The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-05-06
But that is no matter; it happens

with everybody However, have wandered little away from what started to write about. It was this way. Young Bright wrote my London place is the one on the left as you come down Piccadilly, about a block and half above where the minstrel showis-he wrote to them that he wanted them to pay income tax on the royalties of some foreign authors. namely Miss de Ia Rame (Quida), Dr, Oliver Wendell Holmes. Francis Bret Harte and Mark Twain. Well, MT. Chatto diverted him from the other authors and tried to divert him from me, but in this case he failed. And not only that, but he sent me print ed document that the more you study the more it undermines you; and so while in that condition and not really responsible for my acts I wrote MT. Chatto to pay the tax and charge it to me. Of course my idea was that it was only for one year and the tax would be only about 1 per cent, or along there somewhere, but last night I met Professor Sloane of Princeton you may not know him but you have probably seen him every now and then, for he goes to England a good deal a large man and very handsome and absorbed in thought: and if you have noticed such man on the plat forms after the tfain is gone that is the one; he generally gets left, like all those specialists and other scholars who know everything but how to ap- ply it-and he said it was a back tax for three years, and not 1 per cent, but 1-2!
 '"That gave what had seemed lit- tie matter a new aspect. then be- gan to study the printed document again to see if I could find anything in it that might modify my case, and I had what seems to me quite prom ising success. For instance, it opens those English government documents always are; do not say that to hear myself talk, it is just the fact, and it is a credit:
 7" TO MT. Mark Twain: In pursuance of the acts of parliament for granting to Her Maiesty's duties and profits, etc.
 q had not noticed that before. My idea had been that it was for the gov- ernment, and so I wrote to the gov ernment: but now I saw that it was private matter and that the pro- ceeds went to yourelf, not to the gov ernment would always rather treat with principals and I am right glad I noticed that clause With q principal one can always get at a fair and right understanding, whether it is about potatoes Or continents, or
 
 tirely different; for the size or nature of the thing does not affect the fact, whereas as a rule Subordinates are more or less troublesome to satisfy. And yet this is not against them. but the other way. They have their du- to rules and not allowed any discre- tion. Why, if your majesty should equip young Bright with discretion I mean his own discretion-it is an even guess that he would discretion you out of house and home in two to get the family into straits but that would be the upshot just the same.
 "Now, then, with Bright out of the way this is not going to be any Irish question; it is going to be settled pleasantly and satisfactorily for all of us, and when it Is finished your majesty is going to stand with the American people just as you have stood for fifty years, and surely no monarch can require better than that of an alien nation. They do not all have a British income tax, but most shoals of new authors coming along every year: and of the population of your Canada upward of four -fifths are wealthy Americans, and more going there all the time.
 well, another thing which I mo- ticed in the document was an item about deductions. I will come to that presently, your majesty And an- other thing was this: that authors are not mentioned in the document at all No. we have quarries, mines, iron works, salt springs, alum mines, water works, canals, docks, drains levels, fishings, fairs, tolls, bridges. ferries, and so forth and so forth and SO orwell. as much as a yard or . yard and half of them. should