Explore "Across India" by Oliver Optic on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to appear before you, and to look you all in the face," his lordship began as the applause subsided. "The task befaw me is to put a gallon of fluid into a pint pot. It cawn't be done. I shall not attempt to do what is quite impossible. I can only put in what the vessel will hold. I cawn't say all there is to be said about the people of India in an hour, or even two or three hours."
The noble gentleman was an easy, pleasant, and fluent speaker, evidently quite accustomed to addressing public assemblies; but he had certain peculiarities of speech, a very few of them, which sounded just a little odd to the Americans, as doubtless some of their pronunciation did to the Britons. But there is hardly a perceptible difference in the pronunciation of highly trained speakers of one nation and the other. It is not necessary to indicate any farther the slightly peculiar speech of the accomplished gentleman.