Anyone up for some Chop-Suey to go?

Ok -- first off, I KNOW that Chop-Suey is as American as Apple Pie... oops, just did a wikipedia search to verify & found that it's not exactly so. Here's a link to read up on it : Chop-Suey .

But getting back to the actual BOOK -- This book, Ann Zu-Zan was written by an American woman by the name of Louise Jordan Miln. Born in the US in 1864, she traveled extensively around the states with her doctor father. She went to Vassar but left without graduating --to marry George Crichton Miln, an English actor. The two of them went galivanting off to see the world and act wherever their feet touched down. They spent a decent amount of time in Australia / New Zealand (both of them acting here and there) and then traveled to China for a stay (from what I can gather, it was at least a year.... though there may have been more than one trip back and forth). Mrs. Miln became a devoted Orientalist -- she fell in love with the Orient. At some point, her acting turned to writing and her main subject was, of course, China.

This particular book came towards the end of her life (she died in 1933 and this book dates from 1932, however there are two, and possibly three books that appeared in 1933/1934). While it is considered a romantic piece, the book is full of contemporary Chinese cultural tidbits and is heavily slanted towards the Chinese perspective, not the American (of course, as an American, Miln unconciously slanted to the western perspective anyway).

Overall, a quite interesting book from an author with an interesting history.

Oh, and just a note -- the heroine's first name is Zu-zan.... Ann is the family name.

Pigs, pigs and MORE pigs!

Is a Guinea pig a pig (as in porcine, porker, hog, etc), or is it something else....

I never had a chance to actually delve into this book in years past, though I'm very familiar with the book -- it was one of the perennial favorite titles that older customers used to request when I worked in an open shop. Back then (eons ago, it seems) I never had the time to find out what was so amusing. Last Thursday, though, when I was entering the data for this particular copy in my database, I thought, what the heck, I'll poke through the first couple of pages.

Ha!

I ended up reading a whole chapter (which is not hard, as it's easy reading & the chapters are short) and wanted to read more. Unfortunately, even now, the life of a book dealer is not one of constantly sitting down to READ the material at hand, it's to list it and SELL it (or we don't last long as dealers, now do we).

The pig part is simply, and yet as complicated as you could ask for -- is a Guinea pig a pet in the eyes of a railway company transporting it from point A to point B, or is it a Pig (as Wilbur the Pig in Charlotte's Web)? For Mike Flannery, the Westcote agent of the Interurban Express Company, the answer wasn't so easy or simple. And it revolved around money.

"But, you everlastingly stupid idiot! - shouted Mr. Morehouse, madly shaking a flimsy printed book beneath the agent's nose, - can't you read it here - in your own plain printed rates? - Pets, domestic, Franklin to Westcote, if properly boxed, twenty-five cents each.- He threw the book on the counter in disgust. - What more do you want? Aren't they pets? Aren't they domestic? Aren't they properly boxed? What?"

And the answer from Mike Flannery... "Here's the rule for ut. - Whin the agint be in anny doubt regardin' which of two rates applies to a shipment, he shall charge the larger. The consign-ey may file a claim for the overcharge. - In this case, Misther Morehouse, I be in doubt. Pets thim be, but pigs I'm blame sure they do be, an' me rules says plain as the nose on yer face, - Pigs Franklin to Westcote, thirty cints each."

Another thing I hadn't known about this slim, but hilarious book is that it originally was published as a pamphlet to be handed out to customers of a railway line (as noted by Between the Covers book store in their description:One of 30,000 copies of the first edition, which was distributed for free by the Railway Appliances Company. ) This was Ellis Parker Butler's first book and started his career as a humorous writer off with a bang.

Hopefully, when I have a bit of time (and before it sells) I'll be able to finish this book.
I'd like that.
I'd like that a lot.
(PS: two little Guinea Pigs don't stay lonely for long in a railway station, especially if it's a mated pair!)