I heard a Californian student in Heidelberg, say, in one of his calmest moods, that he would rather decline two drinks than one German adjective. ("The Awful German Language," _A Tramp Abroad_ Appendix D, 606) At 12:36 PM 1/10/2000 -0500, you wrote: >Dear Forum -- > I've been asked about the following quotation: "I >need a quote from Mark Twain (I think) about the >declensions of Latin nouns. It goes >something like this: 'I would rather decline a beer than a >Latin noun.' Could you verify/correct this quote?" > It rings a bell (though I wonder if it wasn't about >German rather than Latin?) but I can't say for sure if it's >the real McTwain. Can any of you help? Is it Twain's? and >if so, where is it from? Thanks, Steve Railton