A MISUNDERSTANDING.

Clutha Leader, Volume XL, Issue 42, 25 November 1913, Page 3

A MISUNDERSTANDING.

lii- tho_ form of hi "didactic" conversation with -a bov who would persist in pronouncing "s" for "sh," the wellknown writer, M. Pierre Mille, tells in fcbe 'Temps' a, "perfectly true" story of a nameless Governor of French Guinea who wanted to teach the lazy natives the virtue of work. He came, says M. Mille, one jay to a place, accompanied by an interpreter, and, having gathered round liini the natives, he said to the interpreter"Explain to them what property means. It is a prodigious thin'g. It is the thing which gives the white man his .superiority over the black man. The black men are poor, they are thin, they aire naked, •dlhecaus" they h«v» no property. But if they should work they will 'become ™en property. To everyone his- due. Tell them thi\t; t<> everyone his <hn» (cllileuill isohl sien); dud skid thai it is my wish, the Wish of the great white chief everyone should have h's own. 11 Thereupon the interpreter made a- long sneeoh to the assem'lily, explaining in the Governor's wish. After this the Governor went away, crossed many rivers, ascended many mountains, and then came back the same wav six_ months later. "Naturally all the came out- to meet him and do him honor. And "all of them enrried on their hacks a dor, a miserable dog—three hundred, four hundred dogs, black, white, red, young, old. mangy, lame, who barked, howled, and screamed 1 as if their existence depended upon it., And the niggers said: —'Yoit see, great chief, we lmve obeyed 1 you; everyone l has his own—chacun sop chien.' " "What?" cried out Boule, the hoy. "You see. the intemvewr did! not pronounce his words well—just like you —so hj« made no difference between the word chi-en (dog) and the word sien (his own). Yev. see r.ow, wretch, what mav "'hen you pronounce your j words badly."