THE IREIGA TION A GE. 



69 



into smiles and laughter. His 

 normal mood is essentially gentle, 

 and, if his manners be not always 

 well-bred, his innate bonhomie 

 spares him the reproach of endur- 

 ing anger. 



Contrast with this native good 

 humor the consuming, often male- 

 volent, passions of the Latin races, 

 the Teuton's splenetic scorn, the 

 Briton's contemptous assurance 

 all of which have an atrabilious 

 tinge wholl3 r foreign to our char- 

 acter. Even the utmost access of 

 our rage melts away beneath the 

 exercise of a little tact it is not in 

 us to brood, to plot revengful evil, 

 or prolong an attitude of enmity. 

 Our contemplation of mankind 

 is from the standpoint of peace 

 and good will. Our love of fellow- 

 men is active, as it is earnest and 

 sincere. 



Upon alighting from a railway 

 carriage, the story goes, an 

 Englishman was accosted by a 



fellow-traveller: "Say, stranger, 

 I guess you've forgotten your 

 umbrella have'nt yer?" to which 

 the Briton replies: "Why, I 

 didn't know you were an Ameri- 

 can." "How could yer tell?" 

 "Because you're so d kind." Re- 

 versing the situation, would tha 

 typical Briton have been so com- 

 plaisant and without an intro- 

 duction? We doubt it. 



We may justly pride ourselves 

 upon this crowning grace of frank- 

 heartedness, this imperturbable 

 sweetness of disposition which, if 

 it be a diamond in the rough, is 

 still a diamond. The pitiless rail- 

 lery to which the slightest symp- 

 tom of temper in our public men is 

 subjected attests the prevalence 

 and worth of this] national charac- 

 teristic, an even temper. " It 

 makes me so mad," is but a puerile 

 colloquialism like the story of the 

 empty box, there is nothing in it. 



