Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1883 — “Une Petite Fleur et une Raisin.” [ARTICLE]

“Une Petite Fleur et une Raisin.”

Lucy Hooper tells the following in a Paris letter to the Philadelphia Telegraph: One hears very funny things sometimes respecting the odd mistakes made by English-speaking people when they attempt to converse in a foreign tongue, but sometimes our European friends make quite as queer mistakes when they attempt to deal with English, as witness the following incident, which happened to a friend of mine. She was at Baden-Baden last, summer, and was stopping at one of the principal hotels there, One evening miio was attacked with a pain it* le<r face, which became so severe as to compel her to keep her room, In the course of the evening an American lady friend, who was staying in the same hotel, came to visit her. On learning of her suffering condition, Mrs. X—- declared that she could prepare an application which would cure her at one. 8o Mrs. X rang the bell and requested that the interpreter of the hotel might be sent to her. He came, and she requested bin) to bring her a little flour and a raisin. He received the order without any remarks and departed. He was gone an immensely long time—so long that the ladies were at a loss to imagine what detained him. Finally he returned, and with a bow presented to them a very small rosebud in a wine glass (“a little flower”) and a single grape upon a plate. The ladies laughed so much over this novel rendering of a very simple phrase by the English speaking officer par excellence of the establishment, that my friend forgot her pain in her amusement. According to the existing Russian law, apostasy from the state religion entails severer penalties than theft or murder. A Russian subject who abandons the orthodox faith for any other whatever, is deprived of his children, his estate is handed over to guardians appointed by the state, and he himself is liable to prosecution by the Holy Synod until he abjures,