umbrella is either a philosopher, who
defies the world and all its fashionable conventions and prejudices, or
an economist, who knows that a cotton umbrella is cheaper than a silk
one, and lasts longer.

The man who walks with short, jerky steps, and never allows his umbrella
to touch the ground, is a very proper man, and not uncommonly a
downright hypocrite. On the other hand, the man who walks with a firm,
long step, swinging his body slightly from right to left, and using his
umbrella like a stick, is generally a good, manly fellow.

Once a man came to an afternoon 'at home,' and, when ready to leave the
house, could not find his umbrella, a beautiful new one. He made
somewhat of a fuss in the hall. The master of the house came to his
rescue, and looked for the missing umbrella among the scores that were
there.

'Are you sure you had an umbrella when you came?'

'Quite sure.'

'Perhaps you left it at the other party, where you went first.'

'No, no; that's where I got it.'

CHAPTER XXV

SOME AMERICAN TOPICS

As I sit quietly thinking over my seventh visit to the United States,
some impressions take a definite shape. I may here repeat a phrase which
I used yesterday while speaking to the representative of an English
newspaper who had called to interview me:

'This last visit has left me more than ever impressed with the colossal
greatness of the American people.'

The progress they have made during the last five years is perfectly
astounding--progress in commerce and industry, progress in art and
science, progress in architecture. The whole thing is simply amazing.
And the ingenuity displayed in the smallest things!

Really, this morning I was pitying from the bottom of my heart a poor
English carman, who was emptying sacks of coal into a hole made in the
pavement, as in New York, in front of a house.

He had to go and fetch every sack of coal, put it on his back, carry it
with his bent body, and then aim at the hole as best he could. In New
York the cart is lifted one side by means of a handle, an inclined tray
is placed at the bottom of the cart, with its head over the hole, and
down goes the coal as the man looks at the work done for him.

It is in thousands of little things like this that you understand how
the American mind is constantly at work. I do not know whether America
makes more inventions than other nations (I believe that France is still
leading), but there is no country where