[Ads-l] Request help tracing a tale: Zanzibar! You killed my brother. We must have a duel

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Wed Nov 13 03:54:13 UTC 2019


When you were a child you may have heard a circular tale involving a
duel and an unfortunate man named Zanzibar. The Quote Investigator
website now has an article on the topic.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/11/12/duel/

Perhaps a list member can help to verify the citation below. If you
are associated with Ohio State University then you should be able to
identify and access the crucial document. Other libraries also have
the document.

The metadata is incomplete, and you may have to look through a small
set of documents. The page number of 46 will help you to scan quickly.

The misspelling “Zanzabar” occurs in the source document.

Year: 1940 or 1941
Title: Bulletin of the Agricultural College Extension Service
Organization: Ohio State University
Number: Between 201 and 219
Quote Page 46
Database: Google Books snippet match and HathiTrust blind match; data
is incomplete and may be inaccurate

[Begin excerpt]
Have two or more persons repeat the following lines through three
times in unison. A good method would be to do it very slow and
dramatic the first time through, and then increase the speed and
volume each succeeding time.

‘Twas a dark and stormy night. Just outside the gates of Paris. I had
my rusty, trusty pistol. I aimed, I fired, my opponent sank into the
arms of his second. I rushed to a nearby Cafe, where a tall and
distinguished gentleman approached me.

“I have killed a man,” cried I.
“Killed a man?,” cried he,
“Killed a man,” cried I.
“His name?,” said he,
“His name?,” cried he,
“His name?,” said he,
“His name?,” cried I, “is Zanzabar.”
“Zanzabar!” cried he, “you have killed my brother, we must meet.”
[End excerpt]

The goal is to get scans of the key pages showing the quotation and
the metadata. If you are willing to help please let me know.

Garson O'Toole
QuoteInvestigator.com

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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