my effects into the Union Pacific Hotel. A white clerk and a

coloured gentleman whom, in my plain European way, I should call

the boots, were installed behind a counter like bank tellers. They

took my name, assigned me a number, and proceeded to deal with my

packages. And here came the tug of war. I wished to give up my

packages into safe keeping; but I did not wish to go to bed. And

this, it appeared, was impossible in an American hotel.

It was, of course, some inane misunderstanding, and sprang from my

unfamiliarity with the language. For although two nations use the

same words and read the same books, intercourse is not conducted by

the dictionary. The business of life is not carried on by words,

but in set phrases, each with a special and almost a slang

signification. Some international obscurity prevailed between me

and the coloured gentleman at Council Bluffs; so that what I was

asking, which seemed very natural to me, appeared to him a

monstrous exigency. He refused, and that with the plainness of the

West. This American manner of conducting matters of business is,

at first, highly unpalatable to the European. When we approach a

man in the way of his calling, and for those services by which he

earns his bread, we consider him for the time being our hired

servant. But in the American opinion, two gentlemen meet and have

a friendly talk with a view to exchanging favours if they shall

agree to please. I know not which is the more convenient, nor even

which is the more truly courteous. The English stiffness

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