The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1880-01-08
FRENCH WITHOUT A MASTER.
The Disadvantage Of Using Abroad For
eign Language as Naturalised
In Connecticut,
New York World j

Prentice Mnlford has written in the San
Francisco Chronicle an essay Oh French
Without Master, Ia Six Easy Lessons He
says he took hts lessons from 4 teacher IN
E,st Haddam, 0gnn.--a man who would have
attempted 10 teach anything aud learned
sone very good Connecticut French Ii did
not aerva very we'll In P,ris, however
"Firat /" says Mr. Muifuru, IL interviewed ~
oatman. He invited me TO get into his cab
aud seemed to intimate that ne knew where |
wanted to 40. Lie drove a short distance aud
stopped before very ordinary appearing
bo,lpe | told him to drive mo to the hotel In
dictated Iii The gHlde-DoDk ne situated In the
Rue Bunaparte. The Rus BJnaparte
came In sight, but no Hotel do France,
No n. the cab drew up before u large cloth
Ing establishment. AT tnis the driver pointed
with an air of mingled triumph and eyniclstn.
He had been telling me- al aloug that the
hotel had been turned Into something else,
but tho narrow limits of u ist Haitian French
had prevented ms from understanding him,
| got cut with my two parpatbaEs. i cumyrp-
heuded the situation IN an instant. NJ guide
book was eight years old aud was behind the
times. Next encountered II policeman A
friend had given inc the address OF u eertAiu
French family living on the boulevard. All
desired III the policeman WAS word or two,
or, better yet Il gesture Indicating The dirsc.
tion OF the boulevard But breviLy and con.
useness are not to be expected from the aver
age Frenuhman. This official was civil aud
obliging, but he Inundated mo with torrent
of words. 1t seemed to mo Hs II he had been
dying To talk To some one, and this was the
first opportunity for many days He talked
with his tongue, his eyeH, his hips. his arms,
his shoulders, his elbows aud the poits of biz
moustaohe. | thanked him. but was unable
10 extract the secret OF thu locality uf the
boulevard. | applied to another with stint
lar result | longpd for some quiet, taoitutn
! man like Grant, who could have told me what
| desired by d mere wave of the arm"
Mr.. Milford next entered u restaurant.
Says he: when fairly in discovered the din
ing room to he on the second floor. felt
| obliged 70 go up because my French without
master gave me no words to decline the In
yitatiun. Forty flenChmen were ut brsaAfa fast
ut one long table, walter poured upon me q
torrent of aailie uuiutelltgthlity. II WIS the
verbal bill VI fare for there WAS no written bill
| uf fare. | said q word or two In the East Had
datn patuIs. OF course he couldn't make that
out but did understand him 10 ask mo II was
a German, which alarmed me considerably.
| since this occurred onty thres years after the
siege OF Paris. | noticed that the linguistic
torrent ended eae N time with IL word g,,tindnR
'Oui, mgrsngo. He brought mo not marenao
but marugut- stswad veal. wallgravlud AMI
very good. Twice ms discharged tho next
COURSE nj mo. The third tiine | caught the
word pomme de tcrrs -pota oes. Porter,
tins pomHte dc ferre / said, The man
OWNED what meant, aud there tIittei
the ghost of grin on tho facaa ~
the forty FreDchmen at the long tables. Ue
Il
an excellent breakfast, Tor | noticed many
good things on the plates OF my Deighb,rs.
but my Internal French without u master.
with the additional burden OF toe East Ii td-
dam patois. prevented me from calling for
anything else. Well, / ate my potatoes aud
no came again and torrsnted. We had now
reached the dessert | understood that,
for IL commeneed to crop out OH The plates
about me. Finally | caught ut the word
iromage (cheesp)--in the E.st HHddam
patos pronounced from-at3h.' / said
would take some. He desired to know what
variety Ut cheess would have and called out
his cheese programme. l desired him simply
to porter and frnmaga,' which meaut carry
me cheese ard again the wan ghost Of Il
smile fitted over the faces of the forty
Frenchmen. It makes me tremble to think
what my tongue might really have uttered
| at that table Ia the patois Of East Hnddam.
They kindly led me- after flushing this initta-
tory breakfast down stairs to The compton,
where | paid my bill to the smiling lady
cashier. Then they opened the door aud SGT
me- adrlft.
zone evening / wanted u nutmeg-I de-
sired TO astonish a French friend with punch
Ameticaine--and the cap-sheaf to this, OF
course, 10 nutmeg. went into a French gro.
Gerry aud tried to call for nutmega but my
French without u master was deficient In
nutmegB. | pointed to oil the drawers In the
spice department Everything aromatic aud
spicy WAS theirs save nutnegs. The whole
force Of the store tried to comprehend me.
The customers also took o hand In trying to
comprehend me. / pantomimed an imugi-
nary nutmeg on nh imaginary crater. They
flew for soap--all varieties, long bars. short
bars, soap Castilian, soap fancy, soft soap.
IL was astonishing TO me then, the French
could talk relating to things did not want I
Discouraged / went out. Suddenly an In
SEPARATION seized me- In the gutter | saw
bit Of cork / fashioned that cork In the sem
blance of nutmeg. / rushed back to the
grocery. ] pantomimed again with this in
imaginary crater. Ii took. Ali c'est une
muscade. or muscat, don't know which.
triumphed, and bore my nutmeg home.
French without a Inaster2 No; / want no
more French without master. Ii ever You
take any French with you to Paris, carry o
master with it,