seen beneath his hat, which he wore far back
over his coat collar, there was nothing but bare flesh, encircled by a
rim of black velvet.

From a great proposal for reform, to a small eccentricity in costume,
the English are the most intolerant people in the world, in their
reception of anything which presents itself to them under the form of a
perfect novelty. Let any man display a new project before the Parliament
of England, or a new pair of light-green trousers before the inhabitants
of London, let the project proclaim itself as useful to all listening
ears, and the trousers eloquently assert themselves as beautiful to all
beholding eyes, the nation will shrink suspiciously, nevertheless, both
from the one and the other; will order the first to "lie on the table,"
and will hoot, laugh, and stare at the second; will, in short, resent
either novelty as an unwarrantable intrusion, for no other discernible
reason than that people in general are not used to it.

Quietly as the strange man in black had taken his seat in the Snuggery,
he and his skull-cap attracted general attention; and our national
weakness displayed itself immediately.

Nobody paused to reflect that he probably wore his black velvet
head-dress from necessity; nobody gave him credit for having objections
to a wig, which might be perfectly sensible and well founded; and
nobody, even in this free country, was liberal enough to consider that
he had really as much right to put on a skull-cap under his hat if
he chose, as any other man present had to put on a shirt under his
waistcoat. The audience saw nothing but the novelty in the way of a
head-dress which the stranger wore, and they resented it unanimously,
because it was a novelty. First, they expressed this resentment by
staring indignantly at him, then by laughing at him, then by making
sarcastic remarks on him. He bore their ridicule with the most perfect
and provoking coolness. He did not expostulate, or retort, or look
angry, or grow red in the face, or fidget in his seat, or get up to go
away. He just sat smoking and drinking as quietly as ever, not taking
the slightest notice of any of the dozens of people who were all taking
notice of him.

His unassailable composure only served to encourage his neighbors
to take further liberties with him. One rickety little man, with a
spirituous nose and watery eyes, urged on by some women near him,
advanced to the stranger's bench, and, expressing his admi