by Andrew Lang and Max O’Rell

“ Only once have I met an American who was full of strange oaths. It was in 1870, when I chanced twice to visit Lausanne in the course of a week. On the first occasion I stayed at Ouchy, where were many American ladies, dressed with a magnificence that rebuked the dowdy British fair, in her kind of shirt and kind of skirt. If our women dress deplorably absurdly, as many of them do, perhaps their sisters of the States are now and then inappropriately magnificent. ”

“ But, if try we must, here goes for the typical American of the educated classes. He is not very like an Englishman; he is rather more like a Frenchman, but still more like an American. You cannot say where he differs in appearance from a Briton; it may be in his necktie, his boots, or the way in which he brushes his hair. He seldom looks as if he lived much in the open air or was fond of field sports. He is much more vivacious than an Englishman, more original in manner, more fertile in ideas, more modern in every way. He is almost too good company ”

“ He is much too familiar with English life to be very keenly curious about it, and he never dreams of going to see the lions. He is rather fond of the play, knowing and caring very much more about our authors, actors, pieces, and so forth, than I do, for one. He is kind, courteous, ingenious, obliging, a good fellow, and welcome because he is infinitely more alive than most of us. ”

“ He will resent an insult, but very quickly forgets it; and there is no man in the world that can stand good-humored chaffing as well as he does. He is audacious, simply because he has done such marvellous things in such a short time that he simply believes nothing is impossible to him. ”

“ He lives on a continent so vast that he can hardly see a limit to it. He has the word “big” carved on the cranium, and is it a wonder that sometimes the word is so deeply carved that it makes a hole or a crack in it? ”

“ These are all pretty indifferent to the native of a country which has elbow-room, a militia which shoots, and practically no neighbors. He is usually rather fond of the Irish and their cause, but he never goes to Ireland. ”

“ Journalists are like other men of business: they supply the article that is wanted. I remember quite well how a paper in a little Pennsylvania town had a long article on the subject of a light-gray pair of trousers that I wore while walking about the town. ”