Clarence King 



the Mexicans and carried him tri- 

 umphantly to the mines of Culiacan. 

 Afterwards he acquired a correct and 

 grammatical knowledge of the Cas- 

 tilian. It was the same in France. 

 He had read French from child- 

 hood, but had never spoken it. On 

 arriving in Paris, where he was con- 

 ducting some important business, 

 he did not pause to gain famil- 

 iarity with the spoken idiom. He 

 attacked it with the energy of a 

 cavalry charge, and though at first 

 he made havoc of genders, moods 

 and tenses, he took it as we are told 

 the Kingdom of Heaven is taken, 

 by violence. In a few weeks he was 

 speaking the language with perfect 

 ease, and was an equally welcome 

 guest in financial, artistic and literary 

 circles. In England nothing de- 

 scribes his success but the well-worn 

 phrase of Dickens. He was " the 

 delight of the nobility and gentry" 

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