He Didn't Realise It.

Otago Witness, Issue 2924, 30 March 1910, Page 82

He Didn't Realise It.

I Few Americans have trouble in pronouno mg the name 'Schenectady " although thci spelling of 't is not always so easy. In "Talks iii. a Library," Lawrence • Hutton tells of an old Scottish' laird whose guest? on© summer was a young lady named Mirs Cunningham, who came from Scheneetadj. "Skiimey-taddy" and "Skenk-ter-addy" ■ "were as near to it as the laird usually came. .-.••■ In his eyes the orthographic and orthoepic beam of his own titles and appellations was entirely eclipsed by the marvellous mote know.n as ■ Schenectady; and he never realised that the inhabitants "of the counties of Schoharie, Cattaraugus, and Chemung, iir the State of- New York, migh*< safely bite their thumbs at the residents of the kingdom of Fife in Scotland, until his eyes were opened eomcwhat rudely, and his sight was, in a way,, restored. "Uncle John." I said to him suddenly one evening when he was in convulsions over Schenectady—" Uncle John, what is the name of your place?" "Baldutho'." -, -. , I -'And of your parish?", i 'Aron'crau'eh. ' * j "And of your post office?" i "Pittenweem." "And of your railway station?"' 'Kilconquhar." . > 'And still, Uncle John," I continued, "you, as Laird of Balduthy [the vernacular form], elder of 'the Kirl of Arroncra-w; receiving your ietters and papers at Pifctenweem, and taking your trains at Kill* nocker, think Schenectady funny 1"