Famous quotation about the weather in San Francisco (Duluth in 1900) and a mystery volume with restricted access in Google Books

Tue Jul 12 02:50:41 UTC 2011

Many thanks David. Great work! Here is a link showing that the table
of contents of the May 1846 issue is inside the volume:

http://books.google.com/books?id=qRQGAAAAQAAJ&q=1846#search_anchor

(Sorry about the large number of messages I have sent in a short span
of time. I will take a break.)

On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 10:45 PM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Famous quotation about the weather in San Francisco (Duluth
>              in 1900) and a mystery volume with restricted access in Google
>              Books
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> But if Google Books metadata is to be trusted (which is a big assumption),
> this volume contains an article titled "Educating Horses." by Harry Hieover.
> Hieover wrote a book on horsemanship, "Stable Talk and Table Talk" v. 2, in
> 1846 that contains an article titled "Educating Horses." So a date of around
> 1846 seems likely.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Garson O'Toole
> Sent: Monday, July 11, 2011 8:07 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Famous quotation about the weather in San Francisco (Duluth in
> 1900) and a mystery volume with restricted access in Google Books
>
> Joel S. Berson wrote:
>> Harvard seems to have vols. 2 through 49 (1816) with some
>> missing.  What volume and page are we looking for?
>
> Many thanks for your response Joel, and your willingness to help.
> Unfortunately, the Google Books database is not supplying a year or a
> volume number. The page is 222. I have not been able to extract a year
> using a variety of search probes. Here are two links. Maybe someone
> else  can extract a date or volume number:
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=qRQGAAAAQAAJ&
> http://books.google.com/books?id=qRQGAAAAQAAJ&q=Beresford#search_anchor
>
>> At 7/11/2011 06:52 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>Garson, Eighteenth Century Collections Online contains one volume of this
>>>magazine only (1793).
>>>
>>>I could not find the passage in question.
>>>
>>>On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 6:35 PM, Garson O'Toole
>>><adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>
>>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> > -----------------------
>>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> > Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
>>> > Subject:      Famous quotation about the weather in San Francisco
> (Duluth
>>> > in
>>> >              1900) and a mystery volume with restricted access in
> Google
>>> > Books
>>> >
>>> >
>>>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
>>> >
>>> > The periodical "The Sporting Magazine; or Monthly Calendar of the
>>> > Transactions of the Turf" was the first English sporting periodical,
>>> > and it was published between 1792 and 1870 according to Wikipedia an
>>> > occasionally reliable website. So why is the following digital volume
>>> > locked up in Google Books?
>>> >
>>> > http://books.google.com/books?id=qRQGAAAAQAAJ&
>>> >
>>> > The images were created from a copy at Oxford University. GB does not
>>> > give a date or any other bibliographic data about this mystery volume.
>>> > I cannot find the volume at HathiTrust. I do not know how to search
>>> > for it at the Internet Archive because I have been unable to extract a
>>> > date. The volume interests me because it contains the following
>>> > excerpt:
>>> >
>>> > All admit this to have been the most open winter in their remembrance.
>>> > Beresford, when asked if he ever knew such a Winter, replied with his
>>> > usual quickness, "Yes, last Summer."
>>> >
>>> > http://books.google.com/books?id=qRQGAAAAQAAJ&q=Beresford#search_anchor
>>> >
>>> > I sent a message to Google to request the full display of "The
>>> > Sporting Magazine" volume. If some list member can extract a date from
>>> > this book or has a suggestion for obtaining access please let me know.
>>> >
>>> > Here is some additional background for this topic. I am exploring the
>>> > following well-known saying attributed to Mark Twain: The coldest
>>> > winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.
>>> >
>>> > Multiple references state that there is no compelling evidence that
>>> > Twain is responsible for this saying. However, the references also
>>> > note that Twain did write a letter containing the following:
>>> >
>>> >  ...anywhere is better than Paris. Paris the cold, Paris the drizzly,
>>> > Paris the rainy, Paris the damnable. More than a hundred years ago
>>> > somebody asked Quin, "Did you ever see such a winter in all your life
>>> > before?" "Yes," said he, "Last summer." I judge he spent his summer in
>>> > Paris.
>>> >
>>> > - letter to Lucius Fairchild, 28 April 1880, reprinted in Mark Twain,
>>> > The Letter Writer
>>> >
>>> > http://www.twainquotes.com/Paris.html
>>> >
>>> > The quotation in "The Sporting Magazine" may help to illuminate the
>>> > history of the quip used by Twain. If someone wishes to offer an
>>> > interpretation for the term "open winter" I would like to hear it. My
>>> > guess is that the phrase refers to the existence of a large number of
>>> > competitive race horses.
>>> >
>>> > I am also tracing jokes matching the template of the San Francisco
>>> > saying. Here are the two earliest I have found so far in 1900 and
>>> > 1901:
>>> >
>>> > Cite: 1900 June 17, Duluth News-Tribune, [No article title], Page 12,
>>> > Column 3, Duluth, Minnesota. (GenealogyBank)
>>> >
>>> > One of these days somebody will tell that mouldy chestnut about the
>>> > finest winter he ever saw being the summer he spent in Duluth, and one
>>> > or these husky commercial travelers, who have been here and know all
>>> > about our climate, will smite him with an uppercut and break his
>>> > slanderous jaw. The truth will come out in time.
>>> >
>>> > Cite: 1901 June 17, Morning Herald, Interesting Experiences Of Local
>>> > Man Who Deals in Weather - Exciting Incidents That Do Not Appear In
>>> > His Records, GBK Page 6, Column 2, Lexington, Kentucky.
>>> > (GenealogyBank)
>>> >
>>> > Another assignment was to Duluth, Minn., where he learned to
>>> > appreciate rapid changes in temperature. He says the coldest winter he
>>> > ever experienced was the summer he spent in Duluth.
>>> >
>>> > Over a span of more than one hundred years many locations were
>>> > substituted into this joke including: Milwaukee, Two Harbors, Grand
>>> > Marais, Puget Sound, Buffalo, Minneapolis, and San Francisco.
>>> >
>>> > Thanks for any help
>>> > Garson
>>> >
>>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>--
>>>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
>>>
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