"
and the opening words of Hamlet's soliloquy with the German:
"Sein oder Nichtsein, das ist hier die Frage."
Of the former pair he greatly preferred the English, of the latter the
German.
Sometimes we discussed at great length the exact English equivalent of
some German or French word. I remember one which he came back to again
and again, the word leichtsinnig. We suggested as translations,
frivolous, irresponsible, hare-brained, thoughtless, chicken-witted,
foolish, crazy; but we never found an expression which suited him.
But I have wandered away from the subject of editorial writers. During
the time I was with J. P. he selected two, and his method of selection
is of interest in view of the great importance he attached to the
editorial page of The World.
As I have said elsewhere, J. P. got practically all the important
articles from every paper of consequence in the United States. If he
read an editorial which impressed him, possibly from a Chicago or a San
Francisco paper, he put it on one side and told Pollard, who read all
this kind of material to him, to watch the clippings from that paper and
to pick out any other editorials which he could identify as the work of
the same man. Five years with J. P. had made Pollard an expert in
penetrating the disguise of the editorial "We.
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