El Paso Herald · El Paso, Texas · 1913

Fans of the Southwest Will See the Giants and White Sox In El Paso

August 1913: the Giants and White Sox are coming to El Paso for three games after the World's Series, and the Herald's compositor gets so excited the type stutters: for three days this city will be the center of the universe for the universe for the baseball fans of the baseball fans of the southwest.

The banner across the top of the Herald’s sports page said “Fans of the Southwest Will See the Giants and White Sox In El Paso,” and the story underneath had the details: “EVERYTHING is set for the fall series between the world famous Giants, of New York, and the Chicago White Sox. El Paso is included in the itinerary of these two great ball clubs.”

Then the compositor’s hands started shaking with civic pride, and the second half of the sentence came out double: “for three days this city will be the center of the universe for the universe for the baseball fans of the baseball fans of the sotuhwest.” Every word set twice except the one spelled wrong. It is the most honest typesetting this site has yet collected, because that is exactly how the sentence feels to say when the Giants are coming to your town.

The machinery behind the visit was sturdy enough: “The Giants and White Sox will be brought here under the auspices of the chamber of commerce, and they are given a good, stiff guarantee for the three game series,” all of it staged “in connection with the annual Os-Aple jubilee,” El Paso’s fall carnival. The clubs “will leave the east, following the world’s series in October and will be in El Paso probably on Nov. 4 for the opening game,” which places this stop on the front leg of the famous 1913 world tour that eventually carried the two teams clear around the globe. The expectation, naturally: “the biggest crowd in the history of the city.”