[Ads-l] Anonymous Was a Woman (UNCLASSIFIED)

MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY CCDC AVMC (USA) 0000099bab68be9a-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Wed May 8 17:05:00 UTC 2019


CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

The earliest English version of the quote you have seems to be 1877.  That can be antedated.

_Daily Missouri Democrat_  St. Louis MO, 22 Oct 1873, p 2 col 3

"John Forsyth, in a letter from Vienna to the Mobile Register, tells this little story: 'During our war a detachment of Federal troops encamped for some time on the lands of a staunch Virginia farmer, to his great annoyance.  He was a foxhunter, and had a leaning toward hounds.  Out of patience one day with his blue-coat intruders, he exclaimed, "Well, d--n it, the more I see of men, the better I like dogs." ' "

One interesting misattribution I ran across was to the magician, the Great Lafayette
https://geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.php?title=Great_Lafayette

An unsourced newspaper article in one of Houdini's scrapbooks, written on the occasion of Lafayette's death, mentioned two signs that had hung in his home:
"One of the golden signs in the house bore the legend:—"You may drink my wines, smoke my cigars and make use of my servants, but you must respect my dogs."  Another said:—"The more I see of man the more I love my dog." "

Lafayette died in a theater fire in Edinburgh, Scotland in May 1911.  The Empire Music Hall caught fire. Lafayette originally left the building, but went back in saying "I am going to try to get my horse and dog." (his act used livestock)


> 
> The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.
> The more I get to know people, the more I like my dog.
> 
> The sayings above are attributed to Mark Twain at goodreads.com and inspirationstation.info, respectively.
> 
> I explored this saying and posted the results on the QI website here:
> https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/01/10/like-dogs/
> 
> The earliest strong match I found occurred in “Tablettes Historiques et Littéraires” in 1822.
> 
> [Begin except]
> Nous venons de recevoir le Miroir de la Somme, il contient les niaiseries suivantes: Une dame disait l’autre jour: plus je connais les hommes,
> mieux j’aime les chiens.
> [End excerpt]
> 
> [Begin one possible translation]
> We just received the Mirror of the Somme, it contains the following
> nonsense: A lady said the other day: the more I know men, the better I like dogs.
> [End translation]
> 
> So, currently the earliest evidence attributes the remark to an anonymous woman instead of Mark Twain. Yet, the situation is complicated
> because this saying has been attributed to a wide variety of men and women including Madame de Sévigné, Madame Roland, Alphonse de
> Lamartine, Alphonse Toussenel, and Louise de la Rameé.
> 
> Also, future research (or research I do not know about) may shift the attribution.
> 
> Garson
> 
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

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