How They Construct English in Belgium
A Request to “Twirl the Page.”
American Postage-Stamp Collectors Are
Amused, When Not Puzzled, by a
Queerly Worded Circular.
“English as she is Japanned” occasionally appears on the shop signs of Yokohama, Tokyo, and other Japanese cities, to amuse travelers from America and England. But it is not necessary to search the Orient for odd perversions of the language. As near a country as Belgium is the birthplace of the following circular, which has lately been received by many American philatelists:
“Seek you good Correspondents extra-European? Want you Postage Stamps from Africa, America, Asia, Oceania? Sent immediately and advertisement for the —— Extra-European Directory, 4,000 addresses of Philatelists, residing abroad Europa. Work’s price, book in 8 deg. stitched, —— The advertisements sind inserted opposite the country selected by you... One Justificative copy gratis.”
At the bottom of the page is the further instruction to English and American readers to “Twirl the page, please.”
PRACTICAL JOKING OF EUGENE VIVIER.