The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1911-01-05
AUTHORS GUILTY OF
QUEER BLUNDERS
Odd Miscellaneous Are
Made in Books
Recent Books Reveal Interesting Ex-
amples.

Absorbed ana lHleIeSleu III tho N'
olution of a plot, many an author
sacrifices truth and draws pen pictur-
es that are absolutely weird and his
torically inaccurate, and the review of
recent books revealed some enter
tanning examples.
A story published recently, where
the scene is laid In Indianapolis. has
a paragraph which reads: He left
the house at midnight and, hurrying
to the quay. boarded European
steamer" At latest accounts Indian
apolis was not yet a seaport, but II
Congress continues with river and har-
Dor improvements that story may yet
be true to fact
Another. In describing a beautiful
apartment. tells us Fine bric-a-brac
and pictures hung upon the walls
and we can only hope that the brio
a-bIac WAS properly convicted and
sentenced before 1t was hung.
A story of adventure, by an author
whose books have sold very largely
contained a hero who placed note to
his sweetheart in a bottle and dropped
II in the ocean off the coast of Brazil
In the narrative that bottle Is washed
on the shore of the Mediterranean
lust 20 INMATES later and lands at the
feet of the young lady in question
There is a chance that the wireless
companies may adopt this bottle
scheme and save time in the trans
mission of messages.
One author in describing particu-
larly SNOWY team of horses wrote:
They were richly comparisoned with
gold monograms on their corners" If
he had remembered to put blankets on
those horses before he riyeted on the
initials 1t might have added to their
comfort. In detective story by the
same author we find: when he saw
the detective the culprit's teeth chat
tered and he kept the table between
them" The mouth that held those
teeth with the table between them
must surely have been capacious.
Clergymen are equally sinners with
the rest, and the Rev. T. Dewitt Tai
mage, In a fiowery sermon, declared
that Cromwell and his troops sang
the long meter Doxology, Praise God
from Whom All Blessings Flow and
then went forth to win righteous
victory, but unfortunately for the val
ue of the alleged illustration, the
long meter Doxology was written in
1857 and Cromwell was thoughtless
enough to die in 1868, nearly 40 years
previously.
1t might be expected that public
acts, being subject to the consdera-
ton of several persons, would escape
from fragrant error, but one Of the
acts of the Assembly of Pennsylvania
stipulated that the State house yard
in the city of Philadelphia should be
surrounded by brick wall and re-
main an open Enclosure forever" To
be surrounded" and yet remain
open" Is problem that smacks OF the
fourth dimension.
A particularly bad case of misap-
plication is afforded by the tablet that
was placed on the wall of a New York
church to the memory of its dead pas
tor. 1t read: Pastor of the church
from November 3. 1867, to September
II, 1898. There remaineth therefore
a rest for the people of God"
AS for mistranslation there is no
end of them, from Mark Twain s
jumping Frog" which was "clawed
back into English" to the present
day. One of the most amusing was
when the title of Colley Cibbers play,
Loves Last Shift" was translated
into French as La Derniere Chemise
de rAmour," and even SO redoubtable
scholar as Jules Janin rendered Lady
Macbeth's exclamation of "Out, out,
brief CANDLE" into "Sortez, sortez,
bref chanrelle"