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/99

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Numerical names of streets
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the overbold display of many capital letters. Yet it often happens that neatness must be subordinated to clearness. Figures are more quickly read, are more compact, and are decidedly indispensable for tabular work that is intended to present contrasts or comparisons of amounts or values.

Statistical matter not put in tables often compels the use of figures in a descriptive text, as:

The warehouse held 950 tons of wheat: 500 prime, 240 ordinary, 210 inferior.
The cannon captured were 110 in number: 40 ten-pounders, 50 forty-pounders, 15 sixty-pounders, 5 hundred-pounders.

In all encyclopedias, gazetteers, dictionaries, guide-books, and compact works of similar character, figures are preferred for numerical statements. A similar rule prevails, with occasional exceptions, in some forms of official documents, and exception is rarely made for a short number like 1 or 10.

NUMERICAL NAMES OF STREETS

The numerical names of city streets are presented best in words when the words are not repeated too frequently in the same sentence or paragraph. First Street is better than 1st Street. One-hundred-and-sixty -first Street is a somewhat awkward term, but it should be governed by this rule and be uniform with other numerical words.