Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-12-27
AUTHORS BLUNDERS.
Book Writers Often Guilty Of Mis-.
statenents and Weird inaccuracies.


Absorbed and Interested in the cvolu-
ton Of plot, many an author sacrifices
truth and draws pen pictures that are
absolutely weird and historically mac
c1lrate and the review of some recent
books revealed some entertaining exam
pies.
story published recently. where the
scene is laid in Indianapolis, has para
graph which reads: "He left the house at
midnight and, hurrying to the quay,
boarded European steamer At latest
accounts Indianapolis was not yet sea-
port but If Congress continues with river
and harbor improvements that story may
yet be true to fact.
Another, in describing beautiful
apartment. tells US Fine brc-a-brac and
pictures hung upon the walls and we
can only hope that the bric-a-brac was
properly convicted and sentenced before
1t was hung.
A story Of adventure. by an author
whose books have sold very largely, con-
tanned hero who placed note to his
sweetheart in a bottle and dropped 1t in
the ocean off the coast Of Brazil. In the
narrative that bottle is washed on the
shore of the Mediterranean just 20 min
utes later and lands at the feet of the
young lady in question. There is
chance that the wireless companies may
adopt this bottle scheme and save time
in the transmission of messages.
One author in describing a particularly
snowy team of horses wrote: Ihey were
richly comparisoned with gold mono
grams on their corners If he had re-
membered to put blankets on those
horses before he riveted on the initials
# might have added to their comfort. in
a detective story by the same author we
find: when he saw the detective the
culprits teeth chartered and he kept the
table between them" The mouth that
held those teeth with the table between
them must surely have been capacious.
But all the blunders are not confined
IN the more recent writer's. for the ancient
worthless were quite as fragrant sinners
Milton's lines Thick as autumnal leaves
that strew the brooks in NallomoroSa'
are familiar to every one. but, as mat
ter of fact the Valambrosa forests are
all of the pine trees. so that there are nc
leaves, and pine needles do not fan III
the autumn, but toward spring. Again III
"Comus" he writes:
"And In the violet embroidered vale
Where the lovclorn nightingale
Nightly to thee her sad song mourheth
we'll.
Unfortunately for the poet. the male
nightingale alone sings and the female :"
voicelcss.
Another classic writer who allowed
his meter to get the better of his sense
was Pope. who wrote:
When first young Marc. i'll his nobl'
4 work = outlast immortal Rome de
signed. :.
He had overlooked the fact that ii
Rome was immortal nothing could out,
last it.
In his youthfulness and mcagcr cdu
cation may be found some excuse fol
Keats writing:
Like stout Cortcz. when, WIN eager eyes
lie gaZed at the t'arihc.
Almost every schoolboy of today knows
that Balboa discovered the Pacific oceal
and that cortez was nowhere near H.
Even old Isaac Walton. who. because
of his life spent in the open air shouio
have known better also confoundS TN,
male and female nightingale. and in hi
.'Compieat Angler writes: But Tie
nightingale. another of my airy crea'
lures. breathcs such sweet. loud MUSIC
out of her instrumental throat.
Dr. Samuel Warren, in that voluminon.
,hree-ply novel, Ten Thousand Year,
made this remarkable assertion: Tile
astonished Yahoo, smoking. as well as he
could a cigar with which he had hlled
al, his pockets That passage was
shown to Il critic who Is an lnvetetate
smoker, and his comment was that ci-
gar of such dimensions must certainly
have been a Pennsylvania stogie
Sir Walter Scott. in his Heart of Mid
lothian" moralizes thus: our simple
ana unpretending heroine had the merit
Of those peacemakers to whom it l.
promised as a benediction that they shall
inherit the earth" Possibly Sir Walter
did not know his Testament as well rs
he might or he would have recalled that
it is promised that not the peacemakers
but .'the meek shall Inherit the earth"
A case of misauotation that has be-
come chronic is revealed by passage in
Habakkuk. The passage really reads:
Write the vision and make it plain that
he may run that readeth it The vision
was Il WdIuiHS anu tiie 'SoNSi ~ 49,
from danger, but Cooper misquoted 1t by
saying: "He that runs may read" sig
nifying that it was easily read in haste
and this version has survived.
Another instance Of rewriting a quota
ton into something of entirely divergent
meaning is afforded by the passage from
Buffers 'Hudibras," which really is
He that complies against his will is of
the same opinion STILL Many writer
has misquoted that into "A man con-
WINGED against hiso will is of the same
opinion still."fas if man that was con-
WINGED could possibly be of the same
opinion as previously.
Theodore Roosevelt. who is noted for
of statement. as well as
some other things, made a series of three
in three words when in
On fof his books he referred to the Revo-
patriot Thomas Paine as al
filthy little atheist" AS a matter of
'act. Paine was not dirty, being noted
FOR his excessive neatness and even ac-
FUSED of being fastidious: he was not
title. being as tall as Mr.. Roosevelt, and
le was not an atheist.
In speech Mr.. Roosevelt made an
equally curious historical blunder and
ucceeded at the same time in making a
when he claimed that