158 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



that you-be-damnedness which has so endeared 

 Englishmen to all foreigners. Now in England a 

 Cambyses' vein has its uses. It would seem as 

 if the Captain were no Captain without his choleric 

 word, but the same in the mouth of an American 

 is rank blasphemy against common-sense, kindli- 

 ness, and humour. I am always impressed by the 

 Briton who buys one railway ticket and occupies 

 a whole carriage. He is so truly sublime, so monu- 

 mental, that you would like to thank him warmly 

 for the pleasure he has given as a — spectacle. 

 But the Californian, poor fellow, cannot assume 

 the god so easily. When he attempts the Olympian 

 nod, no spheres are shaken — only the sides of the 

 witnesses. An Englishman can look superior. A 

 Californian, stiffening his mobile face into the 

 solemn, stolid, stupid mask of the heavy British 

 swell, looks exactly what he is — an ape. 



