The St. Johns herald., 1901-10-12
GOOD Short Storig5


 Phillips Brooks once gave a new yer sion of the Jonah" story to a wonder ing skeptic. who said he doubted wheth- CT a whales throat was large enough to swallow Jonah. ''1here was no diff culty." said the Bishop, Jonah was one of the Minor Prophets"
 In the days when Barnum's Museum was in the height Of it's popularity in New York, it was the custom of many people to bring their wives, children, and lunch-baskets, and make day of it. This was not in accordance with Barnum's view of a profitable way to conduct museuTa. One Saturday, when the army of picnickers were over crowding the show and keeping others out, a brilliant idea occurred to Bar nun. On a huge canvas he painted the word "Egress" in immense letters of green. This he placed over a door, way, and immediately attracted the at tention of the crowd, which was just about to settle down for lunch. ''Egress, egressr' cried the visitors; faith! that's an animal we haven't see" "They found that animal" said Barnum, telling the story, ''out in the street"
 Many years ago, when Henry La bouchere was appointed to diplomatic post somewhere in Europe, the British foreign office found that he was not at his post when he should have been. On making inquiries, they found that the new attache was at Berlin, many miles from his official destination; and his explanation was that, as he was not allowed travelling expenses and was not rich, he was walking to his office, and would reach the shores of the Bos- phorus in due course. That was Lab by's" way of protesting against the non-payment of travelling expenses. His protest against pomposity was just as original It was a pompous individual who called to see the British minister at Washington, D. O., when "Labby" was there. The minister was out, and the caller insisted on waiting. 'Then pray take a chair," said the attache. After half an hour the pompous man grew impatient, and asked when tie minister was expected back. "I don't know" said "Labby;" "he left for Eu- rope this morning."
 Some amusing instances of transla- tors misunderstanding are mentioned by the London Daily News. An Ital- ian paper not long ago turned Kip ling's "Absent-Minded Beggar" into a "Distracted Mendicant." A foot-note to the same version explained 'son of Lambeth publican" as a reference to Mir. KrugerI Another Italian editor, who translated passage from an Eng fish paper about a man who had killed his wife with a poker, added an ingen- uous foot-note to say: We do not know with certainty whether this thing, 'pokero,' be domestic or sursi- cal instrument" In the French yer sion of one of Scott's novels, Welsh rabbit has to be dealt with. The trans lator, never having met with that arti- cle of food, naturally turned 1t into ''un lapin de Galles," and in a foot-note ex- plained that the peculiarly delicious flavor of the rabbits of Wales created a large demand for them in Scotland, whither they were exported in bulk that would compare with the trade of 0stend. The desperate expedient of the French translator of Cooper's Spy" who had to explain how a horse could be hitched ito locust" is also worth recalling. He had never heard of a locust-tree, and rendered the word by "sauterelle," or grasshopper. Feeling that this needed some explanation, he a foot-note explaining that grew to a gigantic size in the United States, and that it was the custom to place a stuffed specimen at the door of every considerable man. sion for the convenience of visitors, who hitched their horses to 1t.