206 OBSERVATIONS OF A RANCHWOMAN 



and everybody to a dead level ? In certain 

 forms of horseflesh, as in some other matters, 

 he boasts with reason that he has the best 

 the world can give ; yet, such is his in- 

 consistency, he elaborately and anxiously 

 forswears himself. For what ? A mere 

 freak. 



We have to allow, therefore, that the 

 typical American is, on the whole, more 

 inconsistent than the Englishman, more 

 * past finding out '; or, at least, the new- 

 comer may well be pardoned for holding 

 such a belief. In some rural communities 

 prudish self-consciousness advances to the 

 border-line of indecency, yet the wondering 

 stranger perceives, nevertheless, in the pages 

 of family newspapers, advertisements which 

 cause the hair upon his head to rise, and the 

 blood in his veins to run cold. Aiitres pays, 

 autres moeurs. Again, it is a nation of a 

 humour fine and unsurpassed ; its wit is a 

 perpetual delight. Yet now and then it 

 stumbles, and .then what a fall is that ! To 

 the dull Briton, at whose deficiency in 

 "humour his livelier cousin never ceases to 

 poke, fun, these lapses .from grace are in- 



