The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-12-23
TO LAUGH AT.
CURIOUS sfIsTAKEs MADE BY EMF
NEWT PEOPLE.
A. story of Thackerny-Imperf
knowledge of n Foreign Tongue
Very often Produces Unpieasant-
ness.

There is a story of Thackeray, shortly
after the publication of Vanity Fair,
dining with a friend and receiving an
introduction to his next neighbor,
| Captain Crawley, OF the life guards"
Thackeray looked greatly annoyed,
scarcely opened his lips to this gentle
man. and afterwards told his host IN
an aggravated tone that ''he liked
Joke as well as any man, but there was
time and place for all things" NO
| ioking allusion to character of his
| novel had. however, been designed or
perpetrated. the fellow-guest actually
F., was a Captain Crawley and held a
commission in the life guards.
| The author of "Hic ct Unique" re-
! lates how he once, all unWltungly, gave
similar offense A certain Count Stree
lecki was a well-known figure in Lon
don society some years ago, and SIR
William Fraser, who knew MIN slight
", one day introduced him to Gustave
Dore by saying playfully: I want to
make two clever men known to each
other. You remember Mrs. Leo Hunt
er's introduction of Mr.. Pickwick to
Count Smorltork.'' Count Strzelecki
darted a, look Of violent rage at the
, unfortunate speaker, who remembered
too late that the nickname of Count
SmorItork" had sometimes been APP
plied to Strzelecki, and that the fact
had probably reached his ears
Imperfect knowledge of forelgn
tongue often leads to mistakes, Winnie
total ignorance OF another language
will cause strange interpretations to be
nut upon unfamiliar words. There is
a story of an Arab servant, who, walk
ing down a street in Edinburgh, and
being greatly annoyed by the persist
emf attentions of a mob of small boys,
turned on his followers with the abu-
sive term, "Giaour.
"Dinna vex the stranger body WI
yer starin','' said a kindly old crone,
lido as he bids, ye callonts. gle over,
gle over"
The Scotch Archbishop Foreman dn
The sixteenth century, was so poor
Latin scholar that when ne was obliged
to visit Rome he found great difficulty
in conforming to some of the customs
of the Pope's table, to which he was in
vited. Etiquette required that the
Scotch bishop should take part In ut
tering a Latin benedlction over the re-
past. and the illfterate guest had care
fully committed to memory what ne
believed to be the orthodox form or
words He began with his 'Bene-
dicite," expecting the cardinals TO re-
! suoud with .Dominus," but they re-
nIied "Deus" Qtalian fashion,, so con-
fusing the good bishop that ne forgot
his carefully conned phrases, and IN
good broad Scotch" said, ITO the devil
I give you, all false cardinals" to
which devout aspiration pope and car
dinals (who understood only their own
language piously replied, amen
1t is said that during the last cam
paien in Egypt, Tommy Atkins fire.
ouently smiling accented as compll-
ments remarks uttered by native pass
ers-by, when these expressions were in
truth the reverse of ffattering. 1t is
not only deafness which may make us
UNCONSCIOUS whether a street slItler is
calling green peas or calling us
Names Sometimes an ailusion is
willfully misunderstood, as in the case
of the story of Mr. Gilbert at an even
inc party, to whom an impairment ex-
quistte 1ounged up as he was standing
in the passage and drawled. "Aw-call
me four-wheeler, will you?"
Certainly" was the prompt reply.
81 would call you "a hanson If I
could"
Akin to this is the tale of the strang-
er clergyman arriving late to take a
service whore he was engaged as locum
tenens Robing in haste in the vestry,
and finding some difficulty in donning
his surplice. he INDUCED in some inn
patient expressions-tle incident oc-
CURED in the "fox-hunting" type of
parson.
81 think the devil is in the surphce, ;"
cried the impatient cleric as he strug-
gIed with it's folds,
Il think he be now, sir, quietly re-