The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1910-08-25
INACCURACIES OF AUTHORS
Curious Mistakes That Have Appear
ed In Famous Books.


Lovers of Sir Walter Scott care
little that In Kenilworth Amy Rob-
sart Is made to have a dramatic meet
ing with Queen Elizabeth some years
after the date of her actual death, or
that in Ivanhoe, a knight of Richard l.,
says the New York Sun. conyerses
with another of William the Conquer
or, the great grandfather of Richard.
Anachronisms and minor errors are
pardoned to geniuses and a complete
list of the mistakes committed by
Shakespeare alone would fill many
pages.
Lunar troubles particularly have
seemed to affect authors. In King
Solomon's Mines Rider Haggard ac-
complished an unsurpassed feat In
eclipsing a moon when 1t was new
instead of full Sir Walter Besant
also juggled with the moon when In
The Children of Gideon he had his
new moon rise in the east at o'clock
in the morning.
Thackeray is almost as prolific of
errors as Shakespeare. In The New
comes Give asks In a letter dated
1873: why have we no picture OF
the sovereign and her august consort
from Smee's brush?" In answer to
which one reason might be attributed
to the fact that the Prince Consort did
not appear until 1910. Similarly, in
Rachel Esmond Warringtons preface
to Henry Esmond, which Thackeray
dated ITS, he had her refer to Roch-
ambeaus visit to this country. AS a
matter of fact the French soldier did
not come until 1880.
Mohammeds soldiers in Pendennis
are accused of cutting off the heads
of all prisoners refusing to accept the
one prophet of God, regardless of the
fact that Mohammedans profess be-
lief in all the phophets of the Bible
Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus. ETC.
Mohammed only being taken as the
greatest. And in The Virginians a
character Is arrested for debt during
divine service-an unlawful proceed
ing according to the English code.
Some of the errors committed, not
through ignorance, but apparent alb
sent mindedness, are ludicrous. Troll
iOp0 liudC ulb ftiuy oCOtL COllc WHiSl-
ling up the street with a cigar in his
mouth and Defoe assures his readers
that Robinson Crusoe before taking
off his clothes to swim to the wreck
took the precaution to fill his peck
cts with biscuits. More recently Jules
Verne has brought his hero In
Around the World in Eighty Days to
his club in triumph just as the clocks
OF London strike ten minutes to ~
Among newspapers such ludicrous
mistakes are not lacking A Paris
journal reported the discovery In the
Seine of the nude body of a man
who had only ten sous in his waist
coat pocket"
Cervantes allowed his Sancho Pan
"a in Don Quixote to ride on an ass
after having volubly lamented the
animals death. Lever in Charles
OMalley gave to Portugal Andalusia
as q capital.
Some errors are manifest because
of the authors ignorance. The au-
thor of Monte Cristo never thought 1t
necessary to acquire knowledge of
toxicology and introduced into
his romances many poisons unknown
to science, of startling instantaneous
and deadly effect He worked with
an equally free and untrammeled
hand when he put old Nortier in the
bonds of complete paralysis. The
unfortunate one was yet more fortu-
nate than any similarly afflicted per-
son that has ever come under the no
tice of any physician. Unable to
move or speak, yet he was left by
Dumas with his intellectual faculties
unimpaired and could communicate
his thoughts and desires to his fam
lily by winking his eyes In an agreed
fashion.
The finding and proving these liter
airy inaccuracies has grown to ma
MIA with some individuals; infinite
time and labor has been expended on
made no difference anyhow-One way
or the other. These lines from
Wolfe's Burial of Sir John Moore:
We buried him darkly. at dead of
night.
The sod with our bayonets turning;
BY the struggling moonbeam's misty
light.
And our lanterns dimly burning.
fell under the sceptical eyes of al
certain Irish astronomer royal VIII,
spent no one knows how much time
In calculations to prove conclusively
that the moon could not have beef
even mistily, for the hero's
burial, as at that hour 1t was far be-