60 ON A CERTAIN CONDESCENSION IN FOREIGNERS. 



But I am leaving my new acquaintance too long under 

 the lamp-post. The same Gano which had betrayed me 

 to him revealed to me a well-set young man of about 

 half my own age, as well dressed, so far as I could see, 

 as I was, and with every natural qualification for getting 

 his own livelihood as good, if not better, than my own. 

 He had been reduced to the painful necessity of calling 

 upon me by a series of crosses beginning with the Baden 

 Revolution (for which, I own, he seemed rather young, 

 but perhaps he referred to a kind of revolution prac 

 tised every season at Baden-Baden), continued by re 

 peated failures in business, for amounts which must 

 convince me of his entire respectability, and ending with 

 our Civil War. During the latter, he had served with 

 distinction as a soldier, taking a main part in every im 

 portant battle, with a rapid list of which he favored me 

 and no doubt would have admitted that, impartial as 

 Jonathan Wild's great ancestor, he had been on both 

 sides, had I baited him with a few hints of conservative 

 opinions on a subject so distressing to a gentleman wish 

 ing to profit by one's sympathy and unhappily 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 what 

 ever nationality, it always rained decayed compatriots 

 of his for a month after. Post hoc ergo propler hoc may 

 not be always safe logic, but here I seemed to perceive a 

 natural connection of cause and effect. Now, a few days 



