呆：「其貞潔之情（？），本市婦女界無有倫比者。」