UNIVERSAL HOSPITALITY. 1 85 



miles more through the valley until we came 

 to another pass of the hills, through which we 

 reached again the river bank at Nyack. It was 

 a beautiful moonlight night, tempting to the 

 merry sleigh-riders we met constantly as we 

 passed through the town and its suburbs till 

 we came to the house of my friend in the out- 

 skirts of Piermont. 



In my travels about the world I have fre- 

 quently had occasion to contrast the habits, 

 manners, and social characteristics of its dif- 

 ferent peoples. I have never gone among any, 

 civilized or uncivilized, who were absolutely 

 inhospitable. The savage is often as hospit- 

 able as the Christian. I will not switch off 

 from my track so far from the main route of 

 this narrative as would be necessary to tell the 

 story of a three months' entertainment by an 

 Eastern Rajah, which would go far to estab- 

 lish the universality of this charming domestic 

 virtue. 



I cannot help it if the careless reader shall 

 accuse us of being ''dead beats " along the 

 road. I sometimes think that we are. Never- 

 theless, if we are asked to come again, we shall 

 go, for I have arrived at the conclusion that 

 there is no more genuine and sincere hospital- 



