Punctuation images from Punctuation Personified: or, Pointing Made Easy by an author called only “Mr. Stops” (London: John Harris, 1824). The child protagonist of Punctuation Personified reads aloud without pause. Robert “gabbled so fast” and “ran on with such speed” that “all meaning he lost”–that is, until Mr. Stops comes to his aid. Taking the child on a tour through punctuation, Mr. Stops introduces him to a cast of literal “characters.” There is Counsellor Comma, who knows “neither guile nor repentance” in his pursuit of “dividing short parts of a sentence;” Ensign Semicolon struts with militaristic pride, for “into two or more parts he’ll a sentence divide;” and The Exclamation Point is “struck with admiration,” his face “so long, and thin and pale.” From Public Domain Review.
