214 THE REV. J. G. WOOD. 



American manners, whether of adults or childreii r 

 come in for scant praise. The boys are described as 

 noisy and mischievous to the last degree, and absolutely 

 wanting in all respect to their parents, who, strangely 

 enough, seem perfectly blind to their manifold faults, 

 and give them, if not open, at least tacit encouragement. 

 Concerning the parents themselves my father has a good 

 deal more to say; and he says it upon several occasions, 

 As for example : 



I ought to have an angelic temper by the time of my return. 

 There is scarcely anything which affects my nerves which is not in 

 full play. The Americans are the noisiest people I ever met. 

 They shriek at each other, and if 7 don't shriek no one understands 

 me. The space at table which an ordinary American occupies is. 

 wonderful. Both his elbows are level with his shoulders when he 

 uses his knife and fork, and I get scrooged round the corner. When 

 he is not eating he is whistling, or humming, or drumming on the 

 table, or playing a tattoo with his knife and fork, or clattering with 

 heel and toe on the floor. He kicks your chair at regular intervals, 

 and you find yourself bracing up your nerves as the time for the 

 next kick approaches. An American gentleman excused these ways 

 by saying that the Americans were an excitable race, and not stolid 

 like the English. I retorted that we were both of the same stock, 

 and that the English were just as excitable as the Americans. Only, 

 I said, that in England we are trained from childhood to refmin 

 from such habits because they cause annoyance to others. I had him 

 there. 



If you are looking at a print in a window, someone will swagger 

 along with his hands in his pockets and bump you aside. The first 

 time this happened I instinctively started for the man's collar and 

 the slack of his t . . s. But a moment of reflection showed that 

 it was only boorish ignorance, and that he would have expected to 

 be shoved aside in the same way himself. Or, the man thinks that 

 he would like to look at the same print. So he leans on you, rests 



