killing of Jumbo by the railway-train; to the arrival of Jenny Lind at
the Battery; to the meeting of the President and Prince Henry; to the
chase of a murderous maniac; to the disaster in the tunnel; to the
explosion in the subway; to a remarkable dog-fight; to a village
church struck by lightning. It will be said, more or less causally, by
everybody in America who has seen Prince Henry do anything, or try to.
The man who was absent and didn't see him to anything, will scoff. It
is his privilege; and he can make capital out of it, too; he will seem,
even to himself, to be different from other Americans, and better.
As his opinion of his superior Americanism grows, and swells, and
concentrates and coagulates, he will go further and try to belittle the
distinction of those that saw the Prince do things, and will spoil their
pleasure in it if he can. My life has been embittered by that kind of
person. If you are able to tell of a special distinction that has fallen
to your lot, it gravels them; they cannot bear it; and they try to make
believe that the thing you took for a special distinction was nothing
of the kind and was meant in quite another way. Once I was received in
private audience by an emperor. Last week I was telling a jealous person
about it, and I could see him wince under it, see him bite, see
him suffer. I revealed the whole episode to him with considerable
elaboration and nice attention to detail. When I was through, he asked
me what had impressed me most. I said:

"His Majesty's delicacy. They told me to be sure and back out from the
presence, and find the door-knob as best I could; it was not allowable
to face around. Now the Emperor knew it would be a difficult ordeal for
me, because of lack of practice; and so, when it was time to part, he
turned, with exceeding delicacy, and pretended to fumble with things on
his desk, so I could get out in my own way, without his seeing me."

It went home! It was vitriol! I saw the envy and disgruntlement rise
in the man's face; he couldn't keep it down. I saw him try to fix up
something in his mind to take the bloom off that distinction. I enjoyed
that, for I judged that he had his work cut out for him. He struggled
along inwardly for quite a while; then he said, with a manner of a
person who has to say something and hasn't anything relevant to say:

"You said he had a handful of special-brand cigars on the table?"

"Yes; _I_ never saw anything to match them."