William Dean Howells

“ It kills time."
"Then you are shut up to a hideous slavery without use, except to kill time, and you cannot escape from it without taking away the living of those dependant on you?"
"Yes," I put in, "and that is a difficulty that meets us at every turn. It is something that Matthew Arnold urged with great effect in his paper on that crank of a Tolstoy. He asked what would become of the people who need the work, if we served and waited on ourselves, as Tolstoy preached. The question is unanswerable."
"That is true; in your conditions, it is unanswerable," said the Altrurian. ”

“ I went and took a chair by the lady and the Altrurian, and she began at once: "Oh, I'm so glad you've come! I have been trying to enlighten Mr. Homos about some of the little social peculiarities among us, that he finds so hard to understand. He was just now," the lady continued, "wanting to know why all the natives out here were not invited to go in and join our young people in the dance, and I've been trying to tell him that we consider it a great favor to let them come and take up so much of the piazza and look in at the windows." ”

“ Charity is a great deal more insidious. But you see how hard it is to define a lady. So much has to be left to the nerves, in all these things! And then it's changing all the time; Europe's coming in, and the old American ideals are passing away. Things that people did ten years ago would be impossible now, or at least ridiculous. ”

“ I said to the Altrurian, "as you consider exercise for its own sake insane or immoral. But, Mrs. Makely," I entreated, "you're giving me away at a tremendous rate. I have just been telling Mr. Homos that you ladies go in for athletics so much, now, in your summer outings, that there is danger of your becoming physically as well as intellectually superior to us poor fellows. ”

“ In the first place, a lady must be above the sordid anxieties in every way. She need not be very rich, but she must have enough, so that she need not be harrassed about making both ends meet, when she ought to be devoting herself to her social duties. The time is passed with us when a lady could look after the dinner, and perhaps cook part of it herself, and then rush in to receive her guests, and do the amenities. ”

“ The places anywhere within an hour's ride are full of fellows. The girls don't have to dance with one another there, or with little boys. Of course, that's all right if they like it better." He laughed at his wife, and winked at me, and smoked swiftly, in emphasis of his irony.
"Then the young gentlemen whom the young ladies here usually meet in society, are all at work in the cities?" the Altrurian asked him, rather needlessly, as I had already said so. ”

“ The daughter takes in sewing, and in that way they manage to make both ends meet. The girl is really a first-rate semptress, and so cheap! I give her a good deal of my work in the summer, and we are quite friends. She's very fond of reading; the mother is an invalid, but she reads aloud while the daughter sews, and you've no idea how many books they get through. When she comes for sewing, I like to talk with her about them; I always have her sit down; it's hard to realize that she isn't a lady. ”

“ You can't know what people are like unless you live like them, and then the question is whether the game is worth the candle. I should like to know how you manage in Altruria."
"Why, we have solved the problem in the only way, as you say, that it can be solved. We all live alike." ”

“ I thought this rather offensive, but I could not see that the Altrurian had taken it ill. "Perhaps we had better try to understand each other clearly before I answer that question. You have no titles of nobility as they have in England"—
"No, indeed! I hope we have outgrown those superstitions," said Mrs. Makely, with a republican fervor that did my heart good. "It is a word that we apply first of all to the moral qualities of a person."
"But you said just now that you sometimes forgot that your semptress was not a lady. ”

“ I'm a good deal criticised, I know, and I suppose I do spoil her a little; it puts notions into such people's heads, if you meet them in that way; they're pretty free and independent as it is. But when I'm with Lizzie I forget that there is any difference between us; I can't help loving the child. ”

“ At that moment her husband came up and laid her shawl across her shoulders. "Whose character is that your blasting?" he asked, jocosely.
"Where in the world did you find it?" she asked, meaning the shawl.
"It was where you left it: on the sofa, in the side parlor. I had to take my life in my hand, when I crossed among all those waltzers in there. There must have been as many as three couples on the floor. Poor girls! I pity them, off at these places. The fellows in town have a good deal better time. ”

“ The Americans are very high-spirited, in every class, and I don't believe one of those nice farm boys would like being asked in any better than the young ladies. You can't imagine how proud some of them are. ”

“ Oh, I assure you they don't feel themselves inferior! They consider themselves as good as anybody. There are some very interesting characters among them. Now, there is a young girl sitting at the first window, with her profile outlined by the light, whom I feel it an honor to speak to. ”

“ She must have cultivated tastes; she must know about art, and literature, and music, and all those kind of things, and though it isn't necessary to go in for anything in particular, it won't hurt her to have a fad or two. The nicest kind of fad is charity ”

“ Their girls are not off for their health, anywhere, and their fellows are not off growing up with the country. Their day's work is over and they're going in for a good time. And, then, walk through the streets where they live, and see them out on the stoops with their wives and children! ”

“ His wife had no reluctance.
"Well, there's no comparison between the two things, but the struggle certainly doesn't affect the working classes as it does us. They go on marrying and giving in marriage in the old way. They have nothing to lose, and so they can afford it." ”

“ The Altrurian's mind had not followed mine so far. "And your young girls?" he asked of Mrs. Makely, "how is their time occupied?"
"You mean after they come out in society?"
"I suppose so."
She seemed to reflect. "I don't know that it is very differently occupied. Of course, they have their own amusements; they have their dances, and little clubs, and their sewing societies. I suppose that even an Altrurian would applaud their sewing for the poor?" Mrs. ”

“ Besides, we are worn out at the end of the season, and they want us to come away as much as we want to come."
"Ah, I have always heard that the Americans are beautiful in their attitude towards women." ”