The age-herald., 1901-01-04
SKETCHES FROM
 EVERYDAY LIFE

'Idiums and slang of one language can rarely be translated into another" said gentleman who had been reading about Bernhardts' Hamlet. For instance the expression in Hamlet-'Aye there's the rub has no equivalent In French. The best the French translator could do was to render it Aye there's the occasion,' which it Is needless to remark hardly expresses the idea. Foreigners are constantly mak- ing amusing mistakes owing to their fail- ure to grasp our ddiums and slang. The expression how is that for high?' became impressed on a German as very good one to use in indicating something great. One day in walking up Fourth avenue with a friend he passed the court house whose beautiful tower caught his eye and aroused his admiration. Directing his friends at tention to the tower he exclaimed, how high is. that? He missed the point of the expression as far as the man who having heard the corumdrum, Why will the pro- prietor of a book store never die? and the answer, because he keeps stationery un-
 dertook to ask someone the same ques- ton and when they failed to answer it, replied, because he keeps pen ink and paper
 q was coming down in the elevator of one of the citys office buildings" said a listener, "when I heard a naturalized for eigner make a similar mistake. He in- tended to use the expression, you could have knocked one down with feather which people very frequently use to ex- press a great degree of astonishment and surprise. This gentleman was telling friend some very surprising piece of news which he had recently heard himself. He wound up his recital by exclaiming, Wy, ven I heard dot you could haf knocked me down vid club
 T mention the following as a specimen of election sarcasm" said voter. T was standing in front of the court house watch ing the candidates and the politicians han dle voters politician approached voter and asked him if he had voted They
 were evidently old friends, judging from their manner The voter said he had not, whereupon the politician exclalming that he knew what to do with nigger who had not voted and supposed a white man could be treated the same way, drew penny from his pocket and handed it to his friend My God said a rival politi
 clan, who had witnessed it. don't give him all that money at once-he will be sure
 to go off and get drunk {"
 '"rhere is so little logical deduction or continuity in many of the newspaper arti- cles of the day. said an old reporter re- gently, that they can be read just as well backwards as forwards, that is to say, they read as well up as down. l am not
 joking about this and you can try 1t your self. Select some article at random and read the last paragraph first, then next to the last and so on up to the first, and venture to say you will have as accurate an idea of the subject matter as if you had read it in the usual way. Perhaps after all there is some method in wo- mans reading the end of an article first. I suppose if she likes the end she reads on up the article, while man in his primi- tive way reads down. I had just finished reading such an article recently which happened to run into an advertisement be- low it without any dividing dash, the lat ter either by accident or design having been left out by the printer The article
 was particularly poor and I.felt sick be- lore 1 HnlSTeu IL. Wueu SOl to thC chu I was delighted to find it immediately fol- lowed by the words when you feel bad take sarsaparilla It will make you de- cdedly better I at once went to drug store and ordered a dose.'
 Sometimes sympathy is wasted, said a man who looked as if he dislilsed to waste any. q was making visit recently 10 d fr;a of fhor'c
 and incidentally to her daughter. The paterfamilias who was a physician had gone out on a professional visit and the
 two ladies and myself were sitting before a comfortable fire and chatting pleasantly. had been there some little time and was
 just about to make my adieux when a cab drove up to the door with a loud chatter and few moments after the front door opened and two men entered assisting third who proved to be the doctor. His daughter, who had gone to open the front door, returned to the parlor with a horri- fled expression, exclaiming, o Lord! moth- CT, papa has broken his leg!' Goodness! gracious! said the latter, how did he do it?' The daughter explained that he had had a fall and 1 was just in the act of expressing my sympathy when the mother interrupted me in what I thought a rather unceremonious way by telling her daugh- ter to go upstairs in the garret and see If she couldn't find one of her fathers old legs. The father meanwhile had been taken to his room, and I at first thought the shock of the accident had temporarily upset his wifes mind, when the daughter returned with two artificial limbs which she placed on table and with her moth- CTS aid proceeded to select the best.
 Realizing that the doctor had broken his expensive leg and not his real one. and feeling somewhat out of place in a hos pital said goodbye and left"