CHARACTERISTICS OF SOUTH AMERICANS 585 



The conversation of a group of young South Americans is not such 

 as appeals to our taste. There is usually too much running criticism 

 on the personal qualities and attractions of their women acquaintances. 

 To them it seems doubtless most gallant. At all events, it is not sordid, 

 as was that conversation which Dickens describes as "summed up in 

 one word — dollars." 



When Dickens visited America, he remarked the frequency of the 

 expression, " Yes, sir," and made a great deal of fun of us for our use 

 of it. Singularly enough, the Spanish " Yes sir " — " Si senor " is so 

 extremely common throughout South America as to attract one's atten- 

 tion continually. 



Another thing that Dickens notices was our tendency to postpone 

 and put off from day to day things that did not have to be done. Yet 

 there is no more common criticism of Spanish-Americans than that 

 known as the " Manana " habit. You will hear almost any one who 

 pretends to know anything at all about Spanish-America say that the 

 great difficulty is the ease with which the Spanish-American says 

 " Manana." Personally, I do not agree with this criticism, for I have 

 heard the expression very seldom in South America. It is true that it 

 is hard to get things done as quickly as one would wish, but I believe 

 that the criticism has been much overworked. Dickens was undoubt- 

 edly honest in reporting that the habit of postponing one's work was 

 characteristic of the "middle west" as he saw it, but such remarks 

 would be greatly resented to-day and would not be true. 



In many South American cities one is annoyed by the continual 

 handshaking. No matter how many times a day you meet a man, he 

 expects you to solemnly shake hands with him just as did those western 

 Americans who annoyed " Martin Chuzzlewit." 



So also with " spitting." With others, I have been repeatedly an- 

 noyed, not only in the provinces, but also in the very highest circles 

 of the most advanced republics, by the carelessness of South Americans 

 in this particular, even at dinner parties. But how many years is it 

 since " The Last American " was prophetically depicted by J. A. 

 Mitchell as sitting amid the ruins of the national capitol with his feet 

 on the marble rail, spitting tobacco juice ? One can hardly ride in our 

 street cars to-day without being reminded that only recently have the 

 majority of Americans put the ban on spitting. The fact that there 

 are already printed notices in some of the principal South American 

 cathedrals begging people, in the name of the local " Anti-Tuberculosis 

 Association," not to spit on the floor, shows that this unpleasant habit 

 will undoubtedly be eradicated in considerably less than fifty years after 

 we have ceased to offend. 



We also dislike intensely the South American habit of staring at 

 strangers and of making audible comments on ladies who happen to be 

 passing. Unfortunately, this is a Latin habit which will be hard to 



VOL. LXXV1I. — 40. 



