I lost my temper at last, said I was a
stranger in America and not learned in their etiquette; but I would
assure him, if he went to any bookseller in England, of more handsome
usage. The boast was perhaps exaggerated; but like many a long shot,
it struck the gold. The manager passed at once from one extreme to
the other; I may say that from that moment he loaded me with
kindness; he gave me all sorts of good advice, wrote me down
addresses, and came bareheaded into the rain to point me out a
restaurant, where I might lunch, nor even then did he seem to think
that he had done enough. These are (it is as well to be bold in
statement) the manners of America. It is this same opposition that
has most struck me in people of almost all classes and from east to
west. By the time a man had about strung me up to be the death of
him by his insulting behaviour, he himself would be just upon the
point of melting into confidence and serviceable attentions. Yet I
suspect, although I have met with the like in so many parts, that
this must be the character of some particular state or group of
states, for in America, and this again in all classes, you will find
some of the softest-mannered gentlemen in the world.
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