Yes, the Lex Falkenhayn was a great invention, and
did what was claimed for it—it got the
government out of the frying-pan.
[1] That is, revolution.
[2] ’In that gracious bygone time when a mild
and good-tempered spirit was the atmosphere of our
House, when the manner of our speakers was studiously
formal and academic, and the storms and explosions
of to-day were wholly unknown,’ etc.—Translation
of the opening remark of a leading article in this
morning’s ‘Neue Freie Presse,’ December
11.
[3] It is the 9th.—M.T.
Five or six years ago a lady from Finland asked me
to tell her a story in our Negro dialect, so that
she could get an idea of what that variety of speech
was like. I told her one of Hopkinson Smith’s
Negro stories, and gave her a copy of ‘Harper’s
Monthly’ containing it. She translated
it for a Swedish newspaper, but by an oversight named
me as the author of it instead of Smith. I was
very sorry for that, because I got a good lashing
in the Swedish press, which would have fallen to his
share but for that mistake; for it was shown that
Boccaccio had told that very story, in his curt and
meagre fashion, five hundred years before Smith took
hold of it and made a good and tellable thing out of
it.
I have always been sorry for Smith. But my own
turn has come now. A few weeks ago Professor
Van Dyke, of Princeton, asked this question:
‘Do you know how old your “Jumping Frog”
story is?’
And I answered:
’Yes—forty-five years. The
thing happened in Calaveras County, in the spring
of 1849.’
’No; it happened earlier—a couple
of thousand years earlier; it is a Greek story.’
I was astonished—and hurt. I said:
’I am willing to be a literary thief if it has
been so ordained; I am even willing to be caught robbing
the ancient dead alongside of Hopkinson Smith, for
he is my friend and a good fellow, and I think would
be as honest as any one if he could do it without
occasioning remark; but I am not willing to antedate
his crimes by fifteen hundred years. I must ask
you to knock off part of that.’
But the professor was not chaffing: he was in
earnest, and could not abate a century. He offered
to get the book and send it to me and the Cambridge
text-book containing the English translation also.
I thought I would like the translation best, because
Greek makes me tired. January 30th he sent me
the English version, and I will presently insert it
in this article. It is my ‘Jumping Frog’
tale in every essential. It is not strung out
as I have strung it out, but it is all there.
To me this is very curious and interesting.
Curious for several reasons. For instance:
