her
character; while conjugal affection, usually stronger in her than in the
husband, inasmuch as there are fewer competing interests, saves her from
abusing the precedence yielded to her. This seems to be true; but I have
heard others maintain that the American system, since it does not
require the wife habitually to forego her own wishes, tends, if not to
make her self-indulgent and capricious, yet slightly to impair the more
delicate charms of character; as it is written, "It is more blessed to
give than to receive."

A European cannot spend an evening in an American drawing-room without
perceiving that the attitude of men to women is not that with which he
is familiar at home. The average European man has usually a slight sense
of condescension when he talks to a woman on serious subjects. Even if
she is his superior in intellect, in character, in social rank, he
thinks that as a man he is her superior, and consciously or
unconsciously talks down to her. She is too much accustomed to this to
resent it, unless it becomes tastelessly palpable. Such a notion does
not cross an American's mind. He talks to a woman just as he would to a
man; of course with more deference of manner, and with a proper regard
to the topics likely to interest her, but giving her his intellectual
best, addressing her as a person whose opinion is understood by both to
be worth as much as his own. Similarly an American lady does not expect
to have conversation made to her: it is just as much her duty or
pleasure to lead it as the man's is; and more often than not she takes
the burden from him, darting along with a gay vivacity which puts to
shame his slower wits.

It need hardly be said that in all cases where the two sexes come into
competition for comfort, the provision is made first for women. In
railroads the end car of the train, being that farthest removed from the
smoke of the locomotive, is often reserved for them (though men
accompanying a lady are allowed to enter it); and at hotels their
sitting-room is the best and sometimes the only available public room,
ladyless guests being driven to the bar or the hall. In omnibuses and
horse-cars (tram-cars), it was formerly the custom for a gentleman to
rise and offer his seat to a lady if there were no vacant place. This is
now less universally done. In New York and Boston (and I think also in
San Francisco), I have seen the men keep their seats when ladies
entered; and I recollect one occa