" and "Most Rev.",
one has yet to learn what titles a particular person has,
and with what particular form of address he should be approached,
an impossible task even for a Master of Ceremonies,
unless he always has in his pocket a Burke's Peerage to tell him who's who.
What a waste of time, what an inconvenience, and what an unnecessary amount
of irritation and annoyance all this causes. How much better
to be able to address any person you meet simply as Mr. So-and-So,
without unwittingly treading on somebody's sensitive corns!
Americans have shown their common sense in doing away with titles altogether,
an example which the sister Republic of China is following.
An illustrious name loses nothing for having to stand by itself
without prefixes and suffixes, handles and tails. Mr. Gladstone
was no less himself for not prefixing his name with Earl,
and the other titles to which it would have entitled him,
as he could have done had he not declined the so-called honor.
Indeed, like the "Great Commoner", he, if that were possible,
endeared himself the more to his countrymen because of his refusal. A name,
which is great without resorting to the borrowed light of titles and honors,
is greater than any possible suffix or affix which could be appended to it.
In conclusion, American manners are but an instance or result of
the two predominant American characteristics to which I have already referred,
and which reappear in so many other things American.
A love of independence and of equality, early inculcated,
and a keen abhorrence of waste of time, engendered by the conditions
and circumstances of a new country, serve to explain practically all
the manners and mannerisms of Americans.
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