54 CONDESCENSION IN FOREIGNERS. 



conservative opinions on a subject so distressing to a 

 gentleman wishing to profit by one s sympathy, and un 

 happily doubtful as to which way it might lean. For all 

 these reasons, and, as he seemed to imply, for his merit in 

 consenting to be born in Germany, he considered himself 

 my natural creditor to the extent of five dollars, which he 

 would handsomely consent to accept in greenbacks, though 

 he preferred specie. The offer was certainly a generous one, 

 and the claim presented with an assurance that carried 

 conviction. But, unhappily, I had been led to remark a 

 curious natural phenomenon. If I was ever weak enough 

 to give anything to a petitioner of whatever nationality, it 

 always rained decayed compatriots of his for a month after. 

 Post hoc ergo propter hoc may not be always safe logic, but 

 here I seemed to perceive a natural connection of cause and 

 effect. Now, a few days before I had been so tickled with 

 a paper (professedly written by a benevolent American 

 clergyman) certifying that the bearer, a hard-working 

 German, had long &quot;sofered with rheumatic paints in his 

 limps,&quot; that, after copying the passage into my note-book, I 

 thought it but fair to pay a trifling honorarium to the 

 author. I had pulled the string of the shower-bath ! It 

 had been running shipwrecked sailors for some time, but 

 forthwith it began to pour Teutons, redolent of lager-bier. 

 I could not help associating the apparition of my new 

 friend with this series of otherwise unaccountable pheno 

 mena. I accordingly made up my mind to deny the debt, 

 and modestly did so, pleading a native bias towards 

 impecuniosity to the full as strong as his own. s He took a 

 high tone with me at once, such as an honest man would 

 naturally take with a confessed repudiator. He even 

 brought down his proud stomach so far as to join himself 

 to me for the rest of my townward walk, that he might give 

 me his views of the American people, and thus inclusively 

 of myself. 



I know not whether it is because I am pigeon-livered 

 and lack gall, or whether it is from an overmastering 

 sense of drollery, but I am apt to submit to such bastings 



