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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 6 May 2001 16:29:30 -0500
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Three questions have been sent from the editor of Black Ice magazine
seeking help translating the following sentence from  "A Curtain
Lecture Concerning Skating." Twain writes:

And Tuesday, when I was ass enough to get on skates myself, and kicked the
Irish Giant's eye out the first dash, and lit on my head and cracked the
ice so that it looked like the sun with all its rays had dropped where I
struck, and they fined me ninety-two dollars for ruining the man's pond, I
was terrified with the conviction that I had gone through to the inside of
the world, because I saw the parallels of latitude glimmering all around
me; and what was it but you, in your awkwardness, fetching up over me with
your confounded 'tilters' on?

Our colleague in the Netherlands asks:

1) What or who is Twain referring to with "the Irish Giant's eye?"

2) And do I understand it well that the author thinks he sees the
parallel of latitude glimmering because it was his wife bending over
fetching him?

3) What are 'tilters'?

Any help on conveying Twain's meaning or intent would be
greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Barb

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