THE PUN ON HERAT.
rTo THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1 SIR,—Thanks are due to your correspondent " 0. " for bringing before us that delightful French story about Herat. May I suggest a slight correction ? The story was told me some quarter of a century ago by an Alsatian, who enjoyed the ridicule cast on her own countryman for his bad French pronunciation. An Alsatian announced an important piece of news in the Chamber, thus :—" Mes-sieurs, le Chah de Perse a pris la ville d'He-rat" (loud laughter). "Ii parait que cette nonvelleexcite lea amnia de la Chambre " (more laughter). The unlucky man got no further.
I do not know if it was the same Deputy, or his successor, who complained that, "Tons mes brojets (projets) sont des-traites (detruits) ;" and who, apologising for the absence of a Royal Prince of Orleans on an important occasion, added, in a melancholy tone, that it was " un fat-ctlitti." He was a well-known dandy, and the joke was only too a propos.—I am, Sir, &c.,
M. S. H.
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