k like any thing else but veal; you
mustn't know it when you see it, or it's vulgar; mutton must be incog.
too; beef must have a mask on; any thin' that looks solid, take a spoon
to; any thin' that looks light, cut with a knife; if a thing looks like
fish, you may take your oath it is flesh; and if it seems rael flesh,
it's only disguised, for it's sure to be fish; nothin' must be
nateral, natur is out of fashion here. This is a manufacturin' country,
everything is done by machinery, and that that ain't must be made to
look like it; and I must say, the dinner machinery is parfect.

"Sarvants keep goin' round and round in a ring, slow, but sartain, and
for ever, like the arms of a great big windmill, shovin' dish after
dish, in dum show, afore your nose, for you to see how you like the
flavour; when your glass is empty it's filled; when your eyes is off
your plate, it's off too, afore you can say Nick Biddle.

"Folks speak low here; steam is valuable, and noise onpolite. They call
it a "_subdued tone_." Poor tame things, they are subdued, that's a
fact; slaves to an arbitrary tyrannical fashion that don't leave 'em no
free will at all. You don't often speak across a table any more nor you
do across a street, but p'raps Mr. Somebody of West Eend of town, will
say to a Mr. Nobody from West Eend of America: 'Niagara is noble.'
Mr. Nobody will say, 'Guess it is, it got its patent afore the "Norman
_Conquest_," I reckon, and afore the "_subdued_ tone" come in fashion.'
Then Mr. Somebody will look like an oracle, and say, 'Great rivers and
great trees in America. You speak good English.' And then he will seem
surprised, but not say it, only you can read the words on his face,
'Upon my soul, you are a'most as white as us.'

"Dinner is over. It's time for ladies to cut stick. Aunt Goosey looks
at the next oldest goosey, and ducks her head, as if she was a goin'
through a gate, and then they all come to their feet, and the goslins
come to their feet, and they all toddle off to the drawin' room
together.

"The decanters now take the "grand tour" of the table, and, like most
travellers, go out with full pockets, and return with empty ones. Talk
has a pair of stays here, and is laced up tight and stiff. Larnin' is
pedantic; politics is onsafe; religion ain't fashionable. You must tread
on neutral ground. Well, neutral ground gets so trampled down by both
sides, and so plundered by all, there ain't any thing fresh or good
grows o