r 1500 miles to Quebec; surely this must be the West?" No;
for in this New World the West is ever on the move. Twenty years ago
Chicago was West; ten years ago it was Omaha; then it was Salt Lake City,
and now it is San Francisco on the Pacific Ocean.

This big city, with its monster hotels and teeming traffic, was no new
scene to me, for I had spent pleasant days in it three years before. An
American in America is a very pleasant fellow. It is true that on many
social points and habits his views may differ from ours in a manner very
shocking to our prejudices, insular or insolent, as these prejudices of
ours too frequently are; but meet him with fair allowance for the fact
that there may be two sides to a question, and that a man may not tub
every morning and yet be a good fellow, and in nine cases of ten you will
find him most agreeable, a little inquisitive perhaps to know your
peculiar belongings, but equally ready to impart to you the details of
every item connected with his business--altogether a very jolly every-day
companion when met on even basis. If you happen to be a military man, he
will call you Colonel or General, and expect similar recognition: of rank
by virtue of his volunteer services in the 44th: Illinois, or 55th
Missourian. At present, and for many years to come, it is and will be a
safe method of beginning any observation to a Western American with "I
say, General," and on no account ever to get below the rank of field
officer when addressing anybody holding a socially smaller position than
that of bar-keeper. Indeed major-generals were as plentiful in the United
States at the termination of the great rebellion as brevet-majors were in
the British service at the close of the Crimean campaign. It was at
Plymouth, I think, that a grievance was established by a youngster on
the score that he really could not spit out of his own window without
hitting a brevet major outside; and it was in a Western city that the man
threw his stick at a dog across the road, "missed that dawg, sir, but hit
five major-generals on t'other side, and 'twasn't a good day for
major-generals either, sir." Not less necessary than knowledge of social
position is knowledge of the political institutions and characters of the
West. Not to know Rufus P. W. Smidge, or Ossian W. Dodge of Minnesota, is
simply to argue yourself utterly unknown. My first experience of Chicago
fully impressed me with this fact. I had made the acquaintance o