ance of a sentence the first time it was pronounced. All over
Europe our watchword with the Russians, Turks, Egyptians, Arabs, French,
Germans, and Italians was always "Do you speak English?" and in London
it is Jimmie's crowning act of revenge to ask the railway guards and
cab-drivers the same insulting question. Imagine asking London cabbies
the question, "Do you speak English?" It puts him in a purple rage
directly.

But shopkeepers all over Europe are quick to anticipate all your wants,
to suggest tempting things which have not occurred to you to buy, and
to offer to have things made, if nothing in stock suits you. I suppose I
am naturally slow and stupid. Bee says I am, but having been brought up
in America, in the South, where nothing is ever made, and where we had
to send to New York for everything, and where even New York has to
depend on Europe for many of its staples, my surprise overpowered me so
that it mortified Bee, when they offered to have silk stockings made for
me in Paris.

Like most Americans, I am in the habit of turning away disappointed, and
preparing to go without things if I cannot find what I want in the
shops, but in London and Paris they will offer of their own accord to
make for you anything you may describe to them, from a pair of gloves to
a pattern of brocade. This is one and perhaps the only glory of being an
American in Europe, for, as my friend in Naples, of the firm of Ananias,
Barabbas, and Company, said to me:

"Behold! you are an American, and by Americans do we not live?"

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