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294 THINGS IN GENERAL.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
I Am That —No In Matter Common Who With ...
aware thai ; a duplicate office of the "English . Woman ' s Journal , " 14 a Princes Street , Cavendish Square , existed in that region , " open
iroin ten till four ; " that it was the scene of the most ludicrous and incredible events , and harbored the most absurd opinions . I replied
that such rumours had reached me , and that I had tried to gain more accurate details as to the ways of the band of Ugiy Doubles
belonging to this apocryphal establishment , but that like those miasmas which infect unfrequented countries , they had always
eluded such research ; therefore I had endeavored to keep the existence of a trans-mundane Princes Street a dead secret from
those ladies who frequented the real one on _piirposes of business or charity , lest they should one day be immeasurably alarmed and
confounded by hearing that a band of Ugly Doubles , of giant dimensions , were hovering about the world travestying their ideas
and their deeds . My Intelligent Friend agreed that everything should be done to ignore the existence of suck a " house over the
way , " but observed that it was somewhat useless when the cleverest paper in the weekly press was well known to retain special
correspondents , at high fees , in the Land of Gossip itself , " Did you , " said I , " for instance , notice an article which appeared in its columns
some weeks ago , on Miss Blackwell ' s Laws of Life ? ' It was a perfect specimen of inaccurate report from beginning to end ; and it was
very difficult to tell how far the inaccuracy was really fche result o £ ignorance or of a desire to say the smartest thing that came to
hand . " I . F . ci No , I did not see it , but I daresay all the rest of the reading
world did . " " Well , the article thus opens iire : ' Some time ago , -we noticed
a work in which , a lady of the name of Elizabeth Blackwell gave an account of her career as a medical student , and subsequently as
a medical practitioner , at New York . ' Now I suppose that this alludes to an account published in the English Woman ' s Journal '
for April 1858 , which I happen to know from the editors was not written by Miss Blackwell , but was written by her sister , speaking *
of her in the third person throughout , and at a time when the subject of the memoir was three thousand miles away , and in utter
ignorance of those expressions of affectionate and respectful regard which come gracefully enough from those wlio love , who know ,
and think well of us , but would be exquisitely absurd if surreptitiously applied by ourselves to our own deeds and character .
Observe therefore the peculiar tendency of this inaccuracy to cast ridicule on an interesting and touching story of an earnest and
laborious life . " The next inaccurate sentence speaks of' Dr . Elizabeth BlackweH _,
as she calls herself ? Now the men . who publicly bestowed her diploma in America , and those who recognise it ( comprising some
of our most distinguished physicians ) in England , may be
exceedingly silly for so doing ; but at least they exonerate her from the
294 Things In General.
294 THINGS IN GENERAL .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1859, page 294, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071859/page/6/
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