entleman who had had ten trunks examined from top to bottom,
but could not find the key to his hat-box, a light piece of luggage
which, by its weight, was labelled innocent. The Custom House officer
took a hatchet and smashed it.

I allowed myself to be told that the gentleman in question could obtain
no redress against the man in authority. A lady, for that matter, would
have been treated in exactly the same way. No respect for her sex, no
consideration for the pretty things she had had so carefully packed;
everything is taken out, felt, and replaced topsy-turvy.

When a favourite steamer arrives in New York, with 500 first and second
class passengers, it means about 5,000 pieces of luggage to open and
examine. If you have no servants to see it done for you, the odds are
that you will be five hours on the wharf before you are able to proceed
to your hotel.

The Americans grumble, but patiently endure the nuisance, as if they
were not masters in their own home and able to put a stop to it. No
Englishman would stand it a day. If it was a special order, it would be
repealed at once. The only time when the thing was done in England was
during the period of scare produced by the Irish dynamitards some
twenty-five years ago.

To some American millionairesses fifty new dresses are less extravagant
than two or three for other women; besides, if they are extravagant,
that's their business. What does it matter so long as it is not some
materials for sale or any other commercial purpose?

The Americans endure bureaucracy much more readily than the English. In
that, as in many other traits, they more resemble the French, who, in
spite of their reputation for being unruly, are the most docile,
enduring, easily-governed people in the world, until they are aroused,
when--then look out!

CHAPTER XXVIII

AMERICAN FEELINGS FOR FOREIGNERS

Jonathan has such a large family of his own to think of and look after
at home that he has not much time to spare for concerning himself about
what is going on in other people's houses.

He takes a general interest in them, likes to be kept acquainted with
what is happening in the world, in Europe especially; he feels sympathy
for most people, antipathy to one, but it would be difficult to say, so
far as the names of the American people are concerned, that he has a
predilection for any particular nation more than for any other.

The largest foreign element in the United States is Ge