J.J.:

Missing from the index of your excellent book is the French author Jules

Verne. By chance, the bedtime book Danny and I are reading is Verne’s

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, and on election night we got to the San

Francisco chapter. It’s November 1872 and there is an election going on in

that fair city. Apparently the French were just as snooty about U.S.

elections back in Verne’s day as they are now. In Chapter 25 of ATWI8D the

traveler, Phileas Fogg, and his party encounter a rowdy political gathering

in the streets of San Francisco. Fogg is insulted, and he and his party are

roughed up. They go back to their hotel, clean themselves up, then head for

the railroad station. Here comes the punch line:

“At a quarter before six the travelers reached the station, and found the

train ready to depart. As he was about to enter it, Mr. Fogg called a

porter, and said to him: ‘My friend, was there not some trouble today in San

Francisco?’

“‘It was a political meeting, sir,’ replied the porter.

“‘But I thought there was a great deal of disturbance in the streets.’

“‘It was only a meeting assembled for an election.’

“‘The election of a general-in-chief, no doubt?’ asked Mr. Fogg.

“‘No, sir; of a justice of the peace.’”

At that point the reader is supposed to fall around laughing uncontrollably.

If he is French.