The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-02-18
THE MousETRAP QUOTATION.

Il
Something less than year ago..
rhe Gate City reproduced the follow
ng and credited it Inadvertently to
Carlyle:
If man can write better book. |
preach better sermon, or make a /
better mousetrap than his neighbor, /
.hough he build his house in the
woods, the world will make beaten |
path to his door
Very promptly this paper was tax
en- to task by a number of contem-
poraries for it's error. Without any
apparent diffidence they declared with
one accord that any ignoramus ought
to know enough to know that Elmer
son, not Carlyle, was the author of
the foregoing, Their language was
perhaps more courteous than the
words here used, but the underlying
idea was the same. AS matter OF
fact, The Gate City meant to credit
the quotation to Emerson, hut used
Carlyle's name instead The case af-
fords a good illustration of what is
known as MISUNDERSTANDING one
word in mind and using another in it's
place. Webster defines it as .the un.
conscious saying. in speech or, writ
ing, Of that which one does not in
tend to say,-frequently the very re-
verse of the thought which is present
to consciousness" AS usual in such
cases The Gate City bowed it's head
in all humility proceeded to
talk about something else.
Later it developed that the state
ment does not appear in any of Elmer
sons published works, and since then
there has been nationwide discussion
as to the authorship of the aphorism.
The oldest authority for giving the
credit to Emerson, it has been estab-
lished, was little book entitled 'Bor-
rowings," compiled by Mrs. Sarah B..
Yule and Mary S. Keene in 1889, anG
published in 1893. According to Mrs.
Yule's best recollection she copied it
delivered long years ago. In speaking
lof her authority for the credit, she
wrote in reply to a. late inquiry: 1t
will seem strange to you, as it does
to me, that Emerson never incorpor-
ated this in any of his essays. He did
use the thought and similar wording,
but never exactly the wording, of the
lquotation I used in borrowings
Now comes Ebert Hubbard and
claims that he originated the state
ment and attributed it to Emerson.
He says that in writing it he had in
mind the number of visitors who
come to see the Roycrofters at East
Aurora, N. Y. Hubbard asserts that
the saving struck him as SO good
that it was little strain on his ego
Ito let it go under his own stamp, $50
The saved his modesty (God save the
lmarkD and at the same time gave the
epigram specific gravity, by attribut-
ling it to one Ralph Waldo Emerson. .
The sage of East Aurora goes on to
lsay in the same connection:
THE world took it up, and Emer-
sons writings have been secured with
lfinetooth combs in the endeavor TO
locate this particular epigram, when
lit is simply one of the things that
Emerson would have said, If it had
occurred to him.
Mr.. Hubbard may have found a
few mental mavericks in Emerson.
which in moments of alteration he
has branded as his own, but. if SO,
the debt is more than onset by things
which he has attributed to Emerson
that Emerson never wrote. :
This sounds very sweet and reason.
able, and all that sort of thing, but
his claim suffers severely at the
hands of writer in the Docket, a
pamphlet published for lawyers by
the West publishing Company of st
Paul. The writer in question recalls
| that inquiry was early made OF MIR
Hubbard as to the authority Of the
statement, but as long as there was
a good possibility that some one
might, by searching Emerson, fine
out the truth, Mr.. Hubbard left thu
/ answering of inquiries to his assist
/, amt superintendent, who admitted tina
+ he had spent sleepless nights porin.
E over Emerson in an endeavor to flint
2 the quotation When the inquiry hat
!. been pending for some months, ant
/, the possibilities of verdict in fayo
:, of Emerson or any one else began t
look dubious, Mr.. Hubbard wfot
/. through his assistant superintendent
o more definitely, though still some
what cautiously, to an inquirer:
you say, this has the ring of Emerson
1t was written by Mr.. Hubbard, bu
D inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Z Finally, in May, 1911, MIR. Hubbar
s came out boldly in the Fra wit
g definite and positive claim to autho
n ship, as quoted above
81 As showing the disphaneity I
$ this claim the writer in West
1t Docket points cut that Mr.. HubbaI
II claims to have been inspired to NAL
a. the mousetrsp comparison by notir
the number of visitors who came
e see the Roycrofters, who conduct
shop at East Aurora. Now, it a
le pears to be historically establisht
e. that Mr.. Hubbard's first Little Jou
N iney" was published in Decembe