AN OCTOBER ABROAD 179 



eame measure. They are charmed with the inde- 

 pendence, the self-respect, the good-nature, and the 

 obliging dispositions shown by the mass of oui 

 people; while American travelers seem to be more 

 and more ready to acknowledge the charm and the 

 substantial qualities of the mother country. It is a 

 good omen. One principal source of the pleasure 

 which each takes in the other is no doubt to be found 

 in the novelty of the impressions. It is like a 

 change of cookery. The flavor of the dish is fresh 

 and uncloying to each. The English probably tire 

 of their own snobbishness and flunkeyism, and we 

 of our own smartness and puppyism. After the 

 American has got done bragging about his independ- 

 ence, and his "free and equal" prerogatives, he 

 begins to see how these things run into impertinence 

 and forwardness; and the Englishman, in visiting 

 us, escapes from his social bonds and prejudices, to 

 see for a moment how absurd they all are.] 



A London crowd I thought the most normal and 

 unsophisticated I had ever seen, with the least ad- 

 mixture of rowdyism and ruffianism. No doubt it 

 is there, but this scum is not upon the surface, as 

 with us. I went about very freely in the hundred 

 and one places of amusement where the average 

 working classes assemble, with their wives and daugh- 

 ters and sweethearts, and smoke villainous cigars 

 and drink ale and stout. There was to me some- 

 thing notably fresh and canny about them, as if they 

 had only yesterday ceased to be shepherds and shep- 

 herdesses. They certainly were less developed in 



