VXCLE IlEMCS AXD MR. CABLE.

423

Cable and I read from lx>oks of ours, to show him what an easy
trick it was; but his immortal shyness was proof against even this
sagacious strategy, so we had to read about Brer Habbit ourselves.

Mr. Harris ought to be able to read the negro dialect better than
anybody else, for in the matter of
writing it he is the only master the
country has produced. Mr. Cable is
the only master in the writing of
French dialects that the country has
produced ; and he reads them in per-
fection. It was a great treat to hear
him read about Jean-all Poquelin, and
about Innerarity and his famous * pig-
shoo' representing * Louisihanna fi[f-
fusing to Hanter the Union/ along
with passages of nicely-shaded Ger-
man dialect from a novel which was
still in manuscript.

It came out in conversation, that
in two different instances Mr. Cable
got into grotesque trouble by using, in
his books, next-to-impossible French
names which nevertheless happened
to be borne by living and sensitive
citizens of I^ew Orleans. His names
were either inventions or were bor-
rowed from the ancient and obsolete
past, I do not now remember which ;
but at any rate living bearers of them ^^7^
turned up, and were a good deal hurt **&**£• *
at having attention directed to them- "^

selves and their affairs in so exces-
sively public a manner.

Mr. "Warner and I had an experience of the same sort when we
wrote the book called * The Gilded Age/ There is a character in it
called * Sellers.' I do not remember what his first name was, in the
beginning; but anyway, Mr. Warner did not like it, and wanted it

UNCLE EEHtJS.