ven when serious misfortune overtakes the
youthful American, his _aplomb_, his confidence in his own
opinion, does not wholly forsake him. Such a one was found
weeping in the street. On being asked the cause of his tears, he
sobbed out in mingled alarm and indignation: "I'm lost; mammy's
lost me; I _told_ the darned thing she'd lose me." The
recognition of his own liability to be lost, and at the same time
the recognition of his own superior wisdom, are exquisitely
characteristic. They would be quite incongruous in the son of any
other soil. In his intercourse with strangers this feeling
exhibits itself in the complete self-possession and _sang-froid_
of the youthful citizen of the Western Republic. He scorns to own
a curiosity which he dare not openly seek to satisfy by direct
questions, and he puts his questions accordingly on all subjects,
even the most private and even in the case of the most reverend
strangers. He is perfectly free in his remarks upon all that
strikes him as strange or reprehensible in any one's personal
appearance or behaviour; and he never dreams that his victims
might prefer not to be criticised in public. But he is quick to
resent criticism on himself, and he shows the most perverted
ingenuity in embroiling with his family any outsider who may
rashly attempt to restrain his ebullitions. He is, in fact, like
the Scottish thistle: no one may meddle with him with impunity.
It is better to "never mind him," as one of the evils under the
sun for which there is no remedy.

Probably this development of the American small boys is due in
great measure to the absorption of their fathers in business,
which necessarily surrenders the former to a too undiluted
"regiment of women." For though Thackeray is unquestionably right
in estimating highly the influence of refined feminine society
upon youths and young men, there is no doubt that a small boy is
all the better for contact with some one whose physical prowess
commands his respect. Some allowance must also be made for the
peevishness of boys condemned to prolonged railway journeys, and
to the confinement of hotel life in cities and scenes in which
they are not old enough to take an interest. They would,
doubtless, be more genial if they were left behind at school.

The Americ