mpressions of the metropolis that seem to fall short
of reality. Let me quote a few others taken at random here and there
over the continent.

"I took from Pittsburg," says an English visitor, "an impression of
something that I could hardly define--an atmosphere rather than an
idea."

All very well, But, after all, had he the right to take it? Granted that
Pittsburg has an atmosphere rather than an idea, the attempt to carry
away this atmosphere surely borders on rapacity.

"New Orleans," writes another visitor, "opened her arms to me and
bestowed upon me the soft and languorous kiss of the Caribbean." This
statement may or may not be true; but in any case it hardly seems the
fair thing to mention it.

"Chicago," according to another book of discovery, "struck me as a large
city. Situated as it is and where it is, it seems destined to be a place
of importance."

Or here, again, is a form of "impression" that recurs again and
again-"At Cleveland I felt a distinct note of optimism in the air."

This same note of optimism is found also at Toledo, at Toronto--in
short, I believe it indicates nothing more than that some one gave the
visitor a cigar. Indeed it generally occurs during the familiar scene
in which the visitor describes his cordial reception in an unsuspecting
American town: thus:

"I was met at the station (called in America the depot) by a member
of the Municipal Council driving his own motor car. After giving me an
excellent cigar, he proceeded to drive me about the town, to various
points of interest, including the municipal abattoir, where he gave me
another excellent cigar, the Carnegie public library, the First National
Bank (the courteous manager of which gave me an excellent cigar) and
the Second Congregational Church where I had the pleasure of meeting the
pastor. The pastor, who appeared a man of breadth and culture, gave me
another cigar. In the evening a dinner, admirably cooked and excellently
served, was tendered to me at a leading hotel." And of course he took
it. After which his statement that he carried away from the town a
feeling of optimism explains itself: he had four cigars, the dinner, and
half a page of impressions at twenty cents a word.

Nor is it only by the theft of impressions that we suffer at the hands
of these English discoverers of America. It is a part of the system also
that we have to submit to being lectured to by our talented visitors. It
is now quite understood th