Show WHEN LONGFELLOW SHOCKED BOSTON Harpers In the original Impression of lows poem of oC Hiawatha there were ere found In the seventh book the three fol following following oh lowing lines lInel Straight into hito the River Plunged as if It he be were an otter Dove as it I he be were ere a beaver bener How this offending preterit passed pas ed the proofreader without protest Is one of or those mysteries which h hav have never ner been revealed but the form fonn certainly made lt is ts appearance and can still be found In cop eop copies coplea I lea ies of ot the poem which were regularly pub published fished and sold Boston never neer received such a shock since the days when Fenimore Cooper in tn insisted Isted that It was as only in the middle mI dle states that the English language was BIH spoken ken In Its It purity purit But that attack came front from an outsider Here the offender was of ot her ber own household was In fact her favorite son What means of ot suppression suppression sion slon were resorted to will probably never be ba disclosed A mysterious reticence has always been en preserved In regard to this linguistic escapade the time biographers of or Longfellow appear to be silent upon th the subject Measures of ot some sort must however have been taken at once Dove Doe was expunged and the decorous dived assumed Its place and the who e transaction was so completely hushed bushed up that no public scandal was wa created Let him who possesses a copy COP of oC that first impression continue to cherish It Whatever may mar ma be its worth orth now the time will come when It will reach ach the value of the virtuous woman of scripture scrip ure and its price will be far above aboe rubles rubies |