`Yes.'
`What may you charge for dinner?' `Half a dollar.' `Well, then, I
think I had better not take the shrub, but have some dinner instead.'
This was consented to. The Yankee went in, sat down to his dinner, and
when it was over, was going out of the door without paying. `Massa,'
said the negro waiter, `you not paid for your dinner.' `I know that; I
took the dinner instead of the shrub.' `But, massa, you not pay for the
shrub.' `Well, I did not have the shrub, did I, you nigger?' said the
Yankee, walking away. The negro scratched his head; he knew that
something was wrong, as he had got no money; but he could not make it
out till the Yankee was out of sight."

I do not think that _democracy_ is marked upon the features of the lower
classes in the United States; there is no arrogant bearing in them, as
might be supposed from the despotism of the majority; on the contrary, I
should say that their lower classes are much more civil than our own. I
had a _slap_ of equality on my first landing at New York. I had hired a
truck-man to take up my luggage from the wharf; I went a-head, and
missed him when I came to the corner of the street where I had engaged
apartments, and was looking round for him in one direction, when I was
saluted with a slap on the shoulder, which was certainly given with
good-will. I turned, and beheld my carman, who had taken the liberty to
draw my attention in this forcible manner. He was a man of few words;
he pointed to his truck where it stood with the baggage, and then went
on.

This civil bearing is peculiar, as when they are excited by politics, or
other causes, they are most insolent and overbearing. In his usual
demeanour, the citizen born is quiet and obliging. The insolence you
meet with is chiefly from the emigrant classes. I have before observed,
that the Americans are a good-tempered people; and to this good temper I
ascribe their civil bearing. But why are they good-tempered? It
appears to me to be one of the few virtues springing from democracy.
When the grades of society are distinct, as they are in the older
institutions, when difference of rank is acknowledged and submitted to
without murmur, it is evident that if people are obliged to control
their tempers in presence of their superiors or equals, they can also
yield to them with their inferiors; and it is this yielding to our
tempers which enables them to master us. But under institutions where
all are equal, w