Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 June 1895 — French as She Is Spoke. [ARTICLE]

French as She Is Spoke.

In one of his entertainments Mr. George Grossmith, the English comedian, extracts no little tun from “French as she is spoke” by the schoolboy. In a clever skit on the French play that forma part of the inevitable prize day program all the dialogue is of the conventional “first French course” order, as follows: “Have you seen the garden of my wife’s uncle?” “No, but I have found the pencil of my father’s sister.” I was reminded of this the other day when calling on a friend whose three small nieces had just arrived from South America, The children’s native tongue whs Spanish, but evidently a “first English conrse” had been used to prepare them for {heir visit to this country, and their quaint, high flown phrases were a constant source of mirth to the household. They invariably prefaced each sentence with, “It is that.” “Juniatl, why haven’t you brushed your hair?” said my friend to the darkeyed, eldest girl of about 6. “It Is that I failed to discover my brush,” was the stately reply. At that moment the baby upstairs set up a piercing yell, whereupon the second child, with hand upraised, remarked, with infinite solemnity: “Hark! the infant wails.”