Several Questions about one of O. Henry's works

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“By Ventre St. Gris! I have not even dined to-day. Spoils indeed. There is no living in Paris now. But one rich American have I garroted in a fortnight. Bah! those Democrats. They have ruined the country. With their income tax and their free trade, they have destroyed the millionaire business. Carrambo! Diable! D—n it!” ------ O. Henry Tracked to Doom

In this paragraph, what does "By Ventre St. Gris" mean?
Does "spoils indeed" mean that "actually I have idled the day away" or because the speaker is a bad man here "spoils" has something to do with the thing(s) he looted?
"But one rich American have I garroted in a fortnight" Here the "but" is strange, why use "but"? I don't understand the meaning of "in a fortnight". Does the whole sentence mean that "(It's difficult to lead a good life now in Paris,) but I still met with a rich American who took 14 days to stop my bleeding"?
Does "free trade" here mean "smuggling" since it once had the meaning?
What is the "millionaire business"? Does it mean that because of the Amercian, England suffers great loss?

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View best answer, chosen by Justin Xu

Ventre St Gris is an old swearword used by the French king Henry the fourth.

Similar to ventrebleu..

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@Justin Xu,

Do you understand this writing to be set in the distant past? around year 1700 or 1800?

Quote:

But one rich American

Only one rich American

In the era this novel is set English was spoken differently.

Quote:

Spoils indeed

I have answered this question already in another thread.
http://able2know.org/topic/170812-1#post-4576307

Quote:

the speaker is a bad man here "spoils" has something to do with the thing(s) he looted?

Spoils are loot
...he refers in an ironic manner to the fact that he has not go any "spoils"
do you understand the concept of irony?

Quote:

"in a fortnight"

within in a period of 14 days.

The speaker is a thief and a murderer. He kills rich Americans and takes their money. in times past this was (supposedly) making him wealthy.

The speaker believes that the introduction of income tax and free trade has afffected the number of rich americans that he can rob and kill.
I do not understand why he would think free trade has affected his millionaire business.
"millionaire business" is the speakers way of refering to his theivery.

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@dadpad,

Thank you very much for your answers dadpad! I know this story was written a long time ago, but knowing that cannot help me in understanding some words and phrases since I don't know how they speak English at that time. Your answers are of great help to my translation.

In this place http://able2know.org/topic/170812-1#post-4576307 I can only see four questions answered by you. Maybe it's because the failure of the system that I cannot see your answer about "spoils" so I ask again here. But I finally understand what the author means. With your explaination here, I still spend nearly 10 minutes to understand such a short sentence. Too slow...

About the "millionaire businesses", I don't know why the murderer only kill rich Americans. I wonder if we can say that he also kills rich Frenchmen. Free trade and income tax have made people in Paris poorer,(I don't know if this is right) so his business was affected?

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Quote:

In this place http://able2know.org/topic/170812-1#post-4576307 I can only see four questions answered by you

I made a mistake. I did not answer you question about spoils. I began to prepare a reply about spoils but did not post it. this is not a fault of the sytem.

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Quote:

About the "millionaire businesses"

I suspect the speaker kills not only rich Americans but also anyone else he can get his hands on that he feels may have money but the "rich Americans" provide him with much more loot.
The business of making himself a millionaire is hard without lots of rich Americans.

I did not answer any of the french language questions becuse of my limited knowledge of that language.
It may be better to post french language questions in a seperate thread titled something like French language explanation required".

Some of the french words are common.
sacre bleu is an exclamation, almost swearing but not quite.

Quote:

I still spend nearly 10 minutes to understand such a short sentence. Too slow...

patience my friend. The tortise beats the hare

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Several Questions about one of O. Henry's works

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