It is almost an effort to follow a story
of any length -- the beginning often becomes cold before the end is reached.
It seems to me that if Americans would speed up their speech after the fashion
of their English cousins, who speak two or three times as quickly,
they would save many minutes every day, and would find the habit
not only more efficacious, but much more economical than many
of their time-saving machines and tunnels. I offer this suggestion
to the great American nation for what it is worth, and I know
they will receive it in the spirit in which it is made,
for they have the saving sense of humor.
Some people are ridiculously sensitive. Some years ago, at a certain place,
a big dinner was given in honor of a notable who was passing through
the district. A Chinese, prominent in local affairs, who had received
an invitation, discovered that though he would sit among the honored guests
he would be placed below one or two whom he thought he ought to be above,
and who, he therefore considered, would be usurping his rightful position.
In disgust he refused to attend the dinner, which, excepting for what
he imagined was a breach of manners, he would have been very pleased
to have attended. Americans are much more sensible.
They are not a bit sensitive, especially in small matters.
Either they are broad-minded enough to rise above unworthy trifles,
or else their good Americanism prevents their squabbling
over questions of precedence, at the dinner table or elsewhere.
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