Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 98, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1898 — JOKE ON THE DIRECTORY MAN. [ARTICLE]

JOKE ON THE DIRECTORY MAN.

Tried Every Other Language and Never Thought of English. Many amusing incidents occur in the daily experience of the men who get names for the city directory. One of them tells of a call he made on a man in a potato patch, says the Chicago Times-Heratld. “It was in the Polish district, but, as I speak that language and nearly every other, my versatility in that line getting me my position, I addressed him in Polish, asking him his name and occupation. He shook his head, so I.tried German. As he did not understand mat any better, I tackled him in Italian and French, getting no response except a shake of the head. I had still a few more languages to be heard from, and I was wondering which one was likely to meet his case, when he straightened up from his potato patch, and, looking at me with a twinkle in his eye, said: “ ‘What’s the matter with spakin’ to me in United States, sor, seein’ I ain’t in it with the other tongues?’ “And I just sat down there and laughed when I thought of the pantomime I had given him with my unintelligible questions.”