aving so done, I must leave him to decide for
himself.

I recollect once talking with one of the first men in America, who was
narrating to me the advantages which might have accrued to him if he had
followed up a certain speculation, when he said, "Sir, if I had done so,
I should not only have _doubled_ and _trebled_, but I should have
_fourbled_ and _fivebled_ my money."

One of the members of congress once said, "What the honourable gentleman
has just asserted I consider as _catamount_ to a denial;"--(catamount is
the term given to a panther or lynx.)

"I presume," replied his opponent, "that the honourable gentleman means
_tantamount_."

"No, sir, I do not mean _tantamount_; I am not so ignorant of our
language, not to be aware that catamount and tantamount are anonymous."

The Americans dwell upon their words when they speak--a custom arising,
I presume, from their cautious, calculating habits; and they have always
more or less of a nasal twang. I once said to a lady, "Why do you drawl
out your words in that way?"

"Well," replied she, "I'd drawl all the way from Maine to Georgia,
rather than _clip_ my words as you English people do."

Many English words are used in a very different sense from that which we
attach to them; for instance: a _clever_ person in America means an
amiable, good-tempered person, and the Americans make the distinction by
saying, I mean English clever.

Our _clever_ is represented by the word _smart_.

The verb _to admire_ is also used in the East, instead of the verb _to
like_.

"Have you ever been at Paris?"

"No; but I should _admire_ to go."

A Yankee description of a clever woman:--

"Well, now, she'll walk right into you, and talk to you like a book;"
or, as I have heard them say, "she'll talk you out of sight."

The word ugly is used for cross, ill-tempered. "I did feel so _ugly_
when he said that."

_Bad_ is used in an odd sense: it is employed for awkward,
uncomfortable: sorry:--

"I did feel so _bad_ when I read that"--awkward.

"I have felt quite _bad_ about it ever since"--uncomfortable.

"She was so _bad_, I thought she would cry"--sorry.

And as bad is tantamount to not _good_, I have heard a lady say, "I
don't feel _at all good_ this morning."

Mean is occasionally used for ashamed.

"I never felt so mean in my life."

The word handsome is oddly used.

"We reckon this very handsome scenery, sir," said an American to me,
pointing to the landscap