ONE WAY OUT.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIV, Issue 823, 14 December 1905, Page 26

ONE WAY OUT.

As an example of Chinese editorial politeness in returning a rejected manuscript the following would be difficult to surpass:—“ Illustrious Brother of the Sun and of the Moon,—We have perused your manuscript with celestial delight. By the bones of our ancestors, we swear that we have never met a masterpiece like it. If we publish it, H.M. the Emperor will command us to take it as a criterion, and to print nothing that does not equal it. Since that could never be possible in ten thousand years, we return your manuscript, trembling and asking your mercy seventeen thousand times. Lo! my head is at your feet and I am the slave of your slave.”