G. K. Chesterton: The Wisdom of Father Brown

Question

Hello, I found a line again and I can't understand something in it.
This is from

G. K. Chesterton: The Wisdom of Father Brown
7. The Purple Wig

Here's the paragraph:

His life was a series of distracted compromises between the proprietor of the paper (and of him), who was a senile soap-boiler with three ineradicable mistakes in his mind, and the very able staff he had collected to run the paper; some of whom were brilliant and experienced men and (what was even worse) sincere enthusiasts for the political policy of the paper.

I understand "a senile soap-boiler" means, like, "an old pepper-box" or something, but what do these "three ineradicable mistakes in his mind" stand for? What exactly did the author want to say? The proprietor was an old marasmic man with very diligent people and with what else?. Unfortunatelly, in transaltion into my native language this line about three mistakes is ommited.

So what are your thoughts on that?

here's the story itself
http://www.literaturepage.com/read/chesterton-wisdom-of-father-brown-103.html

Thank you in advance

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Without reading the novel, I would guess that the three ineradicable mistakes in the character's boss's mind are three mistakes that the character made.

Roro · Answer

Dear Mishau,

Do you love Chesterton? We have a great translator in Japan, so let me try. As you said this sentence?it seems to me?is only making a vague allusion to the (senile) people in governing/ruling classes. Of course Chesterton couldn't mention their mistakes (=misunderstandings) directly, I guess.

In the previous paragraph there's such a hint:
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?MR EDWARD NUTT -- his most familiar emotion was one of continuous fear; fear of libel actions, fear of lost advertisements, fear of misprints, fear of the sack.?
???????????????????????????????????????
(I think?this passage indicates that Mr Nutt is influenced too much by his employer's (wrong) intention.)

And in the last paragraph, too, there's a hint:
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?Besides, old Soap-Suds was sick enough at not getting his peerage last year.?
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Dear Mishau. I'm afraid I'm not clear enough. But in any case, G.K.C. didn't mention, exactly, 'the three mistakes', in any place, I think! (By the way 'mistakes' is transkated into 'defects' in Japanese. You could understand it as 'misunderstandings,' I guess.)

I'm sorry if I'm making a wrong guess. I'm interested in other readers' opinion.

With my warmest regards,

Davkett · Answer

I'm unclear about what exactly you don't understand in the expression, "three ineradicable mistakes in his mind". Is it whose mind, what the three mistakes are, the meaning of the term 'ineradicable', or something else?

I, too, have not read the novel.

Roro · Answer

Mishau's question has a point, although the meaning of this sentence is not difficult to understand.

The problem is, rather, the stuffs were too brilliant and ... (what was even worse) sincere enthusiasts for the political policy of the paper..

The writers of the paper were so brilliant that the editor had to make distracted compromises to satisfy his employer's (hidden) intention.

And?the employer's (hidden) intention?=?three ineradicable mistakes?, I guess. And there's no further explanation, what this expression means, so we can only guess, from traces of editting process.

Seems I cannot make myself clear again.

Davkett · Answer

Hi there, Roro,

I meant to address my post to Mishau. Did you think I was addressing you when I said I wasn't clear about the nature of the question?

Roro · Answer

Hello davkett, no, no, sorry for my meddling.
I just wanted to say that even if the sentence's meaning is clear enough, we would find ourselves at a loss, how to understand this sentence. I could understand why Russian translator omitted this part. I just like this story. Thank you, Mishau, for mentioning.

And let me quote a little passage from Chesterton, from 'The Quick One.'
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John Raggley was generally regarded as a crank. He was the sort of man who writes letters to the newspaper, which generally do not appear in the newspaper; but which do appear afterwards as pamphlets, printed (or misprinted) at his own expense; and circulated to a hundred waste - paper baskets.
???????????????????????????????????????????????

Davkett · Answer

No, Roro, I never thought you were meddling at all.  I only realized that I'd forgotten to address my post to Mishau, making it seem like I was, instead, responding to your prior post.

Mishau · Answer

I'm unclear about what exactly you don't understand in the expression, "three ineradicable mistakes in his mind".

davkett, if you didn't read the novel you probably take this expression literally, then this expression is as clear (for me) as 2+2=4. What is not clear is a point whether it is an idiom or an ordinar expression in the narrow context.

I assume it can not be an idiom, because I never find any similar use cases of it (in my dictionaries of idioms and on the Internet).

So, it is just an expression. I would understand it if it were written without "three". this "three" causes the following questions "Which three mistakes? Why only three mistakes?" ans so on.

None of Russian translators (I saw the work of two) wanted to translate that.

I try to translate one back:

His life was a continuous chain of desperate compromises between the old man, soap-boiler, fallen in marasmus and whom the newspapper belonged to (and therefore the editor himself, as well) and those talanted worke?s who he gathered together in his editorial office.

Davkett · Answer

Mishau,

I've now read, on the Internet, the page containing your excerpt, and do not have a clue as to the intent of the phrase in question. It's not a phrase I recognize as an idiom. I assume, since you've read the novel that you've found nothing in the six preceding chapters that fills in the missing ingredients of the seemingly specific reference.

Mishau · Answer

...since you've read the novel that you've found nothing in the six preceding chapters

To be honest I read only "7. The Purple Wig", because only it was translated and chapters looked rather isolated. Russians translators did not use these "three mistakes", because they translated only chapter seven or may be they translated each chapter in anticipation of their disconnectedness.

But I like your idea, Davkett. Since I haven't got any other solution, I draw a conclusion that the description of these 3 mistakes is scattered somewhere in the book. Indeed, anyway, I got all that I wanted to know, because this question is no longer about Vocabularly and Idioms. It's more similar to detective things, where the information is hidden, regardless the languages we speak

Well, thank you all for your attention, now I must go and read this book.

G. K. Chesterton: The Wisdom of Father Brown

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