Die Sammelwuth | 05 Feb. 1904
Indiana tribüne. (Indianapolis, Ind.), 05 Feb. 1904. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045241/1904-02-05/ed-1/seq-6/>
The following article begins with a short (and somewhat incorrect) summary of Mark Twain's "The Canvasser's Tale". The article's author uses the story to set up a wider discussion of the hobby of collecting in society which he views as a new and quickly spreading social phenomenon - especially among men as the last paragraph stresses. The text loosely presents various ideas about why people collect items, which items are suited for collecting, who might be especially prone to become a collector, and what implications this "frenzy" might have for society as a whole.
Only the first part of the article is transcribed and translated because it is the only part of the text mentioning Mark Twain explicitly.
| Transcription | English Translation |
|---|---|
| Die Sammelwuth | The Collecting Frenzy |
| Plauderei von Victor Ottmann. | Conversation by Victor Ottmann. |
| In einer seiner drolligen Schnurren schildert Mark Twain einen komischen Kauz, der zuerst Ziegelsteine und andere schöne Dinge sammelt und sich dann, um den raffinirteren Anforderungen seines Geschmacks zu genügen, auf das Sammeln von - Echos verlegt. Er kauft alle möglichen Ländereien, in denen es schöne Echos gibt, er besitzt doppelt- und dreiläufige Echos, sogar solche, die deutsch verstehen, was nach Mark Twains Ansicht die schwerste von allen Künsten ist, aber schlie[ß]lich bringt ihn die kostspielige Liebhaberei an den Bettelstab und es wird auf seine alten Tage genöthigt, mit Echos hausiren zu gehen. | In one of his quaint little stories, Mark Twain describes a comic oddball who first collects bricks and other beautiful things and then, to satisfy the more refined demands of his taste, turns to collecting - echoes. He buys all kinds of properties where there are beautiful echoes; he owns double and triple-barreled echoes, even some that understand German, which in Mark Twain's opinion is the hardest of all arts, but finally the costly hobby makes him a beggar and he has to - in his old age - go peddling with echoes. |
| Der amerikanische Humorist hat nicht einmal sonderlich übertrieben, wenigstens kann ich mir nach vielen Erfahrungen seltsamer Art sehr wohl einen Mann vorstellen, der im Sammeln von Echos den clou des Sammelsports erblickt. Es ist ja kaum noch etwas im Kunst- und Alltagsleben, nichts, was im weiten Reiche der Natur kreucht und fleucht, davor sicher, von Sammelhänden gesucht, geordnet, rubrizirt und etikettirt zu werden. | The American humorist has not even particularly exaggerated, at least after many strange experiences, I can very well imagine a man who sees in the collection of echoes the pinnacle of the collecting sport. There is hardly anything left in art and everyday life, nothing that flies and crawls in the vast realm of nature, that is safe from being searched for, sorted, rubricated and labeled by collecting hands. |
| ... | ... |