I have seen older books back in my sighted days in which not only the asterisk and the dagger were used, but also a whole slew of other symbols for succeeding footnotes so that they would not repeat on a page. The point of labeling the footnotes with one or two or more asterisks, though, is to indicate to the reader that there are more than one footnote and to distinguish between one footnote and another. Given that, and since you are substituting another symbol for the dagger anyway, I don't see the necessity of indicating each time the dagger is used instead of an asterisk. For another thing, the footnotes are numbered, at least when they appear in the text. That number does a sufficient job of distinguishing one footnote from another. I would suggest, then, that you just go ahead and use one asterisk and a number for each footnote and make sure that the footnotes at the bottom of the page have numbers that match them as they appear in the text. That would distinguish one footnote from another and distinguishing one from another is what the point of using asterisks plus daggers was in the first place. The reader need not know that daggers were used and would be quite unlikely to be interested in that fact anyway. Besides, Like I said, if you are going to substitute multiple asterisks for daggers the reader will not know anyway.
On 7/17/2012 10:20 AM, Deborah Murray wrote:
Hi all, This message is going to be rather long and I apologize in advance. I'm looking for input, particularly from braille readers, for a footnote formatting scenario that I'm currently puzzling over. It's not the first time I've encountered this as I think it's rather uncommon, but it does happen. I've been using a space followed by an asterisk(*) to set off footnotes within text and that seems to work well, whether the associated note appears at the end of the page, chapter or book. Sometimes when the numbered notes appear at the end of the chapter or book, in addition to the numbered footnotes, an author inserts an asterisk (*) to indicate a note at the bottom of the page. To make this even more interesting, there are sometimes multiple instances of these notes. Instead of multiple asterisks, a character, usually called a dagger, is used for the second one, and a double dagger for the third, etc. These characters usually scan as either a lower case "t" or "f." What I've done in the past is use a double asterisk (**) for the dagger, and triple asterisk (***) for the double dagger. Whew! If you've gotten this far, thank you. Now my current situation: I have a page with all of the above. I am including the page below as I have it formatted. It seems a bit busy, but I don't know what else to do. So-- braille readers especially-- is there a character that can be represented in braille to replace the dagger and double dagger? The place in this page that gets really clunky is at footnote number 8. There is a dagger for the second note at the bottom of the page, followed by numbered note 8. Page from the book: The Lowell Offering achieved international fame. Charles Dickens in his American Notes referred to it as the "first clear notes of real life in America." An American returning from England reported: "The Lowell Offering is probably exciting more attention in England, than any other American publication. It is talked of in the political as well as literary world." And in France, Thiers * arose in the Chamber of Deputies, waved a copy of the Lowell Offering in the air, and solemnly proclaimed that the magazine proved that in a democracy, labor could possess a mind and soul as well as a body. *7 It is hardly surprising that the Lowell Offering was welcomed by factory owners, and that they sent a written tribute to the editors, praising "the worthy enterprise in which they are engaged." ** *8 For the editors of the Lowell Offering were not in the least concerned with wages and hours. "We could do nothing to regulate the price of wages of the world," wrote one of the editors. "We would not if we could, at least we would not make that a prominent subject in our pages, for we believe there are things of even greater importance." As for hours and working conditions-these were matters over which workers "have no control." They would come as a result of the kind-heartedness of the factory owners. The corporations would "in their own good time introduce the ten-hour system, and will not this be a noble deed?" *9 What, then, were the "things of even greater importance"? The only thing that really mattered, said the magazine's editor, was to "elevate, instruct and purify the mind and soul of the workers; to give them an outlet for the spiritual and emotional needs of the soul; to provide them with sweetness and light." Let the factory girls, therefore, meet in improvement circles where they would read and study. Armed with learning and culture, they could protect themselves from the crushing power of the machine which dehumanized the worker and robbed him of dignity and self-assurance. At the same time, they would prove to the world that there was "Mind among the Spindles." As long as the mind and the soul were free, what did it matter what happened to the body? The philosophy of the factory girls should be that of the Apostles: "Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content." *10 The Lowell Offering was popular everywhere but among the factory girls. True, they wrote poems and stories for the magazine, believing * * * * In 1871, Thiers played a conspicuous role in the brutal suppression of the Paris Commune and in the wholesale slaughter of the Paris proletariat during the "Bloody Week" when reaction triumphed. ** in January, 1843, the Offering was purchased by William Schouler from its former proprietors. Schouler was an agent of the mill owners, a bitter foe of the ten-hour day, and was intensely hated by almost all factory girls. In a signed statement, Schouler called upon all "who feel an interest in the progress and good name of the factory system" to support the Offering. End of page. Thanks for any and all help! Deborah To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
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