Mork'Twain, who has been staying at Vienna for some months, was entertained on Sunday evening by the members of the Concordia, a Club of Vieanese journalists and litiérateurs. He seized the opportunity to expound his views on the German language to a German-speaking audience. It will be seen from the report of his speech Which we give below, thst years have moderated his reforming zeal, and that he no longer advocates the abolition of the vocabulary with the exception of Zug," "Schlog," and a few other words which he admitted, in the Tramp Abroad, to be necessary.
Mark Twain began, in English, by thanking the members of the Club for their ial reception. Then, to the great astonishment of those who were not in the secret, he plunged into German. He drew 'a. manuscript from his pocket and proceeded to read the following speech in the German language and a strong English accent "Please excuse me for reading what I want to say. Idon't speak German well, though many people who know the language have assured me that I write it like an angel. May be Ido—I don't know. I have had no acquaintance with angels up to now. That (und Mark Twain pointed upwards) comes later on, if it please God; but there is no hurry. I have long had a passionate desire to make a speech in German, but I have never been allowed to doit. People without any feeling for art have always placed obstacles in my way. They said: 'Keep quiet, Hochwohlgeboren! Try some other way to make yourself a nuisance.' I had considerable difficulty in getting permission to make this speech. The Committee at first wouldn't allow me because one Of their rules is to protect the German Tang tage. But I pointed out that I had no de: Ure to injure the German language. On the contrary, I only want to improve and reform it. This has become the dream sdevaly willed on néiesl German government. ¥ 4nd offered to contract for the Work. All.t_want is to introduce a few alterations. want to tone the wanton luxuria, tee of the construction, and destroy the une ding parenthesis. I propose to forbid tke employment of more than thirteen sul Jects in one sentence, and to bring the verb nearer to the front, 60 that it can be di, covered without using a telescope. In she Tt I want to simplify your beloved language,. and I implore you to be guided by me. L' you only carry out these reforms you will have a splendid language. 'A few days ago the correspondent of a Vienna paper got out a sentence containing 112 words. There were seven parentheses in it, anc the subject was changed seven' times, The poor old persecuted, exhausted subject had to climb around seven tives in the course of a single sentence! Then I want to reform the separable verbs a little; and when sll these reforms are accomplished ths German language will be the noblest and finest on earth "Herr Pétzl (the writer of a humorous sketch of Mark Twain) has been trying to make the public believe that I came to Vienna to block the bridges and interfere with the traffic by. making notes. You mustn't take any notice of what he says. My motive for standing on the bridges is perfectly blameless. They provide the room I want for my German investigations. I use the parapet for inning out German sentences. I put e first port of a separable verb on one.end of the parapet and the soco pattat the forcher end, and. build up the ly of the sentence between them. The bridges of this city are mostly long enough for this; but when I want to study Pétzl's writings I have to go on that lordly interminable bridge the Reichsbriicke. However, that's a slander; Pétzl writes very good German; not so fluent as mine, perhaps, but a good deal better in many details—excuse these flatteries, they are well merited. Now I will wind up—I mean, I will bring my speech to an end. I am astranzer, but in the friendly atmosphere of Vienna I had quite forgotten it. Please accept my heartiest thanks."
The speech excited great laughter.—Translated from the Neue Freie Presse.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.