ct the mistake, sir!" But I don't
think it was ever corrected till the sale ceased.

I was sometimes annoyed with many imitations of my poems by persons who
knew no German, which were all attributed to me. A very pious
Presbyterian publication, in alluding to something of the kind, said that
"Mr. Leland, _because he is the author of Bret Harte_, thinks himself
justified in publishing any trash of this description." I thought this a
_very_ improper allusion for a clergyman, not to say libellous. In fact,
many people really believed that Bret Harte was a _nom de plume_ or the
title of a poem. And I may here say by the way that I never "wrote
under" the pseudonym of Hans Breitmann in my life, nor called myself any
such name at any time. It is simply the name of one of many _books_
which I have written. An American once insisting to me that I _should_
be called so from my work, I asked him if he would familiarly accost Mr.
Lowell as "Josh Biglow." If there is anything in the world which denotes
a subordinate position in the social scale or defect in education, it is
the passion to call men "out of their names," and never feel really
acquainted with any one until he is termed Tom or Jack. It is doubtless
all very genial and jocose and sociable, but the man who shows a tendency
to it should _not_ complain when his betters put him in a lower class or
among the "lower orders."

Once at a reception at George Boughton's, the artist, there was, as I
heard, an elderly gentleman rushing about asking to see or be introduced
to _Hart Bretmann_, whose works he declared he knew by heart, and with
whom he was most anxious to become acquainted. Whether he ever
discovered this remarkable conglomerate I do not know.

I once made the acquaintance of an American at the Langham Hotel who
declared that I had made life a burden to him. His name was H.
Brightman, and being in business in New York, he never went to the Custom-
House or Post-Office but what the clerks cried "Hans Brightman! of
course. Yes, we have read about you, sir--in history."

But even in this London season I found more serious work to attend to
than comic ballads or society. Mr. Trubner was very anxious to have me
write a pamphlet vindicating the claim of Germany to Alsace and Lorraine,
and I offered to do it gladly, if he would provide all the historical
data or material. The result of this was the _brochure_ entitled
"France, Alsace, and Lorraine," which ha