Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1902 — CONDENSED STORIES. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CONDENSED STORIES.

John Habberton’s Prank and Its Lasting Effects. John llabberton, the author of “Helen’s Babies,” told at a dinner party recently an interesting story. “I am,” he began, “a cousin of the New York publishing family of the Harpers, and I worked for the Harpers in my youth, learning with them the printing business. Well, one day they gave me the manuscript of a book of Ruskin to set up. It was ‘The Seven Lamps of Architecture’ or ‘The Stones of Venice,’ I think. At any rate it contained a long passage in praise of the work done in the world by the great artists—by the poets, the sculptors, the musicians, the architects, the painters, and so on—and I, for mischief, changed one word in this passage. I substituted for ‘painters’ ‘printers.’ “Of course I thought the proofreader would catch the error. My idea was that wo should all have a little laugh at Ruskin’s eulogy of the printer along with such fine fellows as the musician and the poet and that then the types should be set right again. But somehow mv willful blunder missed the proofreader’s eye, and in that and every following edition for many years it appeared; hence thousands of Americana have admired the perception and the originality of Ituskin in praising so highly the work of the humble printer, thanks to me. I, by the way, didn’t discover how this error had endured till recently. I took up the volume, saw ‘printer' where ‘painteri should have been, and the memory of that youthful prank of mine came back to me. I wrote immediately to one of my Harper cousins, confessing all. His answer was a letter of three words—‘You young rascal 1’ I am not precisely a young rascal either,” Mr. llabberton concluded, smoothing his gray hair. Chaffing Mansfield. Oscar Hammerstein and Richard Mansfield met on Broadway. Said Mr. Hammerstein: “They tell me that ‘Monsieur Beaucaire’ is not dramatized from the novel, but was originally a play, and that the novel was written from that.” “True,” replied Mr. Mansfield, with his most literary bow and an amiable smile. “Why don’t you dramatize the book some time ?” queried Mr. Hamraerstein. “It would make quite a play.” Mr. Mansfield checked his bow and with a freezing glare stalked away.—New York Times. Not on the Books. Up in Representative Littlefield’s district lives a hiwyer who gets most of his law out of books and doesn’t know anything else, says the Washington Post. One day’ a man entered the attorney's office and wanted him to decide a question concerning the ownership of a calf. The book lawyer reached down several volumes and studiously searched the index. He couldn’t find the word “calf” anywhere. “There is no law on calves,” was his wise decision, and so he did not settle the question. Then the Flute Man Played. Mr. Fred Eustis, musical director of the Frank Daniels company, tells of a rehearsal of the orchestra in a

small town, lie tried hard to bring the rural musicians into line and succeeded fairly well except with the man who played the flute. Finally Mr. Eustis became desperate and exclaimed : “Look here, my friend, you stay out of this. You’re no good, and you can’t play.” The flute man calmly looked up and made reply: “If I don’t play) you don’t. I’m the mayor of tnc town, and I won’t Sive you a license.”—Chicago Inter cean. '

"YOU'RE NO GOOD, AND YOU CAN'T PLAY.