edge regarding American
literature caused the point to elude me at first, which was true of many
jokes. The Americans are preeminently practical jokers, and the ends to
which they go is beyond belief. I heard of jokes which, if perpetrated
in China, would have resulted in the loss of some one's head. To
illustrate this, in the Spanish-American War the camps at Tampa were
besieged with newspaper reporters, and one from a large journal was
constantly trying to secure secret news by entertaining certain officers
with wine and cigars; so they determined to get rid of his
importunities, and what is known as a "job" in America was "put up" on
him. He was told that Colonel ---- had a detailed map of the forthcoming
battle, and if he could get the officer intoxicated he doubtless could
secure the map. This looked very easy to the correspondent, so the story
goes, and he dropped into the colonel's tent one night with a basket of
wine, and began to celebrate its arrival from some friends. Soon the
colonel pretended to become communicative, and the map was brought out
and finally loaned to the correspondent under the promise that it would
not be used. This was sufficient. The correspondent hied him to his
tent, wrote an article and sent the map to his paper in one of the
large cities, where it was duly published. It proved to be what
dressmakers call a "Butterick pattern," a maze of lines for cutting out
dresses for women. The lines looked like roads, and the practical jokers
had merely added towns and forts and bridges here and there.

The Americans are excellent parents, though small families are general.
The domestic life is charming. The family is denied nothing needed, the
only limit being the purse of the head of the family, so called, the
real head in many cases being the wife, who does not fail to assert
herself if the proper occasion opens. Well-to-do families have every
luxury, and no nation is apparently so well off, so completely supplied
with the necessities of life as the American. One is impressed by their
business sagacity, their cleverness in finance, their complete grasp of
all questions, yet no people are easier gulled or more readily
victimized. An instance will suffice. In making my investigations
regarding methods of managing railroads, I not only obtained information
from the road officials, but questioned the employees whenever it
happened that I was traveling. One day, observing that it was the custom
to "