Mark Twain's Speeches, Part 1

<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"></SPAN></p> <br/> <h2> A NEW GERMAN WORD </h2> <p>To aid a local charity Mr. Clemens appeared before a<br/> fashionable audience in Vienna, March 10, 1899, reading his<br/> sketch &ldquo;The Lucerne Girl,&rdquo; and describing how he had been<br/> interviewed and ridiculed. He said in part:<br/></p> <p>I have not sufficiently mastered German, to allow my using it with impunity. My collection of fourteen-syllable German words is still incomplete. But I have just added to that collection a jewel&mdash;a veritable jewel. I found it in a telegram from Linz, and it contains ninety-five letters:</p> <p>Personaleinkommensteuerschatzungskommissionsmitgliedsreisekostenrechnungs erganzungsrevisionsfund</p> <p>If I could get a similar word engraved upon my tombstone I should sleep beneath it in peace.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />