146 THE MOUNTAINS 



course, one quickly feels the deliriously 

 unconscious humor of this notice, and the 

 humor is even richer over against the 

 Brahmanic dignity of "the Concord seer." 

 Just imagine Ralph Waldo Emerson 

 walking into that dining room and read- 

 ing that notice ! But what I fail to under- 

 stand is that there is any essential differ- 

 ence between this country-shirt-sleeve 

 comfort and all those tolerated sorts of 

 negligee which, on any hot summer day, 

 one can find at the Polo Grounds, or in 

 a Wall Street office, or even in many a 

 metropolitan restaurant. But to use the 

 Irish privilege and "drop the dispute be- 

 fore it begins," I will content myself by 

 declaring that nothing finer have I ever 

 seen than a coatless dinner, in harvest 

 time, with James Doolittle at the loaded 

 table and all his "farm hands" about him. 

 No skill of mine is sufficient fully to re- 

 veal the open hospitality, the half-con- 

 cealed courtesy, the quick generosity, the 

 spontaneous heartiness, the human funda- 



